While introducing his vice-presidential running mate, Senator John McCain remembered first to acknowledge his birthday and then the anniversary of women’s suffrage. I wasn’t there, but I did not hear the senator acknowledge the day’s other significant event, the third anniversary of the destruction of an American city. I’m sure the senator must have acknowledged the grim anniversary at some point, but his headlong rush to step on Barack Obama’s news cycle was perhaps the final evidence African Americans needed to suggest McCain has completely given up on our vote. And, not having our vote, his interest in and therefore his sensitivity to the concerns of the African-American community are non-existent. McCain’s selection of August 29th for his veep announcement had to have been vetted by fairly smart people, at least one of whom *must* have told the senator the day held a moral peril not dissimilar to hosting a tractor pull on Indian burial ground. It was, at best, ill-advised. At worst, it sent the worst kind of signal to black America: that a McCain administration would care about as much about us as the Bush administration has. All of which seemed oddly appropriate as, while the massive, category-4 hurricane hit New Orleans in 2005, Senator McCain was with President George W. Bush, literally eating cake while New Orleans drowned. McCain appeared to have learned nothing in the intervening years, as, once again, he socialized while yet another hurricane, Gustav, took aim at New Orleans.

What made Hurricane Katrina more than a natural disaster but a national disaster and, indeed, an American disgrace, was both the epic suffering and indifference to the same demonstrated by our commander-in-chief. An indifference echoed yesterday by Mr. McCain, who desires to become our next commander-in-chief. The bible teaches us faith without works is dead [James 2:20], which suggests the things we do are reflective of the kind of people we are. Planning a political stunt on the anniversary of a great American tragedy suggests a man so out of touch with the interests and sensibilities of average people that he becomes what so many believe him to be (a charge I’ve openly defended him against)—an extension of the anti-intellectual and uncompassionate example set by our current president. Senator: you really blew it.