I Decline

 

photo by pacific john, flickr

I have been angry for a week now and I have heard from you.  Y’all gave me much to consider and digest.   Wrestling with this has been very, very difficult and gut wrenching.  At times I’ve felt that I just needed to let my anger go, embrace the moment, and savor this history making candidacy for all that its worth.  Conversely, I’ve thought that this brotha is little more than a Democratic and neoliberal version of Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell, the doublemint twins of right-wing imperialist deception.    

Appeasing skittish and racially ambivalent whites that deliberately insult the integrity and prophetic vision of the black church doesn’t work for me. Disassociating from Jeremiah Wright by telling a nationally televised audience that you would not have felt comfortable enough in your church of twenty years to stay if your pastor hadn’t retired just doesn’t work for me.   

I want to support this brotha so badly, but I have gone as far as I can.   I can’t do it anymore and feel good about it. I’ve decided to vote uncommitted in the North Carolina Democratic primary in protest. Moreover, as of today, I formally withdraw my support of Barack Obama for the Democratic Nomination for President, my bitter opposition to Senator Clinton notwithstanding, and will leave the Democratic Party to become an Independent.   

In case you were wondering, I have been this way for a number of years and refused to support Bill Clinton because of his lack of candor and respect for the black community on the Death Penalty in 1992.  I actively supported Jerry Brown.   

The vast majority of you will never agree with me, I concede that, but I am a race man through and through and this is about respect.  If a politician doesn’t respect us, they can never really represent us.  It’s just that simple.  I’ve made no decision about the fall.  I’ll let y’all know.  But for today, I decline to support Barack Obama.   

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Roseanne Barr to Obama: Bow to the White Woman

Roseanne Barr wrote a post today on Huffington Post entitled “Bow to the Woman” I have decoded her meaning below.

Barack Obama: Bow to the white woman, and take the vice presidency. Heal our bruised white feminist egos. You’ve come too far too fast and you know it. This was supposed to be our turn. You will run in eight years with our vocal support as we surreptitiously undermine you behind the scenes and destroy any possibility of your election. You must pass through our feminist sieve first though: bow to the white woman.

Otherwise it will be about your voting record and you do not want to live through that punishment, especially if you are innocent. Premier Hillary represents the soul of the Democratic Party: the white women who support her, Latinas, Latinos, 5 percent of the black voters, white blue collar worker, male and female, as just proven in Ohio, and the fake azz white Baby Boomers…quit bitching and moaning and whining now! Be a punk and take vice, bow to the white woman who is the last vestige of the neoliberal white power structure which represents the military industrial complex. You can’t win without the votes of the people who support Clinton. You do not have the white working class vote; you do not have the white majority on your side even with white independents. The states you win are not swing states or even Democratic states. You are a spoiler and your campaign is alienating Clinton’s white vote. Many of Clinton’s white feminist backers are turned off due to the truthfulness of the attacks your supporters Gary Hart and Samantha Power has let loose on your opponent.

You can’t fight back dirtier than she can — it will bury your message of hope and change. It obscures the message of the people in this party!

The white feminist message is: Hoes before Bros. The white women who hold up this party and are its majority want equal rights for the Machiavellian she-devil that claims to care about those of us who work for a living. Equality and no less. Attacking the female candidate as the power obsessed monster that she is will not work for you. Your strident leftist advisors are off the mark. White people are centrist, especially during a war.

Join and ultimately lose!!!! It will take both of you to win this campaign: the one who was wrong on the war and the one who was right: however, the people want to be ruled by a white above all else! If you take this nomination from her she will see to it that the party factions itself to death and you lose to another old white man, Fuhrer McCain. Then she’ll run again, serve two terms, and by then Chelsea will be old enough to run for office and continue the dynasty.

Be stupid, Barack, show us how cooperation works, let’s live the fake white liberal dream of Dr. King…blacks and whites, Christians and Jews, male and female left and right holding hands on the way to another two centuries of white imperialist domination of the earth. Stop the massive movement for “Change we can believe in” and be a damn fool by taking the vice presidency.

