That's what Georgia Congressman Lynn Westmoreland called Barack Obama today. Ugh. But actually I say the story here is the dog that didn't bark. One of several wrong predictions I made this week was that the GOP convention would be marred by an endless series of racially-tinged comments from delegates and/or marginal right-wing hangers-on. But that hasn't happened. Passing through a food court area today I did hear a loudmouthed guy noisily holding court on the subject of "Barack Hussein Obama," but that's the worst I've encountered. I've even been checking out the buttons and shirts on sale by vendors, and they're all very appropriate--no racist Obama dolls, not even any nasty anti-Hillary shirts or buttons (that I've seen). There's a sanitized feeling that makes me think the convention planners were highly attuned to the possibility for trouble and took measures to prevent it.
And the boots pictured above, by the way, belong to an African-American guy I met on Monday night. Although when someone handed me a copy of a magazine called Black Republican earlier this week, it brought to mind that great moment from the movie Airplane when the stewardess' selection of reading materials includes a tiny pamphlet entitled "Famous Jewish Sports Heroes."
P.S. More or less unrelated, a great sight on the street this evening: A man in a dark suit and black cowboy hat walking into the Xcel Center alongside a dude with a yarmulke and a flashing Bluetooth device in his ear. Mazal Tov, cowboy!
--Michael Crowley