Republican? Racist?

By Alan Caruba

I am beginning to think the biggest problem McCain and fellow Republicans will have running against Obama is going to come down to being called a racist every time anything critical is said about him.

This is going to be the first time a Black is running for the highest office in the land--if Hillary craps out in Texas and/or Ohio--so it presents a completely unique problem.

I think Republicans are going to have to brace themselves for an avalanche of claims that they are being racist if Obama is the Democrat's choice.

It's interesting how little notice was ever taken of Bush's choice of Blacks on his team; first Colin Powell, and then Condaleeza Rice. Indeed, the Bush Administration has been remarkably multi-racial. Of course, when Republicans do that, it apparently doesn't count.

It's well to recall which party existed in large part because of the racism endemic to its southern Senators and Representatives. That was the Democrat Party that virtually came apart when the "Dixiecrats" left as the civil rights movement gained momentum. When LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act following the assassination of JFK, he said, in effect, "There goes the South. It will be Republican for a long time to come." He was right.

If Obama is the candidate, his race will play a role in the choice voters make. Anyone who tells you otherwise is either naive or not telling the truth.

Postscript: On February 18th, ironically President's Day, Frank Rich of The New York Times weighed in with a column titled, "The Grand Old White Party Confronts Obama", virtually proclaiming him the winner of the 2008 election because he is Black.

At one point, he said that McCain is seen by the Millennial generation (those born in and after the 1980s) as a "Grumpy Old White Guy." If this isn't a form of racism, I do not know what is.