JUST BECAUSE YOU STAGE IT — SAY, a rally for Darfur in Charleston, S.C. — doesn’t mean the presidential candidates will come. Too bad. The candidates missed a chance to see diverse components of a community drawn together to make a moral statement transcending parochial interests.
“It’s not a black or white issue; it’s not a Republican or Democratic issue; it’s a human issue,” University of South Carolina President Andrew Sorensen said. The black and white and Republican (a few) and Democratic (probably a lot more) crowd sported an equally rainbow-hued variety of T-shirts, caps and buttons with the rally’s “Save Darfur” slogan.
Country singer Kenny Alphin skipped the diplomacy for a note of passion. “I’m ready to see some politicians jump and scream,” Big Kenny (his performing name) fairly shouted.
There were politicians in the crowd and on stage — the mayor, a congressman, a former governor, a couple of legislators — all Democrats by my count. But not presidential candidates. Barack Obama was probably closest, campaigning in Aiken.
That wasn’t the plan. The Oct. 6 rally for Darfur — South Carolina Responds to Genocide —was set for a day when national and local advocates for health care solutions had planned an all-day candidates’ forum in Columbia, presuming candidates would be moved or compelled to also attend the Darfur rally a couple blocks away.
The flaw was in assuming the candidates would show up for the health care forum at which each was to have a 40-minute solo opportunity to explain his or her approach to the nation’s health care needs.
Presidential campaigns are complex moving targets. Campaigns are besieged with invitations for debates and appearances, have their own strategies and priorities and have not figured out how to place a candidate in four states at once. Democrat Bill Richardson, whose Hispanic heritage helped elect him governor of New Mexico, canceled an appearance at the Hispanic Heritage Month luncheon here in Columbia last week.
The four front-running Republican candidates — Giuliani, Romney, McCain and Thompson — skipped a forum led by Tavis Smiley at Morgan State University in Maryland last month. In the process, the candidates also skipped an opportunity to show they are attuned to issues that matter to African-American voters.
Second-tier candidates rarely pass up free media opportunities. At Morgan State, they got to talk about Darfur. Congressman Tom Tancredo suggested we “see whether the United Nations is worth its salt.” Congressman Duncan Hunter called for a “humanitarian corridor.” Congressman Ron Paul said the U.S., as a nation, has neither the constitutional nor moral authority to be in Darfur. Mike Huckabee said, “There are a lot of people in America that don’t think the only poverty is in Darfur — understand there’s poverty in the Delta.”
You could search online for the Republican frontrunners’ views on Darfur. But you won’t find any help on their official Web sites. You could check the Democratic candidates, too, and find that only John Edwards has a detailed plan that says, in part: “We should work with NATO, one of the world’s most effective security organizations, to make sure the UN process will be as rapid, tough and effective as possible.”
The U.S. State Department sent Sudan programs officer Joan Mower to speak to the Darfur rally. She held out some hope for UN-sponsored peace talks later this month and UN peacekeepers on the ground. But for now, Mower said, “It’s violent, chaotic and evolving.”
A candidate could argue that 15 months from now, when a new president takes office, Darfur will have evolved from where it is now. The 1,500 or so who gathered at the South Carolina State House know Darfur won’t be first among a new president’s priorities. Their message to the candidates was, at least, think about it.
CHARLES BIERBAUER is a former ABC News foreign correspondent and CNN White House correspondent.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 2, 2007. Read the original PDF.