Gary Hart slams Billary

Skeptical Brotha’s Mea Culpa: I am sorry y’all, I’ve been absent for several days and I just needed a mental health break. I am working on a piece that I hope y’all will enjoy and in the meantime, this commentary from former Democratic presidential candidate Gary Hart sums up my thoughts on the national security credentials of Billary Clinton.

Hat Tip: Huffington Post

“It will come as a surprise to many people that there are rules in politics. Most of those rules are unwritten and are based on common understandings, acceptable practices, and the best interest of the political party a candidate seeks to lead. One of those rules is this: Do not provide ammunition to the opposition party that can be used to destroy your party’s nominee. This is a hyper-truth where the presidential contest is concerned.

By saying that only she and John McCain are qualified to lead the country, particularly in times of crisis, Hillary Clinton has broken that rule, severely damaged the Democratic candidate who may well be the party’s nominee, and, perhaps most ominously, revealed the unlimited lengths to which she will go to achieve power. She has essentially said that the Democratic party deserves to lose unless it nominates her.”

…If Mrs. Clinton loses the nomination, her failure will be traced to the date she voted to empower George W. Bush to invade Iraq…For her now to claim that Senator Obama is not qualified to answer the crisis phone is the height of irony if not chutzpah, and calls into question whether her primary loyalty is to the Democratic party and the nation or to her own ambition.”

The Ohio Debate

With her Evita Peron fantasy shattered and her imperial coronation ruined, Hillary Clinton will shoot her load in tonight’s debate because she has absolutely nothing to lose. What she has to gain, in short, is the tantalizing possibility of acquiring the ultimate aphrodisiac and the glue of her sham marriage: unlimited power. And for that, she will risk it all.

Power is the only thing that Bill and Hillary covet because they certainly don’t care about one another. People and issues are mere abstractions that they must deal with in order to rule. The Clintons galactic sense of white entitlement has been their stumbling block throughout this contest and they’ve acted as if this race was a fait accompli. In a sense, Barack Obama is the perfect Manchurian Negro because it is almost as if he was born and bred to be the one that planted a red, black, and green flag in the inner sanctum of white supremacist capitalist patriarchy.

Political expediency and a shrewd attention to every detail has led Obama to this moment, its my prayer that after his massive accommodations that he will be a transformative president.

Hillary’s quest tonight is similar to a defense attorney in a criminal trial-creating reasonable doubt. She’ll fail miserably. If nothing else, being raised by white females gives Obama the advantage in this pissing contest, he’ll never take the bait her jabs proffers, and he’ll flick her away and stay above the fray. All he needs to do is stay focused; she needs to stay alive and sadly for her, her imperial campaign is brain dead. One week from today, the voters will courageously pull the plug and euthanize the imperial nightmare that has terrorized our nation for the last eight years.

Watching the Texas Debate

The Debate has begun and I will occaisionally impart some insights and feel free to share yours.

8:13 pm-Senator Obama sounds like he is a little under the weather and while I generally  like Hillary’s pantsuits, I am not feeling this outfit with the black and yellow piping.  To Wicked Witch meets Donna Karan.

First difference, Obama would meet with Raul Castro in Cuba and Senator Clinton would not.

8:51  Hillary got hissed over her answer to a question asking whether she was saying Obama was “all hat and no cattle.” She said she was “amused” by Senator Kirk Watson’ s inability to name one Obama accomplishment. 

8:56 The plagerism question-Obama  hits it out of the park.  Hillary attacks by saying “lifting whole passages from someone else’s speeches is not change you can believe in, its change you can Xerox.  She is booed and hissed again.   The focus group meter remains flat during her response.

9:11  Debate devolves into an argument over health care mandates.

9:18 Prepared to be commander-in-chief question.   The tenative manner in which Obama answers the question undercut the strength of what he says.    His answers get a consistent flatline from the focus group.  Senator Clinton speaks with more authority that the focus group responds to better. Her answer scores in the 60’s.    Obama puts some passion into his answer about neglect of veterans in the context of the War and he hits it out of the park with the focus group and gets into the 70’s.

