Already!?

CNN is reporting that presumptive GOP nominee Sen. John McCain is possibly set to announce his Vice Presidential choice.  CNN is saying that some ”sources in the McCain camp” have told the news network that talks are occuring about whether making the announcement this week. 

We wonder first if this isn’t an effort to get a little attention and news as McCain’s opponent Sen. Barack Obama receives a lot of press as he moves through the Middle East and Europe? 

Not to be too cynical our next thought was if the discussions are honest and occurring we have to ask why?  

With only a a weekend between the Democratic National Convention and the GOP soiree McCain can cut into Obama’s post convention bounce with a Friday or Saturday VP announcement right after the DNC.  Not only can McCain shortcircuit Obama’s leap out of Denver but he could dictate his pick on what Obama had done in front him.  In a year where the pick of the number two could actually impact the race some argue that McCain is in the driver’s seat.  He has had longer to vet the pick since clinching the nomination earlier, may have a longer and deeper list of initially choices and he could conceivable pick second. 

It would seem curious to jump now, but if the concept was for us to just ask why and talk about the option…I guess he got us.

Don’t Forget the Dollars

 A lot of attention will accompany Sen. Barack Obama to Europe, Afghanistan and Iraq as he takes his presidential campaign on the road.  The presumptive Democratic nominee is now on his critical trip abroad as he looks to add foreign policy and defense gravitas to his rock star political persona at home. 

As important as this trip is to the Obama effort and the need for America to “picture” him as Commander-In-Chief and as interesting and entertaining as the recent back and forth between Obama and GOP presumptive candidate Sen. John McCain on issues of war, defense, security and the like, the major issue remains the economy. 

History tells us that people vote their pocketbook and in this tough economic situation the presidential conversation will always meander back to the rocky economic predicament. 

An interesting article in the New York Times today highlights the fact that the economy is on a parcarious point and that we may not have seen the worse.  ”Something has clearly gone wrong with the economy. But how bad are things, really? And how bad might they get before better days return? Even to many economists who recently thought the gloom was overblown, the situation looks grim. The economy is in the midst of a very rough patch. The worst is probably still ahead.”

 If Peter Goodman, the writer of the Times piece, is right and consumers are upside down in loans and credit it won’t matter how Obama looks overseas or how McCain’s experience stacks up against that Obama image voters will ask who has the better economic plan?

Whoever can answer that question and create a level of comfort among the voters may very will be the next President of the United States no mattter how they look overseas.

McCain Makes the Pitch

A week or so ago we were critical of presumptive GOP nominee Sen. John McCain for not accepting the invitation of the African Methodist Episcopal Church to speak to the church’s recent General Conference in St. Louis, Missouri.  Democratic likely nominee Sen. Barack Obama managed to speak to the 40,000 plus church group making the McCain absence that much more conspicuous. 

However, to his credit McCain did not pass up the opportunity to greet the nation’s oldest civil rights organization at its annual conference.  In a twenty minute plus speech to the delegates of the NAACP in Cincinnati, Ohio yesterday McCain laid out an ambitious education plan that was greeted with more than just polite “golf” applause as he acknowledged the shortcomings of the present education system and African American students. 

McCain said that the present education system is failing African American children and there needs for some substantive reform and the NAACP can help “…[N]owhere are the limitations of conventional thinking any more apparent than in education policy. Education reform has long been a priority of the NAACP, and for good reason. For all the best efforts of teachers and administrators, the worst problems of our public school system are often found in black communities. Black and Latino students are among the most likely to drop out of high school. African Americans are also among the least likely to go on to college…”

Many people, including Rev. Al Sharpton and some African American elected officials, think that education reform is the next frontier on the civil rights movement and or the most pressing issue facing African Americans in the country.  The applause received by McCain, who has talked about educational failure and African Americans before, should cause the Democratic Party some pause.  It has traditionally been the Republican Party that has walked the talk on education reform while the Democratic Party has scarcely mentioned the topic for fear of ticking off the powerful teacher’s union. 

