Re: Obama survives, prepares for general election
That is exactly What I expected...Nice try. He called out the people in Philly ... try as he might and his backers alike, you cannot sweep everything under the rug.
Re: Obama survives, prepares for general election
Kaleem, do you just listen to what Rush and the gang say and think thye are being honest and fair in their views? How about looking at the context and not a single and simple sound bite like, 'Obama calls voters in Philly bitter'. I know you're smarter than that, what's the deal?
Quote from Obama:
**"Well look, they're frustrated. And for good reason. Because for the last 25 years, they've seen jobs shipped overseas. They've seen their economies collapse. They have lost their jobs, they have lost their pensions, they have lost their health care. And for 25, 30 years, Democrats and Republicans have come before them and said, we're going to make your community better. We're going to make it right. And nothing ever happens. **
"And of course they're bitter. Of course they're frustrated. You would be too -- in fact many of you are. Because the same thing has happened here in Indiana, the same thing has happened across the border in Decatur, the same thing has happened all across the country. Nobody is looking out for you. Nobody is thinking about you."
......
Quote from Obama:
***"Well look, they're frustrated. And for good reason. Because for the last 25 years,
Reason #1 - they've seen jobs shipped overseas.
Reason #2 -They've seen their economies collapse.
Reason #3 -They have lost their jobs,
Reason #4 -they have lost their pensions,
Reason #5 -they have lost their health care.
And for 25, 30 years, Democrats and Republicans have come before them and said, we're going to make your community better. We're going to make it right. And nothing ever happens. ***
"And of course they're bitter. Of course they're frustrated. You would be too -- in fact many of you are. Because the same thing has happened here in Indiana, the same thing has happened across the border in Decatur, the same thing has happened all across the country. Nobody is looking out for you. Nobody is thinking about you."
OK so let's quick attacking each other on petty stuff.
What do you think Obama will do to address the 5 reasons? Any Marshall Plan for America?
Obama will be working with the same dems and republicans who have ruled the country for the "last 25-30 years". Or Obama will import legislators from China and India? (Kind of reverse outsourcing. Yeah he will get back on those big bad Chinese and Indians).
Re: Obama survives, prepares for general election
I went to a party a few weeks ago, an met a fellow who is actually a member of my church. Turns out he is one of the leading Democratic pollsters in the country. His firm does overnight polling every night of the week. We talked for almost two hours.
He says that Obama has the largest "excitement" factor of any democratic candidate in recent history. I personally believe that Kaleem is right, as a junior Senator he has not accomplished much. Most Junior Senators don't. But Obama is a legitimate phenomenon within the Democratic party, a candiate with real sizzle, even if he has little ballast.
This same pollster also said that the number one Democratic issue was going to be the Economy. Iraq has clearly faded from peoples minds as the number one voting issue. Apparetnly most Democratic Leaders are seeing Obamas Rock Star credentials and salivating at the prospect of a genuinely electric candidate. They see Hillary as very old school, virtually Billary III. Democrats are going to love Obama in this elelction. He is a genuine two term threat, with name recognitoin, oratory skills, very little bagage, and a huge base of mainline support.
The real question is, can he expand his appeal, and will the white working class embrace him as a mainstream Democrat? It seems to me that McCain could well be the beneficiary of Hillaries Hillbillies.
**The Perils of Racial Solidarity **
**Presidential Politics 2008 - The Issues **
21 May 2008
by Kevin Alexander Gray
*Is it really the duty of us all, as African Americans to keep quiet about the wars in Africa and Iraq, to shut up about the credit and housing squeezes that are swallowing the wealth of our communities, to be silent about police killings and the continued transformation of America into a carceral state that locks up an absurd proportion of its nonwhite population? Where are we really headed if our duty as African Americans at this time is to bury all our grievances, to be quiet and not disturb white people, in order to “let Obama do what he has to do?” *
**“[Obama] has to convince white folk that he’s 150 percent with them. So we should just all be quiet and let him do what he has to do.” **
**A lot of black people I know have hit the mute button. When Hillary brings up working class white voters, when commentators say we’re in the post-racial era, even when Barack had to kick his preacher to the curb. “Where were Obama’s friends?” The Wall Street Journal‘s Daniel Henninger asked. Quiet, quiet, quiet.
