Obama Election Watch

Bad news! Barack Obama is now presented with an opponent who could siphon off some black votes in a number of key battleground states. A week ago Cynthia McKinney, a black woman who served six terms as Congresswoman from Georgia, secured the Green Party nomination for president of the United States.

In effect, McKinney has hijacked the Green Party nomination and used it to advance her political agenda. McKinney’s radical and anti-white platform has little to do with environmental issues that have traditionally been the focus of the Green Party. Instead, she has announced a militant 10-point “Power to the People” manifesto which in part calls for reparations for slavery.

Few environmentalists will be persuaded to support the McKinney presidential bid. But what is of major concern is that McKinney may attract a small number of black voters to her ticket. Any black votes that McKinney does attract will almost certainly come from the Obama column with the net effect of helping John McCain.

Most observers say that the McKinney campaign can be expected to take in no more than 1 or 2 percent of the total vote. This is a dangerous figure since the black vote is still only 12 or 13 percent of the national total. The Green Party is expected to be on the ballot in at least 36 states. In key battleground states with large numbers of black voters, such as Ohio, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Michigan, significant defections of only a few thousand African-American votes from Obama to McKinney could swing the state to McCain.

It is useful to remind voters of of Cynthia McKinney’s record:

• In 2000 she attacked the presidential campaign of Al Gore for having a “low tolerance for Negroes.” Donna Brazile, a black woman, was Gore’s campaign manager.

• In 2001 she accused President Bush of knowing about the September 11 attacks before they occurred. McKinney said that Bush wanted his friends to profit from the war that he knew would ensue.

• In 2006 McKinney walked by a Capitol Hill police checkpoint without stopping. The officer didn’t recognize her as a member of Congress. When he questioned her, McKinney punched the officer in the chest.

• In 1994 she refused to back a congressional referendum condemning the racist and anti-Semitic remarks of Khalid Muhammad, a spokesman for Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.

• In 1996 McKinney’s father, who was serving as her campaign manager, called her opponent in the Georgia election a “racist Jew.” In 2002, when McKinney was ousted from Congress after five terms, her father was asked why she lost. Her father spelled out, “J-E-W-S.”

• In 2006 members of McKinney’s entourage got in a shoving match with reporters who were covering her reelection campaign. Her campaign staffers, some of whom were members of the New Black Panther Party, shouted anti-Semitic remarks to white reporters.

After McKinney’s defeat in the Democratic primary a reporter asked a McKinney campaign spokesman why McKinney lost. He responded, “Why do you think she lost? You wanna know what led to the loss? Israel. The Zionists. You. Put on your yarmulke and celebrate.”

McKinney appears to be mentally unbalanced and perhaps marginally paranoid. She has a solid record of anti-Semitism. Obama’s best course is to ignore the McKinney campaign. But Obama supporters seem to have a distinct interest in publicizing McKinney’s irresponsible and somewhat crazed behavior.

McKinney will bring her campaign to black communities across America. Her message will appeal to black militants and some on the left who believe Obama is moving too far to the center in order to win the election.

There is a strong need for greater voter awareness that a vote for McKinney is a vote for John McCain.