Expectations from the great ‘Black Hope’

OPINION:

The gloves are off and Hillary Clinton is down for the count. She may have won a few rounds — after all a “win is a win” but a win does not a champion make. Tally the scorecard and the title goes to Barack Obama.

Acknowledging what we all (except for the Clintons) know, that Mr. Obama is the presumptive nominee for the Democratic presidential ticket, what can we expect between Democrats and Republicans this fall? A few things I can predict with certainty:

Right now various polls that put Mr. Obama and John McCain in head to head matchups show the two in a virtual tie. Expect that to open up and Mr. Obama to regain a more significant lead once Hillary packs it in.

Also, the line of demarkation between liberal and conservative will be a lot sharper real soon. While Mr. McCain is still busily working to polish his (not so) “conservative” credentials, Mr. Obama has done more to solidify his standing in the Ted Kennedy school of liberal elitists than, well, Ted Kennedy. This blue-collar charade that Mr. Obama has been exhibiting of late, will fade faster than a West Virginia farmer’s cover-alls on a rain-drenched, sun-scorched August afternoon, when he has to turn his attention to the entire base.

And of course, you can most assuredly count on full-fledged campaign attacks from both sides. Forget this higher moral ground business — it’s going to get ugly.

The greatest hurdle for Mr. McCain will be the Obama double-standard. The man who wants to “unify” the races and not make this an election about race, will be the standard-bearer for racial politics. Republicans won’t be able to say a word about Mr. Obama without being called racists.

Every ad, word, letter and gesture will be scrutinzed for any subtle hint of racism, racial undertones, race sounding and race baiting meaning imaginable. Even legitimate criticsm of Mr. Obama’s record (or lack thereof) will be characterized in some way racial by the left. It’s a sucker punch of the worst kind that Dems are never held accountable for. Their claims go unchallenged, unquestioned and Republicans — erroneously — take it in the gut — never calling foul.

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright ad run by the North Carolina GOP is a glaring case-in-point and early indication of what’s to come. The local party picked a wholly legitimate issue, while Mr. McCain tried to paint a picture of campaign nobility by immediately denouncing the ad. True to form, Mr. Obama pulled out his racial deck of cards demanding Mr. McCain have it pulled. Assuming that: 1) Mr. McCain actually could (the NC GOP is an independent entity) and 2) Mr. Obama had the “audacity” to even ask. Mr. McCain could no more have the ad pulled than Mr. Obama could have Moveon.org pull the “General Betray Us” ad — of which Mr. Obama sat idly by and never once even condemned.

Furthermore, it begs the question — for what? As National Review columnist Jay Nordlinger keyed in on a couple of weeks ago: “What has been too little discussed is, ’What’s wrong with the ad? Is Reverend Wright to be off-limits? And is McCain to be eternally bossy about how other people choose to campaign?’ Who died and made him the moral arbiter of our politics?” And I say, if Mr. Obama’s not ready for the big leagues then he shouldn’t be playing ball. Put your stick down and go home. This is politics — man up!

Syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer on May 2nd also foretold what’s to come: “Obama’s newest attempt to save himself after Wright’s latest poisonous performance is now declared the new final word on the subject. Therefore, any future ads linking Obama and Wright are preemptively declared out of bounds, illegitimate, indeed ’race-baiting’ (New York Times editorial, April 30).”

And then I read this week’s Newsweek cover story — which unabashedly sets up the Democrats strategy for them. The reporter makes one-sided broad, sweeping and damaging claims that “Republicans have been successfully scaring voters since 1968.” — without a shred of evidence.

Talk about “scaring” voters. Newsweek failed to make mention of any inroads the Republican Party has made in the black community since 1968, and that you can bet your bottom dollar on Election Day it’ll be the Democrats who will put on their best “voter intimidation” dog-and-pony show. Their successful “outreach” strategy (since 1968) has been built on fearful race rhetoric (e.g. Bush hates black people, Republicans are racist, voter intimidation, blah blah).

You may recall it was the Democrats’ own political playbook in 2004 (and again in 2006) — that encouraged election workers to allege voter intimidation even when it doesn’t exist. You better believe they’ve dusted it off and cracked it open for the 2008 campaign — with Mr. Obama as their poster boy.

What is equally troubling is that if Mr. McCain and the GOP don’t stand up to this blatant racial blackmail, they will be trounced in November. We all know how tough (and angry) Mr. McCain can be — but when it comes to the issue of race, his knees buckle like a 110-lb. fly weight dealt a blow by the heavyweight champ. Though I will give kudos to McCain adviser, Mark Salter, for his written response letter to Newsweek published on Monday. Mr. Salter fought back, refusing to accept Newsweek’s faulty premise and said the campaign is determined not to: “abide by rules imposed on us by our opponents.” Let’s hope not.