"I couldn't possibly fail to disagree with you less."
6 January 2003Reverend Al, the bloggers' palThe air abounds in snickers, and no, not the candy bar; I'm talking about Al Sharpton's Presidental ambitions, and the reactions thereto. To my knowledge, the first full-fledged blog endorsement of the Sharpton candidacy came from Kevin McGehee's blogoSFERICS. And it's not because Mr McGehee desires to see him elected, particularly:
It is long past time for the Democratic Party to put its nomination where its mouth is. If race deserves to be a defining issue in American politics, let's open the debate.
Actually, I think you could open the debate with (or, more interestingly, force the debate upon) any of the current Democratic field; apart from melanin levels and not having spent a lifetime on the public payroll, what's the difference between Sharpton and the competition? Of course, I don't expect many to follow Mr McGehee's lead. A more typical response is this one from Acidman:
If I could buy him for what he's worth, then sell him for what he THINKS he's worth, I could retire tomorrow.
And that was one of the nicer things he said. The debate I want, though, is with all the Democrats who are going to come up with all the phony reasons why they can't nominate a black guy for President. Posted by: Kevin McGehee at 10:08 AM on 7 January 2003Seldom is the debate you want equal to the debate you get, but it would indeed be interesting to see how the self-proclaimed Party of the Downtrodden explains how it manages to come up with so few credible (i.e., unlike Cynthia McKinney) officeholders of, um, color. Sooner or later we will. Former Virginia Governor Doug Wilder would have been a good candidate. Too bad he didn't run. As much as I hate to admit it, I do believe the first African-American President will be a Republican. And I think it will just be due to voting patterns. Posted by: Martin at 4:11 PM on 8 January 2003 |