A Shameful Night For The GOP

Imagine, if you will, that Fox had organized a debate for Dems on national security issues at a suitable military venue -- one of the academies or a large base somewhere -- and Clinton, Obama and Edwards all decided not to show.

Unthinkable, right? It would set back the Dems even further on their weak spot of national security and would create an MSM/blogosphere/voter whirlwind.

Then why on earth did Giuliani, McCain, Thompson and Romney decide not to show at the All-American Presidential Forum on PBS, where the topic was a GOP weak spot -- race and matters of concern to black (and Latino) voters?

How hard is this topic?

No, the answer isn't that we weren't racists in 1860 or 1960 -- who cares? We all know the GOP had a strategy to take the South from the Dems, and that included embracing a certain number of good ol' boys who don't appeal much to blacks. So get off that wagon.

Our message is simple: We don't see things in black and white, whereas the Dem party more and more defines the world in that way.

We support opportunity, independence, the chance to excel and the chance to hold on to more of your earnings when you do.

The Dems support affirmative action, government programs and high taxes.

We will not get the votes of blacks who want the false advantage of affirmative action, or those that are dependent on government programs and the high taxes that support them.

Big deal. It's a big tent, not a universal tent. Our candidates should be in all communities with those messages, and especially the black community -- not because we see it as black, not white, but because we see it as a community we have to go to if we're going to win it over.

Mike Huckabee gets that. He carried a strong majority of blacks when he ran for governor in Arkansas. Asked why, he simply says, "Because I never thought I couldn't get their vote."

To him, they were simply voters with minds that would be made up one way or the other, and he went to them that way: voters, not black voters.

In Iowa, one of the king-makers is Des Moines Register political columnist David Yepsin. He skewers the GOP foursome today:

That sent a hostile signal about the Republican Party to the nation's black and Latino communities.

For a party already in minority status in much of the country, it defies political logic to just brush off these constituencies.

Yepsin saw Huckabee as the winner of the mini-debate, saying:

Mike Huckabee seemed to stand out. As a former governor of Arkansas, he seemed quite familiar with the issues facing minority voters and his answers sounded calm, informed and presidential.

I'll tell you what: Every day that goes by, I like Mike Huckabee a bit more.

hat-tip: RCP