A Mother's Love Determines How
By: Nicholas Gordon
A mother's love determines howWe love ourselves and others.There is no sky we'll ever seeNot lit by that first love.
Stripped of love, the universeWould drive us mad with pain;But we are born into a worldThat greets our cries with joy.
How much I owe you for the kissThat told me who I was!The greatest gift--a love of life--Lay laughing in your eyes.
Because of you my world still hasThe soft grace of your smile;And every wind of fortune bearsThe scent of your caress.
Well I don't know if I will be the first but allow me to state my personal feelings in regards to the Senator's campaign. I will try not to sound redundant in my efforts to share with you all my written expression of gratitude towards Barack Obama.
Anyhow, I was first introduced to Barack Obama on the eve of his historic appearance as the keynote speaker at 2004 Democratic Convention in Boston, Massachusetts.
That particular day I had had a very bad day, wasn't really feeling politically inclined to any longer involve myself with politics in our country and was in the process of applying for citizenship in Vancouver, Canada BC so that my family and I could start our lives over.
Just like many other disappointed Americans, we felt let down by the political process and abandoned by perseverance, hope and unity. The change that we had been promised, prayed and hope for post 9/11 had all but faded and we had had enough... that is until the night of the convention where I'd heard Barack Obama speak for the first time.
What struck me most about his speech that night were several things:
1. Our government's responsibility to the people
2.His objection to the Iraqi war
3. The desire for bipartisanship to help bridge the diving gap between the American people.
4. Claiming responsibility as a nation and being held accountable as a country for the short-comings and down falls of our youth.
5. Believing in our government, affirm our faith in the political process by being involved and standing up for a vision of unity that calls for every American citizen to HOPE for CHANGE.
Senator Barack Obama saved me from making what would have been the biggest mistake of my life, he saved me... my family from leaving what I know can be a wonderful country only if we allow it to be.
It is because of Obama's constant message of HOPE. ACTION. CHANGE, that I campaign so passionately. I too like so many other Americans HOPE that our great nation can unite as one to change the inner-workings of our government to better suit the needs of the people, not the special interests groups or lobbyists.
For those of us who support the Senator, by campaigning at the grassroots level we are able to showcase our ability to take ACTION, grasping what could well be our last shot diplomacy and declare ourselves ready for a necessary CHANGE in order to move forward becoming The United States of America.
I believe wholeheartedly in a positive and peaceful cohesiveness within our country and I would love to see in my lifetime Senator Barack Obama be given the chance to do what past President's have failed to do and that's put the people's needs first!
Peace & Blessings,
Chica
To clarify, I feel that it necessary for each and every one of us to make the distinction between a fan and a supporter and declare a support system that does not mirror the fanatical pulse of a star struck groupie.
This blog is in no way shape or form an attack on the use of the word but more so my observation of how the use of the word "fan" demeans his efforts as a Presidential bid to be taken seriously as any other credible candidate running.
I compared the definition of the two words to show the difference of why it so important that we supporters must not be so careless with our words in regards to Senator Barack Obama.
The American Heritage Dictionary reads:
Fan - An ardent devotee; enthusiast.
Supporter - To aid the cause or interest of.
As you can see the distinction lies within our personal choice to back something or someone. It's okay to be devoted to something or enthusiastic about things that are entertaining (i.e. books, movies and music) but they are only prevalent for a period of time before the luster wears off.
Something as crucial as a Presidential candidate or a human issues like AIDS is something worth supporting our time and effort too and people do so passionately because the outcome has a tendency affect our very way of life.
Mr. Obama is not nor will he ever be a passing trend, he is a genuine beacon of hope with an audacious vigor for the livelihood of this country. He wants to rebuild our government, restore our faith in the political system at the federal and state levels, strategically bring our troops home from Iraq, implement universal health care and strengthen America's relationship with the rest of the world…amongst other things.
Senator Obama is a wonderful human being and a credible candidate worthy of all of our support to ensure America's future. He is not a Rock Star traveling the world with his hit parade and as a person seeking change I ask you all to declare yourself a supporter today!
When I arrived home last night from the rally I tuned into the news to catch a glimpse of all the war protesting going on all across the country. I hadn't had the time to reflect on duration of this war and the toll it has taken on the family and loved ones of the men and women over in Iraq fighting and dying on our behalf.
I also hadn't really given much thought to my families lost due to the war and purposely shifted all of my attention and energy to the Obama rally in Oakland yesterday because I just didn't want to revisit the pain of loosing my cousin to the war.
As much as I tried to not think about it, little and very significant imagery surrounded me as I command my post at the rally. From the post-war veterans of Vietnam to a rather large Anti-War banner hung just a few hundred feet away from one of Oakland's finest moments in city history; I was surrounded and reminded of the Iraqi war.
At one point my stomach was caught in my chest and I fought back the invading tears of despair. On more than one occasion I found myself looking up to the heavens wondering if my cousin Darryl (was killed by a roadside bomb in 2005) was looking down at me and smiling in agreement with my presidential choice and the protestors who spoke out against the war.
I grappled with the very thought of my cousin Anthony (who lost his arm just this past November when his convoy was hit by a mortar) having to spend the rest of his life gripped with fear, pain and anger because our current President declared war on a country that had absolutely nothing to do with the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks.
There were a sea of emotions running rampart through every pore of my body as I looked out into the snaking lines of people all waiting to hear the Senator speak and I realized although our government had failed us in so many ways and had even taken the very lives of the servicemen and women of this country it hadn't killed our optimistic vision for a unified country.
Every single one of us who attended the rally yesterday is desperately wanting and seeking a change that will not happen over night but will and shall come with the right leadership. So as I bid you all a good night with tears in my eyes I want you all to remember something, those of those who have given their lives for an unjust cause are the true unsung heroes of this country and Obama is very aware of how important and vital our soldiers are now and forever.
I miss my cousin Darryl dearly and pray constantly for my other cousin Anthony to be delivered from the personal mental hell that consumes his life daily so that he can get back to living and not worry about dying, killing or being killed by the enemy.
It's a hard bitter pill that I am forced to swallow everyday, but if the outcome is that once Bush is out and Barack is in and for the people, then it's a pill I can tolerate without feeling the urge to constantly shed tears for a solder at war.
Fellow SFO Members, Yesterday's rally will be something that I will never forget and will be sharing with family members and friends for a long time to come. I didn't think there was anything left in the world that could take my breath away but this experience has really left me speechless.
