Republicans For Obama: The Nerve!

Whachoo talkin' 'bout?

Yahoo News is reporting that a new group is being formed to support the “presumptive” Democratic nominee: Republicans For Obama.

The Democrat’s campaign said the group was being spearheaded by former lawmaker Jim Leach of Iowa, former Rhode Island senator Lincoln Chaffee, and Rita Hauser, who was a prominent fundraiser for President George W. Bush.

The renegade Republicans are all “crossing the divide of old politics to support Barack Obama for president,” the Democrat’s campaign said in a statement.

The nerve of these people!  How dare they pretend that this is a new organization?  Do they think we’re stupid?

This is from the website, Republicans for Obama:

About Republicans for Obama

Republicans for Obama is a grassroots organization of proud party members who all share one important trait— we are Americans first and Republicans second. (Even if it is a close second.) Founded in late 2006 as part of the nationwide effort to encourage Senator Obama to run for the Presidency, our volunteer-run, grassroots group now includes over 2000 registered members from across the nation.

So, not only are Republicans For Obama not new as an organization, they’ve been around 2 years longer than any of the Democrats supporting McCain groups.  You know, the ones that were formed as a backlash against all those corrupt Democrats for Obama.  Which corrupt Dems, you ask?  The ones who shafted HRC, the ones who think we’re stupid.

PUMA

Just Say No Deal

The Race Race, What’s Going On?

Much has been made of race in this election, the race card, who played it and what it means are discussed ad nauseum in the press, throughout the blogosphere, in barbershops, beauty shops, restaurants and everywhere else people gather and talk about current events.  But, does anybody have an answer?  Probably, but first, you have to ask the right question.

Black voter apathy has been a reality since we won the right to vote.  While Civil Rights leaders and black politicians fully understood the power of the ballot, they also realized that people need somebody to vote for.  This is not as simplistic as it seems.  For most of the past forty-four years black voters were pretty much limited to voting for white politicians, with few exceptions.  Barack Obama is the only black sitting United States Senator, and only the third since Reconstruction, out of a total of five. He is the second, in my opinion, Jesse Jackson being the first in 1988, viable black candidate for President in this nation’s entire history.  Unquestionably, this is huge.  But is it enough? For many blacks, the answer is, no.

The Democrats and Obama have pinned their hopes on grassroots efforts to energize the black base, but haven’t always found the going easy as  Amanda Bass, an Obama volunteer found out:

“It’s a monumental challenge,” she said. “You see how mentally shackled and jaded people are, because they’ve seen politicians let them down in the past.”

For many of these disengaged people, racial solidarity with Obama does not automatically trump apathy or despair. Even if volunteers manage to get them registered, it will require intensive follow-up to make sure they know where to vote, have the necessary identification and then turn out.

Obama has never been assured of support from the black community, most black people didn’t know him any better than any other color people did before he burst onto the national scene, and certainly felt no particular allegiance to him as ABC News pointed out in February, 2007:

One might assume that the only person of African descent currently in the race for the White House would automatically get the black vote.

That assumption would be wrong.