McCain Pays MLK Tribute In GOP Donor Rich Memphis

When Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) went to Memphis today to praise the late Martin Luther King--who delivered his famous thundering "Mountaintop" speech at the historic Mason Temple 40 years ago, the day before he was assassinated--he was already quite familiar with the town. Well, a certain part of town--and it's not where the Mason Temple is located.

I'm talking about the zip code 38120, McCain's top contributing Memphis zip code, the source of more than $40,000 to his campaigns, according to a Public Campaign Action Fund analysis of contributions of $200+ to his campaigns provided by the Center for Responsive Politics. In this well-heeled neighborhood, the population is largely white and wealthy. Average incomes hover close to $200,000. Housing developments are gated and numerous million dollar-plus homes are for sale.

This zip code is also home to the headquarters of Federal Express, whose CEO, Frederick Smith, is a McCain finance co-chair--and reportedly a possible candidate to run as vice president on the ticket with McCain. Smith and his wife Diane have personally given McCain $13,200 over the years.

Just last year, Federal Express agreed to settle a racial discrimination lawsuit for $53.5 million brought against its express unit, FedEx Express. According to the Los Angeles Times, the suit alleged that "FedEx Express discriminated against its African American and Latino workers by passing them over for promotion, paying them less than white workers and treating them unfairly in evaluation and disciplinary proceedings." Not exactly living up to the legacy of Dr. King.

Meanwhile, McCain has collected no big contributions at all from across town, where King delivered his speech. Mason Temple is located in South Memphis in the zip code of 38126, where the great majority--97 percent--of the population is African American. Here folks scrape by with an average income of $15,000. This neighborhood could be ground zero for the mortgage crisis: Fifty-seven homes are currently listed for foreclosure.

Indeed, none of the major candidates for president collected big contributions there. Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) did also collect a substantial amount of cash from 38120--more than $54,000 (although none from Federal Express executives) while Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) got just $6,300. Both Clinton and Obama, however, unlike McCain, have supported comprehensive public financing of all federal elections. This would give a small donor from the Mason Temple neighborhood the same standing as a CEO from 38120.

Forty years ago, Dr. King boomed that he had "been to the mountaintop." He said "I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you...but we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land." When Dr. King visited Memphis, he went to the mountaintop for redemption--McCain's apparently more interested in going to Federal Express for cash.

See Martin Luther King speak about going to the mountain top here.

Follow Nancy Watzman on Twitter: www.twitter.com/nwatzman

Comments

[Sebastian11]

Why did McCain apologize for not voting for MLK birthday to be designated a national holiday after 35 years? Does he really think that he could get tha African American vote by simply saying he is sorry did not see the light then? Any good observer could see the faces of disbelief in the audience that he was speaking to. Does he think that by soft speaking platitudes of hypocricy he could fool people? He would do much better by preparing a plan detailing how he plans to improve the economy, the environment, education, health and so on, instead of talking to people as if they were fools.

[GrannyBgood]

It was hard to miss the irony of McCain speaking on this day, in Memphis, at the very site of King's murder.
And seeing him on that balcony felt just plain WRONG!
...and while he said all the right things about Martin Luther, he also comes out of the America that killed King, figuratively speaking.
Now he would NON-figuratively send more men to be killed in the Middle East quagmire if elected.
King was, above all, a man of Peace, and he would not have liked seeing a warmonger like McCain making political hay out of his day.
Oh yes, He admitted he was wrong and apologized about being against the MLK National Holiday, but he says he came to realize too LATE...
Are we to wait as long for him to realize he's also wrong about this war?

[Tennwoman]

Perhaps the author should have mentioned that McCain fought the MLK federal holiday tooth and nail for years, yet was front and center for his Memphis close-up tonight on NBC Nightly News. That might have helped to better illustrate his hypocrisy. That, and the fact that when asked by Brian Williams about his opposition, McCain lied.
You are correct in stating that the legitimate differences of the candidates are what should be important. Therefore, we should start with the veracity issue. You think this article is "twisted", while what I think is twisted is the fact that the media has had a heyday with remarks made by Obama's preacher, yet never uttered by Obama, while they have let slide the lies and flip flops which have come directly from the mouths of McCain and Clinton. Clinton "misspeaks" more often than she speaks, and McCain has a voting record which belies nearly every statement he has made during this preseason to end all preseasons. The lies are piling up like snowflakes in Priest River, Idaho, and the media seems not to give a damn.

