Blacks and Obama

I can't speak to the black support issue personally. But I can tell you that in NH alot of the heirarchical political support was wrapped up about 6 months ago in June. And that it went to Hillary Clinton.

Primarily (pun intended) because of the Senator and the Former President Clinton's prior campaign experience up here. But also by getting the best organized democratic politicos on board early. Former Governor Jeanne Shaheen and her husband Billy have been well-versed in NH politics since Billy was head of the Jimmy Carter campaign. And Jeanne has already announced her intentions to run for the US Senate from NH. Connections count for everything in a small state. And if you have a ready-made organization that can get out the vote (GOTV), you start out in the lead and everyone else is playing catch up.

And that polls tend to reflect that support in the early stages of the campaign. Even down to the last 3 or 4 weeks when the ad blitzes begin and John and Jane Q. Public start making up their own minds - hopefully.

Extrapolating on the connectedness and the favorability ratings of the Clintons among African Americans, it's easy to see how the Clintons have garnered that same early support across the country from black community leaders. As is evidenced by the group of 6o plus pastors she received endorsements from this week in the Carolinas.

I'm not sure early support is really telling of anything other than who has the establishment behind them (whether people realize this or not). We're now getting into the time of the campaign where real solid opinions and votes are formed.

BTW, I drilled way down into the Barack site and found an interesting speech he gave to Evangelicals on Faith and Politics. It's 40 minutes but it gives a good sense of Barack's ideas on faith. http://www.barackobama.com/issues/faith/

signed
Culturally-conservative Indie
(Because there is no voice for culturally conservative Democrats anymore)

It's worse than that, Rod.

I had a long conversation (at least 40 minutes) a few months ago with an African-American political activist in Newark, New Jersey. (I'm for Obama, he's for Clinton.)

The gist of the conversation wasn't so much that Obama isn't "black enough" (whatever the h*ll THAT means), or even that Clinton favors more liberal orthodoxy, but rather that if Obama gets close enough to the presidency, he will either be literally assassinated or have his character assassinated to allow the Republicans to win the election. None of that would happen to Hillary, he said, because she's white, so she'll win easily in a pro-Democratic climate.

How sad.

It is far more simple than you all make it out to be, and a shocking lack of historical view from people who seem to view themselves as wise political commentators.

The conflict over school desegregation in the 70's and voting rights in the 60's locked the Democrats and African American voters together. Absolutely nothing the Republicans have been able to do (for the few who were willing to try) has been able to change that. This has nothing to do with "maturity" or a lack thereof. This requires no deep peer into the "African American psyche." (word to the wise, don't talk about "us" like we aren't here because we do read blogs, even when we don't agree with the content).

Williams makes a salient point in part, however, it's in service of his own opinions about the direction of progress within the larger Black community (rather than his community of older, wealthy, Black pundits). What he misses is that for the most part, Black people feel they don't know Sen. Obama, and they feel they do know Sen. Clinton, and feel her connection to President Clinton. That generally changes when people get to see/hear him in person (and they tell two friends, and so on . . .).

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

How did alienation, anger and pessismism become the hallmark of an entire ethnic group's politics?

It's worth comparing Al Sharpton's speech to the 2004 Democratic Convention to Barack Obama's. For Sharpton, like Jesse Jackson, it's "Selma Forever." There can be no positive change because if there were positive change, they'd lose power. As long as the only things keeping blacks from achievement and self-betterment are Things White People Do, it lets blacks off the hook for moral responsibility. It's classic scapegoat politics, and no one -- black, brown or white -- is free from its temptation. Anyway, for Sharpton and Jackson, it's a self-serving pose.

Agree that Huckabee and Obama aren't mean and angry, but whatever they have lost with their bases, they have surely gained elsewhere, probably from Independents. Be fascinating if they ended up becoming the candidates, wouldn't it?

Here's another way of looking at the question: Who did Bill Clinton run against in 1992 for the Democratic nomination? I can't even remember, off the top of my head, and I bet I'm not the only one. To the victor go the spoils -- not just monetary prizes, but everything else as well. Only in hindsight is a candidate inevitable.

Answer to the Trivia question:

Senator Paul Tsongas of Massachusetts, with a platform of democratic economic responsibility [I know ground breaking!] and reducing the National deficit that Clinton adopted when he went to Washington.

R.I.P. He was a good man. Died in the 1990's of cancer in his early 50's. But even though he's not known. He did have a positive influence on the Country and on our times.

But I do think that voting Republican is an indicator of political maturity, whereas voting Democratic is a sign that one wants to put the pacifier in one's mouth and have Uncle Sam feed you from cradle to grave.

No no no. Voting Republican is an indicator of the desire to bomb the hell out of someone (preferably someone sitting on oil), trample the poor, arrest gays, force women to have children, and destroy the environment in pursuit of profit; whereas voting Democratic is a sign that one wants to feed the poor, comfort the sick, tax the rich, cherish the environment, and love one's neighbors.

[/sarcasm]

What good does it do to focus on the extremes?

Mrs. Pringle?

But W surrounded himself (Rove, Cheney, speeches at Bob Jones U) with mean and angry Evangelicals and others with social conservative cred.

They're backing the contemptible Clinton for the same reason so many Evangelicals are backing the contemptible Rudy: they want to back who they perceive to be a winner.

“Is black America Ready to Embrace Obama?”

The O-man, Barack Hussein Obama, is an eloquently tailored empty suit. No resume, no accomplishments, no experience, no original ideas, no understanding of how the economy works, no understanding of how the world works, no balls, nothing but abstract empty rhetoric devoid of real substance.

He has no real identity. He is half-white, which he rejects. The rest of him is mostly Arab, which he hides but is disclosed by his non-African Arabic surname and his Arabic first and middle names as a way to triply proclaim his Arabic parentage to people in Kenya . Only a small part of him is African Black from his Luo grandmother, which he pretends he is exclusively.

What he isn't, not a genetic drop of, is 'African-American,' the descendant of enslaved Africans brought to America chained in slave ships. He hasn't a single ancestor who was a slave. Instead, his Arab ancestors were slave owners. Slave-trading was the main Arab business in East Africa for centuries until the British ended it.

Let that sink in: Obama is not the descendant of slaves, he is the descendant of slave owners. Thus he makes the perfect Liberal Messiah.

It's something Hillary doesn't understand - how some complete neophyte came out of the blue and stole the Dem nomination from her. Obamamania is beyond politics and reason. It is a true religious cult, whose adherents reject Christianity yet still believe in Original Sin, transferring it from the evil of being human to the evil of being white.

Thus Obama has become the white liberals' Christ, offering absolution from the Sin of Being White. There is no reason or logic behind it, no faults or flaws of his can diminish it, no arguments Hillary could make of any kind can be effective against it. The absurdity of Hypocrisy Clothed In Human Flesh being their Savior is all the more cause for liberals to worship him: Credo quia absurdum, I believe it because it is absurd.

Thank heavens that the voting majority of Americans remain Christian and are in no desperate need of a phony savior.

His candidacy is ridiculous and should not be taken seriously by any straight thinking American.

Pass this on to every straight thinking American you know!