Acting White: Friends Close…Enemies Closer…Part II

President-elect Obama has offered the job of Secretary of State to Hillary Clinton, and it looks like she will accept – this is a good thing in my view, but why? During the campaign on matters of foreign policy, Clinton and Obama seemed the farthest apart, she as traditionalist and he looking for new approaches to a dangerous world.

As irritated as the Clinton's must be with up-start Obama, their cooler heads must tell them that he took everything they and McCain had to throw and still came out on top. This counts for something, even in Clintonian politics. As gestures go, Obama’s offer is as good as it gets in showing respect, which is the most Clinton could expect to collect.

From Hillary’s view, returning to the Senate puts her in the company of other senate long-shot losers, Kerry for one, and is not going to get her any closer to the White House (if she gets another chance). The high-profile Sec. State job keeps her in the thick of things, recognizes her skill set, and gives potential and significant accomplishments to put on her resume. It’s also a good place to shine, separate from any stumble Obama might make on the home-front.

From Obama’s view, it is more difficult for her to undermine him, if she is on the team with her hands full negotiating around the world. Also, any meddling she might attempt will be more obvious than if she is in the senate, looking out for her constituents on issues of domestic interest. All in all, I think it’s a good trade.

As a sidebar, I am not a big fan of the Larry Summers selection to run the National Economic Council, and not because of his foot-in-mouth about women in science, while at Harvard, or his falling out with Black Studies professor Cornell West. Rather, his view of Africa as a best-practice dumping ground for G-7 industrial waste, while chief economist of the World Bank, was abominable. His statement that the resulting increases in cancer in Africans from toxic waste were mitigated by their inherent shorter life spans, showed him to be a true low-life. Obama could definitely regret having a guy with such a high IQ and low emotional intelligence on the team. On one side he helps you, then he kills you.

On balance, I think Obama’s setting up the table nicely, but he’s got a very tough row to hoe – indeed.

James C. Collier

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Acting White: House Negro vs. Field Negro

So Al-Qaeda’s No. 2 guy to Osama bin Laden, al-Zawahiri, thinks President-elect Obama is a House Negro (slave). Interesting. Barely in the starting blocks, but he is already in the ‘house’. I guess the entire world is not an Obama fan after all. Nevertheless, it is an interesting choice of words and line of attack that this sworn enemy of the US now takes – and worthy of note.

As quick background, the pejorative label, historically applied by blacks to other blacks, generally designates un-challenged submission to white authority, and resignation to the pursuit of individual interest, to the detriment of one’s ethnic affiliation.

It is bold, but not unprecedented, for a non-African-American, to take such a familiar name-calling position. Recall that Ralph Nader did a similar thing when he questioned whether Obama was going to be an Uncle Tom, if he succeeded in getting to the White House. As with Nader, al-Zawahiri is attempting to stir an old racial pot to a present-day boil. I think he will fail, as did the irrelevant Ralph.

Neither Nader nor al-Zawahiri has standing to use the term. In fact, the nuance of its use is beyond most people, as assimilation of the factors of power and influence becomes more widely understood and accepted for advancement. See The Field Negro blog. Those who remain wedded to simple labels and tired strategies are tragically stuck. While this group rains violence, drop-outs, drugs, gangs, guilt and absolution onto themselves and the rest of the country, they take a pass on opportunity which immigrants, especially from Africa, leap upon to free themselves.

Now I too have been labeled a House Negro, by some, for having the audacity to call into question some black behaviors, or due to other associations with my country’s majority whiteness, including my time at Harvard. But it is these very associations that allow me and others leverage to reach both out and back. For instance, one of my company’s projects is developing a 400 megawatt power utility for the government of Ghana and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) – real black power.

Perhaps al-Zawahiri expects Obama to back down, or that blacks will not support the President-elect cast in this unflattering manner. He is wrong. One America.

James C. Collier

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Acting White: Church vs. State Confusion

Proposition 8, the amendment to ban gay marriage in California, won in a closely contested battle…and then the fight started. So why did progressive Californians uphold such a plainly biased measure? Church-going whites and blacks, that’s why. Now, everyone knew that the Mormon Church was leading the fight for the ban, but what about Black Church organizations?

