Mike Huckabee had a really bad week when he kept opening his mouth and sewerage kept coming out. he tried a phony apology by saying he misspoke. Nobody believed that one either. Now, here comes the anointed King Of Kabletown, Bill O'Reilly, really knocking a whopper out of the park to Charles Krauthammer.
They were a bit down as they discussed George Will's column on the lousy Republican candidates that Will believes are valid at this point. Krauthammer largely agreed with Will, and it seemed O'Reilly did too; the main point of contention they had was that nobody knew any of these Republican governors. I guess O'Reilly sensed that it was a motley crew of candidates, so to make his audience happy he said that President Obama had an advantage because he was the first African Americam to run for President as they discussed the GOP 2012 list of candidates.
Krauthammer: It's not a strong field. Not being known now is not dispositive -- nobody had ever heard of Barack Obama at this time in the cycle.
O'Reilly; That's what they always said, but let me challenge you. Barack Obama, a black man. OK, I mean he's half black and half white, but his appearance is black. The first black to ever run, OK? Huge, huge advantage in a campaign. Enormous. The press loved him. LOVED HIM, alright? Promoted him, actively promoted him. NBC News actively promoted his candidacy and so did their parent company General Electric. HUGE advantages Nobody on that list has anything.
Krauthammer: All of that is true, although Jesse Jackson actually was the first who ran.
Congratulations to Krauthammer for at least having a memory cell still remaining -- though a slightly faulty one at that, considering that Shirley Chisholm was actually the first black person to run as a candidate in either of the two parties.
Still: Bill, the King of Kableland, has a huge staff at his disposal and the entire saving account of Ailesbucks available to him, so what's his excuse for being so wrong? I thought at least everyone remembered Jesse Jackson, because he scared the Bejesus out of the GOP so badly that they purged the voter rolls after his run. How could BillO not know this? Jesse has been a guest on BillO's own show.
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In 1888 Frederick Douglass was invited to speak at the Republican National Convention. Afterward during the roll call vote, he received one vote, so was nominally a candidate for the presidency. In those years, the candidates for the presidency and vice-presidency were chosen by state representatives voting at the nominating convention. Many decisions were made by negotiations of state and party leaders "behind closed doors." Douglass was not a serious candidate in contemporary terms.
In 1972, Shirley Chisholm was the first African-American major party candidate for president. She was a candidate for the Democratic Party nomination and participated in the Democratic primaries in numerous states.[1] She campaigned in 12 states and won 28 delegates.[2] In 1984 and 1988, Jesse Jackson was the first major party black candidate to run nationwide primary campaigns. He also ran as a Democratic Party candidate.[3]
In 1992 Alan Keyes was the first African-American candidate to run in the Republican presidential primaries.[citation needed] Keyes ran again, unsuccessfully, in 1996, 2000, and 2008. In 2004, Carol Moseley Braun and Al Sharpton ran as unsuccessful candidates in the Democratic primaries.
But you know -- being black is a real advantage when you run for president. Uh-huh.
