McDaniel Blows it in Mississippi by Ignoring Blacks

Townhall.com ^ | June 30, 2014 | Star Parker

[Kaslin]

Incumbent Republican Senator Thad Cochran’s successful game plan, which drove his run-off victory over Tea Party challenger Chris McDaniel for Mississippi’s Republican Senate nomination, was unconventional.

But most incredible was the success of this game plan – to reach out to liberal black churches and get Democrat black voters to turn out and vote for Cochran – despite being executed in broad daylight.

Soon after Cochran lost to McDaniel in the primary, necessitating a run-off because McDaniel fell short of getting 50 percent of the vote, papers reported the intent of Cochran’s team to turn out black Democrats to overcome the thin margin by which Cochran lost.

McDaniel knew exactly what to expect. The Cochran campaign told him. Yet he remained a spectator through it all. His counter strategy was no counter strategy and just continue what he was already doing. Appealing just to Mississippi’s conservative white electorate.

Sitting in the White House today is the most left-wing president in the nation’s history, elected twice without winning the white vote. I have written about the demographic changes taking place in the country and the need for Republicans to talk about limited government and traditional values to non-white Americans.

If this is true about the nation as a whole, it certainly is true in a state like Mississippi whose black population, at 40 percent of the state, is the largest in the nation. Half this black population is poor.

Cochran’s forces dumped money into liberal black churches, communicating that he is their champion because of the government pork he’ll continue to bring into the state.

But a news flash for McDaniel, which he should know, having served as a state senator, is that not all blacks are liberals. In Mississippi’s huge black population are many conservative black pastors who want freedom for their flocks. They know that black poverty is not about government money.

A few of these conservative black pastors in Mississippi are part of the national pastor network of my organization, CURE.

Former NFL star Brett Favre made an ad for Cochran in which he talked about Cochran getting “…critical funding for our schools.”

But in the latest Quality Counts report from the publication Education Week, Mississippi is rated 51st in the nation, among 50 states and Washington, DC, in K-12 student achievement.

The report continues, as reported in Mississippi Business Journal, that “Mississippi ranked among the lowest 10 states in providing young people a chance for success in life, financing schools and improving teaching.”

If the success of Mississippi’s schools was about “critical” funding from the federal government, why are they the worst in the nation?

The main victims of Mississippi’s dismal schools are black children.

In a Pew Research survey of last October, 25 percent of blacks expressed favorability toward the Tea Party, just 6 points less than whites.

But the McDaniel campaign seemed clueless that there were potential allies in Mississippi’s huge black population to counter Cochran’s liberal assault.

It is pathetic that some commentators are actually writing that Cochran’s government plantation appeal to blacks shows how Republicans can reach this community.

In a scene early in the Oscar-winning film Patton, General Patton, who was sent to take command of the demoralized American troops in North Africa in the early days of World War II, is shown looking through field glasses, watching a tank battle which would become America’s first victory in North Africa. He studied the tactics of his adversary German commander Field Marshall Erwin Rommel. As he watched, Patton bellowed out “ Rommel, you magnificent b------, I read your book!”

Thad Cochran laid it out for McDaniel – he gave him his book - but McDaniel chose not to read it.

There are plenty of black conservatives who understand that big government politicians – Democrats or Republicans – hurt their communities. They just need Republican candidates to recognize they exist.

[Black Agnes]

It would appear outreach is a waste of time:

http://www.ropercenter.uconn.edu/elections/how_groups_voted/voted_80.html

http://www.ropercenter.uconn.edu/elections/how_groups_voted/voted_84.html

After 4 years of being president, Reagan LOST ground...

[Fantasywriter]

Hats off to your research—those links are amazing. Thanks for posting!

[tanknetter]

3 minutes between requests for a link? Despite your assurances, I’m not quite sure patience is one of your virtues.

;-)

[Fantasywriter]

‘Maybe McDaniel ignored Black voters because they’re Democrats who weren’t legally supposed to vote in a Republican primary runoff election!’

Thanks for injecting some perspective. It had gotten lost in the shuffle, it seems.

[Black Agnes]

You’re welcome.

