COMMENTARY | Bill Maher, the mad cap HBO host, is best known for his issues with conservative women. But he also seems to have even more twisted views on politics and race as only a white liberal could possess. Otherwise, how could he say the following, according to the Daily Caller?
"Obviously, it was important to get the first black president elected. But if the first black president only has one term, America reads that as a failure. This is what the right wing hope and prays for more than anything else -- that America looks at this one-term president and goes, 'Well you know what? We tried a black guy, but it just didn't work.' And I think Obama is aware of that." He also said Obama had been a "conservative" in his first term.
One wonders if Maher remembers Herman Cain, a presidential candidate who happens to be black who took his turn as the great right hope against Mitt Romney before trumped-up charges of sexual impropriety sabotaged his campaign. Cain remains a popular figure in conservative politics.
Or what about Allen West, the fiery, ex-Army colonel member of Congress from Florida whom Sarah Palin no less recommended as Romney's vice presidential running mate?
The problem with Maher, race addled as he is, is that he does not understand conservatives do not adhere to his stereotype. Conservatives regard Obama as many things, the faculty lounge socialist, the fellow who ate puppies or even the man with parental abandonment issues. Way down there on the list is "that black guy."
In short, conservatives judge Obama, as Martin Luther King admonished us to, by the content of his character and not the color of his skin.
Following Maher's logic, Jimmy Carter's one term defeat forever tainted Southern white boys, which makes it difficult to explain Bill Clinton. Indeed, George H.W. Bush's one term defeat should have made it clear guys named Bush just don't work out in the White House, which would surprise his son George W. Bush.
After Obama falls, other blacks will follow to the White House. But maybe the next one will be a free market conservative. Now there's a thought.
