June 27, 2006
BLACK IS THE NEW RED:
Black candidates paint new picture for GOP politics (Jill Lawrence, 6/276/06, USA TODAY)
[Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, t]he Republican candidate for governor, an imposing 6-foot-4 in this small, packed room, is sharing his experiences as a black person in America. His father was a meatpacker, he says. He grew up in public housing, selling peanuts and helping at a funeral home. He worked in the civil rights movement, and he challenged the lending practices of white bankers in Cincinnati. [...]When he's done, several Democratic pastors say they might vote for Blackwell for governor this fall over Democratic U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland. Henry McNeil, pastor of Alpha & Omega First Baptist Church, says Blackwell closed the sale. "I didn't come with a made-up mind. It was made while he spoke," says McNeil, who backed Democrat John Kerry for president in 2004.
Voters like these are making Democrats edgy this year. In Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland, some African-Americans are rethinking their party loyalties in light of black Republicans running for high office.
The GOP recruits candidates who don't look like the stereotype of a Republican, but whose views are entirely orthodox. Democrats, meanwhile, are running around recruiting candidates who look and sound like Republicans. It's a revealing difference. Posted by Orrin Judd at June 27, 2006 7:49 AM
Yes steele and blackwell...just the sort of lying scum rethugs would like to have on the team!!!
Posted by: madmatt at June 27, 2006 1:18 PMWhen you're getting your butts whipped regularly every Republican does seem a thug.
Posted by: oj at June 27, 2006 1:40 PM"but whose views are entirely orthodox"
Wow, those that think Republicans want a fascist theocracy would be really convinced otherwise with that statement, wouldn't they?
Oh, right, only the left blindly adhere. Right...
Posted by: Angryflower at June 27, 2006 3:23 PMA theocracy can't be fascist.
Posted by: oj at June 27, 2006 3:30 PM"Democrats, meanwhile, are running around recruiting candidates who look and sound like Republicans."
Or what Republicans used to look and sound like: e.g. Fiscally responsible, Metered Foreign Policy, Sound Energy Policy based on the ingenuity of Americans.
And let's not forget all the free money Bush's handed out to "Faith-Based" Charities (read "Churches"). Maybe those pastors should re-read the passage of the bible about "rendering unto Ceasar what is Ceasar's".
In the end, shouldn't what they do really count more? Let's hear it people! Do we want a Congress to address real problems or more BS about gays, flags, and Terri?
BTW, "oj", Dems are TROUNCING the "thugs" at the state level in the last 6 years.
Posted by: JT at June 27, 2006 3:44 PMJT:
When have Republicans ever been fiscally responsible? The Reagan years?
Republicans are actually winning at the state level in no small measure by running aqainst the Democrats as the party of gays, flag burning and death for the weak.
Posted by: oj at June 27, 2006 4:25 PMKen Blackwell has done more to disenfranchise African-American voters here in Ohio than anyone in at least the last 100 years. And the fact that he's refusing to step aside as Ohio's chief election officer while he's running for governor certainly doesn't say much for his integrity either, does it? As an Ohio resident I am PRAYING that Ken Blackwell doesn't become our next governor because i don't think he has a conscience and I don't think he has a soul!
Posted by: 3reddogs at June 27, 2006 5:13 PMIs that only your standard for black candidates? Why not have both Strickland and Blackwell resign?
Posted by: oj at June 27, 2006 5:17 PMGreat. Thanks! nokia6630
Posted by: jay at July 1, 2006 10:43 PM