If you've been following this blog at all, you had to know that its intended destination was to be able to post this song. Thank Jesus/Moses/Muhammad/Buddha/Zorro/etc that I'm actually able to do so.
"Funky President" by James Brown
As a P.S., here's a recap of how I spent election night in DC:
Congratulations to America!
I've been saving this song for a while.
If you're under the age of 40, you've probably heard it before. And you may have lost your mind whylin out at some house party, some club or in some car in some traffic jam on some American street.
It is quite obvious what we're on the precipice of. No need for any more salesmanship.
"The Choice Is Yours" by Black Sheep
Like any other creative type, I get very excited to start a new venture. At some point, I might grow bored, frustrated, impatient, distracted or disillusioned. Whenever that point (or those points) occur, I may be inclined to abandon the venture. Most likely, my energy will wane and I'll complete the venture on a lower note than I started it. Often, arriving at the destination feels less rewarding than was the act of launching into it.
The longer this campaign has dragged on, the more I've struggled to sustain my enthusiasm for it. I suspect I am not alone. At the very least, I figure there are a fair amount of people who've stagnated in their abilities to advocate for Obama and have leaned very heavily on talking points to sell the Senator's candidacy. If you're reading this and you're one of those people, let me see if I can give you a shot of rhetorical adrenaline.
Let me start on a low note. Obama is not going to deliver on everything he's told us he wants to do. Even if he has a Democratic supermajority in both chambers of Congress, the circumstances he will be asked to respond to (economic impotence, globalization, nebulous enemies, Iraq, etc) will require him to change up the game plan just a bit. He'll probably have to compromise on some elements of some of his bigger ideas (taxes, healthcare, withdrawal from Iraq, etc). I don't doubt his ability to execute, but I am realistic. And no politician is ever able to honor every single aspect of every single campaign promise. That's just not how governance unfolds. Governance, as we all know, is about compromise. For good. For ill. For the survival of those who play the game.
Now, let's find that high note.
There is a man we have become better acquainted with during these last 12 months. There is a campaign we have all participated in. There is a movement forward in which we have all invested. We have been awed by the intelligence of it all. We have been encouraged by its cunning. We have been inspired. And we have felt, for the first time in many of our cases, like the future really is ours to shape.
There is also a gasp. It is, in part, a wheeze from the willfully ignorant. It is, in a much larger part, an urge to operate as America 1.0. To retain an identity that is predicated on old world realities that allowed our little empire to manifest. That gasp is woefully unreasonable and it is ill-prepared for the historical moments that lie ahead of us. It informs some of the structure of America 2.0, but it is not, many of us believe, the business model that will work best in the world of tomorrow.
The future that started yesterday needs imagination. It needs forward thinking. It needs everything we have born witness to during the course of Senator Barack Obama's campaign to become President of these United States.
If you find yourself talking to undecided voters--whom we understand to still be quite plentiful--maybe it is no longer worthwhile to discuss with them the issues. At this point, if you're not informed on the issues, why should anyone believe that the issues really matter to you? Really. Web sites have been up for months now with pretty much every position statement you could want. And if you're not willing to seek out information that is so easily available, then I question your patriotism. After all, America is supposed to be about you controlling your own destiny. Or, at least, the illusion that you can control it. But I digress.
At this point in the campaign, if someone out there is still struggling to make sense of everything and decide for whom they will vote on Tuesday, perhaps the best appeal is to simply ask them, in their gut, what exactly do they want for their country?
Do they want to help seize an opportunity to take bold steps forward to empower the smartest guy in the room? Or do they believe it really is a good idea for America in 1950 to be the model for America in 2010?
Times have changed, yo. Time for us to vote for the guy who reflects that. The guy who is best equipped to guide the ship--through every kind of water.
It's a simple choice, really. Someone will take the weight. Regardless. It's up to the entire country to make the choice whether the broken, creaky tradition will carry on or whether a bold, daring advance will take the day.
If the song for today is any indication, you should know what I think. And you can play it for anyone still looking for some inspiration to help them make their choice.
"Who's Gonna Take the Weight" by Kool & the Gang.
Tupac Shakur used to have a saying something to the effect of "one person teach one person, teach two people, teach three people, teach four." It wasn't his own, I'd guess. And, of course, he used a word other than "person."
