ANALYSIS/OPINION:
For president of the United States, I endorse - no one. Not my job. Even if it were within my purview to suggest a better man or woman for the job of leading this country and this world out of its doldrums and disasters, what would it matter?
Nada. I’d be just another voice - that of a registered independent - among thousands whistling in the wicked blogosphere wind.
Leave the high-profile pronouncements to such prominent and prestigious figures as former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, a Republican who on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday endorsed Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential candidate, as a “transformational” figure.
Now, that takes the stakes of political nods to “a ho notha level,” as the MAD TV character says. But at what cost? To him? To other moderate or black Republicans?
As I wrote in a column in July, Mr. Powell’s “brave” and “thoughtful” 6 1/2 minute endorsement was not unexpected. He, like a number of notable black Republicans at the time, were holding back on their support for their party’s candidate, Sen. John McCain, in light of Mr. Obama’s historic run for president. For some, their hesitancy came from their distaste for what they viewed as the negative and exclusionary direction in which their party seemed headed.
Deborah Burstion-Donbraye of Cleveland was among those Republican Party leaders who boldly stated her support for Mr. Obama. Not because the Illinois senator is biracial, but she said then that “I’ve been a Republican all my life but I don’t see what bone with what meat [Republicans] are giving blacks to bite into.”
On Tuesday, she bristled at the notion that black Republicans endorsed Mr. Obama purely for racial reasons.
“This is not a Jesse Jackson moment or an Al Sharpton moment,” she said. “If [Mr. Obama] were a young, white politician and saying the same things and inspiring the same people, I’d vote for him against my party.”
If you reduce a person to a single trait such as race or sex, something they can’t do anything about, she explained, you take away all that they have done in their lives to become all that they are. “That is wrongheaded.”
Using the analogy of a commander, she said Mr. Powell’s thorough endorsement of Mr. Obama was “brave because he assessed the situation and decided what was best for the country, not what’s best for the party.”
Besides, “what does he get out of it?” she asked.
Mrs. Burstion-Donbraye, an international business consultant, reiterated Tuesday that her primary reason for supporting Mr. Obama, “who is multicultural in his DNA and in his experiences,” flows from “the face of America that he puts on the world.” “He will certainly repair our reputation with world leaders as well as forging new and stronger relationships,” she added.
For the self-described “Obamacan,” her endorsement came at a high price, as she suspects will be the case with other Republicans and black conservatives, including Mr. Powell. She lost a coveted position on a pro-life board in Cleveland, of which she had been elected president three times, because Mr. Obama is pro-choice.
Some commentators suggested that Mr. Powell’s endorsement will free other Republicans to reject the party ticket this election.
But Mrs. Burstion-Donbraye cautions that the negative reaction from some conservatives like Rush Limbaugh could have a chilling effect for those fearful of losing their Republican jobs or contracts. She pointed to Christopher Buckley, who lost his column in the National Review after he endorsed Mr. Obama’s candidacy.
By no stretch of the imagination could Mrs. Burstion-Donbraye be considered a moderate Republican, or a RHINO (Republican in name only), as some have characterized Mr. Powell.
Mrs. Burstion-Donbraye, 53, is the former outreach director for the Ohio Republican Party. She helped deliver the swing state to President Bush in his 2004 re-election bid where he garnered 16 percent of the black vote.
This year, even though she is not actively involved in party politics, she sees the crucial swing state breaking blue - just barely. “Many people are hurting here,” she said, noting that the economy is the No. 1 issue in Ohio as it is elsewhere. Most polls show the state as a tossup.
The general consensus among political observers and pollsters is that political endorsements, especially from celebrities, do not matter much with voters.
“It’s been shown endorsements don’t matter that much, except early in the game when it helps candidates raise money,” Andrew Smith, director of the University of New Hampshire Survey Research Center, told McClatchy Co. newspapers this week.
But a number of analysts and political scientists told McClatchy reporters that the Powell endorsement was more significant than usual. “This is a more important endorsement than Oprah’s,” said Larry J. Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics.
However, a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center in September 2007, when talk-show host Oprah Winfrey endorsed Mr. Obama, indicated that most Americans said endorsements by celebrities and other well-known figures do not affect voters’ decisions. The survey showed that “religious leaders have a positive impact on voters.”
Some suggest that newspaper endorsements in the Internet age are useless. Writing in “Editor and Publisher” this week, Gret Mitchell argued that editorial page endorsements matter with voters beyond local elections. He also tried to prove that he was able to predict a winner in the 2004 presidential election in 14 states based on the print endorsements.
Mrs. Burstion-Donbraye said political endorsements of Mr. Powell’s “stature” matter for two reasons. First, they last longer than one news cycle and second, they influence some “to take a second look.”
Or, maybe they could take this election to higher ground and “a ho notha level.”
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