While Obama sounds promising on the issue of reform, the party at large remains immobilized while it’s most faithful base shows growing signs of support for substantive reform.  Many in the GOP have long tried to figure out how to become competitive again with African Americans and we wonder if the issue of education reform will be the entry point that makes the Republican Party open to attracting African Americans again? 

After listening to Sen. John McCain yesterday he certainly hopes so.

Appearance Time

The one constant in most presidential campaign polls is that Sen. John McCain the presumptive Republican nominee has an edge on Democratic candidate Sen. Barack Obama when respondents are asked which one do they trust on defense and foreign policy matters.  McCain usually has an edge of a few points but in some  polls the advantage can be double digits.  In a recent Rasmussen Poll McCain lead Obama on trust in the national security by 14 points. 

In most other categories Obama leads.  In fact, in the 14 areas in the Rasmussen Reports ”trust on issues” polls Obama leads in 12 classifications.  The feeling in the Obama campaign must be if they can close the national security gap, that has impaled many Democratic nominees, the door may be wide open for Obama.

To open that door the campaign needs to show Obama as “commander in chief.”  They have to put the image in the minds of American voters that Obama can lead this country and be the face of America abroad.  America will get a glimpse of what a “President Obama” overseas will look like next week when Obama heads on a 12,000 mile five country trip. 

Obama will hit England, France, Germany, Israel and Jordan.  We suspect he may slip Iraq into that schedule as well.  Obama may very well be treated to large cheering crowds, especially in France where his popularity rating is around 80%, which will make for a good visual but the real test and the appearance the campaign wants most are the photos with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and other heads of state and those videos with Obama meeting and talking policy with those leaders.  The campaign is treating this like a “presidential trip.”  The campaign plane will have staff, other Senators and a full press entourage including the all three major network news anchors. 

If the anchors lead off their evening telecasts with Obama standing next to France President Nicolas Sarkozy and giving a speech from the former location of the Berlin Wall with little to no mistake or incidents will give the campaign the “Head of State” image they couldn’t create staying in toss up states or talking about how Obama grew up for a period of time in Indonesia.

Fundraising Shakedown …

Apparently, the fundraising arm for Democratic Congressional candidates is complaining that they aren’t getting enough help from their Presidential nominee in raising cheddar.

Barack Obama’s fundraising talents are now being tested and stretched in unexpected ways.

Nominees are expected to assist congressional candidates and the national party with funds. But never before have they been expected to assist their broke and vanquished opponent - in this case Sen. Clinton - and doing so after having opted out of public financing.

On top of that the slow economy doesn’t help.

With the prowess Obama has displayed with Internet fundraising, it is curious the congressional arm hasn’t followed suit. Doing it by US mail and not email says more about the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee than it does about Obama.

What also strikes us as somewhat interesting - and rather shady - about this sudden obligation Obama must fulfill by raising money for Sen. Clinton is that it’s extremely unprecedented. In many respects, one can argue that it’s a shakedown or political blackmail: the Clintons and their supporters are basically holding the threat of party infighting and a disrupted nomination over Obama’s head if he doesn’t comply with their demands.

It’s all rather unseemly and a first. And it just so happens that it’s the first African American Presidential nominee who’s getting hustled. Which presents another impression that could leave a very sour taste if it keeps up or is responsible for ruining Obama’s chances. Many can reasonably argue that there are hidden and rather nefarious racial messages in this forced fund raising obligation.

Is “New School” Really New?

This interesting piece from a few days ago by Washington Post writer Paul Kane big ups what he calls “The Obama Generation:”

Lewis is one of three House Democratic incumbents in Georgia who should be enjoying an easy run through today’s primary but instead find themselves battling a wave of younger black politicians emboldened by Obama’s success and intent on succeeding their elders in choice political posts.

The generational challenge in Georgia and several other states comes from black politicians who view Obama, 46, as a kindred spirit and are not steeped in the civil rights era.