The cost of gay rights supporters being no-shows to this battle front is that we will have to live with gays as second-class families a bit longer. Perhaps the Gay Lesbian Bisexual Trans-gender leadership was sure that black voters for Obama would just fall in line and ignore the stated objection to gay marriage presented each Sunday by black clergy. And if you buy this, John McCain wants you to know that Sarah Palin is much more intelligent than she sounds.

Anyway, for this grand screw-up of politics, America gets treated to angry gays tossing around the N-word as if it were the Q-word, rather than placing blame where is rightfully belongs. True colors? Perhaps, or maybe just some serious frustration when you know that your own people eff’d-up big time. For sure, the gay community has its issue with racism, but the black community is hecka-homophobic, as well. Let’s call the blame game a draw.

In a country where church and state are suppose to be separate, the state has no business confusing a religious rite with a legal right. There should be marriage in the eyes of the state (what is called domestic partnership), separate and apart from marriage in the eyes of whatever religion one chooses. What a church believes and does should have no bearing on what the state does. If a couple meets the legal requirement of the state, you're hitched. End of story.

Name-calling between blacks and gays needs to stop, so that each side can be reminded what it means to have the religious doctrine of others, rather than our constitution, control our lives.

James C. Collier

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Acting White: Blacks Must Get On The Bus

First there was anticipation, then euphoria, and now the sobering reality. Yes, little black boys can grow up to be president, too, but will they? Or will Obama be another story of the lone wolf?

Some red-state faithful claim that blacks voted for Obama in record numbers based merely on his race. I don’t doubt this claim, nor am I swayed by it. What may seem trivial to some is everything to others. Those black voters grabbed a chance to option their skin color into the fabric, the culture, of America - something desperately needed. It may seem too racial, but for so many blacks lugging around two-century-old battle wounds, it was necessary in their struggle to feel like they belong. On the other hand, many non-blacks voted for Obama precisely because of the opposite. They see and hear beyond his complexion and their own, to realize someone who inspires them. This too is good.

Now here’s the rub. With Obama’s election, the day of reckoning for blacks is close-at-hand. At that time, counter, or oppositional behaviors either get the boot or my worse fear is realized, the black underclass becomes a permanent fixture in America. With Obama, blacks are witnessing a role model for the ages. Call it acting white, acting right, or simply taking care of business, he has given himself no choice but to slug his way through the problems of this country, with every available tool at his disposal. He asked for it. Voters gave it to him. Obama is now the man.

He will undoubtedly approach his tasks the way he was taught at Harvard, but more so the way he learned at his white grandmother’s kitchen table. He will not point to the past. He will not look for concessions of preparation, performance, or result. There will be no executive order excusing lateness or blaming whites. Call it Night at the Apollo, or the White House, there is no difference. Screw-up, get the hook.

Obama can do no more than hope that blacks get on the bus, through the 'yes we can' door he’s opened, while he mounts an attack on the weightier problems of hundreds of millions of Americans - getting the Dream off life-support.

James C. Collier

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Sir Edmund Hillary 1919-2008

I came to know more about New Zealander Hillary in 1996 when I worked on a NOVA special. The project captured the work of famed IMAX movie producer David Brashear on Mt. Everest, multi-casting it live on the experimental Mbone (multi-cast internet backbone). At my end, at WGBH studios in Boston, I took a live feed of Brashear talking (administering a hypoxia/mental acuity test) from Everest base camp with climbers on the summit. In preparation for this I learned just how deadly the adventure could be, as climbers in the previous days/weeks had died on the mountain. Hillary, while noted as the first to summit in 1953, rightfully shared the accomplishment with his Nepalese Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay, who died in 1986. Furthermore, he dedicated much of his later life to trying to improve the lives of that region to which his fame probably brought more bad than good.

James C. Collier

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Acting White: Acting Gangsta'

Popular black culture, epitomized by the late Notorious B.I.G. and gangsta’ rap, is the leading-edge of black discontent that rejects education for getting ahead in America. President-elect Barack Obama, through his landmark success this political season, is a lighthouse in the search for the prize that the classroom brings, even for the lowest of the low. Obama, whose mother once fed him with the aid of food stamps, shows just how far a schooled black person can go these days–all the way to the White House – if that’s what they want.

