Sorry to say you are still practicing a double standard. Would you say the same if Mr Steele happened to be Democrat? I do not think so since you seem to accept the swift boater’s version of the attacks on Kerry as true.

The election races of three American heroes, John McCain, John Kerry and Max Cleland, were poisoned and destroyed by virulent attacks consisting mainly of lies. Didn’t they deserve being treated with respect? After all they put their lives on the line and they returned home permanently crippled to one degree or another.

I believe you are a Republican trying to frame Democrats as racist by injecting ethical and moral values regarding racism just to create controversy when racism has nothing to do with a candidate’s RECORD. This is the ideal recipe of Republican framing of Democrats.

Why would a candidate need special considerations because of race?

What would be ideal is a level playing field but I repeat once again that the Republicans elected to go the dirty, dishonest and unscrupulous way not only to attack an opponent’s record but to frame his character with lies and falsehoods. To paraphrase our Secretary of Defense: Candidates get elected with the weapons they have and not with those they wish they could have. It would be folly to respond to a Republican political attack by treating the opponent with respect just because he happens to be black. He should be attacked on his record with the same weapons republicans will use.

We will continue to disagree then, although based upon your last reply, there is one point we can agree upon …

A candidate running for political office has to stand on his confidence and his RECORD regardless of race and based on that record he will be criticized or supported.

Yes, criticize or support the record, but don’t base the attack upon a person’s race and his party associations. There’s a hypocrisy being shown by the oreo-throwing and related racist actions beings demonstrated in this particular electoral race.

John:
So who gets to determine what is in the best interest of the blacks who don’t support Democrats? I would think they would get to make that decision, but it seems you disagree.

thutmosis:
Then swift boat him. Find somebody from his past who can say that he misrepresented himself in some way. Attack him with ideas or even opinions. Don’t throw oreos at him, paint him up in blackface, or use other racist imagery against him.

Still continue to disagree with you.

I would like to know if you believe that Republicans swift boating Senators Mcain, Kerry, and Max Cleland is acceptable because they are white, but it is not acceptable to swift boat black candidates. Do you think black candidates are weaker, and need more help from white folk? If you do, then you are showing a double standard that smells of actual racism.

A candidate running for political office has to stand on his confidence and his RECORD regardless of race and based on that record he will be criticized or supported. Unfortunately the Republicans lowered to bar with their slash and burn electioneering. I would like to think that candidate Steele does not pay much attention to the opposition’s attacks or accepts well meaning rants about racism as being true. If he does then he deserves all the epithets directed at him.

I hope he does not win the election based on his record and that he will continue to be attacked with the same virulent rethoric the Republicans brought into the playing field. I know that if he has a chance he will respond in kind. That is not racism. Nothing immoral or unethical about it. It is just how elections will carry on in the foreseeable future.

“So, are you saying that the members of the black community who do not support the Democrats do not deserve representation by a member of their own community?” No, but if that member is working against their better interest, and talking to the interests of those that would see an end to programs that help them, then I’d say that NO, they are not a representatives of the Black community, even if they happen to be black themselves.

So, are you saying that the members of the black community who do not support the Democrats do not deserve representation by a member of their own community?

To tell you the truth, I think black people in that state have a right to be pissed off at him - Republicans tend to write legislation that is so anti-black that I can’t understand why any black people would ever vote for them, much less be one. And they absolutely love it when one of them comes over to their side, cause then they can point with glee and say, “See? See? We’re not racists!”

Of course I feel the same way about gay people and Republicans, and cannot understand how any self-respecting gay person could be Republican or have voted for Bush. Of course I have a hard time understanding why anyone with a brain would have voted for Bush, even with the lackluster alternative, but that’s another matter.

People are swayed far more by vicious attacks than they are by reasoned arguments, poll after poll and election after election has proved that. If only we lived in a world where our leaders were chosen by their qualifications and philosophies rather than the oft-manufactured skeletons in their closets.

In this particular case I suspect their attempts may backfire, because blatant racism is so ugly that many people will lower their opinion of the attacker rather than the attacked.

Sorry, ranting.

DB this has nothing to do with race. It is just politics.

Have to disagree with you - it is bringing race into the picture in an ugly way and just highlights a stereotype of African Americans having to be card carrying Democrats to be true to their race.

Actually it’s pretty ironic that this type of behavior would be otherwise decried in any other instance, but because the stage is a political one then it’s deemed “acceptable” in the interests of the party.

Apparently, some have not.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says in an editorial that Clarence Thomas isn’t really a regular or legit Black but is a Black* (with an asterisk) because he really doesn’t side with the interests of mainstream Blacks in his opinions and commentaries.

So, there is a prescribed way that Blacks are supposed to think about the world around them? It is not OK for a Black to think differently than the “establishment” expects him or her to think? A Black person, to get credit for being Black, is supposed to march along in step with those who believe in certain ways? Is this not the manifestation of a plantation mentality?

Disagree with his views, or with those of Steele, if you wish. But do not insist on testicle removal or degrading them on racial terms as “punishment” for speaking out. We have moved beyond that, have we not?