My ex lives in Virgina.
She's a die-hard feminist. Women are always right, men are always wrong. I think she'd vote for Eva Braun, on gender alone.
Tonight she called me from an Obama rally. Just wanted me to hear the great speechifying.
If he can get to Susan, HRC is in seriously deep doo doo.
You are great.
I have written before about the 'Old Northern Wisconsin White Bitch' agreeing with 'Young(er) New York Black Dude', and how weird is that?
I just Love This Place!
Obama is offering something different. He offers a potential solution to the one thing that has been destroying America since her birth... racism. If this country can ever get beyond racism there is no greatness we can not obtain. True diversity has always been the secret to our success and foolish divisiveness has always been a source of our failures. Perhaps a President Obama can get us on the path to that "City on the Hill."
I have gone upwards of 90 minutes in sections of L.A. without seeing more than two Black faces.
LM, you know where to shop, you can go 90 DAYS in LA without seeing ONE black face. If that were the goal.
Your point, though, is one that I'd like to play out a bit as relates to my region, the Southwest. You're right that the voters who went for Obama here are younger and browner than their parents and neighbors who went for Clinton. I don't know whether that's because those who are younger don't recall the Clinton years, and therefore can't remember living in a country in which they were not the pinata at the party run for the benefit of the white elite.
I think it may just be that those who have less experience with the cycle of politics running like a carousel, sometimes-up-then-down, who have learned all that they know during the Bush II era, are much more attracted to 'change Washington' as a message than those who know what it was like when insane racists weren't in charge of every policy.
Henry Cisneros brought down the house, and then Dolores Huerta set the pieces on fire, at HRC's New Mexico and AZ events. And if you don't know who they are, how can you be loyal to them?
The gang at SepiaMutiny.com is doing some interesting work on the immigrant vote from the South Asian angle.
He offers a potential solution to the one thing that has been destroying America since her birth... racism.
Agreed that racism is this nation's original sin, can you talk about how Obama offers a solution to it?
My god, some of you are so full of Kool-Aid (tm) it boggles the mind. With B.O. it's a classic case of no there being there. Wake the fuck up. Even if he fools so many....be careful what you wish for. It will be the WORST flavor EVER.
Uh Oh:
"She has to win both Ohio and Texas comfortably, or she’s out," said one superdelegate who has endorsed Mrs. Clinton, and who spoke on condition of anonymity to share a candid assessment.
I'll bet her numbers in Ohio and Texas are a disaster.
Hey LM - welcome back. I was wondering what you were up to.
About the race - I think its over. With the single exception of NH, the only states Clinton has won are those where Obama didn't campaign - or where the vote was held before her lead totally disappeared. When you put the two of them in the same state for a few days or a week, her support evaporates and his support blows up. This isn't about momentum. The more voters take an upclose look at both of them, the more votes Obama will get.
I'll be amazed if he doesn't rout her in the Chesapeake Primary tomorrow, and then in Wisconsin and Hawaii next Tuesday. Then they have two weeks off before Texas and Ohio. They are going to be head-to-head on the six o'clock news in Dallas and Cleveland for two solid weeks. Talk about following James at the Apollo...Clinton will be lucky to get a tie out of either state when she'll need a 65/35 win in both just to catch Obama in assigned delegates. I think she's going to get crushed.
Speaking of Schuster and the media...From the beginning, literally from the first Obama rally at UT Austin a year ago, the serious beltway press has cynically asked if the tens of thousands showing up at Obama's rallies were really going to vote or if they were just there for the show. Well, the motherfuckers are voting and that's why Clinton's campaign is doomed.
But this phenomenon is also condemning the beltway media's role as the arbiters of political discussion and seriousness. Chris Matthews and Fat Timmy haven't become dumber in the last 12 months. It's just that 20,000 people at a shot crying out "Yes, we can" and then voting and winning, has exposed them in a way they've never faced before.