I don't know about y'all, but I find that so many of the dialogues taking place because of the election that is now less than 2 weeks away aren't the challenging and potentially uplifting exchanges that we all deserve. Instead, there's a lot of yelling back and forth meant to either 1) affirm pre-existing beliefs or 2) rhetorically wail on the other guy for being so ignorant as to fill his head with such foolish nonsense.
It's kinda like MMA of the mouth. And there's very little "teaching" going on.
Consequently, I've found myself drifting toward people whose belief systems I am only mildly familiar with. Or, in some cases, totally unfamiliar with. I find myself asking them about their views on the world and trying to understand how they've arrived at those conclusions. I have walked away from some of those exchanges feeling like I really learned something. I have walked away from others sensing that I've shared some wisdom. And I have walked away from a couple of them shaking my head in consternation.
All of this leads me to the song for today(ish). Which harkens back to that singularity Tupac used to holler about. If you can make just one impression on behalf of Barack, make it a good one. Like it's the only one you'll ever make. The only one you'll ever need to make.
"One Mic" by Nas.
I fell off.
I admit it.
I got all excited about the Obama campaign somewhere around Super Tuesday. Gave some money. Made some phone calls. Went to work on friends and family. Started this blog.
I kept all of it up for a while. Summer came. I got distracted. My inspiration waned as the campaign become more and more...well...political.
But, I'm still rockin' for That One.
And, I gather, there's a lot more of you doing the same than when I first got on board. Which is 15 kinds of great. And, hopefully, will be enough to bring this one home and put the good Senator from the Land of Lincoln in the Oval Office.
As we approach the end of this epic journey, this song is for all of y'all fighting the good fight:
"Keep Marchin'" by Raphael Saadiq
From Michelle's brother, Craig Robinson, in his speech tonight:
If you're looking for a political analysis based on his playing, here it is: he's confident but not cocky, he'll take the shot if he's open, he's a team player who improves the people around him, and he won’t back down from any challenge.
Obama made this 3-point basket while visiting with troops in Kuwait. He is too cool. Watch video here.
First, a paid FOX commentator accidentally confused "Obama" with "Osama" and then joked on the air about killing Obama. Next, a FOX anchor said a playful fist pound by Barack and Michelle Obama could be a "terrorist fist jab." (Seriously!) And then, FOX called Michelle Obama "Obama's baby mama"--slang used to describe the unmarried mother of a man's child.
Nearly 100,000 folks have signed a petition that will be delivered to FOX. Can you sign too? The more names, the bigger the impact. Here's the link.
How many times are you stereotyped or stereotype on another? With stereotyping being such an everyday thing to 87% of the United States society I have only daydreamed for the last 16-18 years for my nation to have the ability to vote for a minority let-alone a black president? In 2008 my first year that I am able to vote I feel blessed to be able to vote for the great senator Barack Obama. Mr. Obama stands for pride in his country, a good American life for all working classes, he stands for negotiations to lower day-to-day cost of living for American citizens, and he stands for universal health care for the middle class. I feel as if Mr. Obama is the Martin Luther King of our time, the way that both of them speak to crowds of thousands maybe millions at rallies were kids from 5-50 want to hear him speak his bone chilling arm hair standing words. I feel Mr. Obama has such a great out look on our all around economy, middle class witch 75% of the United States is classified under, “That means 7 out of 10 people that you know or 10 people in any given room is labeled middle class”. Mr. Obama’s outlook on universal health care is real very primitive. He feels the middle class that struggles should not struggle no more in the health care department and not worrying about “either paying your health bill, heat, electric, or the car note.” (CNN.com) I feel that Mr. Barack Obama stands for what this United States of America is looking for or else needs after the “Damage” that the bush administration has done to our country’s economy; First of all gas is up 71 dollars a barrel from a mere $65 a barrel that no more then two years ago we were only paying on a bad day $1.56 a gallon. Gran has sky-rocketed 1/3 (7-10%) just in this last year (2008), Milk has jumped these last 3 years from $1.40 a gallon to over $3.
