Hillary Clinton says she thinks Barack Obama is inexperienced and naive if he thinks he can bring a fresh approach to foreign affairs. Too bad. What's wrong with the current approach is evident in the US standing in the world when it comes to respect. Obama would meet face to face with leaders of nations George W. Bush considers evil. Obama also would not let Pakistan off the hook when it comes to fighting terrorism. If Pakistan won't do the job of going after terrorists hiding there and in the border areas with Afghanistan, the US will.
Obama also has a good take on the intense focus on the N, B and H words by some civil rights and civic leaders to the exclusion of other issues. In the current VIBE magazine, where he's on the cover, he says: "My priority as a U.S. senator is dealing with poverty and educational opportunity and adequate health care. If I'm ignoring those issues and spending all my time worrying about rap lyrics, then I'm wasting my time."
The NAACP has taken up this cause; so, too, has Al Sharpton. Let Obama focus on other matters.
Showing posts with label Hillary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hillary. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
Money, Money, Money, MONEY!! But...
What does it all mean that the leading Democratic candidates and, on the Republican side, Mitt Romney, have raised so much money this soon into the presidential campaign season -- or that Sen. John McCain is panicking at trailing not just Romney but his own expectations?
Sen. Clinton has raised $26 million in the first quarter of the year. Sen. Obama has come on strong, "nipping at her heels," as one TV news anchor put it, with $25 million raised this quarter in a shorter period of actual fundraising. John Edwards has raised $14 million.
While McCain, the presumed frontrunner according to pundits and his own sense of self, raised $12.5 millon, that was dwarfed by Romney's $20 million. New York's former mayor, Rudy Giuliani, has raised $15 million.
For now, it's the ability to raise money that seems to influence news coverage of who's on first in each party. But I want to hear a whole lot more about issues and less about money and popularity and star quality.
Sen. Clinton has raised $26 million in the first quarter of the year. Sen. Obama has come on strong, "nipping at her heels," as one TV news anchor put it, with $25 million raised this quarter in a shorter period of actual fundraising. John Edwards has raised $14 million.
While McCain, the presumed frontrunner according to pundits and his own sense of self, raised $12.5 millon, that was dwarfed by Romney's $20 million. New York's former mayor, Rudy Giuliani, has raised $15 million.
For now, it's the ability to raise money that seems to influence news coverage of who's on first in each party. But I want to hear a whole lot more about issues and less about money and popularity and star quality.
Sunday, March 4, 2007
Bloody Sunday, Part Two
If this was a competition, Barack Obama won in the Bloody Sunday Showdown in Selma, Alabama, today. No question.
Hillary Clinton gave a speech at the First Baptist Church. Barack Obama Jr. gave a politically-tinged sermon at the Brown A.M.E. Church, which was headquarters for the March 7, 1965, march for voting rights that ended in the beating and battering and tear gassing of the participants. He paid homage to the “Moses generation,” some of whom were in the congregation: the men and women who did so much to lead Blacks out of bondage but never quite made it to the Promised Land.
"We are in the presence today of a lot of Moseses. They are giants whose shoulders we stand on. They are people who battled on not just the behalf of African Americans, but on behalf of all Americans for America's soul....Like Moses, they challenged Pharoah, powers who said that some are on top and others are at the bottom and that's the way it's always going to be."
His is the “Joshua generation,” he said, tasked with the obligation to continue the journey and to move in directions the Moses generation could not even have imagined. "It's because they marched that the next generation hasn't been bloodied so much" and has excelled in many fields, including politics.
Not so subtlely silencing his critics about his racial identity, he recounted the life story of his Black grandfather, still called a "houseboy" when he was in his 60s in colonial Kenya and required to carry a passbook to get from one place in White-controlled Kenya to another part. But he dreamed and passed on his hope to his son, Barack Obama (Sr.), who benefitted from a US program to bring Africans to the US for education and to repair the American image abroad as a result of the well-publicized injustices and brutalities of the civil rights era. The possibilities for the Obamas changed "because some folks were willing to march across a bridge."
"So don't tell me I don't have a claim on Selma, Alabama. Don't tell me I'm not coming home when I come to Selma, Alabama. I'm here because somebody marched for our freedom."
His message, beyond connecting his family’s racial odyssey and his own to the march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, was not that different from Clinton’s. They both said that the march must continue.
“We have to finish the march,” Hillary said. “That is the call to our generation, to our young people.”