They can comprehend so little of this new world that they can't even believe it might be real. But they'll figure that out soon enough. Then the knives will come out and the second campaign will begin.
Some more 'random musings':
1. I vote in the gym of a grade school adjoining some mostly-Black NYCHA projects. It wasn’t mobbed, but I’ve never seen so many voters who apparently live in those projects. (Mrs. Watson was fired up; she took off from work, and was handing out Obama literature on a nearby street corner.)
2. I think that after an initial wait-and-see period, there has been a big move by Blacks toward Obama in the past few months. He never presented himself as the Black standard-bearer, and there was the initial ‘Is he Black enough?’ okey-doke. But now the hope/change/I-am-not-Al Sharpton gambit seems like a winning strategy. It turns out that Obama’s a cool guy, comfortable in his own skin and with his own race, whatever that is. He’s attractive and charismatic. (Bill Clinton’s funk may be in part because his Big Dog status is obviously wobbling.) Obama’s clearly not running away from a Black identity. He’s kind of like Tiger Woods. He forces the race question back on whites: how do THEY define Black? And what is the significance of someone’s race, particularly if it’s Black? Are whites still trying to think in terms of octaroons?
3. I don’t think Latinos are any more anti-Black than any other group. A lot of them identify as white. That would include nearly all of the South Americans I’ve met (even though most of our country clubs don’t see it that way). A lot of Puerto Rican, Dominican, Panamanian, and some Cuban-Americans proudly identify as Black. Mexican-Americans, who predominate in the southwest, are constantly made aware that they don’t pass, and tend to identify with their Indio roots. (But don't under-estimate Obama's youth appeal!)
4. I thought Shuster’s remark was more absentminded than malicious, an indication of the coarsening of our culture. It’s been years since Viacom’s ‘thug’ rappers got a pass for popularizing the figurative use of ‘pimp’.
5. Before we get too optimistic that either candidate will take us very far from the current orthodoxy, consider their advisors: Obama - Zbigniew Brzezinski, Tom Daschle, Susan Rice, Anthony Lake, and Austan Goolsbee. Clinton - Richard Holbrooke, Sandy Berger Martin Indyk, Robert Rubin, and Madeleine Albright.
waiting for texas and ohio? as has been stated on other blogs today, this sounds like rudy strategy, counting on florida- and skipping states in between.
LM,
Your comment about people in journalism having lost command of language is most astute. It's really no deeper than that.
There's also Whoopi's observation this morning on The View: "This is what happens when white folks say words they have no clue how to use." Don Imus anyone?
Time for y'all to step away from the Ebonics. It only gets you in deep do-do.
Chris,
I'm not a feminist. I've listened to the speeches online, unedited. A 26 year old white guy named Jon Favreau (not that one ) is writing them. As a writer, I give the speeches a B-, the delivery a B+. They're filled with a lot of cliches that make me cringe. But that's just me. It's not the just speechifying, it's the atmosphere, the scene, the collective energy of a rock concert, the media, and all that goes with a live history-making event. Politics is boring stuff and so anything close to being electric is a big deal. JFK was a HUGE deal. A good-looking man with that thick head of hair, engaging smile...and his gorgeous stylish wife captured in the early days of tv. After old grandfatherly Ike and matronly alcoholic Mamie, people went batshit. I was an elementary school kid and the world was suddenly an intoxicating place. Sweaty beady eyed Nixon didn't stand a chance.
But the world was a bit different then. Yes there was the Cold War and Communism, but the country was not on the tenuous ground it is today. Barack without a prepared speech, stumbles, hesitates, doesn't complete sentences, does not have a fluid command of his words on subjects that are important. I've had my fill of that with Bush. In this day of epidemic ADD, people, young people especially, fall in and out of love with the media celebrities paraded in our faces. There's something crazy and frankly a bit dangerous about needing to be whipped into a euphoric frenzy by a political leader who will ultimately be saddled with the responsibility of government and confined to the 'checks and balances' as dictated by the Constitution. Are we talking about changing the Constitution? Is that what people reallly want. Now I don't mind having a discussion about that. But I don't think people really in their heart of hearts want that. Earth to everyone: we will come down from this high. It's only a matter of time.
