White wing politics

The Washington Post noted yesterday that the delegates at the Republican Convention weren't just white, but historically white, with only 36 black delegates out of 2,380.

It's somewhat understandable, with the other party boasting a black nominee. More disturbing, though, is the callous appraisal of the situation by McCain campaign manager Rick Davis (who has fired off comments that are just a little too "inside baseball"), who promised, "We can run our campaign the way we want to run it and not be in direct conflict with a lot of voter groups [Obama] is trying to get."

Which brings us to today's lesson, kids: when trying to reach out to minority voters, don't begin by telling them you don't need their vote.