The nice nonwhite radical leftist who can’t be opposed

Three days ago David B. and I theorized that John McCain might not have the will to win against a candidate of color. Yesterday top McCain staffer Mark McKinnon said that he would resign from the McCain campaign if Obama is the Democratic nominee. Asked on NPR his reasons, he said:

I met Barack Obama, I read his book, I like him a great deal. I disagree with him on very fundamental issues. But I think, as I said, I think it would a great race for the country, and I would simply be uncomfortable being in a campaign that would be inevitably attacking Barack Obama. I think it would be uncomfortable for me, and I think it would be bad for the McCain campaign.

McKinnon doesn’t say anything directly about race, and he could simply mean that he likes Obama so much as a person, though disagreeing with him on “very fundamental issues,” that he could not oppose him. But that interpretation is hard to swallow. Political actors often personally like the people on the other side, that doesn’t prevent them from opposing them politically, especially if they disagree with them on very fundamental issues. Therefore, in the absence of any contrary evidence, I have to assume that the real reason McKinnon would be uncomfortable campaigning against Obama is that Obama is nonwhite. McKinnon is saying that he will not try to prevent the election to the presidency of the United States of a person with whom he disagrees on very fundamental questions, if that person is nonwhite. Nonwhiteness is god, and everything else must yield to it.

Which underscores why I prefer the nightmare of a Clinton restoration to the prospect of President Obama. Hillary will be opposed. Obama, whose substantive policies are significantly more radical than Hillary’s, as Kenneth Blackwell shows in today’s New York Sun, will not be opposed. Also, Blackwell argues, if Obama’s true record were brought out, he would be much easier to defeat in the general election than Hillary.

I used to say that HIllary Clinton was the walking abolition of politics, because as the symbolic woman she never had to answer critical questions about her record. But Obama, the nonwhite god, is worse.

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David B. writes:

Paul Gottfried has a blog item at Takimag.com on the same subject. It seems McCain just walked up to Obama and meekly shook hands. It is more reason to think that McCain will be very weak this fall if he runs against Obama.

Obama can be beaten if his opponent puts his record and past statements under scrutiny. I don’t think McCain will do so. “I’m not going to run a negative campaign,” he will announce. He might be a little more aggressive against Hillary Clinton.

Terry Morris writes:

“…and I think it would be bad for the McCain campaign.”

What?! Mr. McKinnen doesn’t consider it worse for the McCain campaign that a top campaign staffer publicly announces that he will resign his position on the basis that he is uncomfortable playing a role in attacking a political opponent whose book he’s read and he personally likes … a great deal? And McCain hasn’t fired this guy yet?!

Can you imagine the spineless group of advisors McCain would put together as Commander in Chief, the Joint Chiefs and others? Seriously, I think a McCain presidency would be worse than an Obama presidency.

LA replies:

It’s staggering beyond belief. What McKinnon is saying is that it would be bad for McCain to run against his Democratic opponent. Meaning that it would be better for McCain NOT to run against his Democratic opponent. Meaning that it would be better for McCain if McCain lost the election. If your opponent is nonwhite, it’s better for you to lose than to win. I don’t know how else McKinnon’s words can be interpreted.

In any case, McKinnon’s intention to resign from the McCain campaign if Obama is the nominee is obviously not just about the fact that McKinnon has a special liking for Obama and doesn’t want to work against him. What’s actually implied in his comment is the categorical statement that it would be wrong for anyone oppose Barack Obama for the presidency, which also means that it would be wrong for anyone to oppose Obama once he became president.

Depending on how representative McKinnon is of white attitudes, Hillary Clinton may now be the only thing standing in the way of the surrender of America to a nonwhite radical leftist messiah.

Terry Morris replies:

Well said! You’ve just articulated my line of thinking with one minor exception. You wrote:

“If your opponent is nonwhite, it’s better for you to lose than to win. I don’t know how else McKinnon’s words can be interpreted.”

My interpretation is that if your opponent is nonwhite and liberal, it’s better for you to lose than to win. If Barack Obama were a conservative Republican running against McCain for the Republican nomination, I highly doubt McKinnon would have a problem being a part of “Team McCain.”

James P. writes:

I had a sneaking suspicion that Mark McKinnon was black, but I was wrong. He is a white liberal. What fascinates me is this information, from Newsweek in June 2007.

McCain knew in June 2007 that McKinnon would quit McCain’s campaign if Obama was the nominee. June 2007! Why did McCain hire this idiot in the first place if he knew he was going to pull the plug just when he was needed the most? Furthermore, McKinnon is “a lifelong Democrat”—why on earth would a Republican want such a creature on a Presidential campaign? Yes, he worked for Bush, but I wouldn’t exactly call that the most compelling recommendation.

Also, note that it says “McKinnon wrote that while he opposed Obama’s policies, especially on Iraq, he felt that the Illinois senator—as an African-American politician—has a unique potential to change the country.” So there is no other reason McKinnon likes Obama besides the fact that Obama is black. As you said, nonwhiteness is god. It terrifies me that this kind of thinking exists. Yet I know that there are a lot of Americans—particularly women—who are going to vote for Obama simply because he is black, even though this otherwise reacts against their best interests. Logic is irrelevant, emotion is all.

LA replies:

Thanks for digging this up. That’s really something. As you point out, it confirms our guess that McKinnon’s real reason for not wanting to oppose Obama is his race.

At the same time, to be fair, McKinnon looks a little less bad in this regard: he’s not a Republican who is so tranfixed by the miracle of Obama’s nonwhitenes that he is unwilling to support a Republican against him. Instead, he’s a Democrat who has supported Bush and McCain because he agrees with them on Iraq.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at February 14, 2008 03:27 PM | Send