[Nancy Watzman - Huffpost Blogger]

The commenters are correct in noting that most contributions to Republicans and Democrats alike come from white, wealthy areas, which is documented in Public Campaign's study, Color of Money. And the first commenter is also right to say that folks rob banks because of where the money is. That's why it's so important to note, as I do in my piece, that Sens. Clinton and Obama both are on the record of full public financing of elections, which would change the way elections are run so that this is no longer the case. Alas, Sen. McCain, while a supporter in the past for his home state of Arizona's Clean Election system, has been backing away from his support of public financing since he began running for president. This is anything but a "false difference." It's a major difference.

[breaktheterror]

Two things:

It's not the world headquarters of FedEx, but the home of Fred & Diane Smith that's in the 38120 zip code. Also living in the zip code is the founder/ex-CEO of AutoZone, J.R. "Pitt" Hyde, who with his wife Barbara hosted George Dubya for a large fundraiser.

Also notable, though, is that 38120 is the home of the bulk of Memphis's very large Jewish community, of which a constituent hosted former President Clinton in a home fundraiser for Hillary not too long ago.

It's a pretty diverse zip code, and by "diverse" i of course mean "diverse but with lots of money for the most part."

Spot on on the campaign finance, though...

Full disclosure: my zip code borders 38126, and i'm a caucasian who grew up in the neighborhood next to 38120, so i live between the two worlds, so to speak.

Wanna research a weird zip? Go for 38111.

very little middle class, lots of lower, and lots of upper (to the point that ANOTHER Bush event was held at a private home in the past year.

*bleh*

[NicoloM]

So McCain gets lots of money from FedEx? Did you see that FedEx has a big contract with the military to contract passenger travel for military personnel? Did you see that ATA went bankrupt when FedEx pulled the rug from ATA for its charter operations? Why is FedEx getting contracts to fly people? Just wondering....

[tigerblue1]

I live in zip code 38120. I voted for Obama in the Tennessee primary. I am a third generation native white over 50 Memphian. I have never voted for a Republican in my life. But, you can bet your sweet as LOTS ofmy neighbors have. I know lotsof em. But, the majority of Democratic donations also come fromthese good ole rich neighborhoods. I too think the article was a bit of oversimplication and a shot at Memphis (you know, the placewhere King was killed, and of course, all of White Memphians backhandly painted as, well, racist. I'm not gonna stop reading The Huffington Report however. Love it.

[marcrobson]

Thats it for me with this website. The writing is so juvenile. No analysis. Just mudslinging. I _want_ to see both sides. I dont want 'preaching to the choir'.

The author goes into such detail slamming McCain for taking donations from 38120, describing how wealthy it is and claiming that it is majority-white as if either of those criteria mean that the money is dirty.

The fact is, the same website (colorOfMoney) indicates that in 2004, both Kerry and Bush received 90% of their donations from majority white zip codes. Sadly since (apparently) that is where the money is, that is where the donations come from ('why do you rob banks?' cause that where the money is). So why distort things to try and paint one candidate bad when ALL are basically in the same boat???

Later, several paragraphs down, the author actually admits that Clinton has received TWENTY+ % more than McCain from the SAME zip code! But none of the 'negatives' about the zip code are mentioned.

There are legitimate differences between these candidates. When articles like this twist things to try to make up false differences, it embarrasses all of us and detracts from the real debates.

[gevan]

Just the facts. The "dirty" money connection is something that came out of your own brain. Typical of those who see what they expect to see and not what IS.

[UpstateNYer]

Macrobson is right. This is a piece of partisan writing meant to slam McCain because apparently he has the support of rich white people, as if to say that their voice matters less than anybody else's. That is entirely unamerican.

Weak.

[sdrawkcab]

Macrobson is right about this article.

What do McCain's donors, from an upscale neighborhood in Memphis, have to do with the 40th Anniversary of a national tragedy?

Does this also link him to Graceland, and Elvis Economics?

But I disagree with Marcrobon that this one post is good reason to abandon this site.
The vast majority of blogs I read here are excellent. In fact, I avoided this article, because the title said it all, but curiosity got the better of me...

Granted, this one should have never been published, and yes, I did see a number of low grade comments (e.g. from GrannyBgood), but how can you ever avoid such comments?

We as a community have a responsibility to educate.

Yes We Can.