"There are still some battles that need to be fought, some rivers that need to be crossed," Barack said.
And referring to God's message to Joshua, Barack admonished his listeners to “Be strong and have courage.” Blacks seem to be warming to that message.
Hillary Clinton gave a speech at the First Baptist Church. Barack Obama Jr. gave a politically-tinged sermon at the Brown A.M.E. Church, which was headquarters for the March 7, 1965, march for voting rights that ended in the beating and battering and tear gassing of the participants. He paid homage to the “Moses generation,” some of whom were in the congregation: the men and women who did so much to lead Blacks out of bondage but never quite made it to the Promised Land.
"We are in the presence today of a lot of Moseses. They are giants whose shoulders we stand on. They are people who battled on not just the behalf of African Americans, but on behalf of all Americans for America's soul....Like Moses, they challenged Pharoah, powers who said that some are on top and others are at the bottom and that's the way it's always going to be."
His is the “Joshua generation,” he said, tasked with the obligation to continue the journey and to move in directions the Moses generation could not even have imagined. "It's because they marched that the next generation hasn't been bloodied so much" and has excelled in many fields, including politics.
Not so subtlely silencing his critics about his racial identity, he recounted the life story of his Black grandfather, still called a "houseboy" when he was in his 60s in colonial Kenya and required to carry a passbook to get from one place in White-controlled Kenya to another part. But he dreamed and passed on his hope to his son, Barack Obama (Sr.), who benefitted from a US program to bring Africans to the US for education and to repair the American image abroad as a result of the well-publicized injustices and brutalities of the civil rights era. The possibilities for the Obamas changed "because some folks were willing to march across a bridge."
"So don't tell me I don't have a claim on Selma, Alabama. Don't tell me I'm not coming home when I come to Selma, Alabama. I'm here because somebody marched for our freedom."
His message, beyond connecting his family’s racial odyssey and his own to the march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, was not that different from Clinton’s. They both said that the march must continue.
“We have to finish the march,” Hillary said. “That is the call to our generation, to our young people.”
"There are still some battles that need to be fought, some rivers that need to be crossed," Barack said.
And referring to God's message to Joshua, Barack admonished his listeners to “Be strong and have courage.” Blacks seem to be warming to that message.
Bloody Sunday, Part One
If the New York Times' Maureen Dowd had her way, the bloody part of this commemoration of a very important day in US history, would come from Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton duking it out in Selma, Ala.
But Bloody Sunday is much more sacred than that. The name comes from that date in March 1965 when scores of Black people, including a very young John Lewis who is now a senior congressman from Georgia, had the crap beat out of them as they tried to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge in a march to the capital, Montgomery, to demand the right to vote. Because so many people, including those in the White House, were horrified at the televised beatings, another march was scheduled, with Martin Luther King Jr. leading the line of advocates along with clergy of various faiths who came in as reinforcements. And President Johnson decided to use his muscle to convince Congress to enact the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
This is an account of what happened that Bloody Sunday, taken from Juan Williams' Eyes on the Prize, a riveting companion book to the PBS series of the same name in the 1980s. Look for the book in your local stores; the documentary is available on DVD.
"'When we arrived at the apex of the Edmund Pettus Bridge," recalls Lewis, 'we saw a sea of blue[-clad] Alabama state troopers.' Gas masks hung from the belts of the troopers, who were slapping billy clubs against their hands....Major John Cloud ordered them to turn back. 'It would be detrimental to your safety to continue this march,' he said....Fifty policemen moved forward, knocking the first ten to twenty demonstrators off their feet. People screamed and struggled to break free as their packs and bags were scattered across the pavement. Tear gas was fired, and then lawmen on horseback charged into the stumbling protesters....'The police were riding along on horseback beating people,' remembers Andrew Young. 'The tear gas was so thick you couldn't get to where the people were who needed help'....Television coverage of the police assault interrupted the networks' regular programming; ABC broke into its broadcast of the film Judgment at Nuremberg. 'When that beating happened at the foot of the bridge, it looked like war,' recalls Mayor Smitherman. 'That went all over the country. And the people, the wrath of the nation came down on us.'"
Hillary is showing up with her ace in the hole for courting Blacks, former President Bill Clinton. Obama is speaking in the church that was headquarters for the Selma campaign, the Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church, and he has John Lewis at his side, along with others like Joseph Lowery who were King's aides and successors.