The current undertone in the black cultural cosmos reflects the old adage, “If you can’t say some good, don’t say anything at all.” The way to show racial solidarity? Shut up.
Black people always have to navigate race fear; the long Democratic primary season has just underlined that. Joking, comedian Jon Stewart asked Obama if elected, “Will you pull a bait and switch and enslave the white race?” Kinda funny. Except that’s precisely the sentiment that underlies white race fear. I’ve heard the same thing said in seriousness by more than one white person. “If Obama gets the White House what will they want next?” Or, “if Obama wins, blacks will think they’re running things.”
So, one argument for keeping quiet is to avoid confirming or fueling white racist suspicions. A caller on one of the radio shows I did after Reverend Wright’s National Press Club appearance said, “[Obama] has to convince white folk that he’s 150 percent with them. So we should just all be quiet and let him do what he has to do.”
Give a listen to the corporate media, and it’s pretty clear what tune black voices are supposed to be singing. Obama is constantly called on to swear allegiance to America – to prove he isn’t swearing allegiance to blacks. The other way to say that is he’s supposed to swear allegiance to white, not black, America. Meanwhile, the back end of that deal is that black Americans are required to substitute Obama for real structural racial progress. As in, “You got your nominee. See, we’re not so racist or bad after all. Now shut up!”
I was talking on the phone to a friend the day after Obama denounced his preacher. She wasn’t mad at either, just blue over “the whole mess.” Like many others, she saw the media as the culprit for blowing the incident up, and wondered aloud if Hillary didn‘t have something to do with it. She agreed with Wright’s politics, felt the hurt between the two men, and recognized that the over-expansive persona many black preachers carry around doesn’t play everywhere.
The Press Club is not a black church. On Obama: “Yeah, he saying what he got to say. He’s a politician.” And her advice to me? That I not write or say anything “that would give the other side anything to latch on to.” In other words, the mute button, the race gag.
Wright was Obama’s “fish.” Or that’s what we called it when I was coming up. It’s the “bad nigger” that all “good blacks” would be wise to avoid: the latest Sistah Souljah or Willie Horton. Farrakhan didn’t take the bait so Wright got the hook. Before Wright, Chris Matthews and his cohorts dangled Jesse Jackson out there often repeating the line that Obama “is not like Jesse Jackson” so as to make Jackson’s name (and his politics, importance, ‘style’ and period) a pejorative.
Who knows who will be the next black bogeyman? Will it be Obama’s fellow Chicagoan Congressman Bobby Rush, a one-time Black Panther? Will it be Trinity church’s new pastor, Otis Moss, who says he likes slain rapper Tupac Shakur and is the son of a Black Panther. What about James Cone, ‘the source’ of that “radical,” “anti-white,” “anti-capitalist” “revolutionary” “socialist” black liberation theology? FOX television seems to think Cone and his ideology deserve denouncing.
On several of the black radio shows I did, callers were split down the middle on Wright and Obama. Most callers – white and black – had no trouble understanding the differing prospective of a church born out a history of enslavement versus one that often condoned or turned a blind eye to enslavement. Most agreed with Wright’s take on American history and where the country is today in regards to its relationship with the rest of the world.
On Joy Cardin’s Wisconsin Public Radio program, most callers were sympathetic to Wright even after his Press Club appearance. They thought he had the right to say what he said, how he said it and when he said it. As for Obama, callers were most anguished about him having to reject his minister and play the denouncement game.
And with that anguish came the slam on Wright, which for Obama’s supporters, on black radio, was pretty much the same slam they gave Tavis Smiley. He hadn’t maintained the gag rule. Smiley’s violation occurred when he criticized Obama’s refusal to address or attend any gathering that seemed too black, including Smiley’s “State of the Black Union” in New Orleans and the Memphis events around the anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination. Black folk started “hatin’ on” Smiley because they saw him as “hatin’ on Obama.” After a period of “not feeling the love,” Smiley left his morning spot on the popular Tom Joyner radio show. (I have to say I didn’t lament Smiley’s departure: not because I agree with his “haters, ” but because of his ties to Wal-Mart.)
