The black man has to prove himself

With the unpopular Iraq war raging, the economy tanking, and gas and food prices soaring, generic Democrats lead Republicans by about 15% in national polls. The Democrats are salivating at the prospect of adding 30 more seats to their House majority, and reaching the filibuster-proof 60 Senate seats in November's election.

Yet, the Democratic presumptive nominee for president, Barack Obama, is in a statistical dead heat with his Republican counterpart, John McCain. Something is amiss. It is something no one, not even the media, wants to talk about. It is the white elephant in the room no one wants to acknowledge. After all, shining the spotlight on racism will not reveal a pretty sight.

A New York Times/CBS News poll found that 5% of the whites say they will not vote for a black candidate under any circumstance. Let us not mince words: they are racists! The same people said that 19% of their friends would not vote for a black candidate either.

It is safe to assume that about 15% of the whites will not vote for Obama simply because of his colour. This is reminiscent of the later part of the Democratic primary when 20% of the respondents said race was important to them, and of those an overwhelming majority voted for Hillary Clinton.

It is true that 90% of the blacks voted for Obama in the primaries, and will vote for him in November. However, the same percentage of blacks also voted for Kerry in 2004, Gore in 2000, and Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1996.

The silly political commercials John McCain is running may appear silly to the educated; they are not silly to his target audience: working class whites without a high school diploma.

The McCain campaign has done extensive research and has found that making fun of a black candidate resonates well with these voters. Therefore, the McCain ads make fun of Obama's celebrity, his "inexperience," his lack of "leadership qualities," his "foreign" origin, and his "arrogance." (The lightweight uppity N. does not know his place!) McCain is providing bigots with a perfect cover to vote against Obama with a clear conscience!

The current President George W. Bush did not have a real job until his 40s. His dad's cronies got him a job with Halliburton and later bought him the professional baseball team, the Texas Rangers. Mr. Bush did not distinguish himself at either job, and is derided for trading the future superstar Sammy Sosa to the Chicago Cubs.

The only political experience Mr. Bush had was as a manager for his father's 1988 campaign, which aired the infamous, racist Willie Horton ad. When George W. Bush ran for governor of Texas in 1994, many Texans voted for him thinking they were voting for his dad, the former president George H. W. Bush. A "C" student, Mr. Bush was not admitted to Yale on merit, but as a legacy student because his father had also attended Yale.

If it were possible to assemble a panel of experts who had not heard of President George W. Bush or Barack Obama, and were asked to assess their fitness to be the US president by making Bush and Obama appear before them, they would have pointed at Bush and said: "Get this clown out of here!" Yet, America elected George W. Bush president -- twice!

John McCain was not admitted to the US Naval Academy at Annapolis on merit either. He, too, was admitted as a legacy because his father, John Sidney McCain, Jr. was an admiral in the US Navy.

John McCain graduated 894th out of 899 in 1958. (Yet, McCain insinuates that Obama is the dumb one!) McCain became a naval aviator, but the planes he flew crashed twice and once collided with power lines. In October 1967, McCain was shot down over Vietnam, was tortured, and spent the next five years in "Hanoi Hilton."

While both Bush and McCain were children of privilege, Barack Obama grew up poor. His Kenyan father abandoned his white American mother when Obama was two. He was raised on food stamps by his mother and maternal grandparents.

Obama worked his way through Columbia University and Harvard University. (Obama's wife, Michelle, also from a working class family of Chicago, graduated from Princeton University and Harvard law school). Yet, if one were to listen to McCain, Barack Obama ought to be treated as an object of ridicule!

McCain's ads, many of them false, interrupt Americans enjoying the Olympic Games with dire warnings of a catastrophic Obama presidency. If a fraction of what they accuse Obama of were true, and they are not, Barack Obama should not only not be running for the US presidency but, as an "unpatriotic terrorist sympathiser" who would do grievous harm to the American way of life, he should also be hauled off to jail!

McCain's message does resonate among some voters. I have read letters in local newspapers comparing Obama with Hitler! A book, Obama Nation (intended to remind voters of the American Nazi organisation, "Aryan Nation"), written by a rightwing thug who is a regular on Fox News channel, makes unsubstantiated, wild accusations about Obama's past, intending to swift-boat Obama's campaign, has become a best-seller. Obama has also received credible death threats.

Out of a population of 300 million, approximately two-thirds are white, 15% Hispanic, 13% black, 4% Asian Americans and 1% native Americans and others. About 90% of the blacks will vote for Obama, as will over 70% of Hispanics.

A plurality of white women will also vote for Obama. It is the other third of the population, the white males, especially the working class white males, that Obama is having problem with.

Lyndon Johnson in 1964 was the last Democratic candidate to win a majority of white votes. A black candidate, Barack Obama, is not going to do that. But, Obama will need to win about 40% of the white male votes to win the presidency. Educated and young whites will vote for him. Obama is struggling with the blue-collar whites.

Sooner or later, America will elect a black president. It is hard to imagine a better black candidate than Obama. He is smart, young, tall, handsome, articulate, moderate and inspiring. He is even half white. He is not the son of a former slave; his father was a proud Kenyan.

If America rejects a seemingly perfect black candidate in favour of an inferior white one, the world will conclude that the most powerful nation on earth has not yet overcome its legacy of slavery, and America will lose its moral authority to lead the world. For America's sake, let us hope that day does not arrive.

But, the stubborn facts remain: the status of a white man is never questioned. A black man has to prove himself every inch of the way. To be equal to a white, the black man has to be much better.

Sometimes, even that is not enough.

Research: FKA