I remember my jr. high principal, a black man, voted for Reagan. The day Reagan got shot he announced it over the intercom and asked us all to pray for our country and the president. I saw him about 15m later when we changed classes and he had tears running down his face...

Imagine that happening today.

[Fantasywriter]

No, really; take all the time you need.

[Fantasywriter]

Wow—what a story. And what a remarkable principal. I doubt you could find his like these days. But it’s wonderful that you had him back then. It’s moments like that which make a true, well-rounded education. After so much else is forgotten, the really important stuff remains.

[Zionist Conspirator]

She seems to be saying that there’s an untapped vein of Conservatism within the Black community, and McDaniels screwed up by not appealing to these Conservative blacks on Conservative issues.

I used to believe that until they crossed every line in the sand in order to stand with Obama: infanticide, homosexuality, high energy prices, hostility to traditional religion, Communism, islam. They simply don't care about anything but money.

As an old school Southern Republican whose ancestors fought for the Union, I used to admire Black people. I can't tell you how much I admired them and looked up to them. I don't admire them any more.

They have nothing but dollar signs in their eyes. They're worse than any greedy Republican capitalist pig that ever lived when it comes to worship of the almighty dollar. This is someone to be admired or courted?

I'm poor. There are lots of poor white people who vote "against their interests" because they can't stomach the Left's war on G-d A-mighty. But some other poor people have sold out and are implicated in it. And one day they will pay . . . not at the hand of any human being, but at the Hand of the G-d they sold for money.

[deport]

I’m talking about the difference between the primary votes that Wicker and Cochran
got versus the General election votes that each got. There were close to double the
votes between the primary the general.

There are lots of voters that don’t bother to vote in the primary but will come out
for the general for unknown reasons.

[GeronL]

Notice how they always want to make this about “blacks” instead of “Democrats”

[GeronL]

Appealing just to Mississippi’s conservative white electorate.

Wow... I did not know McDaniel only talked to white people. This author is a moron.

[Yardstick]

You’ve missed my point pretty badly if you think I’m giving any kind of credit to Cochran.

[Fantasywriter]

Thanks for the clarification.

[Lakeshark]

What I'm saying is I think you don't have much of a point at all.

Saying move along, nothing to see here isn't really a good idea. To not confront what these fools have done en masse is to only invite more of it.

Good luck with whatever it is you're saying.......

[Yardstick]

I’m saying McDaniel probably could have helped himself by putting more effort into attracting black votes. That’s the point Star Jones is making. That’s the point several other posters have been making.

Of course that’s water under the bridge at this point. What needs to happen next is MS conservatives need to channel their justifiable anger into making sure a real conservative gets Cochran’s seat in the next cycle.

[Falcon28]

Star Parker is officially dumb

[Gene Eric]

>> until she learns to get her facts straight before shooting her mouth off.

Ignoring the gratuitous headline, how is Star wrong in asserting that McDaniel would have benefited from campaigning to a wider audience that would have included conservative Blacks?

[Kaslin]

BTTT

[Kaslin]

Maybe you need to look in the mirror

[Fantasywriter]

While you continue to search with great diligence and integrity for the link, allow me to summarize.

The Parker article is based on a false foundation. Cochran did not reach out to black voters. He didn’t speak in black churches, or do squat to persuade Dems to become Republicans. That kind of outreach has never worked, so why would he waste his time & money?

What he did was pay the enemies of conservatives to flip the Republican primary from the will of the Republicans to the will of the Democrats. I.e.: he illegally bribed liberal Dems, who have no intention of voting GOP in Nov, to subvert the Republican primary.

He also smeared McDaniel as a racist & KKKer. This was well known by the time Parker went to print. That she failed to mention Cochran’s ‘outreach’ included the most vile of all possible lies about his GOP opponent is unconscionable. That should have been The Story, not some nonexistent ‘outreach’.

Bottom line, you were taken in. You believed a secondhand falsehood, & spent hrs yesterday defending it. You should ask yourself why Parker had to invent out of whole cloth an ‘outreach’ that never happened. The day you can honestly answer that seminal question is the day you will taken a giant step in your understanding of why such an disproportionate number of blacks vote Dem religiously.