Is It Because He's Black

I have asked myself on more than one occasion if my support for Barack Obama would be different if he were not black. (For the purpose of this argument I am defining Obama as black, although he is biracial). That question was harder to answer at the outset of the campaign. As a black man, it was definitely satisfying to see an intelligent, articulate, young African American in the race. I still did not think that he would have a shot against the Clinton machine.

It was his winning overwhelmingly white Iowa that made me believe that he could have a chance. It was his loyalty to Rev. Jemimah Wright when it was not in his political best interest. How he took disaster and turned it into the opportunity to speak to Americans as adults about the subject of race. The way that he inspired people These are the reasons that Barack became more than an black candidate to me. He was not just a good black candidate for president, he was the best candidate for president who happened to be black.

In his endorsing of Obama Sunday on Meet The Press, Colin Powell admitted that part of the reason he was voting for Barack Obama was because of race. But that was not enough or he would have endorsed him long ago. He named a number of reasons from the narrowing perspective of the Republican party, to trivial nature of the McCain campaign. He spoke of Obama's intellectual curiosity and his reasoned judgment. The more you listened the more you saw his reason for condemning his party had less to do with race and more to do with sensibility.





Of course I will feel a great sense of pride, as a black man, should Obama win the election but I take even greater pride in the fact that he has proven he's more than a black candidate, but is the better man for the job.

It Should Be Over..

Wednesday night, I shot the 3rd presidential debate at Hofstra University on Long Island NY. They are really all the same for the media. You set up your gear to record the debate about 8 hours before it starts. Then you wait... The fun part is that companies like Budweiser set tents up where they have food and beer and cheesecake...its great. Especially the cheesecake.

Then the debate started. Its hard to follow what is going on because I have to listen to see if the sound I am recording is working and the video is good. Its only when I go back to the hotel that I can watch the replay of the debate and really pay attention to what was said. I thought to myself while watching it, that if this were a fight they would have stopped it.

I also thought it was appropriate that Senator Hillary Clinton was in the audience. To keep my boxing analogy going, she has to be the best political sparring partner in history. I doubt that Senator Obama would be the candidate we saw tonight without her and their more than 20 debates together.

On issue after issue Barack Obama displayed a grasp and knowledge that seemed presidential. He seemed simply, more comfortable in his own skin. Most of the pundits seemed to think that this was John McCain's best performance and maybe they're right. I am sort of in the tank for Obama, but what I saw was an angry and cynical old man. Illinois Congressman Rahm Emanual told us in an interview, that McCain reminded him tonight of the old man that screamed at the kid for hitting the baseball into his yard . Mr. Wilson from the Dennis The Menace Show is who he reminded me of.

I watched the replay on C-Span. They played the entire thing in a split screen where you had both candidates on the screen the whole time. This is a great way to watch something like this because you see both their reactions to what is said. McCain looked like he was trying to keep himself under control. He spent much too much time talking about things that don't really matter to people that are struggling to make it. For example, 60's radical William Ayers, the John Lewis statement regarding the violent turn the McCain/Palin rallies were taking. I don't believe that even Republicans and John McCain himself truly belive that Barack voted to not support infant children in the Illinois senate. But that is what Senator McCain spent most of his time on. He, John McCain, looked desperate. He looked like a man that knew he had lost the race.

Senator McCain commented repeatedly that Barack Obama was an eloquent speaker, like that meant nothing. But we interviewed many of the people who were in the debate audience and they said that this is what they liked the most about Obama. His clear responses to the questions being presented. One woman said that 8 years of a president who can't pronounce the word nuclear is enough.

The McCain campaign may think that their candidate landed some serious body blows to Senator Obama with "Joe the Plumber", a closet McCain supporter who confronted Barack Obama in Ohio over his inability to start his own plumbing business, under what would be Obama's tax plan. Or maybe the line about not being President Bush. "If you wanted to run against George Bush, you should have run 4 years ago." A good line but that's all it was.

I know it must be frustrating after fighting your way to the top of the Republican ticket. Rising from the political grave to leader of your party and come up against such a dynamic opponent. When I watched McCain in the split sceen, eyes blinking, temples flexing a tight grin or grimace on his face as he listened to Obama respond eloquently to questions and attacks. I was just wondering what he might be thinking. "Damn this guy is good" or 'this bastard is cleaning my clock".

