Show me the money (to vote)!!!

John Combest has some interesting thoughts on why the Republicans can't pay Black people to vote like the Dems do. Here's the money line:

"Cultural" (read: racial) and institutional factors will prevent Republicans from ever making street money part of their GOTV playbook.

Now there's a lot of great ideas in the post but nothing better than the video of a huge line of Black people waiting to get paid by Claire McCaskill on election day. How you might react to this clip says more about you and your political leanings than it does about any facts that will inevitably get twisted. What I see: Politics as usual and a clear sign that McCaskill isn't anything that much better than Talent was . . . Actually, my only real thought is that I'm a little peeved that I didn't get invited to the Latino payoff "work" line.

Anyway, while this isn't anything new that Combest is reporting, it's a great look at the way patronage politics really works at the ground level and it's something that most KC news organizations normally overlook in favor of sign stealing stories. I'm looking forward to his upcoming column in the Arch City Chronicle given that the KC Star normally overlooks all but the safest (lamest) aspects of the minority communities in KC and rarely reports on the crooked political structure that's pretty much universally accepted when it comes to non-whites in this town.