Lou Dobbs: Can he take lessons from a reformed racist to win a Senate seat?

[DearAbby]

Lou Dobbs is mad as hell, and he's not going to take it anymore. And now that he's left his bully pulpit at CNN, he's hoping the masses will join him with their pitchforks and torches.

Dobbs wants to challenge Sen. Robert Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat, as a third-party candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2012, according to The Wall Street Journal. (He also may run for president, naturally.) Dobbs told reporters that he is "ruling nothing out."

Yes, the world is Dobbs's oyster. But first, he'll have to convince New Jersey Latinos that he's not actually a frothing-at-the-mouth racist, despite his years of incendiary commentary against illegal immigration.

It's a difficult task, but it's not impossible. In the 1960s, Alabama Gov. George Wallace gained national fame with his battle-cry -- "Segregation now! Segregation tomorrow! Segregation forever!" -- but renounced that view after becoming a born-again Christian. Wallace, who survived a 1972 assassination attempt, later appointed record numbers of African-Americans to positions in his administration and championed voting rights. Of course, not everyone forgave Wallace -- who, like Dobbs, was viewed as a leading political populist -- but many did.

I have no idea whether Dobbs is racist. He has said he is not, of course, but he has certainly fanned the flames of racial intolerance over the years. And now he's taking a page from the Wallace playbook, reaching out to the group he's provoked the most. "Mr. Dobbs told Spanish-language network Telemundo he now supports a plan to legalize millions of undocumented workers, a stance he long lambasted as an unfair 'amnesty,'" the Journal noted.



more at link
http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/11/25/lou-dobbs-can-he-take-lessons-from-a-reformed-racist-to-win-a-senate-sea/?icid=main

[951-Riverside]

1. If it worked for Strom Thurmond and Robert Byrd it can work for him.

[DearAbby]

2. Yeah, thinking nearly the same thing..n/t

[Joe the Liberal]

3. He's no independent......

I'm willing to bet that if he gets into the senate (god forbid) he will vote with the republicans 90% of the time.

[grantcart]

4. My guess is that he will not run for Senate but will hang around Presidential rumors

and might even run.

His ego is too huge to allow for any primary races so he will fashion himself as an independent and rail against Republicans as much as he will Democrats.

It will move the Republican party farther to the right on immigration issues and help solidify a generation of Hispanics identify as Democrats.

It will also feed the atmosphere as he aims at his real target - to replace Rush Limbaugh as the most listened to person in America.

It gives him the brightest spotlight, the most ego strokes and the biggest paycheck.

The last thing Lou Dobbs actually wants is to get elected. The damage he will do to the Republicans will be huge.

Go Lou Go!