The logic I heard during the time Smiley took his lumps was: “Look, Obama’s already got us, we aren’t the people he needs to convince” and, “if he spends too much time with us we know how white folk will react.” Translation: “Don’t hate the playa, hate the game.” Yet racial solidarity is the name of the game not only among blacks. The race card is in play among some of Hillary Clinton’s white support. The difference is that a higher percentage of Clinton’s supporters – some 17 percent of white voters in Pennsylvania – expressed, “they wouldn’t vote for a black under any condition.” 81 percent of voters in West Virginia said race was an important factor in their vote.
Why are whites who support Clinton racist and Obama’s black support not labeled as such? My response has been that fundamentally racism is about power and blacks hold little if any power over whites. Blacks have long voted for white candidates.
Hillary is accused of campaigning on racist implications: that people would not vote for a black solely because of race. Fair or not, when your campaign represents a racist perspective, you might get called a racist.
Moreover, if Obama used a similar language about ‘hard-working American blacks, not being represented,’ or something like that he would be re-labeled “the black candidate.” Clinton is allowed to be the “women’s candidate.” Both can be “generational candidates” but neither can be “race candidates.”**
Ask me to pick between Wright or Obama? Well I agree with history.
**“The United States of America government, when it came to treating her citizens of Indian descent fairly, she failed. She put them on reservations. When it came to treating her citizens of Japanese descent fairly, she failed. She put them in internment prison camps. When it came to treating citizens of African descent fairly, America failed. She put them in chains.
The government put them on slave quarters, put them on auction blocks, put them in cotton fields, put them in inferior schools, put them in substandard housing, put them in scientific experiments, put them in the lowest paying jobs, put them outside the equal protection of the law, kept them out of their racist bastions of higher education and locked them into position of hopelessness and helplessness. The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law…” **
Wright said that, and I agree with all of it.
**And like Wright, I agree that progressive politics in the last 40 years has affirmed the Cuban peoples’ revolution, aided the anti-apartheid movement, opposed Reagan’s war in Central America, and have maintained that Zionism is racism. But I’m an unapologetic secularist. I’m not into ‘damning’ or waiting for God’s wrath to smite anybody. I believe the people, on earth, are responsible for change. And just as important, I believe Obama is a piece of the story not the whole story.
In the end, I’m against unthinking, uncritical and blind solidarity be it racial, gender or sexually-related, etc. If solidarity makes you fall in line without asking where you’re going, don’t be surprised if you end up lost, or worse. **
Taken from www.counterpunch.com.
Re: Obama survives, prepares for general election
Very interesting read. What intrigued me was the fact of racial enslavement. Though i'm very very sure USA matured as a nation of bright ideas and equality a long time ago, the fears still reside in hearts of the effectees and effected by color-association.
Obama for the most part has the support of most youths regardless of color/racial background. But where Hillary does overwhelmingly (Working-class white), he has to push extra to earn their vote, if not all, some or most of them at the very least to ensure and paint a picture that's diminishes these pseudo-fears.
Obama resigning from the Chicago church maybe one gesture, but i wonder if he needs to do more to appeal to the Whites.....?
Though i'm very very sure USA matured as a nation of bright ideas and equality a long time ago, the fears still reside in hearts of the effectees and effected by color-association.
There needs to be a lot more maturing that the USA needs to do. The system itself is still inherently racist, despite many strides in the past 40 years. Race is still a big factor, and this election proves it. And it's not just exposing the white vs. black conflict, but also the hispanic vs. black conflict as well.
[quote]
Obama for the most part has the support of most youths regardless of color/racial background.
[/quote]
That could very well be his ticket to the WH.
[quote]
But where Hillary does overwhelmingly (Working-class white), *he has to push extra to earn their vote, if not all, some or most of them at the very least to ensure and paint a picture that's diminishes these pseudo-fears. *
[/quote]
The fears will be hard to diminish, especially if the media keeps on exploiting them and they will.
It all becomes offical tonight as Obama goes over the top in the delegate count needed for the nomination.
Clinton will have a spot in his administration if she wants one, which spot remains to be seen.
Re: Obama survives, prepares for general election
Can she be his running mate? Why/Why not? What implications would encourage or prevent such a duo?
Re: Obama survives, prepares for general election
Cons:
*Could hurts his 'change' tagline as she is an Washington insider.
