McCain Official Out After Column Appears

The newsprint on the Buchanan County weekly paper was already yellowing when a column in the Aug. 22 edition exploded into the national political dialogue three days ago.

Like a political land mine, Bobby Lee May’s racially and culturally insensitive spoof of Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential platform lay quietly lodged in The Voice’s coverage area until a Los Angeles Times reporter unearthed it for a story published Sunday.

May, then the chairman of Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign in Buchanan County, wrote in a long list of faux policy positions that Obama proposed to paint the White House black, change the national anthem to the “Black National Anthem,” and replace the stars on the United States flag with an Islamic symbol.

On Tuesday, the McCain campaign released a statement repudiating May’s comments as “offensive” and “insulting,” and adding that May is no longer affiliated with the campaign.

May issued his own mea culpa, apologizing to “anyone I may have offended with anything I’ve written when expressing my personal opinions.”

The delayed response to the August article came after Peter Wallsten, the L.A. Times reporter, contacted May about his column on Sept. 25. That day, May alerted the McCain campaign of his column and resigned as chairman, said Gail Gitcho, a campaign spokeswoman.

In an e-mailed response to a Herald Courier inquiry, May described his piece as a “parody of the ultra-liberal Obama platform” and accused Wallsten of bias.

“I feel that the LA Times reporter had a slant for the story when writing it and to accomplish his goal he ignored the many good things about my county,” May e-mailed.

May complained that Wallsten did not report his comments about “how proud I am of my county that with the law school and the pharmacy school coming to Buchanan County with students of various ethnic backgrounds that there have been no racial incidents here.”

He did not respond to a question about why he resigned from McCain’s campaign.

Wallsten replied to May’s allegations in an e-mailed statement to the Herald Courier on Tuesday.

“Mr. May’s column served as an illustration of the political and cultural climate that each presidential campaign is navigating in the region,” he wrote. “The Times article showed how some people in the Buchanan County community are trying to overcome resistance to Sen. Obama, and it highlighted the May column as a very public example of the views they are encountering.”

Earl Cole, publisher of The Voice, defended his paper’s prerogative to print all opinions, but admitted May’s column crossed a few lines and that he regretted publishing it.

“It never crossed my mind that it was racist in any way, because I knew what Bobby was trying to get across,” Cole said in a phone interview Tuesday. “When I looked at it through the eyes of people outside my territory, I understood where it was coming from.”

In fact, Cole only read the first paragraph of May’s column before publication, he said.

“Bobby’s been writing columns for me for five years, and I trusted his judgment,” Cole said. “I shoulda watched it closer. I was kind of embarrassed once I read the article.”

Asked what portions of May’s column he thought were inappropriate, Cole pointed to comments May made that characterized Obama’s military policy as instituting “‘A queer in every foxhole and a camouflage sex toy in every backpack’ requirement.”

Cole also found offensive May’s suggestion that Obama would alter U.S. currency to feature whom he called “great Americans,” which ranged from Oprah Winfrey to rapper Ludacris to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton.

Democrats had little to say about the provocative column.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Rick Boucher, who May referenced in his column as a prospective “5-star general” in Obama’s Department of Defense, had no comment, a spokeswoman said.

Kevin Griffis, communications director for the Obama campaign in Virginia, deferred to the GOP’s condemnation for “how appropriate the column was.”

State Sen. Philip Puckett said he was “surprised and disappointed” by reports of May’s column, which he had not read.

“I know Bobby, he’s a good guy,” Puckett said by phone Tuesday. “He’s highly partisan. I think he took a satire situation and maybe stepped over the line a little bit.”

Cole, publisher of The Voice, remained surprised that the column provoked a controversy.

“I never had one complaint from anybody in my area, from any of our leaders,” he said.

He talked with May about the column late Monday, he said, hoping the columnist would make public amends.

“I do see racist in it,” Cole recalled telling May. “I know you’re not racist, but when you look at your article, it does seem like you might be.”

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