The McCain flip-flop that matters to African Americans

http://www.ebonyjet.com/politics/national/index.aspx?id=8557

John McCain was ‘against’ the Martin Luther King Holiday… before he was ‘for’ it. That is the bottom line. That is the flip flop that counts for African Americans.

When Barack Obama accepts the Democratic nomination in Denver, in August, he will do so 45 years to the day that Martin Luther King Jr. delivered, what, arguably, was the greatest and most important speech of the 20th century. Martin Luther King had a dream for all Americans, and as a result Barack Obama is living that dream. Barack Obama knew it then, and he knows it now. John McCain, on the other hand, was a slow learner. That’s the problem.

Unlike Hillary Clinton, who was for the war before she was against the war, there was no fog of war or misinformation concerning the King holiday. Instead, the only factor at the time was bigotry. Blacks desperately wanted a King holiday; some whites did not. John McCain was among those whites. The same way blacks desperately want a black president and some whites do not. Now, as was the case then, bigotry is masked in statistics we choose not to even try to understand.

McCain, among other opponents, argued then, that other notable figures, which just happened to be all white men, were equally deserving of a national holiday. Those same people, today, continue to reduce Barack Obama to a ‘speech’. Whites, McCain and others argued then that while the work of Dr. Martin Luther King deserved special recognition, perhaps the nation was moving too fast. Those same people say Barack Obama is not yet ready for the presidency. They say he lacks the experience, forgetting that the last candidate who ascended to the White House came from the executive ranks of Texas. They forget that the current Commander in Chief is not only incapable of giving a rousing, unifying speech, he can’t string a sentence together when the nation desperately needs leadership.

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The fact is, John McCain was to the right of Dick Cheney on the issue of the Dr. Martin Luther King holiday. Most republicans voted for the holiday, totaling 89, as compared to the 77 who voted against it. Among those in favor, Dick Cheney, who was then a congressman from Wyoming, and Newt Gingrich, from John Lewis’s Georgia.

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can ask him why he was against it. I'd really love to see him answer that!