Obama has more in common with Tiger than Hillary realizes

I was watching the Arnold Palmer Invitational last weekend, watching Tiger win his seventh straight tournament. As I watched this amazing athlete hoist the championship trophy, I pondered the reality that the other golfers know what he’s going to do, but they are powerless to stop him.

Hillary Clinton and her team surely empathize with the golfers on the PGA Tour. When it comes to Barack Obama, they just seem powerless to stop him.

They have analyzed Sen. Obama just as the other golfers have analyzed Tiger, but Sen. Clinton has yet to conclude what I have concluded about Tiger Woods. He’s just a better golfer than the other guys. Well, Barack Obama has raised more money, he’s better organized, he’s a better communicator, and finally — notwithstanding the serious Rev. Jeremiah Wright-induced bump in the road — he’s just a better candidate.

As Tiger was raising another trophy and pocketing his millions in earnings, I also thought about what some of the other golfers have thrown his way, and how disciplined and composed he remained.

Do you recall Fuzzy Zoeller’s clueless remarks after Tiger won his first Masters championship in Augusta, Ga., in 1997? When talking to reporters following the match, Fuzzy stepped in it by saying “tell him (Woods) not to serve fried chicken … or collard greens or whatever the hell they (blacks) serve …” at the following year’s traditional Champions Dinner.

Tiger was a good sport about it. He didn’t rant and rave or call Fuzzy a bigot. He just focused on his game and has been nothing short of phenomenal for 11 years.

Barack Obama has had the rhetorical kitchen sink thrown at him in the Democratic primaries. In South Carolina, former President Bill Clinton likened Obama’s campaign to a Jesse Jackson effort (code for “just another black candidate who can only get black votes”). Former Rep. Geraldine Ferraro said Barack would not be where he is today with his winning ways if he weren’t a black man. Hmmm…

After the Ferraro comment backfired, my friend James Carville said we’re getting ultra-sensitive about these issues. To that, I would say the Democrats are getting hit with the bat they’ve been swinging for years.

Do I know Republicans who are racist? I do, and sometimes they needed to be hit with the race bat. However, it was always ironic. The Democrats would do the same thing, say the same thing they accused Republicans of, and get a pass. The Democrats use race more often than they want to admit. They like to throw the rock and hide their hands. It’s very difficult to combat that kind of racism.

Obama has had to endure the throwing of rocks and hiding of hands type of racism for the entirety of his campaign.

Politico, a Washington-based online publication, reported that GOP strategists have commissioned polls to determine acceptable boundaries for attacking a black candidate. Might I suggest to my friends that rather than commissioning polls and focus groups to determine how to get in the gutter gracefully, why don’t they research how to reach out to the black community with solutions that would improve their lives and strengthen their communities and consider an inclusiveness that says, “Come and help us bake the cake,” not “Come and help us eat our cake”? If only Republicans would learn to say, “These are our values. These are our principles. How do we help you accomplish what you want to accomplish in life?”

Due to the foolishness conveyed about Obama — i.e. Bill Clinton’s remarks in South Carolina — the Democrats are scared to death they are going to alienate the most loyal constituency in their party, the African-American vote. However, Republicans have so little credibility with Americans of African descent, I’m afraid this may be an opportunity Republicans and conservatives won’t be able to capitalize on. Republicans, especially conservative Republicans, have been so indifferent to race and other issues important to blacks that most blacks will not — will not — vote GOP, regardless of who is on the ticket with John McCain this year.

Anything short of a total meltdown by Obama, he will probably be hoisting the winner’s trophy at the Democratic National Convention in August.

I recall what Pauly said to Rocky Balboa, referring to the invincible Ivan Drago — “Hey Rock! He bleeds!”

Over the past week, we’ve seen that Obama can bleed politically. And thanks to his early silence on his pastor’s inflammatory rhetoric, the general election is up for grabs.

J.C. Watts (JCWatts01@jcwatts.com) is chairman of J.C. Watts Companies, a business consulting group. He is former chairman of the Republican Conference of the U.S. House, where he served as an Oklahoma representative from 1995 to 2002. He writes twice monthly for the Review-Journal.