More Like a Great White with Lipstick

McCain strategists are working on a campaign plan of attack that will cede the black vote and that will target white women and white working class. That is sad news for African Americans in the GOP, who will obviously lose more and more traction when it comes to influencing the direction of the party.

And have you noticed the conspicuous absence of references to immigration so far? Last night they declared culture war and the only reference to foreigners were a couple of attacks on Barack Obama's trip to Europe. It makes you wonder if McCain is worried about losing more Latino votes:

The look in the convention hall is similar to that of a typical McCain event. This summer, for instance, 67 people showed up for one of his town hall meetings in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. One of them was black.

The lack of diversity is out of sync with the demographic changes in the United States. The Census Bureau reported last month that racial and ethnic minorities will make up a majority of the country's population by 2042 -- almost a decade earlier than what the bureau predicted just four years ago. Two-thirds of Americans are non-Hispanic whites, 12.4 percent are black and 14.8 percent are Hispanic, according to 2006 census numbers.

I fully expect that if the Palin "hockey mom" approach stops motivating the social conservative base, we'll see them turning to immigration to try to sustain white traction.