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McCain Forced to Fire Virginia County Chair Following Racist Newspaper Attack on Obama
The John McCain campaign has been forced to fire its campaign chair in Buchanan County, Virginia, following his publication of a racist newspaper attack on Barack Obama. Bobby May (photos here), who has also served as treasurer and correspondence secretary of the Buchanan County Republican Party, recently penned a column containing an overtly racist attack against Barack Obama for a local newspaper, The Voice, which lists Mr. May among its columnists. May's column contained a number of inflammatory charges against Obama, including the following on Obama's plans for America if elected:
"FREEDOM OF RELIGION: Mandatory Black Liberation Theology classes taught in all churches - raise taxes to pay for this mandate. Put Rev. Jeremiah Wright in charge...."
"DRUG CRISIS: Raise taxes to pay for free drugs for Obama’s inner-city political base...."
"2ND AMENDMENT: Under Obama will only apply to gang-bangers, illegal aliens, Islamo-Fascist terrorists, and Senator Jim Webb’s aide...."
"FOREIGN RELATIONS: Appoint Rev. Al Sharpton as Secretary of State, Jesse Jackson as UN Representative, and let Bill Clinton handle all other "foreign relations" ... As long as Hillary doesn't find out...!"
"THE WHITE HOUSE: Hire rapper Ludacris to “paint it black.” Taxes to be increased to buy enough paint for the job plus spray-paint for graffiti...."
"THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES: Raise taxes to send $845 billion, most of it to Africa so the Obama family there can skim off enough for them to free their goats and live the American Dream...."
"NATIONAL ANTHEM: Change to the "Black National Anthem" by James Weldon Johnson...."
"US CURRENCY: Update photos to reflect US diversity; include pictures of "great Americans" such as Oprah Winfrey, Ludacris, Sheila Jackson-Lee, Paris Hilton, and Louisiana Congressman William Jefferson (Obama's new Secretary of the Treasury - 50 Cent refused position after learning that he would lose his crazy check if he accepted the nomination)...."
"US FLAG: Replace 50 stars with a star and crescent logo; red stripes changed to green to represent Obama’s tree-hugging radical environmentalism and his lack of experience. Flag lapel pins, having become a substitute for "real patriotism," will henceforth be banned...."
At the end of his column Mr. May challenged Obama to meet him on "County Talk,"
a Friday morning talk show on radio station WMJD 100.7 in Grundy,
Virginia. Mr. May seems quite the local mover and shaker in Buchanan
County Republican circles: In addition to his work with The Voice and WMJD, May has appeared in the Virginia Mountaineer
with other local Republican leaders. Mr. May has appeared with GOP gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell in a photo formerly posted at the Buchanan County Republican Party's website, now purged from that site (which is currently offline) but heroically rescued from oblivion and posted at the Daily Kos with news of May's dismissal from Team McCain. According to the Daily Kos, Mr. May also provides the advertising specialties for Virginia congressman Virgil Goode, currently seeking re-election and noted for his opposition to Minnesota congressman Keith Ellison's taking the oath of office on the Quran rather than the Bible.
First noted in a Los Angeles Times political blog, Mr. May's story spread via blogs such as the Daily Kos (including this blog). May's dismissal from the campaign was finally noted by Keith Olbermann on the Oct. 8 edition of MSNBC's Countdown, when Olbermann named Mr. May "Worst Person in the World" for his racist attack on Obama (see video). Meanwhile, the Buchanan County Republican Party's website, which contained material by or about Mr. May throughout its pages when I previously looked, has at time of this writing been taken offline as references to and photos of him are presumably being purged, Mr. May himself presumably expelled, any potential career for him in politics presumably ended. Like Trotsky in Stalin's USSR, Mr. May will now be airbrushed out of photos with prominent Republicans like Bob McDonnell. Wild!
The bigot Bobby May has been fired from his GOP campaign job and crowned Worst Person in the World as he deserves, John McCain has taken another notable hit in return for the overwhelmingly negative and "racially tinged" campaign he and Sarah Palin have been waging against Obama, and a county Republican website in Virginia has been forced offline. I call this a score.
Mark C. Eades
Comments (7)
LOL!
Seriously, congratulations on a successful collective effort to hold this turd accountable for his execrable public statements. These guys have got to be shown they will not be allowed to get away with hate-mongering.
October 9, 2008 2:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Those who live by the turd die by the turd.
October 9, 2008 3:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Guys, the best antidote to comments like Mr. May is not to muzzle him but to let him shout his commentary from on high for all to see how inane it really is. Once comments are out in the public then they can rise or fall as the case may be. This will not doubt be cast those who may sympathize with Mr. May's poor sense of satire as an effort to disavow ourselves from the free speech we all believe in as defenders of the Constiution. I'd rather see his comments in public met with disapporval then to know he will ply his hateful bile behind closed doors and with no counterpoint. Just my two cents.
October 10, 2008 12:03 AM | Reply | Permalink
Kevin, Mr. May still has freedom of speech. He just doesn't have the right to continue as McCain's Buchanan County campaign chair. In effect, McCain, through his campaign officials, is asserting his own freedom of speech by denying that this guy speaks for him.
This stuff probably amused Buchanan County Republicans -- after all, you don't get to be campaign chair by being disliked. It was only embarrassing when it was publicized in the larger world where this sort of thing is unacceptable. A national candidate's organization can't afford go for racist yucks in select markets if it's going to take the high road elsewhere where racism won't pay. Thanks to the internet and the blogs, there's no place to hide anymore.
October 10, 2008 2:57 AM | Reply | Permalink
I hope more people are shamed somehow and must pay a price for bigotry. I hope the people who make hate-filled comments at rallies are "outed" by the press by name. Only if they must bear a responsibility and consequences for their behavior will such activity be contained.
It seems to me that by appointing Palin, a woman who does not differentiate between public and private, the gates of hell have been opened and we are seeing speech in public, which we knew occurred in private... but now it's on the tv - in rallies. And on the internet forever.
Some of these folks will be very sorry one day. Because their public rant may come back to haunt them.
October 10, 2008 5:50 AM | Reply | Permalink
Since that pushback was effective, we need now to compile Palin's racist and otherwise repugnant bile and demand that McSlimer fire HER.
October 10, 2008 6:15 AM | Reply | Permalink
Word!!
October 10, 2008 7:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
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