The Race Minefield
HAYES, STEPHEN F.
The Race Minefi eld Yes, it will matter in the election. BY STEPHEN F. HAYES As Barack Obama strode to the podium after his triumphant victory in the South Carolina primary last month, the...
...McCain, in a speech to Hispanic leaders, called such measures ‘divisive.’ He did not directly oppose the initiative, but news reports at the time claimed he thought it would be counterproductive...
...I’m afraid we’re not terribly well-informed about it,” he conceded...
...But whether we like to admit it or not, there’s still barriers to women and minorities reaching their full potential...
...Apparently concerned that the photograph highlights Obama’s race or could be seen as suggesting he is Muslim, campaign manager David Plouffe condemned the Clinton campaign for leaking it and called the act “the most shameful, offensive fear-mongering we’ve seen from either party in this election...
...In 1998, Arizona state senator Scott Bundgaard was pushing for a measure similar to Proposition 209...
...In 2006, Republican gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos refused to back the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, which won 58-42 in a down year for Republicans...
...But later, with an understanding that such a position could hurt his chances in the state, a normally unscripted McCain read from a press release...
...Playing the victim card was politically useful...
...Race doesn’t matter...
...And I’m asking you to vote no on Proposal 2. We’ve made great strides in our society towards fairness and opportunity for all people...
...He fi nally endorsed it in the waning days of his campaign, which had exactly the effect he had sought to avoid...
...An account in the Orange County Register said McCain was “unfamiliar” with Proposition 209 in California in 1996, which the paper correctly described as having “set the tone for a national movement to ban government preferences based on race and gender...
...If you could have prevented 9/11 from ever happening, would you have...
...In 1997, Texas governor George W. Bush refused to back a Houston referendum based on the California proposition...
...But given a chance to position its candidate as the victim of a smear, the Obama campaign didn’t even wait to fi nd out if its candidate was, in fact, the victim of a smear...
...By 2000, McCain’s comments as a presidential candidate seemed to refl ect a slight shift...
...How does he square it with his claim in his stump speeches that “We can’t afford the same politics of fear that invokes 9/11 as a way to scare up votes...
...You can add John McCain to this list...
...Stephen F. Hayes is a senior writer at THE WEEKLY STANDARD...
...But he knows from experience not to count on it...
...It would hurt initiatives that help women and minorities build their own businesses...
...Polling consistently shows overwhelming public support for race-neutral policies...
...In February, McCain told reporters aboard his campaign bus that he opposed racial preferences and quotas...
...Personally, I see the fl ag as a symbol of heritage,” he said...
...In a conference call later that morning, Obama foreign policy adviser Richard Danzig was perhaps a bit too candid when he acknowledged that the campaign knew little about the origins of the photograph or the motivation of its sender...
...But two years later, Senator Barack Obama, with two years’ experience in the Senate and his eye on a presidential run, taped a radio ad attacking the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (MCRI), going out of his way to defend racial preference policies that by their very defi nition divide Americans into blacks, whites, Latinos, and Asians...
...On this issue, the American public agrees with Barack Obama’s words, not his policies...
...A Newsweek poll from last July asked a straightforward question...
...A measure that echoes the 1964 Civil Rights Act is just “reassuring rhetoric...
...Again, news reports suggested that McCain warned his colleagues about appearing divisive...
...Reporters, many of whom would count themselves among the minority of Americans who favor racial preferences, will analyze every statement for proper racial sensitivity...
...When they asked why he voted for race-conscious programs in the Senate, he told them that he did not want to eliminate the old programs until new programs based on economic need had been implemented to replace them...
...But there was no evidence that is what happened, and the email obtained by Drudge that accompanied the original photo reads more like correspondence between friends or colleagues than any attempt to smear Obama...
...Race will matter...
...Their words echoed a theme often articulated by their candidate, and they seemed to be saying something rather profound about the meaning of Obama’s candidacy...
...It passed easily, and he is hoping to duplicate that success in fi ve states this coming November: Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska, and Oklahoma...
...It simply won’t be good enough to denounce the racist fringe...
...Obama responded: This is Senator Barack Obama...
...Polling consistently shows overwhelming public support for race-neutral policies...
...Race doesn’t matter...
...I say to them tonight, there is not a liberal America and a conservative America—there is the United States of America...
...The original MCRI, relying heavily on the 1964 Civil Rights Act, read: “The state shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education, or public contracting...
...The self-funded DeVos lost to incumbent Governor Jennifer Granholm, a Democrat, 56-42...
...Earlier this week, the Obama campaign showed itself ready to pounce on any insult, real or perceived...
...In 2003, the Bush administration took a split-the-baby position on a Supreme Court case involving admissions policies at the University of Michigan...
...Was this the new politics Obama had promised two years earlier...
...In 1998, Florida governor Jeb Bush opposed Connerly’s Florida initiative...