However I do feel that as part of the Executive Committee for Sacramento for Obama it is my duty to personally thank the selected members of our group who committed 100% of their time to volunteering during the Oakland rally.I know that many of us was beside ourselves due to not being able to be apart of the cheering crowd but from my post at the corner of Broadway & 14th and through my various strolls around the park I was able to witness a profound dedication that is worthy of monumental praises.I wish I could remember every single person's name but my memory fails me at the moment because I am still exhausted from the rally, however those of you that volunteered from the beginning of the rally until end during clean-up, I want to thank you giving up your time to do so. To the volunteers that didn't disappear into the crowd once the flood gates were opened, I commend you for not abandoning your duties and posts and to those of you who had to endured at times many angry faces, problematic questions and curious statements at the entry gates, I can't thank you all enough for being so professional and yet stern with keeping the crowd in control. Although some of us did not have the opportunity to see Senator Obama on the stage, hear him speak or greet him personally, we volunteers from Sacramento For Obama made an HUGE impact on the advanced team and the time we sacrificed to take care of the people of Oakland was not taken for granted nor will it be forgotten.You all ROCK! Obama is such a lucky guy to have such selfless, dedicated, committed and hardworking supporters blazing the campaign trail with him all the way to the White House!
Peace and Blessings, Chica
Obama draws 10,000 to Oakland rally
By LAURA KURTZMAN, Associated Press Writer Sat Mar 17, 10:09 PM ET
OAKLAND, Calif. - Illinois Sen. Barack Obama (Link, Link, Link record) attracted a crowd of 10,000 or more to downtown Oakland Saturday in his first Bay Area rally.
Having glided to the top tier of Democratic candidates on a message of hope, Obama told the crowd his campaign "is a vehicle for your hopes; it is a vehicle for your dreams."
But he also used the appearance to contrast himself with his chief rival for the Democratic nomination, Iraq, for which she has refused to apologize.
"I am proud of the fact that I opposed this war from the start," Obama said to huge cheers in this most anti-war of cities. "That I stood up in 2002 and said this is a bad idea. This is going to cost of billions of dollars and thousands of lives."
Obama said it was time to leave Iraq and to tell the Iraqis, "We want to be your partners, but we can't continue this occupation."
Obama is also challenging Clinton for support in the black community and his appearance in Oakland, a center of black life in Northern California, was part of that strategy.
"So many black people are out here," said Chris Nishioka, 61, a black woman who is married to a Japanese man. "Black people are so excited."
As the mother of two biracial children, Nishioka said Obama's rise as a credible candidate for president gave her whole family cause for hope. Obama is the son of a white American woman and a black man from Kenya and was raised in Hawaii and Indonesia.
"What I like about him, is he has a global background and a global view," said Nishioka, a retired attorney. "He's more of a change from the status quo. He's definitely fresh."
Obama's afternoon appearance brought the downtown to a standstill. His amplified voice echoed off the downtown buildings and people peered through office building windows and waived from rooftop balconies.
He spoke in a small, sunken amphitheater in front of Oakland city hall that was too small to contain the crowd he attracted. Event organizers said the crowd reached 12,000, and it flowed out onto the main downtown thoroughfare, which was blocked for the occasion.
After the rally, Obama was scheduled to attend a San Francisco fundraiser where organizers expected to raise about $1 million.
By HENRY C. JACKSON, Associated Press WriterSat Mar 10, 9:56 PM ET
Illinois Sen. Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record) on Saturday said the U.S. will have to withdraw its troops from Iraq, regardless of the costs, if serious reforms are not made by the Iraqi government.
"In the absence of those conditions we're just throwing money away," Obama said during a campaign stop in Dubuque.
"We have to be honest that, in the absence of these changes, if these changes aren't made, there is not much we can do" to help the Iraqi people, he added.
An estimated 2,300 people attended a town hall meeting to hear Obama on the first of two days of campaigning in Iowa that was to include stops in five eastern Iowa cities. He later attended a rally at a high school in Davenport, where 4,000 people showed up to hear him speak.
Aides said Iraq would be the focus of the trip, and members of the audience were given copies of a speech Obama gave opposing the war in 2002, when he was still a state senator.
"It's time to end this war and bring our troops home," Obama said Saturday, receiving a standing ovation from the crowd in the Loras College Field House.
He said there are no good options left in Iraq.
"We only have bad options and worse options," he said.
Obama also called for reform on funding for veterans, saying the country is not doing enough to support troops returning from Iraq.
"We need to put veterans services on equal footing with other social services in this country," he said. "A veteran shouldn't have to come hat in hand to get the services they deserve."
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NASHUA, N.H. (AP) — Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton on Saturday promised to bring America's "invisible" middle class out of the shadows, saying the Bush administration has for too long ignored working families.
Four years after John Edwards built his campaign around the theme of "two Americas" — one for the wealthy and one for the poor — Clinton sought to draw a line between two kinds of Americans — the visible and invisible.
The latter group includes single parents who can't afford health insurance, small business owners worried about energy costs, and college students struggling to pay their tuition, she said at a New Hampshire Democratic Party fundraiser.
"You are invisible to the oil companies earning record profits while you pay more at the gas pump. You are invisible to the companies who outsource your job, or lay you off or end the promise of your pension," she said. "For six long years, President Bush and the Washington Republicans have looked right through you."
Clinton also accused the Bush administration of turning a blind eye to emergency workers whose health was harmed while responding to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, soldiers returning from combat and children in failing schools waiting for more federal money.
"And if you're a career government scientist raising the global warming alarm; a conservationist trying to protect the environment; a government accountant looking into no bid contracts that have cost the tax payers billions of dollars; even if you're a Republican U.S. Attorney trying to enforce the law impartially — they've tried to make you invisible to the rest of us," she said.
"Well, they're not invisible to us. They're certainly not invisible to me. And when we retake the White House, they will no longer be invisible to the president of the United States," she said.
Clinton was speaking at the party's annual 100 Club Dinner, where 1,000 tickets were sold, the most in the event's 47-year history. Typically, 500-800 tickets are sold.
CONWAY, S.C. (AP) — Republicans spent their way into losing control of Congress, presidential candidate John McCain (news, bio, voting record) says.
"The reason why we lost that election, my dear friends, was because we let spending get out of control," McCain told a breakfast crowd Saturday. "We came to power in 1994 to change government and government changed us."
McCain told the 225 people gathered at a restaurant on a bend in the Waccamaw River, not far from Myrtle Beach, that Republicans began to value power over principle, which caused spending to lurch completely out of control.
"It's got to stop," he said of the excesses, which also led to corruption among members of Congress. "We're going to have to clean up our act."
On the Iraq war, McCain said the "titanic" struggle pits supporters of the nation's values against those of radical fundamentalism.
"We lose this war and come home, they'll follow us home," McCain said.
