Dealing a Deck of Race Cards Not According to Hoyle

So the McCain camp finds itself short on ideas, short on enthusiasm and short of real support… They are faced with the enormous challenge of taking on the Obama camp rife with ideas, youthful vigor and standing-room-only throngs that are full of energy quite willing to use it towards Obama's election. This leaves the McCain camp with only one real choice: throw mud in everyone’s eyes and hope they do not see the real truth about who McCain really is.

Who is John McCain anyway? We know that he was a Navy pilot who got shot down in Viet Nam. We know he is a man short on temperament. We know that he is married to a wealthy woman who owns a large beer distributorship in the U.S. We know he is a Republican who now supports every decision George W. Bush made. But who is he? He said he was a “straight shooter,” and a “no nonsense Republican.” In 2004 he approached Democrats with the idea that he would consider being John Kerry’s running mate. Go figure!

For a while McCain seemed to have trouble convincing even Republicans that they should support him in 2008. Even they wondered who he really was. Because he was not Republican enough McCain got the thumbs down from famous Republicans like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity. Even Ann Coulter dropped her support for McCain early on. But all seems well with McCain and his Republican base these days… What happened?

John McCain, the maverick Republican has now become John McCain, the Republican card shark. McCain now plays with “marked decks.” You can find these marked cards now at any official Republican gathering. Some are collectors items handed down by the likes of Lee Atwater (the "Willie Horton Commemorative Box”), and Strom Thurmond (the “Jim Crow Forever! Pack”)… During the election of 2000, one of these classic marked decks were also played on John McCain by George W. Bush himself. That deck was called the Karl Rove “McCain Has a Black Baby, South Carolina Edition.”

History tells us that when a Republican presidential candidate plays marked decks of Republican race cards according to Republican Hoyle, they usually win that election. Therefore, the choice has become clearer for McCain... He must pick up the deck of cards marked with Republican racial divisiveness and Republican dirt; then, play it on Barack Obama and hope to beat him in November. The mud that Mr. McCain slings must be laced with the powerful poison of race baiting, and also be strong enough to blind the willingly ignorant voters. Its potency must be capable of reaching the bloodstream and do further damage to the core of a person who might already be plagued with bigotry and hostility towards non-white people, preferably blacks or Muslims.

Fortunately, these Republican marked decks will not decide the presidential election of 2008. Obama seems to have a fresh and unmarked deck that has more aces to play than McCain has “races” to fray... According to recent polls and the enthusiasm he generates around the country, Obama will have enough votes to beat McCain, but nothing is for certain considering how the major corporations like funding Republican card games...

All Americans, not just Black Americans, have suffered under a George W. Bush administration. Foreclosures are at an all-time high as are gas prices. Job losses are at an all time high as are American factory closures... All Americans, not just Black Americans, have endured the politics of personal destruction and the politicizing of the American justice system under the leadership of George W. Bush and his enablers such as John McCain. All Americans, not just Black Americans are appalled at the presumptuous behavior of Republicans who ran the economy into the ditch while trying to sell a war that never should have been in the first place.

John McCain is now asking for four more Republican years in the White House suggesting that Americans should trust him because he is white while Obama is not? Surely you jest Mr. McCain! Even Edmond Hoyle, the foremost authority of card games and writer of detailed card playing rules said, “When in doubt, win the trick.”

The McCain card game seems full of dirty cards and tricks.

GM

Clinton In Focus

With a sense of contrition, I confess that I was once a Bill Clinton co-dependent. I enabled him to stand before the country and blatantly lie about an innocuous sexual relationship with an equally innocuous woman named Monica Lewinsky... Bill considered the whole thing so "innocuous" that he should not have been called on it. Many of us agreed with him.

We Clinton Democrats began our long enabling journey in 1992. We ultimately elected Clinton President and endorsed his Clintonisms, while he in turn expected us to rally to his defense as he got egg on his face... Clinton's behaviors and excesses led directly to the election of George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004.

How? Keep reading...

The American public has long been guilty of believing politicians, especially those who look and talk like we want them to look and talk. Black Americans jumped on the Democratic bandwagon, and rightfully so since it is the party that pushes through the legislation that ultimately gives us more governmental access... We rode the Clinton express like it was the actual freedom train, but where did we go?

Clinton led us to believe he was the closest thing to JFK, and that his election would benefit all Americans who wanted a better life after the economy had faltered under Bush senior. He led some to believe that he was a man of faith who could be trusted. Since most Americans at the time were church going people, Clinton played the "faith card" to get more votes. He used multi-cultural and multi-ethnic themes to attract Americans of all hues and faiths...

However, Clinton's main support came from the black community. He hung out with Grover Washington, Jr. When he got into trouble he summoned Rev. Jesse Jackson and Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Jr. to pray with him. He played his alto saxophone on the Arsenio Hall Show, and commissioned Maya Angelou to read her poetry at his inauguration. Vernon Jordan, Jr. was his "best friend," and he clowned with Bill Cosby. Clinton even calls himself the "First Black President."

On to the election of 2000... Clinton was popular still, but he was not running. Al Gore was. Because Clinton behaved so "morally reprehensible" in the eyes of the white conservative church-going public, it was easy for a scoundrel like George W. Bush to play a Texas sized "faith card" to trump Gore's. Bush won almost half of the voting public, but 5 Supreme Court Justices with the help of Jerry Falwell and James Dobson put him over the top...

Because Bush looked and sounded like the republican worshipper sitting in Falwell's church every Sunday, he convinced many, with his conservative demeanor, that it was time to get back to 1952 "American Values." The American press, owned by corporate Bush supporters, was unwilling to look deeper into Bush's character, therefore leaving the non-thinking American public at the mercy of Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly.

Clinton unknowingly left the door open for Bush and the NEOCON juggernauts, using Monica Lewinsky as the door stop.

So here we are in 2008. Hillary Clinton, Bill's wife, is now running for President. Barack Obama, a black man is challenging her for the Democratic nomination. John McCain is the seated Republican candidate who will face either of them in November. We are still paying a major price for the failed Bush presidency, and will continue to do so for some time; even longer if John McCain is elected.

Bill Clinton is again drumming up co-dependents and enablers for his wife Hillary. They have both equivocated several important facts, such as taking fire in Bosnia, and have alienated most if not all of their support in the black community with their unfair and untruthful characterizations of Barack Obama. Bill and Hillary both have played a "race card" the size of Arkansas. Like the Monica Lewinsky affair, they both consider their race baiting and fear mongering "innocuous," and believe that they should not be called on it.

I think it is time for the Clinton-Bush presidential years to come to an end.

GLM