Is Herman Cain Embarrassed To Be Black

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By Leonard Pitts Jr.

In his Miami Herald column, Leonard Pitts Jr. tackles the issue of whether GOP presidential hopeful Herman Cain is a self-loathing black man because of his alignment with the Tea Party. He concludes that the bootstrapper who grew up in the segregated South is uncomfortable in his skin, not because of his Tea Party alignment but because of his own personal ideology.

This is for those who keep asking what I think of Herman Cain. In particular, it's for those who want to know what the tea party's embrace of this black businessman turned presidential candidate says about my claim that the tea party is racist. CONTINUE....

Related articles

• Tea party fuels rise of Herman Cain. So how can it be racist? (csmonitor.com)
• Sean Penn accuses Tea Party of racism (guardian.co.uk)

Obama Impersonator Misfires At GOP Forum

A Barack Obama impersonator was ushered off the stage at a GOP forum after he mocked Republican presidential hopefuls and joked about President Barack Obama's biracial roots to a room full of conservative activists.

Forecasting A Nasty 2012 Presidential Campaign

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By: Jack White

As many a would-be prophet can attest, predicting the future is one surefire way of making yourself look ridiculous. When your prognostication goes wrong, the only ones who look sillier than you are those who believed in the forecast.

Take, for example, radio Bible thumper Harold Camping, who whipped legions of evangelical Christians into a frenzy by claiming that the rapture, in which the faithful would be literally spirited up into heaven, was going to take place last Saturday. Lo and behold, we -- and he -- are still here. But instead of curing Camping of being a seer, that seemingly incontrovertible piece of evidence only forced him to revise his schedule. He now says the end of the world will take place on Oct. 21, and I hope he is right.

That's because the coming of doomsday this fall would spare us what I boldly predict will be the nastiest, most racially charged presidential campaign in decades, perhaps even since the Civil War. That's not because the developing field of Republican candidates is a pack of rabid race-baiters. Indeed, so far only one of them, the inimitable Newton Leroy Gingrich, has descended into that gutter with his charge that Barack Obama is "the most successful food stamp president in American history." CONTINUE....

New Reality: Obama, GOP Talk Compromise, Conflict

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By DAVID ESPO
AP Special Correspondent

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A chastened President Barack Obama signaled a new willingness to yield to Republican demands on tax cuts and jettisoned a key energy priority on Wednesday, less than 24 hours after he and fellow Democrats absorbed election losses so severe he called them a shellacking.

But he bluntly swept aside any talk of repeal of his signature health care law - right after the House Speaker-in-waiting, Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, vowed Republicans would do everything they could to wipe the legislation off the books.

CONTINUE....

Michael Steele's First 100 Days as GOP Chairman a Mixed Bag

By: Michael H. Cottman

For Michael Steele, the embattled, slang-talking chairman of the Republican National Committee, life in the first 100 days of his tenure has been hard out there for a pimp.

Steele, under fire from GOP conservatives since he took the job in January, has surprised and angered many by risking overexposure in the media and making a series of high-profile gaffes during nearly every national interview.

Many Republicans argue that Steele should cut back significantly on his media appearances while others are not comfortable with Steele’s continued use of hip-hop slang in response to serious questions about the GOP’s vision for the nation.

Steele, the first African-American to be elected as the Republican Party’s chairman, has offered these samplings in his first 100 days in office: He referred to President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus plan as “bling bling;” said his public relations plan to recruit younger voters is “off the hook;” said he wants to send out some “slum love” to Republican Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, who is of Indian descent, and recently told a reporter, “that’s how we roll,” when answering a question about the RNC. In challenges to Obama, Steele has asked, "How do you like me now?"

And last week, in yet another volatile Steele controversy, the GOP chairman agreed with a radio caller’s characterization of Obama as “the magic Negro.”

Instead of Exploiting Ignorance, the GOP Should Get Focused

By: Tonyaa Weathersbee

Now, here’s a guy who either has too much time on his hands or who believes he’s hit upon a rational way to exploit the irrationality of a few voters.

Bill Posey, a freshman GOP congressman from Florida, recently announced a plan for curtailing any future questions about the authenticity of any future president’s birth certificate.

Because he’s received so many calls from constituents in his conservative, central Florida district who don’t believe that President Barack Obama is a U.S. citizen, he said he plans to introduce a bill that would require presidential candidates to submit their birth certificates before running for office.

On its face, Posey’s bill seems reasonable. That is until you think about the fact that it was prompted by unreasonableness and intolerance.

You think about the fact that Obama’s birth certificate has been scoured and inspected by several legitimate news organizations and fact-checking organizations, and all have concluded that it is authentic. Hawaiian officials have vouched for its authenticity. And judges have virtually laughed the idiotic lawsuits challenging Obama’s citizenship out of court.

The Obama campaign also posted a copy of his birth certificate on its Web site.

But rather than try to explain to these fools that yes, President Obama is indeed a citizen, and that it’s time they resigned from the black helicopter conspiracy club and folded up their tin foil hats, what does Posey do?

He feeds their fanaticism.

Instead of Exploiting Ignorance, the GOP Should Get Focused....

Michael Steele: Rush Goof Was Part of My Strategy

RNC Chairman Michael Steele on CNN, March 25, 2009

To Whom Does Steele Owe Thanks for His GOP Win? Barack Obama

By: Tonyaa Weathersbee

Better late than never, I say.

Nearly two decades after the Democrats anointed Ron Brown as the first African-American to head their national committee, the Republicans finally caught up. They recently tapped former Maryland lieutenant governor Michael Steele as their first black party chairman.

At this rate, I guess the GOP will nominate its first black presidential candidate by 2029.

Yet and still, the Republicans’ decision to tap Steele as their leader does, at least, show that they are dipping a big red toe into the new purple mainstream of American politics. This mainstream is one that is ethnically and racially diverse; one that defines itself on issues that it can build upon, not divide itself against.

It was that mainstream that swept Barack Obama into the White House – and Steele into the GOP party chairmanship.

So instead of just thanking the Republican leadership for his new job, Steele ought to be thanking Obama – because if his guy, John McCain, had won, he wouldn’t have had a chance against the guy who George W. Bush foisted on them.

Understand though, that Steele’s ascension doesn’t mean that the Republicans have suddenly unearthed their inner-Lincoln. His nomination, in fact, was hard-fought. Steele, who bills himself as a conservative but is moderate on issues like affirmative action and abortion rights, lobbied for the position for more than two months.

It took six ballots and a five-hour voting marathon before he was proclaimed the winner.

And while Republicans have been willing to trust black people with top positions – witness George W. Bush’s appointments of Colin Powell and later, Condoleezza Rice as the first black secretaries of states – they’ve also been known to expect acquiescence, and not attitude, from them.

It’s like they’re willing to give black people and minorities top jobs – with the understanding that they behave as slaves.

That has to change.

COMMENTARY....

Texas GOP Disses Vendor with Racist Buttons

By: April Castro, Associated Press

AUSTIN, Texas - (AP) The Texas Republican Party is distancing itself from a vendor who sold campaign buttons at last weekend's state convention that asked, "If Obama is president ... will we still call it The White House?"

The state GOP party said Wednesday that it will donate the $1,500 rent it collected from the vendor, Republicanmarket.com, to Midwestern flood victims.

State GOP spokesman Hans Klingler said the party does not vet the merchandise being sold, but officials plan to discuss doing so in the future. The button sales at the convention in Houston were first reported in The Dallas Morning News.

Texas GOP Disses Vendor with Racist Buttons....

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