John McCain spoke of the Legacy of MLK in Memphis today, where there was no shortage of Negroes to hold his umbrella.

John McCain was booed by a black crowd in Memphis today as he tried to give a speech to mark the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr. And rightly so. McCain voted against the creation of Martin Luther King Day in 1983 and, by his own account, didn’t come around to supporting Dr. King’s work until around 1990. That’s about thirty years too late.

McCain, who has made a commitment to “campaign in places Republicans often shun,” has set himself up for embarassment. To say the guy has a weak record on civil rights would be generous. The guy has a shitty record on civil rights. And in an attempt to be a maverick or a straight-talker or whatever it is McCain is trying to do, he is giving a speech on a topic that automatically puts him on the defensive. McCain got thru MLK Day in January without anyone bringing up the fact he voted against its creation.

Today, he brought it up himself, which is possibly one of the most eggregious gaffes he could have made, akin to Obama posting the videos of Rev. Wright to YouTube himself. It didn’t help that at the event, McCain had a black man holding his umbrella. When it comes to wooing black voters, you can stick a fork in McCain. The guy’s more done that done.

Update: Commenter SanFranLefty, being a communist and (I assume) homosexual satan worshiper, linked to the speech Bobby Kennedy gave in 1968 when MLK was shot. So behold, the original Senator Unicorn in his finest hour. Note how our current Unicorn echoes RFK’s themes.

McCain Booed at Martin Luther King Speech [Huffington Post]
Crossposted from WhiteHouse.com