The Road We’ve Traveled

As a campaign volunteer for U.S. Senator Obama when he threw his hat into the ring as a candidate for President of the United States in 2008, I felt a lot of bumps in that road to the White House.

Although the up and coming young politician gave a rousing keynote speech at the ’06 Democratic Convention, my friends thought that the senator did not have a snow ball’s chance in hell in becoming president. Well…..

Last night, I shared the experience of viewing the 16min+ promotional documentary, “The Road We’ve Traveled”, highlighting the president’s tumultuous accomplishments in the last four years, with my youthful and bright-eyed fellow campaign workers and supporters at the Democratic National Committee Headquarters, just south of the U.S. Capital.

Before the airing, I mixed it up with the audience who looked like America. I saw black folks, whites, Hispanics, Asians, many young people and old. I spoke to a young Columbian in a wheelchair. I thought about all of the footage I see of Republican gatherings, I never see an honest representation of this country.

Our local coordinator, Kouri Marshall, introduced a leader of the Woman’s National Democratic Club who spoke passionately of the need to not allowing the Republicans to set this country back another 100 years. I am convinced that the GOP set its fate with its assault on women. Women will assure the world that the American Taliban, the GOP’s efforts, will be hermetically
sealed and given a final burial.

I wish I had a heads-up about the quality and strength of this vignette because, had I known, I would have stayed home just like I did for the inauguration. You see, I’m a big softy. I get teary-eyed when I witness the culmination in victory of all the struggles that we’ve shared. I was consoled by knowing that I was surrounded by people who are just as passionate and committed as I am to the success of this campaign.

So, check-out the link below of “The Road We’ve Traveled” and be inspired too….we’re fired up and ready to go….Obama-2012!

http://www.barackobama.com/Road-Traveled

Hillary

As I mature, I find myself making a larger effort in seeing multiple sides of pressing issues of the day. And so goes my thinking on ardent Hillary Clinton supporters, tonight.

Her passionate supporters are no different than the Obama supporters. Let’s be honest: the country for the first time in history had the opportunity to see either a woman or a black man become an American presidential nominee. These two people represent groups whom have been beat down and kept down under an oppressive white patriarchal society have finally been lifted to, possibly, lead the free world!

There was much sacrifice and emotions spent in seeing the first African American or women in the highest political office in the land and I respect the lost that Hillary’s supporters are feeling, right now. I thought Hillary delivered the best speech I have ever heard her give, to begin the healing, to bring these passionate groups together and support Barack Obama as our presidential nominee.

Hillary’s speech, like Michelle’s last night, did what it was suppose to do. The senator from New York implored her followers to understand that it is not about her or Barack. It is about making good health care a right and not a privilege. It’s about not borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Saudis. It’s about improving life for the least of us. It’s about ending the war in the middle-east responsibly. It’s about putting a Democrat back in office and that Democrat is Barack Obama!

Tonight, I’m not interested in what took place in private backroom meetings. I’m only concern with seeing this party break camp this weekend, united and stronger in order to defeat the on slough of Republican divisive campaigns that I know are coming. And tonight, Hillary did her part to insure our defense.

The First Lady

Tonight, Michelle exceeded everything required to settle the uneasiness anyone could possibly still abhor against her and Barack.

I never understood the acceptance by some of the myth that Barack and Michelle Obama are elitist. If money is the measuring stick for elitism, well, what they have earned through hard honest work has come just recently. If elitism is a measure of how much you want to improve your station in life and to want to uplift the people around you, then who can cast the first stone?

The success that the Obamas share is far different than the McCains. One family, pulled themselves up by the bootstraps in the shadows of a working-class existence, to go on and excel academically and to come back to pull others out of abject poverty and despair. And the other family, inheriting untold wealth and living a life that very few of us can neither relate to nor imagine. It must be blissful to have so many homes that you can not remember how many you have, especially when you are just trying to make the mortgage each month.

Yes, the Republican “mean machine” can fool some of the people some of the time, but, tonight, Michelle set the record straight.

The 2008 DNC Rules & Bylaws

Fannie Lou Hamer, the 1964 DNC heroine.