Asked why some have criticized him for not being conservative enough and why he is trailing former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani in the polls, McCain said Giuliani is "an American hero" who did important work in the wake of Sept. 11.
"I think you should judge people by their record," McCain said. "I am conservative across the board and I will match my record with anybody in America much less anybody who is running."
RENO, Nev. (AP) — Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani defended Newt Gingrich, who has admitted having an extramarital affair as he pursued President Clinton's impeachment after the Monica Lewinsky affair.
Giuliani, speaking to reporters during a campaign stop late Saturday afternoon in Reno, said the episode shows no one is perfect and the former House speaker can learn from it.
"I think the American people realize, and I'm speaking for myself now, we've made a lot of mistakes, and hopefully we've done some good things in our lives and it's probably always been that way," he said.
"The American people have to judge who is the most effective leader. They will not find a perfect person, and that's probably good because we all have imperfections. Sometimes when you go through things like that in your life, you can become a better person," he said.
Giuliani, who has been married three times and has chilly relations with his children, visited Reno for a private, $1,000-per-person fundraiser.
While he called Gingrich "one of the smartest people in American politics," the former New York City mayor said it was premature to say whether he would consider him as a running mate.
Many polls identify Giuliani as the front-runner in the Republican presidential primary. Gingrich is considered a possible GOP presidential contender, although he has not announced any intention to run.
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina is back on track to hold the first Democratic presidential debate after organizers of a debate next month in New Hampshire moved their event back to June.
The candidates have made firm commitments to House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn to appear at the April 26 debate at his alma mater, South Carolina State University in Orangeburg, said Morton Brilliant, the chairman of the South Carolina Democratic Party.
The 90-minute debate at the historically black college will be televised by the MSNBC cable network.
"South Carolina is going to be the key to the primary in 2008. And it's clear that we now have the first full debate of the campaign," Brilliant said.
New Hampshire had originally scheduled Republican and Democratic presidential debates for April 4 and April 5, but many of the leading candidates couldn't come because of trips to Iraq or other scheduling conflicts. The debates have now been moved back to June.
HOUSTON (AP) — Rep. Ron Paul (news, bio, voting record), a strict constitutionalist and fierce anti-war critic, will formally declare his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination Monday when he appears as a guest on a C-SPAN call-in program, a campaign official said.
Paul, R-Texas, created a presidential exploratory committee in January, allowing him to begin collecting money on behalf of his bid. Kent Snyder, chairman of that committee, said Saturday that Paul would make his candidacy official on Monday.
It will be Paul's second try for the White House. He was the Libertarian nominee for president in 1988.
Associated Press writers Jim Davenport in South Carolina, Holly Ramer in New Hampshire, Martin Griffith in Nevada and Joe Stinebaker in Texas contributed to this report.
By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer1 hour, 57 minutes ago
Presidential candidates Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record) and Hillary Clinton crossed campaign paths for the first time Sunday as they paid homage to civil rights activists who they said helped give them the chance to break barriers to the White House.
The two candidates and former President Clinton, making his first appearance with his wife since her campaign began, linked arms with activists who 42 years ago were attacked by police with billyclubs during a peaceful voting rights march. "Bloody Sunday" shocked the nation and helped bring attention to the racist voting practices that kept blacks from the polls.
"I'm here because somebody marched for our freedom," Obama, who would become the first black president, said from the Brown Chapel AME Church where the march began on March 7, 1965. "I'm here because you all sacrificed for me. I stand on the shoulders of giants."
Not to be outdone in the hunt for black votes, Hillary Clinton also spoke in Selma at a church three blocks away and brought a secret weapon — her husband. Three days before the march anniversary, her campaign announced that the former president who is so popular among blacks would accompany her for his induction into Selma's Voting Rights Hall of Fame.
Sen. Clinton said the Voting Rights Act and the Selma march made possible her presidential campaign, as well as those of Obama and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who would be the first Hispanic to occupy the Oval Office.
"After all the hard work getting rid of literacy tests and poll taxes, we've got to stay awake because we've got a march to continue," Clinton said in a speech interrupted numerous times by applause and shouts of approval. "How can we rest while poverty and inequality continue to rise?"
Clinton and Obama both appeared outside Brown Chapel for a pre-march rally, but came from opposite sides of the podium and did not interact. Despite the intense rivalry between their campaigns, the two praised each other.
"It's excellent that we have a candidate like Barack Obama who embodies what all of you fought for here 42 years ago," Clinton said. Obama said Clinton is "doing an excellent job for this country and we're going to be marching arm-in-arm."
But they did not join arms when the commemorative march attended by thousands got under way. Instead, Clinton held hands with her husband and Obama was several people down the line. Obama, who shed his coat and tie for the march, approached Hillary Clinton at one point and the two chatted for a few seconds before moving back to opposite sides of the street.
The two candidates sounded similar themes in their speeches. Both said the civil rights movement is not over because inequality still exists in education, health care and the economy. Both criticized the Bush administration for failing to return Hurricane Katrina victims to their homes.
But Obama, who was three years old on Bloody Sunday, delivered a call to action that would be politically unfeasible for Clinton or any of his other white rivals. He said the current generation of blacks does not always honor the civil rights movement and needs to take responsibility for improving their lives by rejecting violence; cleaning up "40-ounce bottles" and other trash that litters urban neighborhoods; and voting instead of complaining that the government is not helping them.
"How can it be that our voting rates dropped down to 30, 40, 50 percent when people shed their blood to allow us to vote?" Obama asked at a unity breakfast with community leaders.
At the breakfast, Obama got a key to the city and another to surrounding Dallas County from a probate judge, Kim Ballard. "Forty-two years ago he might would have needed it because I understand it would open the jail cells," Ballard said. "But not today."
Obama said the fight for civil rights reverberated across the globe and inspired his father to aspire to something beyond his job herding goats in Kenya. His father moved to Hawaii to get an education under a program for African students and met Obama's mother, a fellow student from Kansas.
Obama said he was not surprised when it was reported this week that his white ancestors on his mother's side owned slaves. "That's no surprise in America," he said and added that the civil rights struggle made it possible for such a diverse couple to fall in love.
"If it hasn't been for Selma, I wouldn't be here," Obama said. "This is the site of my conception. I am the fruits of your labor. I am the offspring of the movement. When people ask me whether I've been to Selma before, I tell them I'm coming home."
But the former president stole the show from the two candidates. The audience cheered loudest for him when the three took the stage at the end of the march and the crowd mobbed him as he tried to make it to his limousine, delaying his departure.
Speaking at his induction, Clinton said the 2008 campaign features "a rainbow coalition running for president."