But rather that political strategizing, this day should be one for remembering what Blacks and some of their White allies went through to gain the right to vote that had been included in the US Constitution since 1870, but never really enforced. In essence, Blacks gained the right to vote in 1965 because of Bloody Sunday.
But Bloody Sunday is much more sacred than that. The name comes from that date in March 1965 when scores of Black people, including a very young John Lewis who is now a senior congressman from Georgia, had the crap beat out of them as they tried to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge in a march to the capital, Montgomery, to demand the right to vote. Because so many people, including those in the White House, were horrified at the televised beatings, another march was scheduled, with Martin Luther King Jr. leading the line of advocates along with clergy of various faiths who came in as reinforcements. And President Johnson decided to use his muscle to convince Congress to enact the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
This is an account of what happened that Bloody Sunday, taken from Juan Williams' Eyes on the Prize, a riveting companion book to the PBS series of the same name in the 1980s. Look for the book in your local stores; the documentary is available on DVD.
"'When we arrived at the apex of the Edmund Pettus Bridge," recalls Lewis, 'we saw a sea of blue[-clad] Alabama state troopers.' Gas masks hung from the belts of the troopers, who were slapping billy clubs against their hands....Major John Cloud ordered them to turn back. 'It would be detrimental to your safety to continue this march,' he said....Fifty policemen moved forward, knocking the first ten to twenty demonstrators off their feet. People screamed and struggled to break free as their packs and bags were scattered across the pavement. Tear gas was fired, and then lawmen on horseback charged into the stumbling protesters....'The police were riding along on horseback beating people,' remembers Andrew Young. 'The tear gas was so thick you couldn't get to where the people were who needed help'....Television coverage of the police assault interrupted the networks' regular programming; ABC broke into its broadcast of the film Judgment at Nuremberg. 'When that beating happened at the foot of the bridge, it looked like war,' recalls Mayor Smitherman. 'That went all over the country. And the people, the wrath of the nation came down on us.'"
Hillary is showing up with her ace in the hole for courting Blacks, former President Bill Clinton. Obama is speaking in the church that was headquarters for the Selma campaign, the Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church, and he has John Lewis at his side, along with others like Joseph Lowery who were King's aides and successors.
But rather that political strategizing, this day should be one for remembering what Blacks and some of their White allies went through to gain the right to vote that had been included in the US Constitution since 1870, but never really enforced. In essence, Blacks gained the right to vote in 1965 because of Bloody Sunday.
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Hillary and Obama
So far surrogates are doing the trash talking while Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama insist they are taking the high road.
David Geffen, the Hollywood mogul, hosted a $1.3 million fundrasier for Obama Tuesday; in the past he has raised millions for the Clintons. This time around, though, he tries to boost Obama by calling the Clintons liars. Of course, much of media -- mainstream, fringe, Internet, whatever -- are having a field day with this. Of course, Hillary, rolling in the political dough, demands that Obama, who is just getting started, give back the money raised by his Hollywood supporters. Don't be a bitch, Hillary. And, Obama, don't be a sucker and fall lower than that high road.
"We aren't going to get in the middle of a disagreement between the Clintons and someone who was once one of their biggest supporters," Obama's communications director, Robert Gibbs, said in a statement. "It is ironic that the Clintons had no problem with David Geffen when he was raising $18 million for them and sleeping at their invitation in the Lincoln bedroom."
Geffen has said that his words are his own. Let's leave it at that and get on with the real issues of this campaign.
David Geffen, the Hollywood mogul, hosted a $1.3 million fundrasier for Obama Tuesday; in the past he has raised millions for the Clintons. This time around, though, he tries to boost Obama by calling the Clintons liars. Of course, much of media -- mainstream, fringe, Internet, whatever -- are having a field day with this. Of course, Hillary, rolling in the political dough, demands that Obama, who is just getting started, give back the money raised by his Hollywood supporters. Don't be a bitch, Hillary. And, Obama, don't be a sucker and fall lower than that high road.
"We aren't going to get in the middle of a disagreement between the Clintons and someone who was once one of their biggest supporters," Obama's communications director, Robert Gibbs, said in a statement. "It is ironic that the Clintons had no problem with David Geffen when he was raising $18 million for them and sleeping at their invitation in the Lincoln bedroom."
Geffen has said that his words are his own. Let's leave it at that and get on with the real issues of this campaign.
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