Black conservatives weigh voting for Obama
CNN political
Black conservative talk show host Armstrong Williams has never voted for a Democrat for president. That could change this year with Barack Obama as the Democratic Party’s nominee.
“I don’t necessarily like his policies; I don’t like much that he advocates, but for the first time in my life, history thrusts me to really seriously think about it,” Williams said. “I can honestly say I have no idea who I’m going to pull that lever for in November. And to me, that’s incredible.”
Just as Obama has touched black Democratic voters, he has engendered conflicting emotions among black Republicans. They revel over the possibility of a black president but wrestle with the thought that Obama doesn’t sit beside them ideologically.
“Among black conservatives,” Williams said, “they tell me privately, it would be very hard to vote against him in November.”
Williams, the commentator, says his 82-year-old mother, who also hasn’t voted for a Democratic presidential candidate, has already made up her mind.
“She is so proud of Senator Barack Obama, and she has made it clear to all of us that she’s voting for him in November,” Williams relates. “That is historic. Every time I call her, she asks, ‘How’s Obama doing?’ They feel as if they are a part of this.
Because she said, given the history of this country, she never thought she’d ever live to see this moment.”
Perhaps sensing the possibility of such a shift, Republican presidential candidate John McCain has made some efforts to lure black voters. He recently told Essence magazine that he would attend the NAACP’s annual convention next month, and he noted that he recently traveled to Selma, Ala., scene of seminal voting rights protests in the 1960s, and “talked about the need to include
‘forgotten Americans.”‘
J.C. Watts, a former Oklahoma congressman who once was part of the GOP House leadership, said he’s thinking of voting for Obama.
Watts said he’s still a Republican, but he criticizes his party for neglecting the black community. Black Republicans, he said, have to concede that while they might not agree with Democrats on issues, at least that party reaches out to them.
“And Obama highlights that even more,” Watts said, adding that he expects Obama to take on issues such as poverty and urban policy. “Republicans often seem indifferent to those things.”
God bless Michale Steele for NOT being a racist like these others voting ONLY because of RACE.– Wild Thing
Michael Steele, the Republican former lieutenant governor of Maryland who lost a Senate race there in 2006, said he is proud of Obama as a black man, but that “come November, I will do everything in my power to defeat him.” Electing Obama, he said, would not automatically solve the woes of the black community.
“I think people who try to put this sort of messianic mantle on Barack’s nomination are a little bit misguided,” he said.
Wild Thing’s comment……..
First of all let me say something. I have been a conservative all my life and no conservative would ever vote for Obama. The NO vote is NOT because he is a black man, but Obama is a Democrat, the most liberal, furthest to the left of all the democrats.
These people saying they are “thinking of voting for Obama BECAUSE HE IS A BLACK MAN” ….. are they coming out of the closet of their being a racist that they hid in these past years passing off as a conservative?
Has our American politics, governing and who should be voted for ….come down to if a person is black or white? I say NOPE, it has come down to Democrat BLACK is ok and Republican Black is NO good! If Obama was a conservative black man, the left would be calling him names like Oreo cookie and Uncle Tom like they called so many black Republicans.
Here is an example from the past:
“Democratic leaders in Maryland say that racially tinged attacks against Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele in his bid for the U.S. Senate are fair because he is a conservative Republican. Such attacks against the first black man to win a statewide election in Maryland include pelting him with Oreo cookies during a campaign appearance, calling him an “Uncle Tom” and depicting him as a black-faced minstrel on a liberal Web log.”
This is very sad to me to learn of Williams and Watts even thinking this way, even considering such a thing as to vote for Obama because of the historical
‘thing’ of it. I gave them both more credit then obviously they have deserved.
It is a sad day for our country too, if it has come down to this. Character and love for America being thrown out the window.
Maybe I have been naive, I didn’t know blacks were black before they were Americans. Not all but how sad that any of them feel this way.
Color me red, white and blue… I am an American with German ancestory. I am an AMERICAN! If Obama bin Laden was a Conservative or Republican, he wouldn’t get my vote. Why do you think in 2000 we saw 30 Red States of America versus 20 blue states of socialism? The same for 31 Red States in 2004 vs. 19 blue states, and the same for 13 GRAY states in 1860 with two supporting in Missouri & Kentucky!
It saddens me, and surprises me, that even among some Black Conservatives, their hyphen and the word in front of it mean more than the American following it. I guess some of the people we have bent over backward to be fair with have decided they are going to be racist.
Darth, very true, thanks.
From the very beginning, Barack Hussein Obama has injected race into his campaign to become President of the United States. Electing the first black (African-American for the PC crowd) President has become a driving theme of cult Obamamania.
So, let me get this story straight. Discrimination is wrong and against the law unless it favors those of the black race and liberal/socialist persuasion. History may be looking at a first twofer presidency. First Black and First Affirmative Action President.
Martin Luther King must be looking at where race relations have gone and thinking, “What the f__k!”
Tom it seems so, so far not all of them but these two surprised me. Colin Powell did not surprise me I have not had respect for him for long time ever since he said several things that showed he was more a democrat then a Republican.
Les, I would think so too.