"If it hadn't been for the Voting Rights Act, the South would have never recovered and two white southerners — Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton — never could have become president," Clinton said.
Other Democratic candidates are not leaving the black vote to Obama and Clinton. John Edwards, the 2004 vice presidential nominee, was speaking about Selma and civil rights at the University of California, Berkeley.
"The fight for civil rights and equal rights and economic and social justice is more than just going to celebrations, even as wonderful as the one in Selma," Edwards said in remarks prepared for delivery as he referred to Berkeley janitors' fight for a wage increase. "The fight is going on right here, right now."
Associated Press writers Phillip Rawls and Bob Johnson contributed to this report.
But in Wednesday editions, the Washington Post reported a poll that has Obama leading Clinton by 11 points among black voters -- 44 percent to 33 percent. Obama is the Senate's only black member and has been campaigning across the country for the last couple of months. Clinton is his chief rival for the 2008 presidential nomination
That change represents a stunning 24-point swing, but does it mean the black community has embraced the Illinois Democrat as its candidate?
Not exactly.
"Obama does have a plurality of black voters right now. He doesn't have a majority yet," CNN Polling Director Keating Holland said. "That means a majority of blacks still aren't sure about him.
"Forty-four percent favor him. That's certainly good news for him, but I think the Obama camp would like to see that be significantly higher."
Among blacks, Obama's favorables are high (70 percent), but Clinton's are higher (85 percent). Plus, Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, have deep roots in the black community.
Blacks, in part, may be slow to warm to the candidacy of Obama because, a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll suggests, they are less likely than whites to believe that America is ready for a black president.
The poll, conducted December 5-7, 2006, found that 65 percent of whites thought America was ready, compared with 54 percent of blacks. The poll's margin of error was plus-or-minus 5 percentage points.
George Wilson, the host of XM Radio's "GW on the Hill," hears doubts about Obama all the time from his black audience.
"There is this doubt 'But is America ready for a black president?' " Wilson told CNN. "And the overall consensus from my callers is that America is not ready for an African-American president."
Even at a rally for Obama in South Carolina you hear it:
"I'm being honest," Akyshia Gantt, an African-American, said. "No, I think -- which is bad -- that America is not ready for that, but I don't think they are."
Part of Obama's problem with black voters is that he is viewed by whites as the first black candidate with a legitimate shot at the White House.
"When white America has embraced a candidate -- as they have with Barack Obama -- there is a certain amount of distrust that goes with this among a number of African Americans," Wilson said
In an interview with National Public Radio, Obama acknowledged the dynamic:
"In the history of African-American politics in this country there has always been some tension between speaking in universal terms and speaking in very race-specific terms about the plight of the African-American community," Obama said. "By virtue of my background, I am more likely to speak in universal terms."
Obama suffers, in part, because voters are not familiar with him and there is doubt whether the son of a white woman from Kansas and a black man from Kenya, who was raised in Hawaii and educated in elite schools, can relate to the black American experience.
This has been described as "not black enough," a notion and a phrase that Rep. John Lewis, a Georgia Democrat who is a noted civil rights leader, rejects.
"I don't think he has any of the hang-ups that a lot of people that are victims of segregation and racial discrimination tend to have," Lewis said. "I think he's free of it, and he's running as an American citizen." (Watch Rep. Lewis on Sen. Obama's candidacy )
Forty-two years ago this Sunday, Lewis was beaten in the voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama -- a day that became known as "Bloody Sunday." Now, 43 African-Americans serve on Capitol Hill, and thousands of black politicians serve nationwide.
Time has made Lewis a true believer.
"In the depth of my heart, I believe it is possible for Sen. Obama to become president of the United States," Lewis said. "I think the American people are prepared to take that great leap. They're prepared to lay down the burden of race."
By BEN EVANS, Associated Press Writer 50 minutes ago
An event steeped in civil rights symbolism offers rivals Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record) an opportunity to show unity with the black community while they spar over support from a crucial Democratic constituency.
The two leading candidates for the 2008 presidential nomination are scheduled to give nearly simultaneous speeches behind church pulpits just half a block apart from each other in Selma, Ala., on Sunday. The events will commemorate the 42nd anniversary of the bloody civil rights march there that helped rollback segregation in the South.
Later, the candidates will join civil rights leaders, public officials and others in what has become an annual walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, where state troopers stopped civil rights marchers in 1965, turning them back using nightsticks and tear gas.
Normally, Clinton might not worry much about the support of black voters after serving eight years as first lady in a White House that enjoyed legendary popularity among blacks. The New York senator, in fact, will be picking up a voting rights "Hall of Fame" award for her husband, Bill, in Selma on Sunday.
But the Clinton mystique is being tested by Obama, a first-term senator from Illinois who some believe has a real chance at becoming the nation's first black president.
In Alabama — one of several states with large black populations that could influence the nomination race — black leaders say buzz about Obama's candidacy is spreading, particularly among younger people and others who might not typically participate in elections. And they dismiss suggestions that the state's black political establishment might shy away from Obama as a mainstream candidate without deep roots in the civil rights movement.
"That would be like saying you can't be a Christian if you were not one of the disciples," said Jerome Gray, who traveled the state as a field operative for the black Alabama Democratic Conference for nearly 30 years before retiring in December.
Obama also has a personal history that is starkly different from most black voters. While his father was from Kenya, his mother was white and he was raised by his white grandparents in Hawaii.
But black voters know, Gray said, that national candidates must appeal to a broader base.
"We have to have a Colin Powell-type person — a black person who does not scare white people, but who is not seen as an Uncle Tom in the black community," said Gray, who supports Obama. "It has to be somebody who has a transcendent quality to appeal to both sides of the tracks, so to speak ... I see Obama as a candidate who has that kind of appeal."
Without question, political analysts say, Clinton comes to Alabama and elsewhere with powerful tools: more money to spread her message, a tested campaign organization and the advantage of being seen as the early front-runner.
Her campaign machine was on display recently in South Carolina — which is slated to hold the South's first Democratic primary on Jan. 29 — when Clinton picked up key endorsements from two black politicians.
But as Emory University political scientist Merle Black put it, "In some ways, Hillary's never faced a candidate like Obama, and Obama's never faced a candidate like Hillary."
For example, Alabama officials estimate that blacks make up between 40 percent and 50 percent of the state's Democratic vote, so any candidate who can capture the bloc would likely win the state. The Rev. Jesse Jackson won the state's primary in 1988.
Alabama has not yet pinned down its primary date for next year, but it likely will fall in early February, possibly just before or as part of a Feb. 5 mega-primary that could seal the nomination.
