Where have you gone, Willie Horton?

Barack Obama! Lookin’ gooooooood, Barack. Lookin’ good. 

So Barack, you ran unopposed to a seat in the Illinois State Senate in 1996. In 2004, your Republic opponent for the US Senate, faced with a sex scandal, withdraws from the race and for two months, with 86 days before the election, you run virtually unopposed winning the general election with 70% of the ballots. And who can forget, ahead of a presidential election, a nation deeply divided nation hearing your voice of unity proclaiming that there was no red America or blue America, there was the United States of America. The Republican dropping out in June, the convention speech in July, running unopposed ‘til August, a landslide victory in November, the cover of TIME Magazine - for you, Barack Obama, 2004 was one "rad summer"!

But what about the summer of 2008? If chosen the party's nominee at the convention what can Obama expect when faced against a strong Republican challenger? The answer may lie in the experience of that other black rising star…

The scene is the Democratic National Convention, the speaker, a young African American legislator, a rising star in his party, picked to symbolize the youthful, diverse and energetic future of the party, delivers an electrifying address as the convention's keynote speaker - thrusting him into the national spotlight and furthering his ambition to become the first African-American man elected to the U.S. Senate since Reconstruction...and some might say, the Presidency of the United States.

To some, the year is 2004 and the face of then Illinois State Senator Barack Obama (D-Chicago) comes to mind. But to those of us, who can remember, the year is 2000 and the face is that of then US Congressman Harold Ford, Jr. (D-Tennessee).

 

The favorite son of a powerful, Memphis political family, Harold Ford, Jr. was elected to the US Congress at the age of 26, replacing his father as the representative for 9th Congressional District in Memphis. A moderate Democrat, he was re-elected to the House by wide margins, four times, without significant Republican opposition in a heavily Democratic, black majority district. (Sound familiar, Barack?) 

In the Democratic primary, Ford easily won the nomination of his party to replace the retiring Bill Frist in the US Senate. Many believe he'd become the first African American elected to the Senate from a Southern state since the Reconstruction. The public's growing frustration with war in Iraq, the falling popularity of the President and his Republican Party and the resurgence of the Democratic Party's control of congress made Ford's ascent an even likelier possibility. Many regarded the senate seat in Tennessee either up for grabs in 2006 or the Democrat's to loose. Then Mr. Ford met the millionaire, Mr. Corker.

Bob Corker graduated from the University of Kentucky and worked in construction before starting his own construction company which led to him becoming one of the largest land holders in Tennessee. After losing the Republican senate nomination in 1994, Corker served as Commissioner of Finance and Administration for the State of Tennessee, and as mayor of Chattanooga from 2001 to 2005. 

The 2006 Ford/Corker US Senate contest in Tennessee was a bitter and bruising fight. In October of 2006, the Republican National Committee (RNC) launched a television attack ad showing a white woman talking about her meeting the unmarried Ford at a Playboy party. "Harold, call me", says the actor with a slight wink. Corker bided unsuccessfully to have the RNC pull the controversial ad.  The RNC refused and Corker advanced to beat Ford by less than 3% in the general election. This is what Obama can expect in a close contest 2008.

As Ford learned in his first, formidable campaign against a Republican, some are less likely than others to hold back on using the "race card", or similar tactics that appeal to prejudice or racism, to help decide elections in their favor. And such sentiments are, by no means, exclusively shared by Republicans, alone. Ford was criticized by many African American women for his October 2007 engagement to Emily Threlkeld. Many believe the choice threatens his appeal to black female voters and any future aspirations that he may have for higher office.

 

If they say race is not an issue, it’s probably the issue. In his race for the US Congress in 2000 and again in the contest for the Democratic Presidential nomination in 2008, the half-Nigerian, half-white Obama met racial criticism, regarded by many as not being "black enough" to be called the "first black" anything. True, Obama was not reared by his estranged Nigerian father, spent a good number of his childhood years in Indonesia and Hawaii. (…but if one identifies themselves as black and receives so much scrutiny over their blackness - they're probably black enough, or at least are more familiar with how their skin color affects how they are viewed by the world around them compared to a white person – which is black enough for me!)

Ask non-black people why they support Obama and you're likely to hear, "Because he speaks so well." The same was said about Colin Powell in the effort to draft him into a presidential bid. To many blacks, this is understood as "Because he speaks so well...for a black person"; as if to suggest that less is expected of us. Is it that they are impressed by the speaking skills of a four star general or Harvard law graduate, or that it is from a black man? 

How well would the well-spoken Obama do amongst African Americans if his wife were a white woman from Kansas, like his mother, and his kids had less "black blood" than he did? Ask Harold Ford, Jr.

If white people and black people or any color person need to ask the question about how ready we are, as a country, for a black president, an Asian president, a gay president, a short, black, bald, family medicine physician who wears glasses president (please join my exploratory committee!), then answer is probably "NO". The enemies of such candidates can and will use that lack of readiness to sway voters. We can expect the same in 2008 and should prepare ourselves.

Obama, like Ford, is fully aware of how he's perceived on the street, in the presence of his spouse, in front of the cameras and in the mind of the public - as a black man in country that is still asking itself, "are we ready?”; in a country that has an image of a black man that Ford, Obama and the like must distance themselves from and that their opponents will try to hang around their necks. What media consultant, Larry McCarthy called, “every suburban mother’s greatest fear”. 

Enter Willie Horton.

I’m not sure yet, how Willie will make his debut in the contest between the Democratic nominee Obama and those who would like him never to become President of the United States. He may look like he does here, or he may be a winking blonde. In either or whatever form he takes, he will serve to remind us how big a deal we'd all like to think race isn’t. Will he take us by surprise or will we be ready, expecting him? I sure hope the Obama people learn from the Ford experience and all those who’ve come before. If not they can always… “call me!” (wink).