By Frederic J. Frommer
Associated Press Writer
WA****NGTON - Black conservative talk show host Armstrong Williams has
never voted for a Democrat for president. That could change this year
with Barack Obama as the Democratic Party's nominee.
"I don't necessarily like his policies; I don't like much that he
advocates, but for the first time in my life, history thrusts me to
really seriously think about it," Williams said. "I can honestly say I
have no idea who I'm going to pull that lever for in November. And to
me, that's incredible."
Just as Obama has touched black Democratic voters, he has engendered
conflicting emotions among black Republicans. They revel over the
possibility of a black president but wrestle with the thought that the
Illinois senator doesn't sit beside them ideologically.
"Among black conservatives," Williams said, "they tell me privately,
it would be very hard to vote against him in November."
Perhaps sensing the possibility of such a ****ft, Republican
presidential candidate John McCain has made some efforts to lure black
voters. He recently told Essence magazine that he would attend the
NAACP's annual convention next month, and he noted that he recently
traveled to Selma, Ala., scene of seminal voting rights protests in
the 1960s, and "talked about the need to include 'forgotten
Americans.'"
Still, the Arizona senator has a tall order in winning black votes, no
doubt made taller by running against a black opponent. In 2004, blacks
chose Democrat John Kerry over President Bush by an 88 percent to 11
percent margin, according to exit polls.
J.C. Watts, a former Oklahoma congressman who once was part of the GOP
House leader****p, said he's thinking of voting for Obama. Watts said
he's still a Republican, but he criticizes his party for neglecting
the black community. Black Republicans, he said, have to concede that
while they might not agree with Democrats on issues, at least that
party reaches out to them.
"And Obama highlights that even more," Watts said, adding that he
expects Obama to take on issues such as poverty and urban policy.
"Republicans often seem indifferent to those things."
Likewise, retired Gen. Colin Powell, who became the country's first
black secretary of state under President George W. Bush, said both
candidates are qualified and that he will not necessarily vote for the
Republican.
"I will vote for the individual I think that brings the best set of
tools to the problems of 21st-century America and the 21st-century
world regardless of party, regardless of anything else other than the
most qualified candidate," Powell said Thursday in Vancouver in
comments re****ted by The Globe and Mail in Toronto.
Writer and actor Joseph C. Phillips got so excited about Obama earlier
this year that he started calling himself an "Obamacan" =97 Obama
Republican. Phillips, who appeared on "The Cosby Show" as Denise
Huxtable's husband, Navy Lt. Martin Kendall, said he has wavered
since, but he is still thinking about voting for Obama.
"I am wondering if this is the time where we get over the hump, where
an Obama victory will finally, at long last, move us beyond some of
the old conversations about race," Phillips said. "That possibly, just
possibly, this great country can finally be forgiven for its original
sin, or find some absolution."
Yet Phillips, author of the book "He Talk Like a White Boy," realizes
the irony of voting for a candidate based on race to get beyond race.
"We have to not judge him based on his race, but on his desirability
as a political candidate," he said. "And based on that, I have a lot
of disagreements with him on a lot of issues. I go back and forth."
Michael Steele, the Republican former lieutenant governor of Maryland
who lost a Senate race there in 2006, said he is proud of Obama as a
black man, but that "come November, I will do everything in my power
to defeat him." Electing Obama, he said, would not automatically solve
the woes of the black community.
"I think people who try to put this sort of messianic mantle on
Barack's nomination are a little bit misguided," he said.
John McWhorter, a self-described political moderate who is a senior
fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute and a New York Sun
columnist, said Obama's Democratic Party victory "proves that while
there still is some racism in the United States, there is not enough
to matter in any serious manner. This is a watershed moment."
"Obama is probably more to the left than I would prefer on a lot of
issues," he adds. "But this issue of getting past race for real is
such a wedge issue for me. And he is so intelligent, and I think he
would be a perfectly competent president, that I'm for him. I want him
to get in because, in a way, it will put me out of a job."
James T. Harris, a Milwaukee radio talk show host and public speaker,
said he opposes Obama "with love in my heart."
"We are of the same generation. He's African American and I'm an
American of African descent. We both have lovely wives and beautiful
children," Harris said. "Other than that, we've got nothing in common.
I hope he loses every state."
Moderate Republican Edward Brooke, who blazed his own trail in
Massachusetts in 1966 as the first black popularly elected U.S.
senator, said he is "extremely proud and confident and joyful" to see
Obama ascend. Obama sent Brooke a signed copy of his book, inscribed,
"Thank you for paving the way," and Brooke sent his own signed book to
Obama, calling the presumed Democratic nominee "a worthy bearer of the
torch."
Brooke, who now lives in Florida, won't say which candidate will get
his endorsement, but he does say that race won't be a factor in his
decision.
"This is the most im****tant election in our history," Brooke said.
"And with the world in the condition that it is, I think we've got to
get the best person we can get."
Williams, the commentator, says his 82-year-old mother, who also
hasn't voted for a Democratic presidential candidate, has already made
up her mind.
"She is so proud of Senator Barack Obama, and she has made it clear to
all of us that she's voting for him in November," Williams relates.
"That is historic. Every time I call her, she asks, 'How's Obama
doing?' They feel as if they are a part of this. Because she said,
given the history of this country, she never thought she'd ever live
to see this moment."
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