Black is Beautiful
For the first time in history three black Americans are running for state wide office. If that isn’t enough, they’re all Republicans. This is so big even the Washington Post noted it and placed it on the front page. Ken Blackwell, current Ohio Secretary of State is running for Governor; Maryland’s Lieutenant Governor Michael Steele is running to fill a vacant Senate seat; and Pittsburgh Steeler great Lynn Swann is running for Governor of Pennsylvania. “Together, they embody a new chapter in the Republican Party’s often-failed efforts to appeal to African Americans, a strategy shaped by RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman,” according to a Post article titled “The Year of the Black Republican?"
Mehlman says, “We’ve gone from a model of outreach to a model of inclusion...Outreach is a top-down approach. Inclusion says, ‘Let’s find some really good people and encourage them to run for office’.”
Of course the Post points out their individual failings: Swann has no experience, Blackwell is-horrors-both a fiscal and a social conservative, and Steele is running in a state with a 28% black vote that is not friendly to Republicans. I thought the point of the civil rights movement was to get blacks a seat at the table. One of Steele’s campaign themes is to go that goal one better. He says blacks have gotten that seat at the lunch counter; he wants them to own the restaurant. Apparently liberals do not believe that message will resonate in Maryland.
Steele has already been attacked verbally, physically, and electronically. One of the staffers for the Democrat Senate Committee headed up by New York Senator Chuck Shumer hacked into Lt. Governor Steele’s financial records by stealing his identity. The said staffer was given community service for that felony. In addition he’s been called names we all thought had been banned from the English language and had oreo cookies thrown at him. All of this is going to make this year’s elections very interesting to watch. Will the party that boasts it is the party for minority parity going to resort to the very tactics it has falsely accused Republicans of using for the last 60 years, or will they actually engage on the issues. Considering their tactics so far, it doesn’t look promising.
Both Ken Blackwell and Lynn Swann are running on traditional Republican themes of lower taxes, less government inference in everyday life and both are doing so in states with slowed or at least slowing economies. Admittedly, it is the Republicans who have had charge of Ohio, which makes Mr. Blackwell’s job that much more difficult.
My Favorite Political Scientist (FSP), who lives in Philadelphia, says the Democrat incumbent, Ed Rendell, will win reelection even if he doesn’t win. FSP has some experience with Pennsylvania Democrat Party operations. In the 2004 elections he complained that several large union men who were inside the poll wearing Kerry stickers, handing out Kerry literature, and asking people after they voted for whom they had cast their ballots were breaking the law. One said to FPS, “How’d you like to have your face rearranged?” FPS replied “Make my day,” and called the police. (Despite his honored degree in Political Science from Penn sometimes FPS isn’t that smart) This kind of behavior combined with polls located in private homes, a Rendell canvassing of the state prison system for votes and out right ballot stuffing, will make it very difficult to pry the levers of power from the Democrat.
Nevertheless, it is a good thing the Republican Party has discovered that Black is Beautiful and this brings us to the “I’m not running, I want to be the football commissioner” Condoleezza Rice. There was a draft Condi movement at the Republican conference held earlier this year in Tennessee. There’s a web site dedicated to her candidacy (http://www.rice2008.com/). And, there’s the Dick Morris book Condi vs Hillary in which he posits that Condi is the only Republican candidate who can stop Hillary, a highly preferable outcome for 08. And, after all, she is Black and she is Beautiful.
Mehlman says, “We’ve gone from a model of outreach to a model of inclusion...Outreach is a top-down approach. Inclusion says, ‘Let’s find some really good people and encourage them to run for office’.”
Of course the Post points out their individual failings: Swann has no experience, Blackwell is-horrors-both a fiscal and a social conservative, and Steele is running in a state with a 28% black vote that is not friendly to Republicans. I thought the point of the civil rights movement was to get blacks a seat at the table. One of Steele’s campaign themes is to go that goal one better. He says blacks have gotten that seat at the lunch counter; he wants them to own the restaurant. Apparently liberals do not believe that message will resonate in Maryland.
Steele has already been attacked verbally, physically, and electronically. One of the staffers for the Democrat Senate Committee headed up by New York Senator Chuck Shumer hacked into Lt. Governor Steele’s financial records by stealing his identity. The said staffer was given community service for that felony. In addition he’s been called names we all thought had been banned from the English language and had oreo cookies thrown at him. All of this is going to make this year’s elections very interesting to watch. Will the party that boasts it is the party for minority parity going to resort to the very tactics it has falsely accused Republicans of using for the last 60 years, or will they actually engage on the issues. Considering their tactics so far, it doesn’t look promising.
Both Ken Blackwell and Lynn Swann are running on traditional Republican themes of lower taxes, less government inference in everyday life and both are doing so in states with slowed or at least slowing economies. Admittedly, it is the Republicans who have had charge of Ohio, which makes Mr. Blackwell’s job that much more difficult.
My Favorite Political Scientist (FSP), who lives in Philadelphia, says the Democrat incumbent, Ed Rendell, will win reelection even if he doesn’t win. FSP has some experience with Pennsylvania Democrat Party operations. In the 2004 elections he complained that several large union men who were inside the poll wearing Kerry stickers, handing out Kerry literature, and asking people after they voted for whom they had cast their ballots were breaking the law. One said to FPS, “How’d you like to have your face rearranged?” FPS replied “Make my day,” and called the police. (Despite his honored degree in Political Science from Penn sometimes FPS isn’t that smart) This kind of behavior combined with polls located in private homes, a Rendell canvassing of the state prison system for votes and out right ballot stuffing, will make it very difficult to pry the levers of power from the Democrat.
Nevertheless, it is a good thing the Republican Party has discovered that Black is Beautiful and this brings us to the “I’m not running, I want to be the football commissioner” Condoleezza Rice. There was a draft Condi movement at the Republican conference held earlier this year in Tennessee. There’s a web site dedicated to her candidacy (http://www.rice2008.com/). And, there’s the Dick Morris book Condi vs Hillary in which he posits that Condi is the only Republican candidate who can stop Hillary, a highly preferable outcome for 08. And, after all, she is Black and she is Beautiful.
posted by Gunston Hall Moderator at 9:41 AM
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