From the dark center of the Eagle newsroom, greetings. I'm Gary Catt, executive editor of Eagle Newspapers. I've come to this calling after a career that's swerved through a half-dozen daily newspapers and an ad agency that was once the world's largest. Along the way I've written or edited most everything and an I've guided successful strategies around times of difficulty for Fortune 50 companies. My job here is to make sure that when you pick up your Eagle community newspaper it's a like a walk down main street, spotting faces you know; discovering news you need to know.
Topical, non-partisan conversations about this year's presidential election are getting messy. The insinuation has emerged that the danger inherent in this year's choices isn't that one or the other will not be up for the job, but what will happen if Barrack Obama does not win.
The inference is disturbing. If the black candidate does not win, there will be rioting by disappointed blacks who will feel the election was stolen. A win by the white candidate can be expected to re-invigorate the race-baiting industry which will feed the discontent. Doubtless those who have an interest in racial unrest will point to the controversial 2000 Florida presidential results that saw George Bush squeak past Al Gore.
Into this emerging sub-issue stepped African-American New York Gov. David Paterson this week. Paterson, a Democrat, voiced concerns that the Republicans are talking racism in "code."
"I think the Republican Party is too smart to call Barack Obama 'black' in a sense that it would be a negative," he told the press. "But you can take something about his life, which I noticed they did at the Republican Convention – a 'community organizer.' They kept saying it, they kept laughing," he said.
Paterson referred to McCain's running mate Sarah Palin who compared her work experience to Obama's.
"So I suppose a small town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except with real responsibilities," she said at the convention.
Paterson sees the repeated use of the words "community organizer" as Republican code for "black".
"I think where there are overtones is when there are uses of language that are designed to inhibit other people's progress with a subtle reference to their race," he said.
Paterson chooses to disregard the fact that there are a lot of non-black "community organizers."
He might also recall the ridicule heaped on a campaigning Ronald Reagan for being a second-rate actor at one point and being an out- of-touch geezer later in his administration. Clearly such behavior is less a code about race than it is about vigorous political debate. Paterson needs to cool down.
So, now the McCain campaign is supposed to add Obama's only real job to the list of things that cannot be discussed out of fear of being called racist.
Interestingly, three weeks ago this ugly accusation wouldn't have occurred, but the polls are telling a different tale today. It might just happen that Obama will lose. Then what?
Call it a guess, but the bet here is that now that the race is pretty much equal, we'll start hearing a lot about the dangers of an Obama loss.
Will Americans vote for a person out of fear of the consequences? It's a troubling question voters may have to answer when the curtain closes behind them in November.