Democratic Rep. Artur Davis (news, bio, voting record) of Birmingham, Alabama's only black congressman, said earlier primaries in Southern states with heavily black populations will benefit Obama.
"I have no doubt that once Senator Obama is firmly introduced to the black community, the level of enthusiasm will substantially rise," said Davis, who attended Harvard Law School with Obama and who has backed his candidacy from the outset. "There is going to be a special magnetism that's there because of what it would mean to the country and what it will mean to the community."
Veteran Alabama state Rep. James Thomas, a Democrat and former president of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators, said that introduction appears to be happening.
"At first I had some reservations, but I'm beginning to hear quite a bit of interest," he said. "He certainly brings some excitement."
Thomas nonetheless predicted that Clinton, Obama and former North Carolina senator John Edwards would split the black vote.
Alabama Democratic Party Chairman Joe Turnham agreed it will be a slog and said Obama must be able to energize new groups of voters.
"I think the door is cracked, maybe not open," he said. "I think there's a cautious curiosity among a lot of people."
Organizers of this weekend's Bridge Crossing Jubilee said they couldn't remember a time when two leading presidential candidates spoke at the event.
Obama is scheduled to deliver the event's keynote address Sunday morning at Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church, while at the same time Clinton is scheduled to address the First Baptist Church just down the street.
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On the Net:
Clinton campaign: Link
Obama campaign: Link
By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer
49 minutes ago
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record) wants to change the government's formula for giving states money for homeland security, with the early voting states getting a little extra.
Obama wants states that have a bigger risk from the terrorist threat to get more of federal homeland security dollars — also a recommendation from the commission that investigated the Sept. 11 attacks. That's an unpopular idea among lawmakers from smaller states who would lose funding on the switch.
Currently, each state gets at least a .75 percent share of the roughly $900 million in the state homeland security grant program. The Senate bill would lower that to .45 percent, and Obama, the Illinois senator, is offering an amendment that would cut it to .25 percent. His office said it expects the Senate to consider the measure next week.
A memo by Obama's staff says the senator wants to "ensure the funding is allocated based on the threats states face, not politics."
But states with big political influence need not worry that they will get short shrift from the candidate's amendment.
The biggest benefactors would be Obama's Illinois and other heavily populated states, including White House rival Hillary Rodham Clinton's New York, which would each get more than $1 million in extra funding under Obama's plan versus another Senate proposal. Clinton and other members of the New York congressional delegation have been trying to change the formula for years.
"Every state gets two votes in the Senate so we're facing the challenge of convincing people they should give up what they think is their rightful claim on some of this money to do what the 9/11 commission and everybody who has studied it has said, which is have the money follow the risk," Clinton said Wednesday.
But even though they have much smaller populations, the leadoff Democratic primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina would not be harmed under Obama's plan. Iowa would get an additional $119,824; Nevada would get $86,222 more; and South Carolina would receive $175,027 extra.
Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt points out that Obama doesn't determine which states have higher risk and therefore would get more money. Those calculations are made by the Department of Homeland Security, which won't reveal its methods or say just what makes Iowa more vulnerable than, say, New Hampshire.
New Hampshire would have had a drop in funding if Obama's proposal was simply based on risk. But Obama has a provision to ensure that states with an international border would stay at the .45 percent minimum, and New Hampshire's 58-mile dividing line with Canada qualifies it to keep the same amount that it would get in the current Senate bill.
In all, 34 states would get more money under Obama's amendment. That comes largely at the expense of eight smaller population states and the District of Columbia, which would lose more than $1.8 million each under the formula.
Associated Press Writer Devlin Barrett contributed to this report.
http://obama.senate.gov
The turnout was amazing and each and every one of you represents Obama's Audacity of Hope for America!!!!!
I literally spent the entire day jubilant over the meeting and now that I've attended, met a few of you and witness the power of a united front I'm even more committed to blazing the campaign trail in support of Senator Barack Obama!
I couldn't have picked a better group of people to make history with! Let's here for Obama in 08!!!!!!!
By NEDRA PICKLER and BRENDAN RILEY
Associated Press Writers
59 minutes ago
The rival presidential campaigns of Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record) traded accusations of nasty politics Wednesday over Hollywood donor David Geffen, who once backed Bill Clinton but now supports his wife's top rival.
The Clinton campaign demanded that Obama denounce comments made by the DreamWorks movie studio founder, who told New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd in Wednesday's editions that while "everybody in politics lies," the former president and his wife "do it with such ease, it's troubling."
The Clinton camp also called on Obama to give back Geffen's $2,300 contribution.
Campaigning in Iowa, Obama refused.
"It's not clear to me why I'd be apologizing for someone else's remark," the Illinois senator said.
For her part, New York Sen. Clinton sidestepped questions, leaving the issue to her aides to discuss.
"I'm just going to stay focused on my campaign and I'm going to run a positive campaign about the issues that affect the people in our country," she told The Associated Press in an interview in Nevada. She was participating a candidate forum in Carson City.
The Clinton team seemed eager to continue the attack. With Obama in Iowa, aides arranged for former Iowa attorney general Bonnie Campbell to criticize him in a conference call with reporters.
In the newspaper interview, Geffen also said Bill Clinton is "a reckless guy" and he does not think Hillary Clinton can bring the country together during a time of war, no matter how smart or ambitious she is.
Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs added another criticism of Clinton.
"It is also ironic that Senator Clinton lavished praise on Monday and is fully willing to accept today the support of South Carolina state Sen. Robert Ford, who said if Barack Obama were to win the nomination, he would drag down the rest of the Democratic Party because 'he's black,'" Gibbs' statement said.
Ford later apologized. The Clinton campaign said it disagreed with Ford, but the senator has embraced his support.
Another Democratic presidential candidate, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, said at the candidate forum that Obama should denounce Geffen's comments. "We Democrats should all sign a pledge that we all be positive," Richardson said.
Associated Press writer Brendan Riley reported from Carson City, Nev.
Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign site: http://www.hillaryclinton.com
Barack Obama's campaign site: Link
Obama swing through LA attracts A-list celebrities and cash
By Andy Shaw
February 20, 2007 (LOS ANGELES) - A million dollar mission for Senator Barack Obama in Southern California Tuesday night: He spent the evening schmoozing A-list celebrities to raise money and support for his presidential campaign. Producer Steven Spielberg hosted the fundraiser.
Obama's event Tuesday night, closed to the media for the most part, featured among others Eddie Murphy, Jennifer Aniston, Vin Diesel and half a dozen other A-list megastars.