HONOLULU, Hawaii (AP) -- Confined to the bench back in his high school basketball days, Barack Obama felt the need to campaign for change
var CNN_ArticleChanger = new CNN_imageChanger('cnnImgChngr','/2008/POLITICS/06/16/obama.hoopdreams.ap/imgChng/p1-0.init.exclude.html',2,1); //CNN.imageChanger.load('cnnImgChngr','imgChng/p1-0.exclude.html'); The scrappy "Obomber," nicknamed for his jump shot, wanted playing time for himself and the other reserves. At a team meeting, Obama confronted his coach, a man who could be fiery and intimidating.
Obama had a flashy style the coach, Chris McLachlin, didn't fully appreciate, a game he described as "streetball, get after it, the defense doesn't know what's coming."
"He could've played and started on any other team in the state. He was that good. We just happened to have just a team that was pretty loaded," McLachlin said.
As a result, Obama found himself stuck behind a couple of veteran forwards. Punahou School would win the state championship 60-28, with Obama scoring only two points.
Thirty years later, as the presidential campaign went into motion, another team stocked with veterans stepped up to compete. Obama resolved to stay off the bench, and his hard-charging ways paid off with victory in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Basketball has been an important part of Obama's life, from his island childhood to his years at Harvard Law School. Even today, he brings to the presidential contest qualities that teammates and other old friends remember seeing on the court.
"I could play basketball, with a consuming passion that would always exceed my limited talent," Obama wrote in his memoir.
On a playground under the sweltering sun, "Barry" found refuge and identity. The pudgy boy of mixed race -- his mother a white woman from Kansas, his father a black man from Kenya -- spent hours alone, working on his jumper, crossover dribble and other moves. With his maternal grandmother watching from her 10th-floor bedroom window, he would shoot hoops into the night.
"At least on the basketball court I could find a community of sorts, with an inner life all its own," Obama wrote. "It was there that I would make my closest white friends, on turf where blackness couldn't be a disadvantage."
He also used the sport to connect with the father he longed to know. The elder Barack Obama left Hawaii when his son was 2. When he returned eight years later for a brief Christmastime visit, he gave his son a basketball. In a rare photo of the two together, Obama and his father stand in front of a Christmas tree with the orange ball.
"Obviously, that visit meant a lot to him and had a profound impact," said Maya Soetoro-Ng, Obama's sister. "After all, that was the only real images he had of his father, that he experienced firsthand. You can imagine a boy coming of age, that such an encounter would be of vital importance."
On the sprawling campus of the prestigious Punahou School, Obama could often be seen carrying books in one hand and dribbling a basketball in the other. He eventually earned a spot on the heralded varsity team.
"He'd be the first one to practice, and after practice, he'd go to the park and play more," said McLachlin, who is the father of PGA Tour golfer Parker McLachlin. "So his passion for the game is unmatched by most of the players I've ever had."
Starting center Dan Hale, the youngest member of the championship team, remembers Obama as a tough competitor who wasn't into talking trash.
"If he did, he would always cap it with a smile," Hale said. "So there was never an edge to it in that sense. But if two guys were tied up with the ball, he's not going to back down. He was a guy that would get in there and fight for it."
The lone lefty, Obama was often called upon to bust zone defenses with his abilities to slash in the lane, improvise and hit the mid-range jumper. Players say Obama's up-tempo and freewheeling style sometimes didn't fit into McLachlin's structured game plans, modeled after UCLA's legendary coach John Wooden.
Obama was frustrated at times but stuck with the team's goals, his teammates recalled. "A lot of times, he didn't agree with coach. He sucked it up," said teammate Alan Lum. "A lot of times he did question, in respect. It wasn't anything negative. Perseverance is what he learned, because he really had to be a total team player."
The team's music was Obama's responsibility. Players grooved to the sounds of Earth, Wind and Fire and idolized the moves of pro star Dr. J, Julius Erving, whose picture hung on Obama's bedroom wall.
Obama continued playing pickup games at Harvard, where his long arms, quick first step and solid jumper made him difficult to guard, said friend and former schoolmate Hill Harper.
"I truly believe the way someone plays basketball definitely gives you a sense of who they are in their character," said Harper, now an actor who is raising money for Obama's campaign.
Michelle Obama may believe that as well. When she began dating Obama, she asked her brother, Craig Robinson, to test her new boyfriend on the court. Robinson, a former hoops star at Princeton and Oregon State's newly hired coach, reported back that Obama was confident and unselfish.
