This political season has been one of revelation8212;John Edwards’ affair, the drug addiction of John McCain’s wife, Barack Obama’s connections to radical preacher Jeremiah Wright, Ted Stevens’ ethics violations and a whole host of others, enough to keep tabloids and pundits occupied for months. The latest revelation, this time pertaining to Sen. Obama, could prove to be larger and more harmful to his chances of winning the election than any yet seen in his campaign.
Gov. Sarah Palin, on the campaign trail in West Virginia early this week, first broached the subject. Before a packed town hall, she said, “This Obama, he’s really got a tan, don’t he?” Her remarks drew laughter from those assembled at the rally, and she quickly moved on to other subjects, but the remark quickly became something far more serious.
Later in the day on CNN, Sen. McCain said in an interview that “There are real questions, I feel, about Mr. Obama’s skin color and race, which the American people deserve to hear an answer to.”
By the next day, however, insinuations had disappeared and ads in key swing state media markets purchased by the McCain campaign were accusing Obama of being black.
The Obama campaign responded swiftly to the accusations by presenting documentation of Obama’s European ancestry and demanding that the McCain campaign remove the offending ads.
McCain called the evidence “inadequate” at a press conference earlier today and reiterated his doubt that Obama is telling the truth.
“He is definitely black,” McCain said.
The accusation could very well prove to be lethal to Obama’s campaign. Race has been a consistent issue throughout the campaign, though it’s never been discussed as frankly as it is now.
In Georgia in 2003, a proposition to ban interracial marriage was accidentally added to the ballot in statewide elections, and passed, with 75 percent of the vote, before embarrassed state legislators invalidated the proposition on a technicality.
Opinion polls conducted in several key swing states, including Virginia, North Carolina and Florida, have revealed that a majority of voters have “no problem” with blacks but nevertheless would not vote for one for high office, including congressional and presidential positions.
Frank O’Hara, of the League of White Voters, explained his position and the position of those voters.
“These guys are Joe Six-Pack,” O’Hara said. “They’re good Christians, good citizens who pay their taxes and vote. And they’re totally for freedom. But they have limits, is all. And a black man representing a white nation? That concerns them, and it concerns me.”
The impact of the accusation is already making itself felt. Tracking polls are indicating Obama is losing ground in many states, and it seems that Virginia, formerly in danger of slipping away from McCain, has returned resolutely to the fold. Obama’s campaign continues to deny the accusation, attributing his darker color to a skin disorder combined with bad light and gene mutations.
The unwillingness of Americans to elect blacks to office stems from prejudices established in the United States during the time when slavery was legal, prejudices that were preserved through the Civil War, Reconstruction and even the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s.
MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann recently opined that “I thought we’d reached the point when Americans would lose their vestigial racism and whole-heartedly embrace African-Americans as members of the national community. It appears I was wrong.”
Editor’s Note8212;This article is intended to be satirical and should in no way be taken seriously.