Overall, the debate was a more or less a wash.  Obama came out the winner because of Hillary’s unnecessarily negative jabs and dissembling. 

Campaign mailbag: Hillary’s desperate appeal

Dear Fool, It should be abundantly clear to even the comatose that my imperial campaign is falling apart, my inevitability is a myth, and Darth Bubba is too self absorbed to cede the limelight to me. My maniacal dream of dynastic restoration is crumbling into a morass of arrogance, ineptitude and racist condescension. We tried to make nice with Negroes; they rejected us, now its time to prove to them how awful it is to be on the wrong side. And we’re going to keep proving them wrong as many times as we need to until we win back the imperial throne of the White House. You and I know that only the white power structure, not the people; get to decide where this race for the Democratic nomination will end up. And, before very long, the nefarious corporate interests who depend on us the most – the investment banks, the insurance industry, the pharmaceutical companies and the defense contractors who have given more money to me than to any Republican — will have their say in states like Wisconsin, Ohio, Rhode Island, Texas, Pennsylvania and others. Yield to the power of the Dark Side. Contribute now. Don’t forget what we’re fighting for: the unlimited power to do the bidding of the same white capitalist patriarchy that has always run America. They’re the reason our campaign was flush with cash in the beginning, and why I will do whatever it takes to win. And winning means having the M.O.N.E.Y, and a ruthless game plan to even this race up so I can aggressively steal this nomination away from Barack Skytalker with more super delegates at the convention. It’s MY TURN, dammit. I command you to make a contribution now. When we embarked on this journey, I promised you crumbs from my imperial table and you bowed in submission. I command you to kneel at my feet again. That’s what you’ve got to do — right here, right now. With sincere condescension, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Empress of Triangulation P.S. Remember, no matter how many Negroes bail on us, you and I will keep courting and brainwashing Hispanics to vote against their class interests in an effort to help drive our campaign to victory in the weeks ahead. I refuse to go down without a fight.

Obama wins Nebraska and Washington State

News is trickling in slowly that Obama is again triumphant in the Super Saturday states of Nebraska and Washington State.   This is an open thread so tell me what’s on your minds.  Also, I am considering a site design revision and want your input.  What do you think.

Is Vice President Ford Billary’s out

Washington Post columnist Colbert I. King raised the specter of a Harold Ford, Jr Vice Presidency yesterday.

I blew chunks and messed up some good shoes.

I have feared this for some time and my nightmare scenario is confirmed by a serious black columnist speculating openly about this possibility.

Upon further reflection, however, there is a certain logic to his elevation to the meaninglessness of the Vice Presidency in Billary’s triumvirate of neo-liberal tyranny because his career demonstrates the willingness to be nothing more than an empty vessel and high-yellow corporate whore willing to prostitute himself for the white power structure.

How else can one explain his slavish support for the Iraq War and the elimination of the Estate Tax for huge estates in excess of $10 million dollars while representing the urban poverty and decay of black Memphis in the U.S. House of Representatives. It gives new meaning to the plantation epithet of House Nigra.

Now a Vice President for Merrill Lynch, the Whore represents an investment banking firm and corporate parasite responsible for Enron and ImClone, two companies whose implosions were the result of the de-regulation of the financial services industry advocated by Merrill Lynch.

It should come as no surprise that Merrill Lynch has been a generous contributor to Senator Clinton’s presidential campaign. Her twelfth largest contributor, its employees and executives have given a munificent $165,000 to Billary’s royal restoration bid and the securities and investment industry has given her more than $5.8 million. To ensure compliance with their nefarious neo-liberal economic agenda, they’ve also broken off $5.3 million to Barack Obama.