John McCain had little to offer as far as substance and this presidential race should be over. If you get the opportunity and you did not watch the debate I urge you to watch it online or on the news replays. While these debates were a pain in the ass to cover as a news person their importance can't be understated. It is really the only time you see both of the major candidates on the same stage.

I believe that this is especially important in this election. There are many among the voting public that hold preconcieved notions in regards to race, culture and values. People need to see that Barack Obama is not scary or unintelligent. That his values are not radical or out of step. That he is cool, calm and thoughtful.

Maybe....

I noticed in a town hall rally, they used to be called meetings, but that was back when Senator McCain would actually attempt to discuss issues. Anyway, at this town hall rally in Wisconsin, John Sydney McCain was continuing to stir the pot of hot boiling anger among his faithful with questions about Senator Obama's judgment and character, I noticed that McCain looked uncomfortable. Stumbling through a slanderous diatribe against Senator Obama, eyes twitching nervously.

I would like to think that the Senator McCain was having a battle with his conscience. Maybe thinking, while hearing his supporters yell threats and insults toward his opponent, what the hell did I get myself into? What the hell am I doing? Maybe his memories of the 2000 Republican primary started creeping in. Back when the Bush campaign slandered him. When they spread rumors that his adoptive Indonesian daughter was a black child that he had fostered out of wedlock and implied that his captivity in Vietnam had left him unstable and unfit for office.

Or maybe, just maybe, he was realizing that this was no longer his campaign but the campaign of the people around him. That he was becoming a logo, a front man for all that he has said he despises about Washington politics. It could be that he was beginning to see that the presidency was slipping away and he didn't want to go out this way. The idea of confronting Senator Obama and accusing him of this BS to his face in a debate, as he promised a supporter he would, might have brought a moment of conscience. Or maybe he was awakening to the fact that the strategies these Carl Rove disciples, like Steve Schmidt, were devising was not only politically tone deaf and dumb but also a possible threat to Senator Obama's safety and ruinous to the McCain reputation.

So at another town hall rally late Friday, where one journalist characterized the audience members as "pitch fork wavers", he found his decency. He corrected a supporter by saying that Barack Obama was not an Arab and is not someone to be feared but a decent man who could be president.

I remember the other Senator McCain who supported comprehensive immigration reform and when racist comments about Hispanics were being said, Senator McCain reminded people during the Republican debates how many Hispanic names dawn the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall. That we were all God's children. The way he spoke so forcefully and sincerely against torture in response to his then rival, Mitt Romney. He was the John McCain I liked despite myself. At least among the long boring list of Republicans running at the time. I wouldn't vote for him but I respected him.

But in running for presidency he began to comprise his stated principles. First it was his change on immigration to appeal to his Republican base, then the Bush tax cuts and downhill from there. I can't believe I'm writing this, but he stopped being the so called "Maverick." He allowed himself and his campaign to be kidnapped by people that have no clear strategy on the issues, no clear or consistent message and apparently no moral compass.

At the risk of repeating myself from other blog entries, I believe that the candidates campaigns are a microcosm of how their administration would work and how they would govern. Like an administration with training wheels and John Sydney McCain just fell off his bike.

Have You No Shame..

At the risk of sounding sexist toward both women and men, men usually don't let their women do their fighting for them. John McCain doesn't see it that way. First it was the Governor Six Pack and now his wife.

Cindy McCain using her son to express outrage over Barack Obama vote to not fund the troops,(by the way, the McCain's said they would not use their son, who was serving in Iraq, for political purposes). Senator Obama voted against the bill she is referencing because it didn't have a timeline for troop withdrawal. She neglected to mention that her husband voted to not fund the troops because the bill had a timeline in it.

On CNN's Anderson Cooper 360, former presidential advisor David Gergen said that we should give McCain credit for not bringing the rhetoric spewed at his political rallies and in his ads to the second debate. None of the questions asked by the audience or the moderator entailed anything concerning the character of either candidate. The questions had to do with health care and the wars and the economy.

McCain is smart enough to realize that slandering your opponent is great for the rallies of the faithful but to smear a man to his face takes conviction. Do you really think that John McCain believes what he is saying about Barack Obama? This is a sitting senator in the United States Congress that you are implying and out right saying is not "American".

Like George W. Bush squandered the goodwill towards the US following the attacks of September 11th 2001, John McCain is squandering the goodwill of a majority of the electorate.
At this rate people won't be remembering John McCain the war hero but John McCain the angry old man that sold his soul to be president.

Joe Six Pack?