Obama's ego is not what frightens me. Politicos all have gigantic egos. It's the egos of all the people who have vested so much into his candidacy that they can't see straight much less think. Reflect back on history. Society doesn't fare well when that happens.
I said from the beginning, I will vote Democratic come Nov, because I will be hanged if I have to endure 4 more years of Repugnant rule. Obama gets my vote, if he's the nominee.
But I'd pay attention to the closer picture. The fine print that media is holding back because they are in LOVE with the Obama story and making big ad money off of all the attention it's getting. The Hillary campaign would be cancelled if it was a tv show by now.
I don't care what Obamatons are spinning about all the independents he's going to get over McCain and how the Repubs are quaking in their boots over the thought of coming up against him. Check out the details of who and how he's won in every Primary and Caucus so far. And ask this question if you can objectively. Will the Democratic Party pick the candidate that will win or the one that the Repubs want to run against? Like the Dems did in 2004? Do you really think paranoid Conservative Pro Lifers are going to pass up the opportunity for Judicial Appointments? Forget about National Security? It's a long time till November. There's going to have to be some really good drugs for the high to last that long.
PS
I, too, long for the day of racial harmony. But it ain't gonna happen by someone leading us by the hand into the promise land of racial unity. It will happen when each and everyone of us simply has a change of heart. When we recognize, I and my sister/brother are one. If someone has to carry you on that journey, it won't be a genuine one.
mimi,
she voted for the war. she still supports the war. fine piece, but when you use the term "obamatons" -- it goes a long way to destroying your objectivity. she doesn't "get a turn" -- if she pulls out a win, good for her -- if not, well, I'm still voting, either way.
if people are being inspired, great, but I still want ALL the candidates to be called on their positions, and to defend them.
one thing to consider: do you think the 50-state strategy will survive a Hillary win? will Dean? Look at the campaign she's running, WHERE she's running, and ask yourself this. Why is it that greater participation and larger turnouts are bad?
I'm afraid I'm developing a mild case of attention disorder syndrome. Strangely, the outbreak only happens here at GNB. After reading half the article, I totally lost the story line. What was the author trying to tell me? No clue.
But maybe I just need more caffeine.
:-/
I just don't get it. Obama offers substance and details on his website on every issue of import. All you have to do is go there and you will read the wonky details... his rallies are just that an event to rally his people to his cause. And yet some are trying to criticize the guy because he's good at making speeches. It makes no sense when half of a Presidents' job is to rally the nation, to lead.
All this talk about him only appealing to youth or the naive is so much bullshit. This old man, who first vote was for McGovern, who voted for Paul Wellstone in every election he ran in, and who wants very much to vote for Obama in November is certainly not naive politically. Rather I think Obama is something special. He is someone that can lead us up and away from the mud and blood the Republicans have dragged us into. America needs change badly and they will not get it from an old bitter man who wants us to war in Iraq for the next 100 years or a Baptist Minister.
I'm not against Senator Clinton, I am for Senator Obama in this embarrassment of Democratic candidate riches.
Amuseinc,
Do you think that having Obama as president will help solve some of America's racial problems?
lm good to have you back, you miss on problebly your msot important point. the best comic ever written was "the prez" issue during "the wake" story line in Sandman.
as a note Obama didn't win Il on teh back of the Il machine (the daily machine). teh daily machine never liked him much, he beat that group twice, once for his state seat and again in the primary for his senete seat. the clinton machine is on a national scale, but obama beat machine politics tiwce...defaetaing the oldes nastyist, msot expereinced machine this nation ahs ever seen...clinton has nothing on daily...nothing.
Amuseinc see if you read the substance you couldn't regurgitate the clinton talkign points. she is running a republican style champaing, you need to blindly reguritate the talkign points for that to work...don't go bringing reality into the equation it messes the whole meme up.
