Free Republic

Swann's hour of crisis By Salena Zito TRIBUNE-REVIEW Sunday, April 16, 2006 What's the biggest problem with Lynn Swann's campaign for governor? It is not his awkward grasp of the issues. Nor is it his anemic fundraising. It isn't that he's never sought public office before, nor is he handicapped because he's black. Lynn Swann's big trouble? He is handled by amateurs.

Principle trumps color By Salena Zito TRIBUNE-REVIEW Sunday, February 5, 2006 The success of these and other black Republican candidates should not be measured just on whether they win their seats but on how successful they are at invigorating the Republican base and attracting a new urban voting bloc. Who knows? Maybe in 2006 a whole new crop of people, black and white, will look in their mirrors every morning, staring into the faces of card-carrying members of the "Party of Lincoln."

WASHINGTON - Sometimes I receive letters or e-mails that begin something like this: "I can't understand why blacks - or African-Americans or whatever it is you want to call yourselves these days - stay so loyal to the Democratic Party. After all, President Bush appointed Colin Powell as his secretary of state and Condoleezza Rice as his foreign policy adviser." And he showed good taste by doing so, didn't he? However, as groundbreaking as their appointments were, most black people I know still are waiting for the Bush

Many black Republicans running for Congress are turning away from the identity politics of race and ethnicity and, in the process, seeking to reshape the way politicians and voters think about skin color and ideology. In 2004, 10 black Republicans are running for the House and Senate; these candidates come from Georgia, Indiana, Michigan, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, Oregon and Rhode Island. Unlike many black Democrats, whose political roots go back to the civil rights battles of the 1950s and ’60s, these Republicans draw a distinction between politics and race, arguing that their worldview has little to do with...