About Race, or About Politics?

Here, Bob Novak discusses the fact that the Democrats' worst nightmare is to have African Americans in Maryland turn out en masse to support Michael Steele, the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, who himself happens to be black.

Novak writes:

Steele sees national implications and put it to me this way in a conversation before the recent rally in Upper Marlboro: ''It's a breaking point. I've heard the talk: 'Hillary, Bill, Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, all are coming in to campaign against you. They can't bear to see you win this race.'

It will be interesting to see. Over the years, Democrats have claimed to be the party that cares most about African Americans (just as it's claimed to be the party that cares most about women). How ironic if they pull out all the stops to prevent an African American from reaching the U.S. Senate.

The same phenomenon holds true when it comes to Republican women running for the Senate, as I noted here.

What it reveals is that it's not really about race or gender -- it's about politics. And that's fine: But the hypocrisy about one or the other party "caring" more about any one particular group should stop. The fact is that everyone wants to win -- and that's where it begins and where it ends.