Merrill Lynch has invested a pretty penny in the Fox News Democrat and they intend to recoup their investment. Perhaps they can surreptitiously suggest that Billary make Harold Vice President if she wins the nomination to guarantee the furtherance of their dictates on financial policy and deflect the racial animus of blackfolks sure to be generated by her defeat of Obama.

Super Tuesday Results: Obama Wins 13 states

A triumph of breathtaking scope in more than 13 states from Alaska to Connecticut, Barack Obama proved his bi-coastal and cross racial appeal in a manner that should silence his critics for all eternity. In all, according to my rough calculations and figures from CNN, more than 6,533,048 voters cast ballots for Barack Obama yesterday shattering all previous records for a Democratic Presidential candidate and forever shattering Hillary Clinton’s inevitability. This is a horse race and I’m gonna thoroughly enjoy it until its over.

 

 

Race Status Candidate Votes Vote % Del* Precincts Alabama Updated 2:08 a.m. EST, Feb 6, 2008 County Results Exit Poll Obama 300,097 56% 17 99% reporting   Clinton 222,887 42% 17   Edwards 7,865 1% 0   Uncommitted 2,672 1% 0     Race Status Candidate State Del.* % Del* Precincts Alaska Updated 1:49 a.m. EST, Feb 6, 2008 County Results Obama 302 75% 9 98% reporting   Clinton 103 25% 4   Uncommitted 1 0% 0   Edwards 0 0% 0   Race Status Candidate Votes Vote % Del* Precincts Arizona Updated 3:01 a.m. EST, Feb 6, 2008 County Results Exit Poll Clinton 189,383 51% 16 90% reporting   Obama 156,611 42% 13   Edwards 20,175 5% 0   Race Status Candidate Votes Vote % Del* Precincts Arkansas Updated 10 minutes ago County Results Exit Poll Clinton 190,743 69% 23 89% reporting   Obama 74,658 27% 6   Edwards 5,076 2% 0   Uncommitted 2,972 1% 0   Race Status Candidate Votes Vote % Del* Precincts California Updated 1 minute ago County Results Exit Poll Clinton 1,491,109 53% 0 66% reporting   Obama 1,131,160 40% 0   Edwards 152,231 5% 0   Race Status Candidate State Del.* % Del* Precincts Colorado Updated 2:38 a.m. EST, Feb 6, 2008 County Results Obama 79,344 67% 13 99% reporting   Clinton 38,587 32% 6   Uncommitted 1,253 1% 0   Race Status Candidate Votes Vote % Del* Precincts Connecticut Updated 45 minutes ago County Results Exit Poll Obama 178,574 51% 25 99% reporting   Clinton 164,334 47% 22   Edwards 3,384 1% 0   Uncommitted 2,996 1% 0   Race Status Candidate Votes Vote % Del* Precincts Delaware Updated 10:09 p.m. EST, Feb 5, 2008 County Results Exit Poll Obama 51,124 53% 9 100% reporting   Clinton 40,751 43% 6   Biden 2,863 3% 0   Edwards 1,241 1% 0   Race Status Candidate Votes Vote % Del* Precincts Georgia Updated 13 minutes ago County Results Exit Poll Obama 696,622 67% 27 99% reporting   Clinton 326,354 31% 18   Edwards 17,897 2% 0   Race Status Candidate State Del.* % Del* Precincts Idaho Updated 1:46 a.m. EST, Feb 6, 2008 County Results Obama 16,880 79% 15 100% reporting   Clinton 3,655 17% 3   Uncommitted 552 3% 0   Edwards 137 1% 0 Race Status Candidate Votes Vote % Del* Precincts Illinois Updated 2:47 a.m. EST, Feb 6, 2008 County Results Exit Poll Obama 1,256,543 65% 62 97% reporting   Clinton 643,352 33% 31   Edwards 37,835 2% 0 Race Status Candidate State Del.* % Del* Precincts Kansas Updated 1:15 a.m. EST, Feb 6, 2008 County Results Obama 27,172 74% 23 100% reporting   Clinton 9,462 26% 9   Edwards 53 0% 0   Uncommitted 8 0% 0 Race Status Candidate Votes Vote % Del* Precincts Massachusetts Updated 3:02 a.m. EST, Feb 6, 2008 County Results Exit Poll Clinton 682,281 56% 52 97% reporting   Obama 497,372 41% 36   Edwards 19,134 2% 0   No Preference 7,374 1% 0 Race Status Candidate State Del.* % Del* Precincts Minnesota Updated 1 minute ago County Results Obama 135,160 67% 25 81% reporting   Clinton 64,558 32% 12   Uncommitted 1,227 1% 0   Edwards 929 0% 0 Race Status Candidate Votes Vote % Del* Precincts Missouri Updated 52 minutes ago County Results Exit Poll Obama 405,284 49% 28 100% reporting   Clinton 395,287 48% 28   Edwards 16,747 2% 0   Uncommitted 3,135 1% 0 Race Status Candidate Votes Vote % Del* Precincts New Jersey Updated 1:55 a.m. EST, Feb 6, 2008 County Results Exit Poll Clinton 599,620 54% 51 99% reporting   Obama 489,808 44% 37   Edwards 14,396 1% 0 Race Status Candidate Votes Vote % Del* Precincts New Mexico Updated 3:08 a.m. EST, Feb 6, 2008 County Results Exit Poll Clinton 34,440 49% 0 54% reporting   Obama 33,127 47% 0   Edwards 1,472 2% 0   Richardson 765 1% 0   Uncommitted 272 0% 0 Race Status Candidate Votes Vote % Del* Precincts New York Updated 3 minutes ago County Results Exit Poll Clinton 1,001,835 57% 127 99% reporting   Obama 696,876 40% 87   Edwards 19,416 1% 0 Race Status Candidate State Del.* % Del* Precincts North Dakota Updated 11:04 p.m. EST, Feb 5, 2008 County Results Obama 11,625 61% 8 100% reporting   Clinton 6,948 37% 5   Edwards 283 2% 0 Race Status Candidate Votes Vote % Del* Precincts Oklahoma Updated 12:28 a.m. EST, Feb 6, 2008 County Results Exit Poll Clinton 228,597 55% 24 100% reporting   Obama 130,206 31% 14   Edwards 42,853 10% 0 Race Status Candidate Votes Vote % Del* Precincts Tennessee Updated 2:56 a.m. EST, Feb 6, 2008 County Results Exit Poll Clinton 331,781 54% 34 100% reporting   Obama 250,341 41% 21   Edwards 27,558 4% 0   Uncommitted 3,111 1% 0 Race Status Candidate Votes Vote % Del* Precincts Utah Updated 2:56 a.m. EST, Feb 6, 2008 County Results Exit Poll Obama 70,373 57% 14 99% reporting   Clinton 48,719 39% 9   Edwards 3,525 3% 0

