Have you noticed when watching McCain speeches how white the crowds are? Last week a black man spoke at a townhall meeting and the media jumped all over it, like they were saying “wow a black guy”. But it isn’t only black faces missing from McCain events or even his campaign; it’s brown and yellow faces. Just watch some of the campaign videos of McCan and Palin where all the people behind them share the same color as the tickets.

Now here’s an interesting story that plays into this motif:

Gov. Sarah Palin’s rural adviser resigned Monday amid criticism of the governor’s record on hiring Alaska Natives.

Rhonda McBride, who is not an Alaska Native, made the announcement in an e-mail to several Native leaders, saying there need to be more Native voices in Palin’s administration.

“I definitely think it would help to have an Alaska Native in this position,” McBride told The Associated Press.

Back when McCain picked Palin, I was shocked like the rest of America. I really thought he would have picked someone else. Actually I was expecting McCain to pick Bobby Jindal to be his running mate. Here you got an experienced politician, currently serving as Governor of Louisiana. He is a very likable person, even though he has a very conservative record, and he is Indian. But perhaps that last part is the reason why McCain chose the inexperienced, scandal ridden Governor from Alaska over Jindal.

Jindal, with his demeanor of being a cool, could have really helped McCain. I know a lot of hardcore Democrats that like Jindal, despite not liking his politics. Compare that to Sarah Palin who people either love or hate. Palin has a very condescending tone when she talks about people she disagrees with. Yesterday’s “lecture” to what she thought was protesters is proof of that. Just listen to her and you get the feeling of that school teacher out to embarrass a student in front of the whole class for not doing his homework.

Even Joshua Treviño, the co-founder of RedState, couldn’t bring himself to vote for McCain/Palin and instead wrote in Bobby Jindal. This is a very conservative voice opposing the ticket. Part of the reason he cited for his detraction from the GOP ticket was Sarah Palin.

So let’s get back to the whole race issue here. Why didn’t McCain pick this experienced and well liked politician of color to be his running mate? My feelings are that if he did pick Jindal then he would have trouble stoking the “Obama doesn’t look like us, he must be a terrorist” fear. McCain can’t pull himself to have a face that isn’t the same color as his on the ticket.

I know people will try to defend McCain from this claiming he is not racist, but we have seen that McCain has 0 control of his own campaign. If he was in charge then we wouldn’t be talking about Palin and instead be talking about Lieberman. But McCain forfeited control of his campaign to a bunch of people raised in the Rove school of politics, and we know they love to silently inject fears of race into political debate. There was a great witness to this back in 2000. That witness was John McCain.

True the other reason for the Palin pick was to “win over the Hillary voters”. This was a very sexist ploy and one the McCain campaign proudly echoed. They feel women are just a bunch of idiots who will vote for someone based upon gender and not issues. This is something easily dismissed by just watching the debates and seeing how the women react (or don’t) to McCain.

If the Republicans want a chance in 2012 then they better start looking at making change in their own party. Pick a nominee who represents the melting pot that is America, instead of a bunch of white faces. If they don’t then they will experience minority status and lack of power for a long time to come.