Today, Obama manages to squeeze in games occasionally, including on the morning of his big opening win in the Iowa caucuses.
"He really feels the game brings him back to a place where he can be completely himself and he can relax," said his sister. "He can recline into a gentler past, if you will."
Before the New Hampshire primary, Robinson helped set up 3-on-3 tournaments tied to a voter registration drive. In late April, Obama played in front of cameras in hoops-crazed Indiana. Four days later, in North Carolina, he scrimmaged with the beloved Tar Heels.
Obama said Sunday he'd like to put a court in the White House.
Referring to his disastrous attempt at bowling before Pennsylvania's Democratic primary in April, Obama said: "I hear there's a bowling alley (in the White House) and obviously that hasn't gone too well. So we're getting rid of the bowling alley and replacing it with a basketball court."
Obama's high school teammates say they recognize many of the moves on display in recent footage of Obama playing hoops, even if his mini-afro and several pounds of body weight are long gone.
"Could I could take him?" Hale asked. "Definitely. He might get me in full court, though. I don't run up and down as fast as I used to."
If you missed it, Obama appeared on Jimmy Kimmel's game night show yesterday.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHIMBYa7D7A
For Barack's proclivities in rocking a crowd with the most soul-stirring of speeches, I send out this SoD. He may or may not be a true fiend of the microphone, but he certainly is gifted with the mic in hand. A little bit like the R.
"Microphone Fiend" by Eric B and Rakim
Apart from that, let me also highlight a line from verse 2 that can be doubly applied to the Illest Senator still seeking the Oval Office:
"one on one and I'm the remainder"
Obviously, that would describe the result 100% of us on this site are hoping for should Barack get to run in the general election against McCain.
It also raises a good question. Rather, one word triggers a line of discussion: "remainder"
There are X amount of people on the Left who will vote for whomever is slotted into the Dem slot on the ballot 9 and a half times out of 10. There are X amount of people on the Right who will vote for whomever is slotted into the Rep slot on the ballot with a similar degree of frequency.
And then there's everyone else. The remainder.
(I didn't say this was gonna be a revelation, I just said it'd be a prompt for discussion.)
And here the question is: exactly how much of the voting populace are we still fighting for?
If Barack locks up the Dem nod, then what percentage of the voting eligible population can we still reasonably reach out to on behalf of the Obama Nation?
We can count on the Left. We can write off the Right. But how big is the middle? And how big is the unaccounted for? The folks who don't have hard and fast political beilefs?
In other words, what does the remainder equal?
Amidst all of the analysis and spinformationing following the latest Make-Or-Break primaries of Tues, May 6, I heard something very telling on NPR's All Things Considered yesterday. Here's the link:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90259929
In the course of that Q+A, Howard Wolfson makes it very plain that Hillary's strategy is now focused on electability. In other words, who can beat McCain in Nov?
That, as you might imagine, gave me a lot of pause. Like, are we merely trying to pick a winner or are we choosing the person who will serve as the leader of the someday-we'll-all-be-free world?
When I boarded Barack's bandwagon, I was pretty sure I was doing it to accomplish the latter. Which, I presume, is why the great majority of you have enlisted in this movement as well. That makes us the true believers who would not be swayed even if Stan Lee were to flip the script on us in mid-campaign.
(Frankly, as I've hinted at on this blog, I do think Barack's team has lost a little bit of its luster in recent weeks by stooping to some of the cliched political tactics we're all supposed to be rallying against. But that's hardly a reason to disembark from the Obama Express.)
What of the not-so-true believers? What about the fence-sitters? Or the Reagan-McCain Democrats? Or the independents?
I think the half-court hook shot from Hillary's campaign makes it clearer than ever. You can rock with them and uphold the institutions of American politics that have devolved to the point that George W. Bush was re-elected. (Nevermind 2000, he really did win in '04 and that, my friends, is some scary shit.) Or...and here is the hard pitch...or you can give the ball to the young Senator from Illinois who is well-traveled, well-versed in the vastly different degrees of American living, well-thought of by folks who both agree with and disagree with his own basic philosophies, and well-equipped with a powerful imagination to inspire a nation to holistically address its historical gaffes and to rise up together to fulfill its promise.