A scary number of Americans voted for George W. Bush because he was the kinda guy you wanted to have a beer with. Since 2000 we have paid in more ways than one for the "every day guy", "Joe 6 pack" in the ultimate seat of power. What we should have learned when you put an average every day person in such a lofty position you get, in recent history, someone that is out their league. They are easily manipulated by the people around them, (Dick Cheney) who we did not vote for at least not directly.

These offices of President and Vice President require brilliance at best competence at the least. Barack Obama has shown that he is cool under pressure, not reactionary or impulsive. He was steady during the turmoil of the financial crisis while his opponent was all over the map. He has shown throughout this campaign that he has one of the most important qualities of a president, empathy and the innate ability to not only see how things are but also to look forward to how things might be in the future. Thoughtfulness from a president. What a concept.

Governor Palin in the one and only vice-presidential debate showed the ability to recite talking points but offer nothing of substance. She went nearly the whole debate without directly answering a question. Like I'm talking to you about baseball and all your answers are about football. In this day of 2 ground wars and a economic recession what should we be looking for in a potential leader is not style points or how many pieces of flair you have or how down home folksy you are. Not how good they look getting off Air Force One but how thoughtful they are. How calm they are in a crisis. How much do they really understand how their decision will effect you, "joe six pack" or you that hockey mom .

So Joe, I hope you are looking for someone that offers ideas and not just attacks on the opposition. Look to judgement shown in the campaign both in policy and in the running of their campaigns in making your decision. Remember if your at risk of losing your house or job, if your on the verge of bankruptcy because of health care issues if your wondering how to send your children to college to live a better life than your own, that its not about if the President is someone that you want to have a drink with but rather or not he can help you.

Dear Sen. Obama

Dear Senator Obama: I saw the debate last Saturday and thought you handled yourself well. When they got into finding Bin Ladin and what you would do if you knew where he was you gave the standard answer that you would kill him if you got the chance. Too often is sounds like that will cure the terrorism problem. It was actually Senator McCain that talked about needing the help of the people of Pakistan to capture or kill the infamous terrorist leader. Called it counter terrorism. While I believe that McCain sees this as only a strategy or means to an end, i wish you would have taken the opportunity to not only agree with this "strategy" but expand it to say helping people in despair is the number one too in fighting terrorism both Islamic and other violent.groups that mean us harm. As evidence you could have sited where America is revered. Like in many parts Africa where Americans are much admired for our help in HIV-AIDS and malaria prevention and eradication. It is of the few things that the Bush Administration can be proud of is their out reach in places like Rwanda. It has done more to keep Africa and America safer than the billions of dollars of military hardware we have give to countries like Ethiopia. You, Senator Obama, I know understand this. That to change our image in the world, the way we are perceived, is the best way to keep this country safe. I know that you because of who you are, have to appear to be just as tough as your elder Senator rival. But you have proven yourself to be also more thoughtful and wise. You have said in the past that you would tell America not only what it wants to hear but what it needs to hear. Now is your chance. Sincerely, Hope for the future

Leadership

So why are the Democrats so afraid to push this urgent deal of a financial bailout for Wall Street through. Why do they need the Republicans? We elect these people to Washington to represent us, to look out for us. If the Secretary of the Treasury and the Chairman of the Federal Reserve come to you and tell you that this is needed, the President says its needed and you yourselves know its needed why let angry voters that know very little about this situation, scare you out of making a decision they know they need to make.

Is the purpose of being elected to get re-elected? Or is it to lookout for the people that you represent. They sit on banking committees and commerce committees, we work and take care of our kids and try to make a living to support our families. We don't have time to follow the banking regulations or how Wall Street even works. Not that we are a dumb electorate or have no need to monitor the goings ons in Washington but the politicians job is to lead. Its not always the popular decisions being made but that's your J.O.B.

So if the people are upset that they have to pay for someone elses mess remember what you tell your children when they scream about something not being fair. Life sometimes is not fair. Remind them, like Senator Obama has, that the cost of doing nothing will be worse.

Everyone, including the people on "Main Street", were happy when money was abundant. Now we have to pay the piper. America may not be a nation of whiners but we do seem to want something for nothing. We have crumbling roads and poor schools in part because no one wants to pay for it. To mention rasing taxes is political suicide. Just ask George Bush Sr.

The reason nothing gets done in Washington is not just lobbyist but being re-elected. So Dems show some leadership don't concern yourself with blame but with purpose. You are the majority. To much is given much is required.