The Washington Post’s Richard Cohen argues that many Black democrats would gladly abandon their scruples and vote republican just to see a Vice President with (kinda) dark skin living in the Big White House:

Bush is not the sort of Republican to kiss off the black vote. The first time he ran for governor of Texas, he got just 15 percent of the black vote. Four years later, he got a healthy 27 percent. What’s more, during the presidential campaign, hardly a day went by without Bush declaring himself a compassionate conservative — meaning, among other things, that he cared about blacks. The effort was in vain.

Powell on the ticket could bring results. That does not mean that blacks would desert the Democratic Party in droves — issues count and old habits die hard — but some would surely vote Republican in an effort to elect the first black vice president. (So would many others.)

Well, not in droves would they desert — hell, some might even be interested in the “issues,” if they don’t find themselves voting for some Dem out of “habit” first. But still, according to Cohen, enough Black voters would be convinced to switch parties to make a real difference in the 2004 election — which is why he argues that Powell is so indispensable to the Bushies.

Me, had I written something so condescending toward Blacks and “liberal” white voters, I’d be pretty embarrassed, I think. A rather unsavory argument, this.

…Though as long as we’re speaking of demographics, Dick: Why no mention of Condi Rice for VP? Her foreign policy ideas seem perfectly in line with Bush’s, and she’s far more forceful a speaker than is Powell. Wouldn’t she be a better choice?

Or is it that women voters aren’t so easily manipulated as Black voters, by your reckoning?