It is a tragedy for black progress that the popularized bad-boy behavior, or what social scientists call oppositional culture, has taken root in black communities across this land. As misguided as it is, living dangerously has become a hollow means to stand against assumed white dominators spouting white directives for how to behave. Many African-Americans feel these dictations, on the value of diplomas and degrees, even when touted by successful blacks, are nothing more than a ‘bait and switch’ tactic to keep blacks on the bottom. There is the in-house belief that an educated black man is still just a ‘nigger’ in the eyes of America, waiting to be disrespected. Obama’s political mistreatment at the hands of some whites bears vague witness to these beliefs.

Nevertheless, it is precisely this twisted outlook of the role of books and learning, that has ten million blacks stuck on the bottom rungs of this country’s economic ladder. Aspiring to an education is not acting white. Rather it is doing right, by preparing to go forward on infinite pathways to self-determination and the American Dream, however challenged that dream might be in these difficult economic times.

What African-Americans need is an understanding about emotion-packed labels, and how to ‘keep the beat’ through their repeated stings. We need this so that when Rev. Jesse Jackson accuses then Senator Obama of acting white, or Republican Congressman Westmoreland, of Georgia, labels the Ivy League-educated Michele and Barack Obama as uppity, or when a black kid reading a book anywhere is accused of acting white by his friends, we will understand that these accusations are nothing more than distractions designed to throw a despondent black community - a desperate black community - off the trail of change for the better.

James C. Collier

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Obama Landslide!

James C. Collier

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Acting White: Lewis Hamilton Wins Formula One Championship

Today the 23 year old Briton became the youngest person to win the racing world's most coveted prize, the Formula One Championship. He entered today's Sao Paulo, Brazil race leading the field and needing to finish fifth or better to clench the championship. He was in sixth place on the last lap of the 70 lap race, but, with a thrill, passed the fifth place driver (Glock) on the last turn, to put himself into the history books.

Hamilton, who drives for the McLaren-Mercedes team under a $75M(US) 10 year contract, has been in and out of the headlines this season, as his presence has incited some, particularly the Spanish, to racist displays. See my earlier post on this. The F1 governing body stepped in to warn Spanish racing officials that they would lose their opportunity to host F1 events if their fans continued their harassing antics, such as dressing in blackface, making monkey chants, and racist name-calling. The Spaniards do not care for the young Hamilton up-staging seasoned Spanish drivers, and have focused their angst on his part African heritage to make their point.

The most recent flap was a Spanish web site that invited visitors to place a sharp object on a picture of the Sao Paulo track to 'puncture Hamilton's tyres'. While the site was in bad taste, it also allowed visitors to leave comments as well, and this is where it got ugly. 'Half-breed, kill yourself in your car", went one of the more tame of thousands of comments. The classy Hamilton took it all in stride, including the boos from the Brazilian crowd at the end of today's race.

For those who are unfamiliar, the typical F1 race has 55 million world-wide viewers, the most of any sport. It is the planet's most expensive sport, with races held all over the world, except N.America and Africa, and team budgets as high as $400M. The cars reach speeds of 225 MPH, pull 5G's (gravitational force) in the corners, and can accelerate from 0-100 MPH in 2.5 seconds.

Congratulations to Lewis Hamilton, the kid can drive, and thankfully the 19,000 rpm engines drown-out a lot of stupidity in the process.

James C. Collier

P.S. Read this for the inside scoop on how Team McLaren guided Hamilton to snatch a last minute victory from the jaws of defeat.

P.P.S. Check out the last lap before YouTube pulls it down.

Too late...they pulled it.

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Studs Terkel: 1912-2008

Many years ago I read the Terkel book, "Race: What Blacks and Whites Think and Feel About the American Obsession" (1992. ISBN 978-1565840003). Terkel had a way of taking you into people's lives to experience their everyday thoughts and beliefs, some pretty, some not so. But with each of his subjects you could not help but come away with a profound respect for what there is to be learned from mining honest feelings.