*Also his goal of 'bringing people together' might be hurt as she is such a polarizing political figure.
*Her prior experience. Many on the right loathed the Clinton experience and her aboard would fire them up and support a Jon McCain they might otherwise say the would have not.
Pro:
*Brings her supporters back into the fold after a long and ugly primary fight.
*Her prior experience. Could put minds at ease about Obama's perceived inexperience.
I like the idea floating around of making her health secretary, John Edwards attorney general, and Joe Biden Secretary of State. What an all star team.
Re: Obama survives, prepares for general election
wow ............ i just heard about OBAMA's victory , good for him( i was sick of people calling him , black black black........) .. lets wait and see as things get unfold
Re: Obama survives, prepares for general election
232 years later, the DNC finally gets a black presidential nominee
The man makes history. They have said everything from him being a terrorist appeaser to an elitist. A guy who no one ever gave a chance from the get go. 1 million donors later, 17 million votes and the guy becomes the democratic nominee. This is like something straight out of a movie. Barack Obama went against the odds and survive. Even if he doesnt win the presidency, the fact that he defeated the mighty Clintons is commendable on its own.
Re: Obama survives, prepares for general election
Wasn't there a movie about a back guy becoming US president... I guess it was Mr. President or something like that ....lol
Re: Obama survives, prepares for general election
Everyone and his uncle has congratulated Obama on clinching the nomination, but not Hillary. Its hard to believe that she is still living in a Cinderella-land where she expects droves of super-delegates to suddenly change their vote or for Obama to just turn up dead (like Bobby Kennedy), so the only conclusion is she is trying for leverage and a way to pay back her campaign debt.
Yesterday was her moment to shine on public television and announce a graceful withdrawl from the race to be followed by internal discussions on how to unite the party. By failing to do that, she squandered that chance. Now whenever she makes the announcement it will be a lame, anti-climatic non-event. And if she decides to take issue with Michigan decision or taking the DNC to court or to run as independent or to take the fight to the convention, she will become much bigger loser than what she is currently appearing to be - a whiny, unrealistic, stubborn lady-puppy.
Re: Obama survives, prepares for general election
Sen. Hillary Clinton will officially end her campaign for the presidency by the end of the week.
-CNN
Everyone and his uncle has congratulated Obama on clinching the nomination, but not Hillary. Its hard to believe that she is still living in a Cinderella-land where she expects droves of super-delegates to suddenly change their vote or for Obama to just turn up dead (like Bobby Kennedy), so the only conclusion is she is trying for leverage and a way to pay back her campaign debt.
Yesterday was her moment to shine on public television and announce a graceful withdrawl from the race to be followed by internal discussions on how to unite the party. By failing to do that, she squandered that chance. Now whenever she makes the announcement it will be a lame, anti-climatic non-event. And if she decides to take issue with Michigan decision or taking the DNC to court or to run as independent or to take the fight to the convention, she will become much bigger loser than what she is currently appearing to be - a whiny, unrealistic, stubborn lady-puppy.
You are a bit too harsh on her, she is not a whiny, unrealistic, stubborn lady puppy.
Re: Obama survives, prepares for general election
.. and instead she is.......?
I am sure she will quit the race at some point. End of the week, may be. Writing is on the wall. My question is why didn't she quit yesterday when the math was done, everyone knew, all news channels announced it, Obama had clinched the nomination, there was a string of super-delegate endorsements all day.... media spot light was on her to make the grand speech, and what did she say .... "I won't be making any decisions tonight". Dude (or dudette), in case you missed it, the decision's already made! You lost. Admit it. And move on. And let the party move on too. Jeez Louise! Whats hard to comprehend here?
What is she waiting for? Ok, I get it. See, she claims she got 18 million votes in the primaries. Good. Now ask each of these 18 million voters to donate just one dollar ($1) to her campaign. That way she can pay back her campaign debt. Can't her voters even donate $1 for her to get her out of her misery??
Yeah, you have to let her take her time and let her decide how she wants to end it. She never said last night that no matter obama has clinched the nomination; I will still go to Denver for convention.
As for congratulating Obama, this is what she said:
Also check this clip from this morning, Hillary addressing AIPAC and she is wholeheartedly supporting Obama.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/06/04/obama.aipac/index.html#cnnSTCVideo