October 24, 2007

What Were We Saying Again About the Company Obama Keeps?

Barack Obama hasn’t just alienated us throwaway queer voters this time — when this story gets more traction, he’s gonna find he’s pissed off an awful lot of women.

Note that this really is breaking news, dated today — not some old chestnut dug up from long ago — and it’s from the Las Vegas Review-Journal, which is as mainstream a newspaper as the MSM gets:

POTENTIAL BLACK EYE: Boxer in Obama’s corner

When Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama launches his group of black supporters in Nevada today, the headliner will be a superstar: a boxer who won the biggest title fight in recent history, a flamboyant personality who’s been on “Dancing With the Stars.”

But Floyd Mayweather Jr. is also a convicted batterer with a history of arrests in Las Vegas and elsewhere.

In 2004, Mayweather was convicted on two counts of battery for punching two women at a Las Vegas nightclub the previous year. He was given suspended prison sentences, $1,000 in fines and ordered to complete impulse control counseling.

Mayweather in 2002 pleaded guilty to two counts of domestic violence in one case and battery in another. In 2005, a jury acquitted him of a third domestic violence charge, a felony, after his accuser changed her story. He reportedly was convicted of battery in his hometown of Grand Rapids, Mich., and he has also been the subject of civil lawsuits accusing him of battery.

An Obama spokeswoman said Mayweather has paid for what she termed his “mistakes.”

. . .

“This is not about Floyd Mayweather, this is about the growing grass-roots support for Barack Obama in the African American community,” [Shannon Gilson] said. “This story for us is really about grass-roots activism, and it’s a shame that’s not going to be the focus.”

University of Nevada, Reno, political scientist Eric Herzik said the Obama campaign made a bad choice in associating itself with someone with such a dicey past. “You’re dealing with legal problems, and domestic violence in particular,” he said. “No candidate wants to be associated with that. You’d think his staffers would have raised a red flag about this.”

Candidates, he said, should be careful which stars they pick to lend their glamor to the campaign. “There are plenty of sports stars you wouldn’t want to tap (for support). There are plenty of celebrities you might think twice about,” he said, mentioning Mel Gibson and Britney Spears as examples.

Hey, we’re all for giving anybody (except child molesters and serial killers, who have more than a wee bit of a problem with recidivism) who has paid his debt to society a second chance.

But this is a really, really dumb thing for Obama to do, especially when the Donnie McClurkin fiasco hasn’t even begun to die down (and seems only to be picking up steam).

Is somebody in Obama’s camp trying to destroy the campaign from within? If so, that’s still no excuse; Obama is the one who should be calling the shots.

And if Obama called this shot, then… Stupid decision, Obama. Really, really stupid. Again.

Posted by: Sapphocrat