James C. Collier

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Acting White: Friends Close...Enemies Closer

So with seven days to go, Bill is finally making nice with Obama, eh? What's up? Has he forgiven Barack for trouncing good old Hill, otherwise a shoe-in for heading the Demo-ticket into this election? Hardly, if you know Bill. The Clinton's have memories like elephants, and certainly don't like the crow they've had to force down these last few months, while some still-wet-behind-the-ears wanna-be walks off with their prize. Hillary, to her credit, has been soldiering-on for Obama. After being with Bill all these years, she's a pro at smiling through the pain. Bill, on the other hand...

Now do I think the Clinton's are racist? Yes, I do, but no more so than any other white or black politician in America. On top of their normal race sensitivities, let's not forget we are talking about lawyers on both sides of the scrimmage line. They are trained from the get-go to use every part of the pig, including the oink, to win. Race is just a high-card to be played when backs are against the wall, and favorite marbles are about to exchange pockets. Both Clinton's and Obama appealed to race as an issue. It's just that the Clinton's, followed by McCain/Palin, did it ever so poorly to the evolved taste of the voters.

So what do you do when the so-called affirmative action candidate whips your butt, fair and square? Well, you lick your wounds, make nice, and wait. In Hill and Bill's case, you definitely put the cozy on, because if this Obama dude not only wins the White House, but leads the party to 'run the table' on the Republicans, taking him down ain't gonna be without risks. Lots of folks who have been in the Clinton fold are running to the O-man about now, knowing that his vigilance will be on keeping a tight tab on the Clinton backroom-game and who is attending.

The best bet for the Clinton's is to make a good show of backing an Obama dent in this country's Bush mess. Helping him succeed is a much better strategy than undermining him. If he falters, expect them to pounce. Team Obama knows all of this. Should be interesting, but Obama must still get past Nov 4...

James C. Collier

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Acting White: Post-Traumatic Bush Syndrome

The last few weeks should have made things very clear to Americans. George Bush, as a president, has been a monumental failure. History is only left to argue his place among the worse of the worse. Some will say he had bad luck, like 9/11 and Katrina, but he has also betrayed any and all ideologies that Americans hold dear. He has effectively stuck the country with a sub-prime loan on our future. Dismal, very dismal.

Bush tax and oversight policies have failed our economy. Bush spending has failed the Republican platform, and made it possible that Democrats will control not only the presidency (a good thing), but also both houses (not a good thing). He lead us into a bad war, needlessly causing the deaths of thousands on both sides and wasting billions. He erased a budget surplus and doubled the country's deficit from 5 to 10 trillion dollars.

He has placed hand-cuffs on our crumbling education system, with No Child Left Behind, and done nothing while millions of citizens - families - are banished to the rolls of the uninsured. The impact reaches beyond our shores as well where, as Mr. Free World, he has stumbled and bumbled his way on a seemingly aimless journey, too often laid out by men of sinister character and motives, with names like Cheney, Rumsfeld, Libby, and Rove.

So whether you are an Obamamaniac, McCain supporter, or undecided, we are left with the stream of cold imploding headlines as evidence that the George Bush legacy is our country in one hell of a mess, which I doubt anyone will soon forget.

James C. Collier

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Acting White: Raw & Real!

"On October 12, one of our reporters [Al Jazeera English] interviewed people attending a Sarah Palin rally in St. Clairsville, Ohio. It was raw and it was real.

Here's a sample of some of the comments the reporter heard about Barack Obama:

"I'm afraid if he wins, the blacks will take over. He's not a Christian! This is a Christian nation! What is our country gonna end up like?"
"When you got a Negra running for president, you need a first stringer. He's [McCain?] definitely a second stringer."

Sarah Palin seems to be the knife that John McCain is using to gut his own run for the White House.

Poor judgment simply does not describe what is going on here. Whatever one thinks of Obama, there should be no argument that McCain's stirring of such vile dens of racist cockroaches is the truest of political gifts, along (of course) with the hapless efforts of the clueless Federal Reserve and Securities and Exchange Commission.

James C. Collier

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Acting White: I'm Shocked!

“Those of us who have looked to the self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholders’ equity, myself included, are in a state of shocked disbelief,” he [Greenspan] told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

The NYT article goes on to say, "Many Republican lawmakers on the oversight committee tried to blame the mortgage meltdown on the unchecked growth of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the giant government-sponsored mortgage-finance companies that were placed in a government conservatorship last month. Republicans have argued that Democratic lawmakers blocked measures to reform the companies.

