BLACKS TO THE RESCUE

Here's the hottest question being asked this week by Republicans in Washington:  Would you trade the Hispanic vote for the Black vote?

It's not being asked too loudly, of course, but that it's being asked at all shows some smart guys in the GOP have figured it out:  Bush's desperate attempts to retain and expand the Hispanic vote (40% for him in ‘04) by refusing to protect our border with Mexico and demands for amnesty for Mexican illegals is a loser.

Sure, there are muchas Mexicano-Americans who understand that a border fence shutting down the illegal invasion would be the best thing that could happen to Mexico.  If folks have to stay there rather than escape, the pressure for real reform could build irresistibly.

Nonetheless, when the question is met with scoffs and denial that blacks will ever vote Republican, the smart guys ask:  What do readers of Esquire Magazine and Southern Baptist evangelicals have in common?

Esquire has just conducted a poll of its male readers throughout America, asking them who would they rather have dinner with:  Angelina Jolie, Julia Roberts, Jennifer Anniston, Jessica Simpson, Oprah Winfrey, or Condoleezza Rice.  Their top choice was Condi.  (There were 14 women in total on the list.  Hillary came in dead last.)

Let that sink in:  more American men would rather have a dinner date with Condi than Angelina Jolie or any other major Hollywood actress.

But those folks are hip-chic Esquire readers.  What do they have to do with evangelicals?  Yesterday (Wednesday, June 14), Condi spoke to 12,000 of them at the annual Southern Baptist Convention in Greensboro, North Carolina.  Her speech was repeatedly interrupted with cheering applause and she got seven standing ovations.  After her speech, the huge audience spontaneously sang "God Bless America."

We have liftoff, ladies and gentlemen.  Condi is now officially a bona-fide phenomenon.

The realization of this now enables Bushistas and Republican honchos to escape from what they perceived as the "Hispanic Catch-22":  If they don't shut down the border with Mexico and go after illegals big-time, they lose the conservative vote – and if they do, they lose the Hispanic vote.  And they need both to win.

The Phenomenon of Condi makes it possible now for the GOP to substitute Black votes for Hispanic votes, enough to keep control of both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue.  Which means it can now afford to take a much stronger stand against illegals.

"Realize, Jack," one White House Bushista told me, "that we have no intention of alienating Hispanics or Mexican-Americans in general.  The majority of them are patriotic and share our core pro-family, pro-life, pro-prosperity values.  But the ones who wave Mexican flags at pro-illegal immigration rallies and sponge off government services?  Let the Democrats have them."

This is because Condi is just the tip of the black spear.  Michael Steele is going to be elected Senator from Maryland.  Ken Blackwell is going to be elected Governor of Ohio.  There is a shift away from the Democrat "Keep ‘Em Poor and on the Plantation" Party among growing numbers of blacks.  Take a look at websites like The Black Republican or The New Coalition.  

This is nascent, yes.  But Bush got 11% of the black vote in '04, up from 8% in '00.  A lot more blacks – 30% or more – are going to vote Republican this November because of candidates like Steele and Blackwell – and because of Condi.

That's because before November she'll be Vice-President of the United States. 

At least that's the Bush-Cheney game plan.  The question is:  will they implement it?  The plan calls for Cheney to announce he's stepping down due to health reasons in late August, before Labor Day.  When the Senate reconvenes, it will be all a-flutter, the Kennedy-types will fulminate, but she'll be confirmed well before the end of September.

This gives all of October for the biggest October Surprise ever to sink in.  The Dems will be in a state of catatonic shock, blacks will desert them in droves, and it's party time the night of November 7 for the GOP.

A while ago, a number of Bushistas worried that GW might get cold feet.  Now with the political wind at his back, that worry has diminished.  There's more reason than ever to think that Bush is going to max out the Condi Phenomenon and have blacks ride to the Republicans' rescue.