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How Not to write an article on Black Politics

August 08, 2008 By: The Good Doctor Category: politics

Here’s an essay on black politics that contains almost every worn out cliché on the subject.

I’m glad that the folks at Rust Belt Intellectual wrote a response.

Feministing pointed out the absence of women, which is actually astounding given that the number of black female politicians at every level is rising much faster than the number of black men. To be honest though, I’m not sure how much adding women to the article would’ve helped. It’s a symptom, not a cause.

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    As a war hero with an infinitely superior national security resume to Senator John McCain or anyone else in Washington DC, who pressed for “the Surge” long before the 2003 invasion of Iraq (by sharing with General Eric Shinseki the pre-war assessment that a significantly larger attacking force would be required for ultimate victory than the one fielded by Rumsfeld’s Pentagon or envisaged by McCain), who stands far readier to assume the leadership of the United States than the GOP’s own presidential nominee, who would provide a “fail-safe mechanism” ensuring an equally “ethno-transcendent” successor to the throne were some unforeseen mishap to befall President Obama, whose identity as a moderate Republican would serve to burnish the Illinois senator’s bi-partisan credentials, whose compelling 2003 United Nations presentation helped sell the American people on the very Iraq war which McCain has long supported (thus rendering the Democratic ticket bullet-proof to any attacks issuing from that quarter) and who ~ as a one-time National Security Advisor, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and Secretary of State ~ easily ranks as the single most thoroughly-vetted figure to be found anywhere on the American political scene, the only conceivable grounds upon which Senator Obama could base any decision to bypass Colin Powell as a prospective running mate would rest solely on the colour of the General’s skin and, were such an obscene consideration to enter into such vital deliberations, would instantly render Obama’s own candidacy a fraudulent sham.

    Not for the next one thousand years will lightning ever strike twice in quite the way it has conspired to bless the American people, in a single generation, with two such eminently qualified men both of whom were born to occupy their nation’s two highest offices under a single administration. It would constitute an unpardonable betrayal for Senator Obama to succumb to political cowardice or the imagined sagacity of pollsters (who may view such a ticket as “too much change” for the 2008 electorate) were he to forego this “never-to-be-repeated” opportunity to gift the American nation with so celestial a presidential partnership which now more than ever stands ready to embrace them both with an unprecedented 50-state landslide that would smash every record, confound every sceptic, sweep them into the White House and there ensconce them for what would be a truly transformational eight-year reign.

    The selection of General Powell as Senator Obama’s vice-presidential running mate would be an election-shattering and McCain-killing GAME-CHANGER that would thunder across the world’s newswires and explode out of every TV screen on Earth, dominating news bulletins for weeks on end and sucking the oxygen of publicity out of every pore on the planet. This spectacular announcement would be a political “9/11” and would amount to a planetary coup d’état, establishing Obama/Powell as the world’s de facto overlords, plunging the McCain campaign into electoral rigor mortis and leaving the victors to simply lie back and await their November 4th coronation. In the absence of a compelling rationale from Senator Obama or an emphatic recusal by General Powell, any failure to select the legendary warrior as his second-in-command may render the Illinois senator’s ostensibly transformational candidacy unworthy of any further support.
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    thanks for this long and thoughtful response. but i've a question. what type of cache or expertise can powell extend in the important areas of domestic policy? health care? sustainability? the recession?

    the powell as vp argument would be persuasive to me if foreign policy were the most important issue we faced. it doesn't really fly for me now. the best vp candidate in my estimation WAS edwards. of course now that isn't an option.
 

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