But Mr. Greenspan, who was first appointed by President Ronald Reagan, placed far more blame on the Wall Street companies that bundled subprime mortgages into pools and sold them as mortgage-backed securities. Global demand for the securities was so high, he said, that Wall Street companies pressured lenders to lower their standards and produce more “paper.”

“The evidence strongly suggests that without the excess demand from securitizers, subprime mortgage originations (undeniably the original source of the crisis) would have been far smaller and defaults accordingly far lower,” he said."

It looks more and more, by the words of the 'maestro' himself, that the melt-down was not caused by all those minorities scamming poor bankers, but just the opposite - loose lending to feed the greedy appetites of Wall Street.

This much is for sure, there are a lot of poor folks deserving of a big fat apology and some debt relief from the likes of Greenspan, the Treasury, and the pundits who have been heaping blame on their poor wanton souls over the past weeks. But I won't hold my breath waiting.

James C. Collier

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Acting White: AA, Diversity I & II

My daughter is a high school senior looking at colleges, so I have the pleasure of attending numerous ‘college nights’, as she executes her move into this phase in her young life. This gives me a trench-level view of how advanced education currently views young blacks. Now I’m too old to have experienced the diversity argument of the nineties. Before then it was just straight-up affirmative action (AA), with the goal of righting past wrongs, by tossing blacks into elusive college programs to sink or swim. Unfortunately, too many sank. It turns out that plus addmission points for skin-hue did not translate into grade points for graduation. Surprise!

Following AA, the first diversity push, which I’ll call D1, quietly converted the strategy of atoning for past wrongs, to focusing on balance. If blacks are 13% percent of the population, then they should be 13% of the college students. Fair is fair, right? But this did not work, either. Sure, there is growing black excellence, but not enough of it to fill all of America’s colleges with their 13%. Also, it seems like a quota, and that is one dirty word in the lexicon. So, back they went to the drawing board.

Now we have D2, the second diversity push. Only this time the story is not about the benefit to blacks, but rather the value to all who need to sit in a classroom with blacks, in order to get their educational money’s worth – a diverse learning environment. The plus-points doled out to under-represented minorities are justified, under D2, for the value it brings to the education promise of ‘everybody’ (esp. liberal white kids). And just so long as race is not the too obvious driving criteria for admission, these race-based bonus points are allowed, so says the Supreme Court.

In all cases, whether I witnessed it 20 years ago or just saw it just last night, the underlying problem remains. The bonus points that accompany the diversity recruitment promos still do not translate into the GPA that will make my girl, and me, smile and establish her argument into graduate school. So it is up to me to appropriately counter the bonus points that entice her, and black kids like her, into programs which, by their mismatch skills and requirements, will result in less educational enrichment, lower grades, and fewer graduate school opportunities/experiences.

While we continue with outdated and ineffective solutions, more and more poor kids, of all colors, are being locked out of higher education. It is they who need points and programs to overcome the impact of economically disadvantaged schools from the start. I hate it that Ward Connerly-types have hijacked the pursuit of fair solutions to unfair disparities. Nevertheless, bankrupt educators should neither get away with trickery to prop up an approach that they know does not work, and which should have been replaced long ago.

James C. Collier

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Acting White: Colin Powell Endorses Obama

The NYT reports today that Former Secretary of State and well-respected Republican Colin Powell has endorsed Barack Obama.

I have faith that Powell could extricate us from the Bush-Iraq debacle better than any other man this country has. If Bush had listened to the General at the outset we probably would not have wasted thousands of lives and billions of tax dollars lining the pockets of Cheney's war-contracting thug-buddies.

If called upon by Obama, I'm sure the patriotic Powell would jump in with both hands and feet, as this is the kind of man he is. I have always admired him and wish I could have voted for him for president. I also understand his desire to not put his family through the dirt of presidential politics.

Powell's criticisms of McCain's campaign are fair and on target, with the simple descriptor that it has been 'over the top'. Unlike McCain's half-assed vetting of Sarah Palin, you can bet the General has gone over Obama with a fine-toothed comb before lending him his good name. For many Americans, this will mean something.