Ok - good point. But following this article is news that Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) coasted through this primary with 69 percent of the vote, blasting two younger primary challengers.

Note to blogging self: Lewis’ primary win - despite the seemingly out-of-touch style of his Clinton endorsement then swith - is a moment for pause.  True: we’re seeing a general, overall paradigm shift in Black political style, management and tone.  But is it really that dramatic?  Is it really something of a novel or uniquely new political phenomena with new voice and agenda? Or, is it just a simple generational change that comes along, well, every generation?

In the euphoria of the “Obama Moment” or “Obamamania,” it’s easy to draw premature conclusions about Black political trends.  It’s all part of that habit we have as a society, either making blanket assumptions about Black people or assuming we have “Black leaders” … or that we think as a monolith. So, when we see an African American man rising to the top of the American political tower, we assume things that may not be there.

Yes: it’s an exciting time. But, it’s also time to bring it all down to earth. The big question: does the youth of a challenger necessarily make him/her a “New School” Black politician? We don’t think so. We see many who define themselves as “New School” Black politicos still clinging on to a lot of “Old School” ideas, many of them very predictable and, sometimes, rather predictable to the left or “progressive.” Nothing wrong with taking a side or embracing a view, but much of the rhetoric sometimes appears stuck in time, is all.

One could argue: that’s not really change; that’s really a bunch of younger folks who look fresher than the older folk.  Just because we listen to hip-hop doesn’t mean we suddenly have a vastly different or superior outlook on the political landscape - it just means that we listen to different music defining a different generation.  We saw the flaw in this assumption with Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick: much style, much bling, much talk about being “young,” “new,” “fresh” and “different;” but little to no substance - at least not enough substance to reverse Motown’s fate.

To us, change in the Black political sense, would see a careful, thoughtful and analytical embrace of various political, ideological and policy elements - considering many parts to make the whole.  There is still some feeling that we’re not totally there, yet, since we see a lot of regurgitated “urban agenda” platforms or younger brothers and sisters looking a new part but speaking an old game.  Tactically, we might be doing things much differently; but are we doing anything differently on a strategic level. We think it’s about time somebody start talking about it and calling it out.

The Divide Remains

Many have wondered how a Barack Obama campaign would affect race relations in America.  Would it impact it in a favorable and or dramatic way? Or would it have no impact on the underlying racial problems that exist?

A new poll by the New York Times and CBS News says it’s the latter. 

“Nearly 60 percent of black respondents said race relations were generally bad, compared with 34 percent of whites. Four in 10 blacks say that there has been no progress in recent years in eliminating racial discrimination; fewer than 2 in 10 whites say the same thing. And about one-quarter of white respondents said they thought that too much had been made of racial barriers facing black people, while one-half of black respondents said not enough had been made of racial impediments faced by blacks.

The survey suggests that even as the nation crosses a racial threshold when it comes to politics — Mr. Obama, a Democrat, is the son of a black father from Kenya and a white mother from Kansas — many of the racial patterns in society remain unchanged in recent years.

Indeed, the poll showed markedly little change in the racial components of people’s daily lives since 2000, when The Times examined race relations in an extensive series of articles called “How Race Is Lived in America.”

McKinney Green with Opportunity

Former Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney secured the nomination of Green Party for President of the United States. 

McKinney, who recently switched from the Democratic Party, made history by being first women and African American to be nominated by the party.  The spunky former Congresswomen will bring some excitement to the race that features other outsized small party  and independent nominees like Ralph Nader and Bob Barr, another former Georgia member of Congress. 

McKinney is no strange to history since she was the first African American women elected to Congress from Georgia. 

McKinney, who had a checkered history in Congress, which included calls for the impeachment of President George W. Bush, a request for a congressional inquiry of the death of rapper Tupac Shakur and countless defenses of hip hop, will not run this campaign quietly and wants “to build a movement.”