Obama closes in on Hillary in polls

Hat Tip:  Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire
Alabama

• Obama 47, Clinton 47 (SurveyUSA)

Arizona

• Clinton 43, Obama 41 (McClatchy-MSNBC)
• Clinton 46, Obama 41 (Rasmussen)

California

• Clinton 36, Obama 34 (Field Poll)
• Obama 45, Clinton 41 (Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby)
• Clinton 45, Obama 36 (McClatchy-MSNBC)

Delaware

• Clinton 44, Obama 42 (American Research Group)

Georgia

• Obama 48, Clinton 28 (Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby)
• Obama 47, Clinton 41 (McClatchy-MSNBC)

Illinois

• Obama 55, Clinton 24 (Chicago Tribune)

Missouri

• Clinton 47, Obama 41 (McClatchy-MSNBC)
• Clinton 44, Obama 43 (Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby)
• Obama 44, Clinton 42 (American Research Group)
• Clinton 48, Obama 44 (SurveyUSA)

New Jersey

• Clinton 46, Obama 39 (McClatchy-MSNBC)
• Clinton 50, Obama 36 (Monmouth University/Gannett)
• Clinton 43, Obama 42 (Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby)

New York

• Clinton 54, Obama 38 (Marist College)

Oklahoma

• Clinton 41, Obama 17 (Tulsa World)

In no poll that I have read the crosstabs of, save New York, has Obama failed to get 70% of African American respondents. It is very interesting to read the fine print. From what I can tell today, this race will go all the way to the convention. Overall, Obama’s reach across the country is breathtaking. Two months ago, most blackfolks didn’t think this was possible. One month ago, his polls were nowhere close to where he is today. The Clinton racial polarization strategy has backfired royally.