The Times also reports that Obama raised a record $150M this past month, with 632K new contributors. It seems Americans really are looking for a change.

James C. Collier

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Acting White: How Liberal is Obama?

I keep hearing how Obama is the second most liberal Democrat in all of Washington, a bad thing, and how John McCain is a 'maverick' within the Republicans. Now being labeled as very liberal is suppose to taint you with bloated government, ear-mark spending, over-regulation, and bureaucracy. Being a maverick, on the other hand, is suppose to mean that you somehow do not run with the big-business, special-interest crowd, whether to right or the left of center.

So with all of this, I searched and found this interesting graph prepared by Keith T. Poole PhD., Professor of Political Science, University of CA, San Diego. Poole presents that Obama, McCain, and Clinton, are all much closer to the average voting ideology of their respective parties, compared to what they, or others, want us to believe. His work utilizes DW-NOMINATE, a system which measures Congressional legislators’ ideological locations over time.

If McCain was the maverick that he claims, we would expect him, over time, to be on either end of his party's ideology, rather than near the middle. If Obama was the flaming liberal-socialist his opponents say he is, why does he not show up at the far left of his party voting?

This is just one small exposé of the magic show we are watching called election 2008. Food for thought.

James C. Collier

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Acting White: UNBELIEVABLE!!!

James C. Collier

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Acting White: Hacking Democracy 9 of 9

"This cautionary documentary exposes the vulnerability of computers - which count approximately 80% of America's votes in county, state and federal elections - suggesting that if our votes aren't safe, then our democracy isn't safe either. The documentary exposes the dangers of voting machines used during America's mid term and presidential elections. Electronic voting machines count approximately 90% of America's votes in county, state and federal elections. The technology is also increasingly being used across the world, including in Canada, the United Kingdom, Europe and Latin America. Filmed over three years this expose follows the investigations of a team of citizen activists and hackers as they take on the electronic voting industry, targeting the Diebold corporation. "Hacking Democracy" uncovers incendiary evidence from the trash cans of Texas to the ballot boxes of Ohio, exposing secrecy, votes in the trash, hackable software and election officials rigging the presidential recount. Ultimately proving our votes can be stolen without a trace "Hacking Democracy" culminates in the famous 'Hursti Hack'; a duel between the Diebold voting machines and a computer hacker from Finland - with America's democracy at stake. The two Ohio election staff who feature in "Hacking Democracy" were sentenced on March 13th 2007 for rigging the 2004 presidential recount. Incriminating footage from the documentary was used in their court case as evidence." http://www.hackingdemocracy.com/

LET THE VOTER BEWARE!!

Diebold Letter (in their defense)

Independent Review by California Secretary of State: Security Analysis of Diebold AccuBasic Interpreter by University of California, Berkeley (2006).

James C. Collier



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Acting White: The Perfect Lie

"John McCain has an illegitimate black daughter!" When the George Bush campaign of 2000 made this claim, they set the standard for the 'perfect lie'. A perfect lie stops a voter dead in their tracks, via some minuscule measure of truth, wrapped in a big ugly. Indeed, Senator McCain has an adopted daughter, not borne by either of his wives, and whose skin is dark complected (making African ancestry plausible). Beyond this, all lies. Bush made this up and sank McCain with it. Now McCain is desperately searching for his perfect lie to sink Obama. But he has two problems. He has not found the lie and his delivery/deliverer, Sarah Palin, is all wrong. Perfect lies must be whispered under the radar of the press, those pesky fact checkers. Bush used telephones, hundreds of thousands of them, while publicly denying their smear effort. Palin is openly accusing Obama of 'paling with terrorists', while the press repeats 'not true, not true'. This is nothing but sloppy dirty-campaigning on McCain's part. It is the same as McCain getting shot off his horse by his Republican peers when he suspended his campaign to save us from the economic crisis. Sloppy, stupid and despicable. I really expected more from big John, son of an admiral. Where's the strategy, where's the cunning and guile? But really, where's McCain's self-respect. This is what some Republicans mean when they tell him to muzzle Palin, but he does not get it.

James C. Collier

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Acting White: OJ Simpson Guilty!

NYT Story

James C. Collier

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