The Grand Old White Party Confronts Obama
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Frank Rich has a great op-ed article in the New York Times today.
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Memorable to me is his description of David Letterman saying that the Republican candidates for president were all old white men who looked like they were getting ready to tee off at some expensive, restricted membership country club.
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He describes how just a few months ago the concept that it might actually be possible in America to have a female president or a black man as president was extraordinary. And that now just a few months later this is almost ho-hum.
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I love the following quote from the article, talking about John McCain:
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For all the changes in Virginia and elsewhere, vestiges of the Southern strategy persist in some Republican quarters. Mr. McCain, however, has been a victim, rather than a practitioner, of the old racial gamesmanship.
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In his brutal 2000 South Carolina primary battle against Mr. Bush and Karl Rove, Mr. McCain’s adopted Bangladeshi daughter was the target of a smear campaign. He was also pilloried for accurately describing the Confederate flag as a “symbol of racism and slavery.” (Sadly, he started to bend this straight talk the very next day.)
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He is still paying for correctly describing Jerry Falwell, once an ardent segregationist, and Pat Robertson, a longtime defender of South African apartheid, as “agents of intolerance.”
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And of course Mr. McCain remains public enemy No. 1 to some in his party for resisting nativist overkill on illegal immigration.
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Very Good! The Confederate flag as a “symbol of racism and slavery.” Oh yes. And telling the truth about these racist old white men who pose as Christian religious leaders.
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I am not a Republican. I view the Republican Party as a political party for people who are greedy, completely materialistic, and the types of people who in private say hateful things about poor people and anyone of a different color or religion than them.
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But with all that said, I like Big Mac. I would prefer Obama, but I could accept McCain as the leader of the free world.
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LINK: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/17/opinion/17rich.html?em&ex=1203397200&en=2427f7c3cc6ed0d0&ei=5087%0A
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