I don’t care how old folks get or how many degrees we earn or how many kids we raise, some of us still act like children on the playground! If the game ain’t being played the way you think it should be played, pull the rules book out of your hip pocket and show everybody where you are correct. But, if you know you can’t, shut-up, get out of the way and let the game continue!

I’m probably not saying anything new here, but it’s good to reiterate an important principal: before you play the game, understand the rules, especially, if you had a hand in developing the rules. If all the players/candidates understand the rules that govern this process, why did we go through the exercise?

The 2008 Democratic National Committee Rules and Bylaws Committee meeting took place, almost, in my backyard. I was going to walk over there to the hotel and check it out, but after the rain and all of the Hillary/Florida supporters clogging the sidewalks, I decided to just watch it on CSPAN.

The 2008 Democratic primaries are unlike the pre-1964 Democratic primaries that intimidated black folks and other minorities with the imposition of illegal taxes and tests. No, b.s. like that didn’t take place because every Democratic candidate and delegate from every strata of this party had a say in developing these rules. I’ll be damned if the likes of Everett Ward and Donna Brazile will allow fairness to be abrogated in this process during these primaries because they remember their mommas and Fannie Lou Hamer.

Harold Ickes, you can take Hillary’s cause to the DNC Convention and wage your floor fight if you like, but just remember that you’ll be doing it at the expense of destroying what most of us want and I’ll remind you, again: to go to the convention in unity and defeat the Republican Party in the fall! And while you’re thinking on that, remind your peeps that if unity is not their objective, they stand to have Roe v. Wade challenged, pro-choice obliterated and an imbalance on the Supreme Court for at least two generations to come!

The Hold-out or Hold-up?

Why is Hillary “really” holding-out?

I was talking to my boy, “E” (his claim to fame was being on the same side of Julius "Dr. J" Irving in a pick-up game at U-Mass) and the conversation was on the hottest subject in the country:

She ain’t stupid. She knows she ain’t goin’ to win and her campaign is in debt.
O.k., so, what do you think it is? What about a supreme court seat?
Not sure. Well, we know she needs to get out of debt and I think, maybe she’s trying to position herself for a shot at the oval office in 2012. I think the court would be too restrictive for her personality.
I'm listening!
Remember when she spear-headed her universal health plan and she got trounced?
Yeah?
Well, maybe she’s trying to garner enough delegates through these final primaries to create a position from which to bargain with the DNC and the Obama campaign. While at the same time, by continuing her run, she proves to her base that she's a kick-ass fighter to the bitter end.
O.k., I’m wich ya?
She'll get a one-on-one sit-down with the O-man that would, probably, go down something like this:

“O.k. O-man, you’re in a better position for the nomination than I am. But, if you screw this opportunity up, I'll be on your narrow behind like white-on-rice! You’re goin’ to get your ass kicked in the general election without our unified support….”
“Talk to me, baby girl. What's on your mind?”
“O-man, you adopt my universal health plan!”
“That's it?”
“Of course not. Nominate my recommendation for Secretary of Health and Human Services, to implement my plan. I want you to lobby your ass off to make sure "SHE's" confirmed. I want you to have a rose garden ceremony for the ratification where you will, publicly, acknowledge my leadership role in bringing this legislation to pass.”
“Is that it?”
“No…chill. I want you to appear with me for several fundraising events so that I can get this damn campaign debt off my shoulders. That fool out in 'Tinseltown', Peter Paul & Mary, whatever his name, is getting on my last nerve."
“Hmmm, I’ll think about it”
“While ya at it, think about this, too: I got the 'yeehas' in Texas. I got the 'lunch-bucket' factory workers and 'dirt farmers' in Ohio. I got the 'wannabe-Americans' in Cali. I got those, 'blue-collar, moonshine running miners' in the West Virginian hollas and Kentucky. I got the 'gun tottin', bowling-for-votes' Pennsylvanians in the mill that ain’t going to budge ‘til they hear from the ‘Hill’….think on that, my brotha!”
“I see….settin’ yourself up for a 2012 run, uh?”
“It ain't over 'til the lady in the pants suit says it's over. Have a nice day, Mr. Presumptive Democratic Presidential Nominee.”

Tough chick, ain’t she?
Let's shoot some hoops!