Hollywood stars like actor Morgan Freeman and director Ron Howard joined 400 other curious movers and shakers in Hollywood's entertainment industry at Tuesday night's $2,300 a head fundraising event, hosted by mega-producer Steven Spielberg and his partners, to find out if Barack Obama has enough substance to go along with all that style and charisma.
"He doesn't have experience maybe a president, but what he does have if you listen to him is a commitment to some kind of ideals," said Jodi Evans, Obama supporter.
"I think this guy would make a great president," said Max Palevsky, Obama supporter.
The irony is that Obama has many of the same personal qualities that attracted Hollywood to the former president, Bill Clinton. And that complicates fundraising and political decisions for people torn between the former first lady, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, and the new Democratic superstar, Barack Obama.
"It's a quandary. A lot of people privately are saying they're for Obama but publicly haven't come out yet for either one because of their deep respect and loyalty to Bill Clinton," said Anita Busch, entertainment writer.
Barack Obama also introduced himself for the first time Tuesday to the regular folks in Los Angeles at a Tuesday afternoon rally with several thousand mostly young people.
"I want you to leave here determined to bend that arc in the direction of justice, bend it in the direction of peace instead of war, bend it in the direction of health care for all," said Sen. Barack Obama, (D) presidential candidate.
"We need somebody that actually understands not only community but a country. I think he is the guy to do it and I think that he's not gonna do us wrong," said Hugo Farias, Obama supporter.
California is the biggest prize by far politically in terms of delegates. That's why, with an early primary scheduled in the state, all the candidates will be visiting repeatedly. Hillary Clinton is due next month. John Edwards is expected to campaign over the Oscar weekend.
Republican candidates are will also be spending more time in Southern California, but they are more likely to hang out in the more conservative Orange County rather than Hollywood.
Obama was on a three-day swing through California, his first since announcing his candidacy. He also held a fundraiser in San Diego's upscale La Jolla section.
Beside the celebrity giving, checks have come in from studio bosses, including Paramount Pictures studio chief Brad Grey; Richard Cook, chairman of Walt Disney Studios, and Ron Meyer of Universal Studios.
The movie, television and recording industries gave $33.1 million to federal candidates and parties in 2004, with much of that coming from Hollywood, according to the nonprofit Center for Responsive Politics.
(The Associated Press contributed to this report. Copyright 2007. All Rights Reserved.)
ORANGEBURG, S.C. -- Is Barack Obama "authentically" black? Come on, be real. Is the pope Catholic?
Obama made his first campaign trip to this early-primary state over the weekend, drawing about 3,000 people to a rally in Columbia, the state capital, and 2,000 to a "town hall meeting" here in the city where I was born and raised. If those who rose early Saturday morning to attend the Orangeburg event constitute a representative focus group, black voters will want to weigh Obama's policy positions against those of the other candidates before deciding whom to support. But they won't spend a lot of time pondering his identity.
Among the dignitaries with front-row seats in the auditorium at Claflin University (where my mother used to be head librarian) was state legislator Gilda Cobb-Hunter, an African American, who had no patience for the "blackness" question that reporters kept asking.
"People talk as if this is, like, some kind of option for him," Cobb-Hunter said. "When Obama looks in the mirror in the morning, what do you think he sees? There is no way that he has any confusion about being a man of color. I think this issue is being manufactured by people who want to get us off focus. I don't hear the national media questioning Hillary Clinton about being a woman."
But what about the argument, posed by a couple of contrarian black columnists, that since Obama is not the descendant of slaves (white mother from America, black father from Kenya), he's a different kind of African American? "As time passes, very few people are going be able to say they marched in the civil rights movement," Cobb-Hunter said. "Are the people asking this question saying that if you didn't live through the Civil War, you can't understand slavery?"
Most of those in Obama's audience here had some past or present association with Claflin or nearby South Carolina State University, both of which are historically black colleges. Making my way through the crowd of old friends and neighbors, I wasn't able to find anyone willing to qualify Obama's blackness with an asterisk.
Henry N. Tisdale, Claflin's dynamic president -- the institution was failing when he took over in 1994 and now is firmly established in U.S. News & World Report's annual list of America's best colleges -- was less blunt than Cobb-Hunter, but no less dismissive of the question: "I think that in today's global and multicultural society, we will find persons such as Barack Obama becoming not the exception but the rule, and giving hope to all who want to live the American dream."
House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn, whose district includes Orangeburg, rearranged his schedule so he could be here to introduce Obama. "I thank him for giving new hope and inspiration to a new generation," Clyburn said. "Obama is able to run today because Rosa Parks sat down. . . . He is able to run today to give hopes and dreams to all of us."
I should make clear that none of these kind words added up to a formal endorsement. Almost a year remains before the South Carolina Democratic primary, scheduled for Jan. 29, in which African Americans will cast about half of all votes. Both Hillary Clinton and John Edwards hope to win significant black support in this state; I would advise them, and others, that trying to convince people that Obama somehow isn't black enough would be a poor use of precious time and resources.
Obama was comfortable in the town hall format, pacing like a talk-show host without notes or a lectern. His first big applause line was a call to fix "a health-care system that's broken." Someone in the audience yelled, "We want you to fix it!" and Obama yelled back, "We're going to fix it."
There were more cheers when he reiterated his opposition to the Iraq war, but he really got the crowd going when he talked about the national hunger for "a new kind of politics." People "want something new," he said, and the crowd enthusiastically agreed.
One woman, asking a question, mangled his name into "Barama." The candidate picked up on it immediately, saying that "they call me 'Alabama,' they call me 'yo' mama,' " but all that matters is that "I have your vote."
One of his biggest applause lines -- perhaps predictably, in a college town -- was a call for black Americans to "get over this anti-intellectualism we see in our community sometimes." And when he ended with a rousing "Yes, we can!" set piece, he exited the way every candidate wants to leave any room: with people on their feet, cheering for more.
Since I will be attending my first committee organization meeting I have been thinking of a few events that the Sacramento for Obama group could put together and I know that some point we are probably going to set up a voter's registration drive around Sacramento.
I was looking online this afternoon at all the catchy slogans that everyone has adopted and I personally do not care for any of them. Barack the Vote just doesn't capture my spirits, Barack and Roll sounds too commercial, Barack Steady and Barack Solid does not sound like serious campaign slogans, Barack the Cashbah is just plain silly and Barack my World and Barack my House... well ya know.
Anyway, I was thinking since his entire campaign is based on people's Audacity of hope for change, why not make our slogan Audacity to Vote? After all we are looking to register the very people who are hoping for imminent change from our next President of the United States, so I thought it would be a perfect way to capture people's attention.
What do you all think?
