Earl Ofari Hutchinson

With GOP contender Herman Cain’s Presidential candidacy effectively dead, now’s a good time to turn a hard glare on the suddenly surging GOP Presidential contender Newt Gingrich’s racial skeletons.

GOP Presidential candidate Herman Cain was predictably defiant when a pack of GOP pundits and insiders strongly hinted that he should fold up his candidacy tent. Cain said he was in the race to stay and did his by now patented bizarre, double-speak, Bill Clinton-style denial, that he did not have sex with that woman.

GOP Presidential candidate Herman Cain dredged up the stock GOP racial attack canard that blacks are brainwashed into blindly backing the Democrats. Pat Buchanan wasted no time in jumping in and agreeing with Cain.

Democratic Presidential candidate Obama faced the problem. President Obama faces the problem. President Obama in his re-election bid faces the problem.

Florida GOP Congressman Allen West, in his trademark shoot-from-the-lip style, made brief news recently when he dredged out the worn term “plantationism” to describe the alleged relationship between blacks and Democrats.

President Obama can probably recite this line in his sleep. Be bold, and rip a page from Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal playbook: Institute Works Project Administration- and Civilian Conservation Corp.-type programs.

The revelation that two former House Ethics Committee staffers secretly leaked materials to Republicans on the committee and possibly outside the committee to hammer U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) and U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel (D-Harlem) is a near textbook example of how politics doesn't just taint congressional ethics cases, but makes them a bitter joke.

The GOP’s war over America’s debt ceiling war is not about America’s debt. It is about President Obama. The debt ceiling debate can’t be separated from the GOP’s never-ending hunt for any issue that can taint, embarrass and ultimately weaken the Obama presidency.

The issue of jobs and the economy is the runaway No. 1 issue and dilemma facing the Obama administration. The GOP has made it clear that whomever faces off against Obama in 2012 will make this the issue to try and snatch back the White House.

[Editor’s Note: Dr. Hutchinson recently interviewed U.S. Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez (D-IL), a point man in the immigration reform movement.]