Barack Obama‘s anti-gay gospel gaffe led journo James Kirchick to an unflattering comparison between the black Democrat and race-baiting Republican Richard Nixon.
Kirchick writes for Southern Voice:
In 1968, his second campaign for the White House, Richard Nixon rode into office on what later became known as the “Southern Strategy.” While running as a moderate in most states, Nixon used code words like “states’ rights” and “busing” to appeal to the racist tendencies of southern whites. This was the nail in the coffin of black support for the GOP, which, since the days of Abraham Lincoln, had traditionally been the party of civil rights. Two years ago, former Republican National Committee Chair Ken Mehlman officially apologized for his party’s attempt to “benefit politically from racial polarization.”
How ironic that Barack Obama – the first, serious black presidential candidate in the history of the United States – would resurrect one of the most disreputable features of the Republican Party’s campaign playbook.
….
Singling out a class of Americans as a basis for that fear – as Nixon did 1968 – is reprehensible and destroyed Bush’s pledge to be a “uniter, not a divider.” For many years, the Human Rights Campaign and the Democratic presidential candidates have promised to offer us something different.But the events of the past week have shown that even the most platitudinous of liberals is not immune from utilizing the cynical election tactics concocted by the right.
While we respect Kirchick’s opinion, Nixon intentionally played on people’s racism. Obama and his campaign, meanwhile, simply didn’t do his homework when booking Donnie McClurkin. There’s no way in our minds that Obama would intentionally play with homophobia to get votes. He simply neglected to realize that many of his religious pals find his gay pals to be abominable.
This begs the question, of course: is ignorance bliss? Not when it comes to running a campaign, no.
Rt. Rev. Dr. RES
Senator Obama is a community theatre actor new to the Equity stage and Broadway. His gaffes are simply the path to hell paved with “good intentions” or something politically astute. He believes his own rhetoric and what he means by the words “inclusion and hope.”
I think that the man has dealt with duality all his life. Half Caucasian and Half African-American with a father born in Muslim Africa and a stepfather born in Muslim Asia had to be difficult. His name, common in Africa among Muslim subsaharan men, is not the name Ku given slaves by planters for centuries in this hemisphere. Kunta learned to say Toby at the point of the whip. Then, there is Harvard Law School and the first of his ethnic background to preside over the Review.
In the USA, the man is equally white and black. He is not white by any social or cultural definition. As he says, the NYC cabbies know his race when he tries to hail a cab in Manhattan.
Richard Milhous Nixon, on the other hand, took Strom Thurmond by the hand and led he and future Dixiecrats of the Party of Jefferson Davis into the party of Abraham Lincoln. I would think that both men, and Robert E. Lee, did pirouets with their remains within their coffins.
codymurp
Fuck Obama!
ggreen
I love how the editors here have mystical powers and can read the mind of Barack Obama. This was done with calculated risk to appeal to bigoted blacks. That is a fact not speculation.
hisurfer
Yeah … much as I’m angry at Obama, this critique seems over the top. Nixon (and Rove, for that matter) consciously sought to polarize. Obama just fucked up. There’s a big difference.
ProfessorVP
You don’t have to be a Certified Public Account to crunch the numbers. Figure that about 10% of blacks are gay, and a helluva lot more than 10% of blacks are sanctimonious “value voters.”
Health warning to Barry: It may be unsafe to share a focus group. (Hillary’s, I mean.)
underbear1
Obama didn’t have to do this with McClurkin,,,he chose to even after LGBT groups warned him of the backlash. As angry as McClurkin made me, Obama’s straight supporters on his LGBT section of his website, and some at Huffington Post have made me EVEN ANGRIER.
I couldn’t give a rat’s a$$ now if Obama comes in LAST in the Primaries, I’m hoping Edwards is savvy enough to pick up the EX Obama supporters.
stenar
Queerty editors need to drop their pro-Obama ways. Hillary is the next president.
Lunas da Silva
We that live in latin countries are expecting the victory of this man. He is really a victory of hope over barbarism.