Chica supports Obama
This article is a week old but I found it interesting and thought I would share with those who might not have read it yet. -- Chica
By Benjamin Wallace-WellsSunday, November 12, 2006; B01
The 2006 elections were for the technocrats and the operatives, pitting the Democratic tacticians against the Karl Rove machine. But the next election is already beginning to look quite different: 2008 may be one for the novelists.
Viewers of the election returns late on Tuesday, after all, got an early start on the iconography of the next presidential race. The cable networks' cameras cut between Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, thanking her supporters for an overwhelming victory in the New York Senate race, her husband standing pointedly behind, and a smiling Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, giving cautious, professorial analysis to the television viewers. Nobody noted the significance, but it stared us all in the face: The two presumed leading contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination are a woman and an African American.
Their candidacies -- coming after elections resulting in the presumed first female speaker of the House and the second black governor since Reconstruction -- suggest that the next elections may play in ways that are more cultural and symbolic than tactical and political. Are Americans ready to put a black man or a woman in charge of the country? And does the hefty symbolism that Obama and Clinton would bring help one of them more than the other -- in other words, is the country more racist or more sexist?
Democracies are awkward like this. Despite incessant polling, we really get only one moment every two years, at best, to measure how Americans feel about things, and these elections must stand as imperfect proxies for a mess of subjects: what we think about religion, whether we like being included in the international conversation, whether Northeast bluebloods would tolerate a Texan as their leader.
But when it comes to race and sex, this seems a slightly more legitimate game: The question that remains for black Americans and women isn't whether prejudice has diffused to the point that they can participate in the United States, it's whether they can legitimately hope to lead it.
Today, they may have reasons to be optimistic. Poll numbers for Clinton and Obama are among the strongest of any presidential hopefuls. It now seems nearly as common for political leaders in television shows and movies to be women or racial minorities as white men. Recent polls have found that the percentages of Americans who say they would not vote for a hypothetical black or female presidential candidate, long formidable, have dwindled into the single digits. And last Tuesday's elections put House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on the brink of becoming speaker and Democrat Deval Patrick, who is black, in the Massachusetts governorship.
But as the two would-be presidential candidates grapple with how to manage the legacies of their own identities, Obama seems engaged with a more problematic political feeling. Even if race is more socially crippling than gender -- even if it was less likely that Obama would make it to Harvard Law than that Clinton would make it to Yale Law -- the symbolism of race can also be awfully empowering to individual politicians who learn to harness it. Most Americans want to believe that the culture has moved past its racial problems, and that the symbol of that progress would be widely cheered. Compared with Clinton, says George Lakoff, a linguistics professor and Democratic message guru, "Obama clearly has it better."
Whatever racism remains in this country, it coexists with a galloping desire to put that old race stuff behind us, to have a national Goodbye to All That moment. The most recent such occasion was Obama's much-publicized tour to promote his book of policy prescriptions, "The Audacity of Hope." The Denver Post called him a "rock star," the Seattle Times found him "electrifying," and even the Deseret News in Salt Lake City described the "raucous greeting" he received in Utah. This rapture wasn't only because of what Obama has said; most of his audiences had not heard much from him or read much of his book. It was because he symbolizes the possibility of a more modern America.
Clinton had a best-selling autobiography and a media-heavy book tour, too, but the coverage had less to do with the symbolism she carried as a woman than with her history as Bill Clinton's wife, and with the way she was positioning herself for the future. There are many reasons for this difference, but one critical one has to do with the legacies of oppression that each inherits. While many Americans have a sincere sense of sentimentality and nostalgia for what Clinton may consider outdated gender roles, a much smaller number have that kind of feeling for racial segregation. There is the sense that, by electing a female president, the nation would be meeting a standard set by other liberal democracies; the election of a black man, by contrast, would be a particularly American achievement, an affirmation of American ideals and a celebration of American circumstances.
Obama's mixed-race heritage is rarely far from his political conversation. He writes of having a Kansan mother "as white as milk," and a Kenyan father "as black as pitch." He has used his race explicitly while speaking in Africa and urging politicians there to move beyond tribalism, and implicitly while speaking in southern Illinois to punctuate an address about the challenges of globalization. In his speeches, Obama uses his simple presence as an establishment national political figure who is black to serve as a metaphorical exclamation point -- a visual assurance that the country can work for everyone.
This is how he used it in his most famous speech, at the 2004 Democratic National Convention: "I stand here today, grateful for the diversity of my heritage, aware that my parents' dreams live on in my two precious daughters. I stand here knowing that my story is part of the larger American story, that I owe a debt to all of those who came before me, and that, in no other country on Earth, is my story even possible."
When Clinton gives a speech, her gender is just as evident, but she doesn't give it nearly the same kind of rhetorical prominence. She is as likely to talk about handing out buttons for Republican Barry Goldwater as a child as about what her presence as a political woman means for the country. Her most famous speech during the current political cycle dealt with a topic close to her own identity: In January 2005, she gave a widely praised talk to a group of New York state family-planning providers, telling them that the pro-choice movement had failed to acknowledge the great emotional cost involved in having an abortion. For Clinton, a hero to many women who support abortion rights, this was regarded as a particularly brave stance.
But in a speech about such a personal topic, what is most noteworthy is its impersonality. Clinton didn't mention her own experiences as a wife or a mother, but seized upon a trip she took to Romania as first lady, where she learned about the policies of the dictatorship of Nicolae Ceausescu, who tried to force every woman to have five children for the glory of the state, subjecting them to monthly roundups and reproductive exams attended by the secret police. It's a striking story, but what's even more striking is the way Clinton introduced it: "My own views of family planning and reproductive rights are heavily influenced by my travels as first lady," she said. This is not only the kind of thing that Sen. Joe Biden might say, but it also sounds suspicious: Were Clinton's views on these issues not fully formed before she began traveling as first lady?
The contrast is vivid in the two senators' autobiographies. Obama's, "Dreams From My Father," is an attempt to explain his evolving political awareness as a direct articulation of his roots. Here is the way Clinton begins her life story, "Living History": "I wasn't born a first lady or a senator. I wasn't born a Democrat. I wasn't born a lawyer or an advocate for women's rights and human rights. I wasn't born a wife or a mother."
Part of this difference is simple personal style. And there's also the matter of learned political behavior: Clinton has spent a decade and a half being beaten up, often personally and viciously, for the intersection of her gender and her politics, and it would make sense if she were trying to disconnect the two. But there is something else here.
The political progress of women and African Americans has long been intertwined; the suffragette movement gained huge momentum from the complaint that black men had received the right to vote before women of any race. But when it comes to modern political leadership, women have become more present. In January, the Senate will have 16 women and one African American, while eight women and one African American will be governors. Geraldine Ferraro was a vice presidential running mate more than 20 years ago, and still no black politician has reached that plateau.
