Bob McCarty Writes

While political pundits discussed the outcome of the Democrat Presidential Primary in South Carolina on the news channels, I was “forced” by my wife to watch the Miss America pageant on TLC. Little did I know the pageant’s earliest elimination round would produce an opportunity for Jesse Jackson to cry “Racism!”

That opportunity came soon after the field of 50+ contestants had been reduced to an initial group of 16 — including two African-Americans. When the pageant’s judges pared the group down further — to 12, I think, but don’t hold me to that — both of the aforementioned African-American contestants were eliminated.

After seeing that the two African-American contestants had been eliminated, I couldn’t help but wonder how long will it would be before Jackson cried foul and began his campaign to “shakedown” the folks at the Miss America organization?

Jackson has experience in shaking down organizations. In his 2004 book, Shakedown: Exposing the Real Jesse Jackson, Kenneth R. Timmerman exposed Jackson’s life and works, uncovering a sordid tale of greed, ambition, and corruption from a self-proclaimed minister who has no qualms about poisoning American race relations for personal gain.

Again, I ask: How long will it be before Jackson calls upon pageant officials to admit “egregious race bias” on the part of pageant judges? How long will it be before the “reverend” calls upon those same officials to make the black community “whole” — perhaps by contributing hundreds of thousands of dollars to Jackson’s Rainbow Push Coalition? Wait and see. I’m certain it will happen.

Oh yes, the winner of the 2008 Miss America pageant held in Las Vegas was Kirsten Haglund, Miss Michigan.

P.S. Barack Obama won the South Carolina Democrat Primary by a landslide over Hillary Clinton.