...In 2000, McCain took three different positions on the controversy over fl ying the Confederate fl ag atop the state capitol in South Carolina...
...McCain’s history on issues of race is cluttered with indecision...
...Connerly, a Republican who supported Rudy Giuliani for president, hopes that McCain will support his initiatives and even run on them as a way to counter Obama’s rhetoric...
...the ad asked...
...If the initiative becomes law it would wipe out programs that help women and minorities get a good education and jobs...
...Americans have come to expect these kinds of contradictions from our politicians...
...Martin Luther King Jr...
...The numbers vary depending on how the question is posed— support for race-neutral policies drops marginally when voters are asked whether they favor “affi rmative action”—but the conclusion remains the same...
...These supporters were reacting to the widespread perception that Bill and Hillary Clinton had attempted to use Obama’s race to win their state...
...There is not a black America and a white America and Latino America and Asian America—there’s the United States of America...
...The politics of racial preferences are counterintuitive...
...But it was what he said before articulating that position that was more revealing...
...That same year, McCain joined 14 other Republicans and 43 Democrats to vote in favor of a Department of Transportation set-aside requiring that 10 percent of highway contracts go to minority-owned businesses...
...And it would eliminate efforts to help our children enter fi elds such as science, engineering, and mathematics...
...The same campaign that paid for Obama’s ad ran an ad comparing the end of racial preferences to the terrorist attacks of 9/11...
...Do you think race should be allowed as a factor in making decisions about employment and education, or should race not be allowed as a factor...
...And yet a long line of Republican politicians have shown a strange reluctance to embrace the issue...
...It’s hard to believe the Obama campaign won’t be happy to play it against John McCain, too...
...In 1998, as McCain began planning for his presidential bid two years later, Arizona state senator Scott Bundgaard was pushing for a measure similar to Proposition 209...
...Proposal 2 may sound like a reasonable way to move towards a Michigan that is blind to differences in sex and race but don’t be fooled by the reassuring rhetoric...
...The language of Proposal 2, as it was identifi ed on the ballot, was altered slightly to include the phrase “affi rmative action...
...Proposal 2 closes these doors to many in Michigan and it moves us further away from a country of full opportunity...
...In 1983, he opposed the legislation for a national holiday honoring Dr...
...It was a moving speech, filled with hopeful sentiments...
...BY STEPHEN F. HAYES As Barack Obama strode to the podium after his triumphant victory in the South Carolina primary last month, the crowd gathered to hear him began to chant...
...Barack Obama is a far left guy who issues reassuring rhetoric but beneath it all is just like any other liberal,” says Ward Connerly, the California businessman who backed the Michigan initiative after leading victorious efforts in California and Washington...
...Race-neutral policies are “wrong for America...
...Eighty-two percent of those surveyed said race should not be a factor, including 75 percent of nonwhites...
...Initially, he called the fl ag “offensive” and “a symbol of racism and slavery...
...The effect was the same: Its passage would end the government’s practice of categorizing and rewarding citizens on the basis of race...
...He later called his vote a “mistake” and led an effort to establish such a holiday in Arizona...
...When the Drudge Report posted a photo of Obama in traditional Somali dress and reported that the photo had been “circulated” by the Clinton campaign, Obama’s campaign responded forcefully...
...On November 7th there’s a national disaster headed for Michigan, the elimination of affi rmative action...
...And yet Republican politicians have shown a strange reluctance to embrace race neutrality...
...McCain, in a speech to Arizona Hispanic leaders, called such measures “divisive...
...You can add John McCain to this list...
...And that reality, ironically underscored by their chanting, leads us to the exact opposite conclusion about politics in America between now and November...
...In 1996, Bob Dole refused for months to endorse California’s Proposition 209, as Connerly’s California Civil Rights Initiative was called, for fear that he would be seen as using racial preferences as a “wedge issue...
...After his campaign was fi nished, McCain returned to South Carolina and said he regretted making those comments, as they refl ected his political goals rather than his personal principles...
...He was a consultant on the 1996 campaign for California’s Proposition 209...
...But the chief rationale for Obama’s candidacy is that he is different, that he will lead a post-partisan, post-ideological, and post-racial America...
...He did not directly oppose Bundgaard’s initiative, but news reports at the time claimed that McCain told others in the state legislature that he thought such a measure would be counterproductive...
...Not everyone believes it...
...In the speech that launched his meteoric rise in national politics, the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, Barack Obama called for a politics of hope, denounced “those who are preparing to divide us,” and offered a direct challenge...
...Proposal 2 is wrong for Michigan and it’s wrong for America...
...If he runs in a general election against Barack Obama, which seems increasingly likely, talking about race will be like walking across a minefi eld...
...McCain won’t have room for such missteps this time...
Vol. 13 • March 2008 • No. 25
