January 22, 2009 [LINK / comment]

Black Republicans on Obama

I saw former Secretary of State Colin Powell being interviewed at the inaugural ceremonies on Tuesday, and it really made me feel melancholy. Even though he endorsed Obama (in mid-October), he says he still considers himself a Republican. Powell lamented the exclusionary attitude of most current Republican leaders, who seem out of touch with demographic trends, but he is hopeful that they will adapt to reality eventually. If he had wanted to run for the Highest Office badly enough, he probably could have won the Republican presidential nomination in 2000, and most likely would have become the first African-American president. How much different this world would have been!

Locally, Carl Tate attended the inauguration, and was deeply moved by witnessing the historic event, even though he is not an Obama supporter. Carl is "proud of how this great nation managed, on this day, to wipe those stains [of brutal segregation] away and now we can finally look to fulfilling the deferred dream that Dr. King had." He also noted that Obama's spirit of "unity" was violated by a few spectators who rudely jeered outgoing President Bush. See The Hall of Justice.