McKinney named hip hop artist Rosa Clemente as her runningmate.  The best the Green Party has ever done in an election is 2000 when Ralph Nader captured 2.8 million votes and 2.7% of the vote, a number many Democrats chafe at and whine about about because of  Al Gore’s slim lost to George W. Bush.    

McKinney, Nader and Barr make up one of the most interesting if not powerful set of independent and small party candidates in history.  Whether any of them or all of them combined can effect the race in the end like Ross Perot in 1992 and 1996 history will tell but the one thing they they won’t do is go quietly into the electoral night.

He’ll Take the Pink Slip

Last week infamous former United States Senator Jesse Helms, left, (R-NC) died.  The long time Senator was seen by many as a leading opponent to civil rights and not above using race in elections to drive a wedge and clinch victories as he was accused of in his 1990 reelection effort against former Charlotte mayor Harvey Gantt who happened to be African American.

Despite his checkered past on race relations and apparently in reverence of his 52 year political life the Governor of North Carolina Mike Easley (D-NC) ordered that the flags of the state be lowered to half-staff in remembrance of Helms.  However one state employee said not me and resigned from his employment rahter than lower the flag himself.  

L.F. Eason was interviewed by Chicago Tribune about why we quit and what his “beef was with…Helms…It was just incredible to me to hear this man, time after time after time, have this bigoted, racist propaganda, and people still elect him. It’s really sad. I think Jesse came along at a time when we could have gone so much more progressive. I never, ever could tolerate the man.” 

Hopefully someone in North Carolina will appreciate Eason and reward him handsomely for his show of courage.

Where’s the CBC on Zimbabwe?

We have to ask this question given the resounding impotency of many regional Southern Africa and sub-Saharan African leaders on the subject. Few are willing to give any sort of harsh rebuke of the Mugabe regime … well, it’s kind of hard, anyway, considering most African governments are relentlessly corrupt and despotic. It would be a bit of blind leading the blind. Still, one eye-sore of a noticeable hush is coming from democratic South Africa, where the continent’s largest economy and now post-Apartheid, Black-run government refuses to outright reject Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe and, instead, argues for a “coalition” government (applying the Kenyan solution as the new formula for all disputed African elections gone violent). Like that’s going to do anything - as if the dictator is really all that receptive to “sharing” something he believes he was divinely ordained to lead. Clearly, Mugabe has lost all scruples, caring more for power-absorption at his people’s expense and blaming it all on Western meddling.  There’s more hype from the CBC over Nelson Mandela’s name on the U.S. terror suspect watch list than there is over the terror of unstable tyrants continuing to wreck Africa’s future.

Surely, the West has a role to play, but the West isn’t the one with its finger on the trigger in Harare. And, what concerns us is that while the Congressional Black Caucus (and others of the Black political class) make repeated trips and “delegation” excursions to South Africa, there is no loud denunciation of South Africa’s deliberate silence and unwillingness to act. There is no move, to our knowledge, of the CBC considering a revision of plans to hold an annual briefing there. There are no loud calls from CBC members to not only place pressure on Zimbabwe, but to perhaps place pressure on South Africa and others as well. Everyone seems perfectly fine and cozy with the African status-quo. Not exactly certain what’s happening with this merry band and “safe district” Members of Congress, but they’ve been dropping or altogether missing the ball on quite a few issues they could play lead on.

And what happens is when it appears that many are accepting the situation in Zimbabwe, then China
and Russia find ease in vetoing a U.N. resolution to impose sanctions on Mugabe - along with South Africa voting against it, as well. Something about that doesn’t sit right - it could have much to do with the influence of South Africa’s Chinese community. Of course, all the players in this are pretty suspect: China wants to continue arms deals and tapping resource gateways in Africa while the U.S. is only pushing for sanctions as a way to halt Beijing’s influence - let’s be real: it’s not about Zimbabweans. Nor is it about setting the right, responsible and forward-thinking tone the continent needs for full recovery.