Black Republicans and the McCain campaign

[GOPNotForMe]

Caveat: I hope this isn't offensive to anyone (and I don't know why it would be).

Has anyone noticed a marked increase in the number of Republican/conservative talking heads on the cable "news" shows who are black? I know black Republicans do exist, and there are a few that have made the usual rounds on the cable shows for a while. It just seems that very recently, there have been a lot more of them and they are appearing more frequently.

I would assume that this is a direct reaction to Obama clinching the nomination, but it just seems too obvious a tactic. Anyone else noticed or thought about this? Am I crazy?

[Ned_Devine]

1. All their tactics are obvious

[Olney Blue]

2. I don't know how anyone can be a Republican, regardless of race, sex, or

religion.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. Heck, yes.

I am still amazed that there are such things as black Republicans (chickens voting for Colonel Sanders? Ewoks for Sith Lords?), but they've managed to find those few misguided souls -- in some cases, people who are truly batshit crazy, like Alan Keyes -- and trot them out on the cable news shows to "prove" that Republicans aren't really a bunch of mouth-breathing racist troglodytes and that they aren't against Obama because he's black, just because he's an "elitist" (that is, he's an uppity guy who is smarter and better-educated than they are and they can't stand it), even though most of them would prefer not to let those black Republican mouthpieces join their country clubs or go out with their daughters even though they spout the party line with the same enthusiasm as your average pasty white suburbanite.

And it's obvious. They just don't care.

[BklynChick]

4. Well, it's been reported that there are more Black journalist and pundits being interviewed

in this election cycle and that's a good thing and that is surely because of Obama (it was also true that there were more women). So if there are more Black journalists in general, it would make sense that some of them (granted, not most) would be conservative/Republican. But I do agree that the MSM is working hard to dig them up so they can spew anti-Democratic and anti-Obama rhetoric.

[Colobo]

5. I was one of them.

[cyndensco]

6. So, what happened Katzenkavalier?

[AlinPA]

7. I wonder what they will think of the new campaign buttons being used in Texas.

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/06/17/gop-convention-button-asks-if-obama-is-presidentwill-we-still-call-it-the-white-house/

[Roy]

17. They will wear them proudly, so long as the checks don't stop.

[Liberal Gramma]

8. Trying to make the Republican party look more like the "big tent"

We all know it's the party of the WASPs. Do they think we're all stupid?

[MadMaddie]

9. It's not offensive...it's a valid question..the good thing is it

exposes these Black Republicans as the shills they are.

I was watching Larry King and the two Black Republicans spewed talking points as every good Republican does. Neither one had an original thought.

I wonder what it feels like to be part of a group that only tolerates you as long as you wash the floors for them and carry the water for them. Once you are used up they throw you out the door with the garbage....just askin..some Black Rethuglicans.

[davidpdx]

10. Anyone know if JC Watts is still selling his soul to the devil

(aka Fox News)?

[grantcart]

18. Watts may endorse Obama.

J.C. Watts, a former Oklahoma congressman who once was part of the GOP House leadership, said he's thinking of voting for Obama. Watts said he's still a Republican, but he criticizes his party for neglecting the black community. Black Republicans, he said, have to concede that while they might not agree with Democrats on issues, at least that party reaches out to them.

This article lists a number of well known African American Conservative Republicans who are withholding their endorsement of McCain and may endorse Obama:

http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2008Jun15/0,4670,BlackConservativesObama,00.html

Black conservative talk show host Armstrong Williams has never voted for a Democrat for president. That could change this year with Barack Obama as the Democratic Party's nominee.

"I will vote for the individual I think that brings the best set of tools to the problems of 21st-century America and the 21st-century world regardless of party, regardless of anything else other than the most qualified candidate," Powell said Thursday in Vancouver in comments reported by The Globe and Mail in Toronto.

Writer and actor Joseph C. Phillips got so excited about Obama earlier this year that he started calling himself an "Obamacan" _ Obama Republican. Phillips, who appeared on "The Cosby Show" as Denise Huxtable's husband, Navy Lt. Martin Kendall, said he has wavered since, but he is still thinking about voting for Obama.

John McWhorter, a self-described political moderate who is a senior fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute and a New York Sun columnist, said Obama's Democratic Party victory "proves that while there still is some racism in the United States, there is not enough to matter in any serious manner. This is a watershed moment."

"Obama is probably more to the left than I would prefer on a lot of issues," he adds. "But this issue of getting past race for real is such a wedge issue for me. And he is so intelligent, and I think he would be a perfectly competent president, that I'm for him. I want him to get in because, in a way, it will put me out of a job."

Moderate Republican Edward Brooke, who blazed his own trail in Massachusetts in 1966 as the first black popularly elected U.S. senator, said he is "extremely proud and confident and joyful" to see Obama ascend. Obama sent Brooke a signed copy of his book, inscribed, "Thank you for paving the way," and Brooke sent his own signed book to Obama, calling the presumed Democratic nominee "a worthy bearer of the torch."

[mucifer]

11. all I know is there is no major black liberal talk radio host

on Air America, Jones radio or Nova M radio and it bugs the crap out of me.

[WCGreen]

12. There are, I imagine, a lot more AA talkers on the air in the

major cities.

[LiberalFighter]

13. Probably don't need it when there are more than enough black legislators that do a better job

than any talk show host.

[mucifer]

14. There's only one black senator and hopefully he won't be a senator for

too much longer :)


But, the house has much more diversity.

[Celticsfan]

15. Blacks, Asians, Whites, Hispanics, everyone, should vote for Obama

He's the best for the minorities and majorities.

[cliffordu]

19. That was FAST!!!

[ampad]

16. They truly disgust me

I say this as an AA. I don't know any black Republicans personally but to hear them spew shit on message boards is always a treat.

As for the talking head black repigs well what can you say for them? At some point I find myself feeling sorry for them until I realize they are smart enough to know what they are backing. I have noticed quite a few of them on cable news as of late. I guess cable news wants us all to know that not all black people are backing the Obama train? Hell I don't know but you would think those people would tell cable news to kiss their ass. If they were not good enough to speak up eight years ago why use them now? You would think they would understand they are being used as tokens but hey I'm sure that it the life of a black repig; nothing but tokens to be trotted out when a black face is needed. They truly, honestly, disgust the hell out of me especially after Katrina. Oh don't get me started.