Demagogue

Through this article posted on a religious-conservative news portal comes a silly theory for Barack Obama's popularity:

The national spokesman for the black conservative organization Congress of Racial Equality says he believes he knows why the Democrat Party has gone bonkers over the presidential candidacy of Illinois Senator Barack Obama.

... "They were scared to death that unless they started promoting a high-profile African-American into the highest ranks of the Democratic Party — which they had not done before — then they were going to lose their monopoly on the black vote," says (CORE spokesman Niger) Innis.

Innis names several black Republicans who have come up through the ranks over the past several years that he believes have put the Democrats back on their heels — Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, Justice Clarence Thomas, Michael Steele, Lynn Swann, Ken Blackwell.

"And that is, I think, what makes up more than anything else the Barak Obama 'phenomenon,'" Innis concludes.

This analysis is way off base on at least two levels.

First, three of the six black Republicans mentioned by Innis have never run for national or statewide elective office. And how the hell did Lynn Swann "come up through the ranks"? Because he played a pro football or because he chaired the President's Council on Physical Fitness?

Second, the notion that Dem leaders are pushing Obama because it will pacify black voters is weakened significantly by a recent poll showing that black Democrats prefer Hillary Clinton over Obama by a 3-to-1 margin.