Last night, I was watching Real Time with Bill Maher and he said that Obama is "starting the game with five fouls" because of the issue of race. I had heard similar comments before and put them out of my mind, assuming that as a nation, we had progressed to a point where race wouldn't determine the outcome of this election.
I'm starting to think that I was wrong.
Look at this election. We have a great candidate, a president of the opposite party who is terribly unpopular, and an opponent who up until recently wasn't even favored in his own party. Yet, I check the polls and we are tied or behind. Why? Is it the campaign Obama is running? His campaign hasn't been perfect, but it's been good. He hasn't had a windsurfing moment or a Dean scream. I don't think it's the campaign.
I hate to say it, but I think it has a lot to do with race. I didn't want to believe it because I wanted to believe we had progressed as a nation, but then I see this today.
Forum sells 'Obama Waffles' with racial stereotype
By JOAN LOWY – 16 minutes ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — Activists at a conservative political forum snapped up boxes of waffle mix depicting Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama as a racial stereotype on its front and wearing Arab-like headdress on its top flap.
This wasn't at some fringe convention, many GOP heavy-hitters were present at this values forum.
Republican Party stalwarts Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney were among speakers at the forum, which officials said drew 2,100 activists from 44 states.
We have people who are catering to the latent racism that exists in many people and trying to profit from it.
While Obama Waffles takes aim at Obama's politics by poking fun at his public remarks and positions on issues, it also plays off the old image of the pancake-mix icon Aunt Jemima, which has been widely criticized as a demeaning stereotype. Obama is portrayed with popping eyes and big, thick lips as he stares at a plate of waffles and smiles broadly.
They also play to the religiously intolerant out there.
Placing Obama in Arab-like headdress recalls the false rumor that he is a follower of Islam, though he is actually a Christian.
How do we win in this environment? There's going to be a large group of people that vote against our candidate based upon nothing but his color, regardless of his stances or views. I don't know that McCain has any such disadvantage.
It just bothers me that these types may decide this election.