The President's GOP is full of contradictions

As we think back on the festivities down in Washington last week, it should be clearer than ever how complicated or contradictory the image of the Republican Party is. On that cold Washington morning, there were a number of people seated near the podium. At the center of the ceremony was Trent Lott, whose presence was taken as an insult even by black Republicans. Sitting there in the chill with everyone else was Democrat Barak Obama, the new senator from Illinois, whose opponent was the carpetbagger Alan Keyes. A contemptuous quick fix by the GOP, the elephants flew him to the Midwest before he could even pack his carpet bag. Their idea must have been that a Negro long associated with the Eastern seaboard would be able to dupe black voters because they could only notice that he was of darker skin than Obama. With Condoleezza Rice behind him, Colin Powell sat there, a man who had not been able to wield more influence on the President than the warlike so-called neo-cons and whose reputation was destroyed after he stood behind faulty CIA intelligence on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. [more]