Russ Abbott wrote:
and not in the snide way you think. Much as I dislike Bush, I think that he did a lot--positively--to set the stage for an Obama victory. In particular, his appointment of Colin Powell and Condolesa Rice as Secretaries of State legitimized in the public mind the image of a black person holding high government office.
Correlation does not imply causation. Psych 101.
A few racist conservative voters might have loosened up their racism enough to vote for Obama if they got over their conservatism, but not many.
I think Bush did more to get Obama elected by being such a lousy excuse for a President. He not only did a lousy job most of the time but surrounded himself (or allowed himself to be surrounded by his puppeteers) with another circle of losers, Condi included. Powell regained a little credibility by getting fired and then by endorsing Obama. I don't know that he was a black man endorsing a black man, though maybe he was. I hope he was a reformed neoCon showing that stripes could be changed.
I believe that the presence of Condi and Colin in the neoCon administration reflected the fact that we were ready for African Americans in positions of prominence, even neoCons. Barack Obama's ascendency to Dem candidate and almost surely our next President is a combination of an American populace finally (mostly) ready to put racist stereotypes behind and a populace very fed up with neoCon abuses.
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