McCAIN CANDIDACY AN ACCIDENT OF HISTORY, GIVING OBAMA, RIGHT MAN AT RIGHT TIME, A SHOT AT VICTORY

DIGGING DEEPER
By Ivan G. Goldman
As a presidential candidate, John McCain is an accident of history, just as Hubert Humphrey was in 1968. Back then the Democratic candidate would have been California primary victor Bobby Kennedy had not Sirhan Sirhan changed history in the kitchen of Los Angeles’ Ambassador Hotel.

And in 2008 the Republican candidate would have been Virginia’s George Allen, if not for his videotaped “macaca” remark. He had the contributors, the babbling-right-wing editorialists, and pretty much the whole world primed. But after Allen allowed us a quick look into his ugly mind, there weren't many GOP alternates ready to go for the prize. McCain, who’s too old and too ornery to be nominated under ordinary conditions, just happened to be the last man standing. Republican voters weren’t about to pull the switch for Mitt Romney, who’d abruptly switched virtually every political stand he’d ever taken as Massachusetts governor in order to sign off on all the hard-core positions a candidate must take to win GOP primaries.

McCain had also re-tailored most of his positions in order to pass muster with Mr. and Mrs. Right-Wing, but his switch had been a gradual one over approximately eight years. McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin for the No. 2 spot is an interesting one, but not likely to peel off nearly as many Hillary supporters as he’d hoped.

I’m not going to claim relatively untested Palin couldn’t possibly fill the role of president because if there’s one thing we’ve learned in the last eight years it’s that the country can stumble along with virtually anybody in the Oval Office, even a lazy little bastard who can’t put six grammatical words together and never asks any questions because he already knows everything.

But Barack Obama is not an accident of history. He’s the logical president for a country weary of a government that cares for the interests of only the very, very rich and their natural allies, the big global corporations out to buy favors.

Obama’s the logical president for a country that wants to get past its crazy concern over race. But of course not everyone in this country wants to get past race. When voters tell interviewers they don’t know enough about Obama, they’re basically saying they’d need to know an awful lot more about a black man in order to vote for him and they don’t really want to know too much because then they might want to vote for him. This is a man who wrote his own informative, revealing autobiography, writes his own speeches (as did Lincoln), and who told us in his acceptance speech exactly what he plans to do, who he is, and where he comes from. And they don’t know enough about him? Where do they live? Saddam’s old spider hole?

After what we’ve been through the last eight years either Al Gore or John Edwards --- both white Southern men with brains and decent instincts --- would have won this general election 58-52 percent. But Gore lost the fire in his belly and Edwards couldn’t get through to enough Democratic primary voters and ultimately self-destructed.

Naturally it’s going to be more difficult for an African-American with a funny name, particularly since a black man, as Jesse Jackson noted, isn’t allowed to get angry. And when the McCain-Rove machine really starts throwing mud, he’s going to have to be our new Jackie Robinson, the university-educated black man who promised Branch Rickey he would remain composed when taunted by racist ball players and fans. Robinson pledged to just play his best and pave the way for others. That’s what Barack is going to do for all of us.