You can get with this. Or you can get with that.
From the New York Times Caucus Blog, "Dribbling Past Reverend Wright". Read the article and watch a video of him playing here.
Watch Obama make a "swish" at the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7cN8lNgy5s
Obama speaks, then shoots hoops in Kokomo
Richard Essex/Eyewitness News
Kokomo - Senator Barack Obama took timeout from hitting the campaign trail Friday evening, hitting the hardwood during a campaign stop in Howard County.
The Democratic presidential candidate took part in a 3-on-3 basketball game with a Marion high school student and three of his friends. Blake Hancock was selected to play in the game after collecting 150 voter registration forms. The Illinois senator is known to regularly use basketball as part of his workout regimen.
But before he was hitting jump shots, Obama was hitting talking points in a speech at another gym.
"No more homeless veterans, no more begging for disability payments. They have earned our respect and they will get it," he told the crowd at Kokomo's Memorial Gymnasium.
While the basketball game gave the candidate a rare chance to stretch his legs on the campaign trail, his presentation stayed consistent.
"Here is what we have to do," Obama said. "We got to rebuild the capacity of our economy to generate good jobs and that means investing in infrastructure."
Kokomo gyms have not seen this type of excitement in years. Senator Obama supporters say he is changing that feeling.
"I think there is a little bit of excitement about the Obama campaign coming to Kokomo," said Greg Moore. "I think people are embracing the ideal that Obama has about change. We're hoping that he comes up with a little more concrete ideas."
Obama is the first Democratic presidential hopeful to visit Kokomo in 40 years. He'll continue his Indiana campaign on Saturday with stops at Marion and Anderson.
Article today from CNN's political ticker:
(CNN) — The pageantry, the emotion, the packed gymnasiums — basketball fanatics in Indiana and North Carolina have seen it all before.Democrats in both primary states are beaming about their newfound roles in this extended nomination contest, but long after the bumper stickers and campaign buttons are packed away, and when the awkward sports metaphors are nothing but distant memories, Hoosiers and Tar Heels will always have that familiar sound of sneaker-on-hardwood to fall back on.Still, with politics and hoops now crossing paths, a handful of basketball icons have become caught in the moment, stepping off the court to endorse presidential candidates this cycle.Here's a quick look at which basketball celebrities from North Carolina and Indiana have weighed in on the 2008 race, according to Federal Election Commission data and news reports.
(CNN) — The pageantry, the emotion, the packed gymnasiums — basketball fanatics in Indiana and North Carolina have seen it all before.
Democrats in both primary states are beaming about their newfound roles in this extended nomination contest, but long after the bumper stickers and campaign buttons are packed away, and when the awkward sports metaphors are nothing but distant memories, Hoosiers and Tar Heels will always have that familiar sound of sneaker-on-hardwood to fall back on.
Still, with politics and hoops now crossing paths, a handful of basketball icons have become caught in the moment, stepping off the court to endorse presidential candidates this cycle.
Here's a quick look at which basketball celebrities from North Carolina and Indiana have weighed in on the 2008 race, according to Federal Election Commission data and news reports.
Tomorrow ain't the end of the game, but it sure as hell feels like the last two minutes of the first half.
(I'd like to call it the final seconds of the third quarter, but that would be premature.)
With the Keystone Primary at last upon us, there's only one band to call on for the SoD: The Roots.
For those who know, Philly's finest has a new record coming out next week. For those who don't know, ?uestlove and co. are the hardest working band in hip hop. Perhaps in all of music. ?uest himself long ago boarded the Obama Express and has provided holistic support to the campaign--even chronicling some of his GOTV adventures on his myspace blog. The group's official web site has officially endorsed Barack.
What does all this have to do with you? Well, it's useful background for this teeth-grinding, ugly-up-your-face, pound-your-chest, roll-up-your-sleeves, head-banging SoD:
"Get Busy" by the Roots
PENNSYLVANIA, STAND UP!
Dear Barack,
Bad show on Wed. Good show on Thurs.
Surely, I am not the first to send this song your way. Probably won't be the last. Whatever. This one's for you, homie.
Peace,
Tim
"Get that Dirt off Your Shoulder" by Jay-Z
"...all the hustlers they love it just to see one of us make it..."