I find it very interesting that people can say with the same breath that obama has no subsatance, that his supporters area cult of personality. and that he wins states with well educated populations because hillarys base is the blue coller and low information voters.
If hillarys base is the low info democrats how EXACTLY dose the no substance obama mame work..i guess hes only low substance for the people who fall in teh low info catagory.
I voted for Obama today in my pretty much all African-American neighborhood.
I voted around 10:00 and there were decent lines because most people were at work I guess but I did notice more people starting to stream in probably because of the threat of ice and snow in the afternoon.
In regards to the Latino/black divide, I agree with LM's take on what's going on but in my personal experience with my Latino friends from both the east and west coasts is that the divide is greater with older folks (i.e. parents) and those who have just immigrated.
I've never had any real problems with anyone but I don't think that this is an issue that one candidate will be able to exploit over another.
If anything I think people don't give blacks and Latinos enough credit for understanding that whatever the demographics say we do have to work together and giving the right what it wants, which is some sort of racial bloodletting, does neither of us any good.
I think Obama should he win the nomination will be fine in the general election with Latinos.
After all the GOP is party of "Stopping the encroaching brown menace". I think the knowledge of what the GOP represents for the future of Latinos in this countruy outweighs any tension that might exist between groups.
Baltogeek, what led you to pick your handle? Are your people from the baltic states?
No but I'd never thought of that. 
I'm from Baltimore, which can be abbreviated Balto. and I'm a proud geek.
Voila!
Good points about Black - Latino relations - it's a bit more complicated.
I have to concur that in NYC (where I lived for a couple of years in the 90's) - people are in your face more than say, California, where I'm from, but since everybody's around each other...people learn to navigate and deal with each other. That's how I felt when I saw LA going up in smoke in during the Rodney King riots in 1992, while living in NYC---I have to give credit for Dinkins and the city government for working very quickly to defuse the situation in Gotham then.
Interestingly, LA is becoming relatively more Latino to the point where some black politicians' constituencies are now a plurality if not majority Latino - Maxine Waters' district for example, and I'm sure she gets plenty of Latino votes to get reelected. And in NYC, Charlie Rangel's district, Latinos now exceed African Americans in population.
understand there is no Latino block (well outside of univision and the mexicans that really want a universal LATINO group) in south and central america nationalism is the big thing and that carries over to the hispanic communities in this country (at least in areas where there is a large population)
there is no latino vote to get. there is a mexican vote, a peruvian vote, an ecudorian vote, a cuban vote, a purtorican vote. ect ect.
hillary was doign well with teh mexican vote (henses the big numbers in SoCal for her) but that seems to be chancgeing (dose not bode well for TX for her). I dont' get why the media thinks that means she has an advantage in purtorico...diffrent demographic compleatly.
tenacitus, Obama as president doesn't end racism but it sure gets the conversation front and center. Most importantly it gives Americans on both the right and the left the beginnings of a conversation.
Rightwingers have to admit that we must become a meritocracy where your race or culture should not be allowed to hold back your capabilities. There is no excuse for racism.
Leftists are going to have to start a conversation about how if we praise the strength and ability of someone like Obama, we must expect similar efforts from everyone... no matter race or culture. Bluntly, there is no excuse for being a person who is a detriment to the greater good.
Hubert Humphrey, shows you how old a Democrat I am, said something I have always believed... "Americans don't want a handout, they want a hand up." Starting a conversation on how we can eliminate racism in America would be a hell of a hand up for America.
Hey, it looks like our resident Troll o the Month is back! Guess this level of "pro-Negritude" (to use one of Gilly's favorite words) was just too much to resist, fresh bag o Cheetos and a snowstorm nonwithstanding...
To the news blog team.
I really love your coverage of democratic battle for the convention. I was wondering if any of you guys have thought of posting an article comparing the Obama/Clinton battle to the Lincoln/Seward tussle?
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