Gender, meanwhile, may have become part of the political wallpaper. When Rep. Harold E. Ford Jr. and Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele ran for Senate this fall, their race was mentioned in virtually every story; when Sen. Debbie Stabenow and Claire McCaskill ran, their gender was barely noted. The ferocity of national feelings about race can still be threatening; this election cycle saw the widely condemned race-baiting ads run against Ford in Tennessee. But if the nation feels its racial sins more clearly, it also has a more urgent desire to get past them. "I think gender has become more normal in leadership," said Marie Wilson, president of the White House Project, a New York nonprofit that works to develop female leaders with the goal of having a woman in the White House. "Race is a much more troubling, sadder, unresolved part of our history than the issue of gender, so it certainly looms larger."
Of course, the civil rights and women's rights movements of the 1960s have left vastly different legacies. No political figure would dare deny the saintliness of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.; Betty Friedan's name is a political dirty word. Repression of blacks was the stuff of massive state-leveraged cruelty -- the police dogs and fire hoses -- while repression of women in this country was made of quieter stuff: bras, aprons and constitutional amendments.
Obama is frequently called post-racial, the suggestion being that because he has an exotic background, Americans are looking at a newer model of a human. The metaphor works for Obama politically, because it contains the idea that his youth lets him create a more modern and inclusive brand of politics than the rhetoric of civil rights-era politicians such as Jesse Jackson. Clinton's Jesse Jacksons are Ferraro, who bombed, and Pelosi, who is still hanging around.
This is the ultimate imbalance between the would-be presidential contenders, and it's both rough on Clinton and helps explain why Obama's public presentation is so much more closely linked to his identity: There's a model for being post-racial, but there's no easy way to be post-gender.
Fredrick Harris, a political scientist at the University of Rochester, sees a post-gender future out there, and its name is Condoleezza Rice. The secretary of state, he notes, "is unmarried, has no children, is completely dedicated to her job, for pleasure she plays the piano and works and that's about it."
Clinton has made different choices, but they have their limits. Politically, she has done everything that Obama has done: She has become a serious policy professional, moved toward the center and renounced the excesses of 1960s-style identity politics. And yet these moves are received as the tacks of a smart politician. For Obama, they are received as the arrival of his race.
Benjamin Wallace-Wells writes on national affairs for Rolling Stone.
Right away I realized that they were Hillary Clinton supporters because they were driving a HUGE bus with Clinton 08 on the side of it and they were also wearing T-shirts that read the same thing. I immediately address an elder black man who happened to be standing next to me. I asked, "Why are you supporting Clinton and not Obama?"
He smiled and turned to face me and said, "Well little sister, let me educate you a little bit. First off, Hillary has the experience on her side and being that her husband did so much the eight years he was in the White House and she was apart of that I would think you too would want that feeling of liberation to return.
Secondly, I give much love and respect to Senator Obama for braving the front and choosing to run for presidency but he is not experience enough to lead a nation darling. The man has only been a Senator for two years and God only know what he was doing before that. Now don't get me wrong, I think it's a wonderful thing you want to grasp on to this dream that he his the Big Black Hope, but truth be told he's not just black, he's mixed which puts him in the middle of the spectrum and that makes him unreadable when it comes to the well being of the people."
I then asked him, "So are you saying that in your eyes Mister he's not Black enough to earn your trust or your vote?"
"No he's not," was his response.
Now to me that just seems ass backwards. First and foremost I wanted to slap the taste out of this old man's mouth for just speaking such ignorance, but I've been raised to respect my elders and people's opinions so I just bit my tongue.
However, I was livid and steam was coming off my forehead by the time I got on the bus to work. I can not believe that Black people are romanced by the Clinton administration when truth be told he did his fair share of good and bad... some at the expense of Black people. I did not have a problem with his choice to vote Clinton, but I just think that before you open your mouth and shovel shit into it you have to stop at the garden of knowledge and consume a fruit or two of intelligence and modesty.
As for experience goes, yes... Obama does lack POLITICAL experience, but he is well experienced in catering to the people's needs. I've chosen him as my Presidential hoepful just because his heart is with and for the people. He doesn't care about whatever self righteous issues he's trying to tackle to stroke his ego; it's about finding resolution for what ails the people.
If you're poor, he wants to help you get educated, find a job and tackle reasonable long term goals that are beneficial for financial growth in a society that deals in money and sense. I don't know about you all, but I'd rather have a man whose agenda is one aligned with humanitarian efforts instead of profitable margin marked by the mighty green dollar and secret coups with invested interested in exploiting it's people short comings. Seriously, Bush is no where near qualified to run a nation, and the promises that he once made while bedding the deceptively ignorant voters have been broken into millions of pieces yet no one has judge his duty to lead this country.
I did not hear one white person questioning or asking for racial clarification when Bush made his decision to run for President, but once again our people has made it a priority to make race an issue when in fact Obama's heritage is noted as being one marred with interracial discourse that is becoming the norm in today's society. He's the future, the here and now... the change that is blowing in the wind and we people who no longer see black and white but in specs of grey know that he is Man enough to lead this nation of dirty politics and shady back door deals into a better tomorrow.
Have a great weekend,
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is apologizing for saying the lives of the more than 3,000 U.S. troops killed in the Iraq war were "wasted."
Mr. Senator, if you learn anything over the next year and a half learn that once you have spoken your mind to stand behind it. Personally, I thought the term "wasted" was the perfect adjective to describe the lives lost in this ridiculous Iraqi war.
Yes, the 3,000 souls viewed by President Bush's as expendable toy soldiers have been "wasted" due to the faulty and inaccurate actions of Mr. Bush's administration. Ever since 9/11 there has been not a single piece of evidence that would suggest that the men and women serving this country deploying to war is creating a peaceful paradise for the people of Iraq. It's doing the opposite actually, and I think it's a shame that innocent people over there have had to endure endless bloodshed because of our government's imposed will for democracy instead of diplomacy.
I am bitter because this war has affected everyone. The President's ill-tempered reaction for vengeance proved not only deadly but irreversible and it's cost my family the lost of one family member, injury to another and have stolen away two others for a lengthy tour.
No offense to anyone, but I would have said the same thing considering this frivolous pissing contest between Bush & Al Qaeda has cost millions of tax payers dollars, lost of unnecessary resources and countless nights of sleeplessness because are people too worrying of what the repercussions of this war might bring onto our shores once the dust has settle.
It is what it is Mr. Obama and I'm glad that you spoke your peace; I just wish you could have been brave enough to stand your ground.
Be Well,