Y’all got any predictions for tomorrow?

Obama-Clinton CNN Showdown Tonight

Tonight’s debate is sure to mimic with its intensity and fervor the series of civil wars called the Wars of the Roses fought in the fifteenth century over the British Throne between the Houses of York and Lancaster.   The throne of Imperialist power, the Presidency of the United States, is tonight’s ultimate prize.    

The War of the Roses, named for a scene in Shakespeare’s Henry VI Part 1, where the Houses chose sides by picking a rose, was a bitter, protracted, and scorching war. Tonight’s debate promises to be the same.   The battle lines have been rigidly drawn between the Houses of Obama and Clinton.   The Congressional Black Caucus, according to The Hill, a Washington Newspaper, is evenly divided between the House of Clinton and the House of Obama with 17 members each.  Tempers are flaring and lines have been drawn in the sand.  

The last such nomination battle between President Carter and Teddy Kennedy was equally divisive and created the same fissures in the unanimity of the Congressional Black Caucus.   Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson and Congressman Mel Watt, both former Chairs of the Congressional Black Caucus, have lost their champion, former Senator John Edwards.   The competition to land their endorsements is fierce and all eyes are on them to observe which side they ultimately choose, if they choose at all.      

Tonight’s debate is sure to be a Shakespearean kabuki dance with each side loaded and ready for bear.  Shakespeare’s classic dialog says it best and I can easily envision tonight’s combatant’s reciting the lines:“Then Come, O’ God’s name; I fear no woman.”   “And while I live, I’ll ne’er fly from a man.”

Breaking News: Edwards Drops Out

Hat Tip: Nedra Pickler, Associated Press, photo by alexdecarvalho of fickr.

DENVER – Democrat John Edwards is exiting the presidential race Wednesday, ending a scrappy underdog bid in which he steered his rivals toward progressive ideals while grappling with family hardship that roused voters’ sympathies, The Associated Press has learned.

The two-time White House candidate notified a close circle of senior advisers that he planned to make the announcement at a 1 p.m. EST event in New Orleans that had been billed as a speech on poverty, according to two aides. The decision came after Edwards lost the four states to hold nominating contests so far to rivals who stole the spotlight from the beginning — Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama.

The former North Carolina senator will not immediately endorse either candidate in what is now a two-person race for the Democratic nomination, said one adviser, who spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the announcement. Both candidates would welcome Edwards’ backing and the support of the 56 delegates he had collected.

Edwards waged a spirited top-tier campaign against the two better-funded rivals, even as he dealt with the stunning blow of his wife’s recurring cancer diagnosis. In a dramatic news conference last March, the couple announced that the breast cancer that she thought she had beaten had returned, but they would continue the campaign.

Their decision sparked a debate about family duty and public service. But Elizabeth Edwards remained a forceful advocate for her husband, and she was often surrounded at campaign events by well-wishers and emotional survivors cheering her on.

Edwards planned to announce his campaign was ending with his wife and three children at his side. Then he planned to work with Habitat for Humanity at the volunteer-fueled rebuilding project Musicians’ Village, the adviser said.

With that, Edwards’ campaign will end the way it began 13 months ago — with the candidate pitching in to rebuild lives in a city still ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. Edwards embraced New Orleans as a glaring symbol of what he described as a Washington that didn’t hear the cries of the downtrodden.

John and Elizabeth Edwards are tenacious advocates for whomever they fight for and they brought a touch of class and compassion to this race. I wish them and their family well.