A Sham, A Hostage, and a Schmoo

PUMA

Just Say No Deal

Milli Vanilli Was Black, Too

Did I mention Barack Obama is black?  Everybody else did.  David Espo, AP:

Barack Obama stepped triumphantly into history Wednesday night, the first black American to win a major party presidential nomination, and thousands of Democrats transformed their convention hall into a joyful, shouting celebration.

More from AP:

When this campaign ends, after future presidents have come and gone, and when today’s young people are grown old, history will remember Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2008, as the day a black man became the presidential nominee of a major party.

Stephen Collison, Yahoo News:

In a deafening moment of history, Democrats made Barack Obama the first black major-party nominee for president, as they rode a delirious outpouring of unity, hope and tears.

Here’s Bloomberg:

Barack Obama was declared the Democratic candidate for president, the first black in American history to win the nomination of a major political party.

And The New York Times:

Senator Barack Obama, the Hawaiian-born son of a father from Kenya and a mother from Kansas, officially became the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party today, capping a meteoric rise from a little-known state senator to the first African-American to win the nomination of a major party.

CNN:

Democrats Wednesday officially nominated Obama to be their candidate for president, making him the first African-American to lead a major party ticket.

You know, I’m beginning to think this black thing is a pretty big deal.  Especially since most of these stories dealt with Obama winning the nomination and how other people felt about it.  Oh, sure, they talked about judgment and leadership and stuff, but nobody said how he had actually shown any of those qualities when he did anything.  But, he’s really black.  And that’s historic, by gummy.

That got me to thinking; Milli Vanilli was black, and they didn’t do anything either.  But they did it very well.  Until they got caught.  They made history, too.

May Barack Obama’s tape never skip.

PUMA

Just Say No Deal

Barack Obama and the Dream

PUMA

Just Say No Deal

It’s Official: Democrats Are Schmoos

Every minute that goes by provides more evidence that, yes, the Democrats are  jerks Schmoos, with a capital “J.”  They keep shooting themselves in the foot stuck in their mouths, not an easy thing to do, to be sure.   AP News is reporting:

In an emotional meeting leading up to the Democratic roll call of the states, Hillary Rodham Clinton released her convention delegates Wednesday to vote for certain presidential nominee Barack Obama.

Many in the crowded ballroom yelled back, “No!”

“I am not telling you what to do,” Clinton responded. “You’ve come here from so many different places having made this journey and feeling in your heart what is right for you to do.”

This was expected, and so far, it doesn’t seem so bad, right?  Well, except for that whole “nominate Obama” thing, but enough said about that.  While some delegates were said to be “visibly upset” by the plan to engage in a symbolic roll call-in-name-only, some were more upset than others:

Massachusetts delegate Nancy Saboori was visibly upset at the end of Clinton’s speech.

“She doesn’t have the right to release us,” Saboori argued. “We’re not little kids to be told what to do in a half-hour.”

The story continues:

Not all Clinton supporters were on board. Sonja Jaquez Lewis, a Clinton delegate from Colorado, said she and others may walk out if Clinton is denied a roll call.

“If we don’t have an official roll call vote, state-by-state, it is going to reopen a wound,” Lewis said.

Ya think?  Unsurprisingly, Claire McCaskill is vying for the title of Chief Among Schmoos:

Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, an Obama supporter, said Clinton’s challenge in getting her delegates to come on board with Obama “may be the biggest test of her leadership.”

“If she’s not a strong enough leader to get her followers to do what’s right for America, then that would surprise me,” McCaskill told the AP. “I think they are going to follow her lead, and her lead was very crystal clear last night.”

Wyoming Senator Mike Massie tells of the shenanigans going on:

Wyoming state Sen. Mike Massie, D-Laramie, said his delegation gave 12 votes to Obama and six to Clinton after state party officials rejected a request from Clinton delegates to delay the vote until after a meeting later in the day with Clinton. Massie said the delegation is still puzzled by orders to vote before Clinton could meet with her delegates and release them.

“That question is on the minds of a lot of people,” Massie said.

They rushed the vote?  Say it ain’t so!  In other news showing the delusion of the clueless, from another AP article:

Bill Clinton will say in a roughly eight-minute speech that only a Democrat in the White House can “restore America’s standing to what it was eight years ago,” said the aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to pre-empt the former president’s speech.

And this:

In a sign of unity, Obama adviser Berman and Clinton adviser Smith told delegates on Wednesday that they had been working out of the same office all week to ensure a smooth convention.

“The story is that we are working as a team,” Berman said.

Some story.  “Clinton adviser Smith.”  We know whose side he’s really on.  Bill Clinton gets an eight minute speech, Hillary Clinton’s delegates are forced to vote before talking to her, and Claire McCaskill thinks this is all about Hillary.  It is, but not the way Claire thinks, if she is indeed capable of such activity.  And while Claire might be Chief Schmoo, she can’t hold a candle to Nancy P.:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, presiding officer of the Democratic National Convention, predicted the roll-call voting after the names of both Obama and Clinton were put in nomination would go “very smoothly.”

Anything like Congress, Nan?  Schmoos, the whole lot of ‘em.

It’s A Sham, Why Not Admit It?

The Democrats are going out of their way to give Barack Obama the nomination for president.  Literally.  Let’s quickly review.  Neither Barack Obama, nor Hillary Clinton accumulated enough pledged delegates to win the nomination.  Super delegates only cast official votes at the convention.  They have no obligation to stick with previous endorsements.  So, the whole thing is up for grabs, right?

Uh, no.

The first black man to receive a major party nomination will do so by agreement that it is simply time to do such a historic thing.  It is the forty-fifth anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech, isn’t it?  From the AP:

Democratic delegates began marking their presidential nominating ballots Wednesday, making the unprecedented choice between a black man and a white woman. But only a limited number of the ballots were expected to be counted in an afternoon roll call before Barack Obama was declared the party’s presidential nominee by acclamation.

From another AP article:

Democrats were poised to formally deliver the party’s presidential nomination to Barack Obama on Wednesday, making him the first black nominee of a major party. While the historic outcome was certain, suspense remained over how a vote of delegates would proceed, and for how long.

edit

Representatives of the Clinton and Obama teams struck a deal setting ground rules for Wednesday’s roll call vote that will hand the nomination to Obama, but will also allow Clinton supporters to express their support for her.

Both stories go on to explain exactly how the show will be choreographed; but make no mistake, a show is all it is.  What a shame that these people can make a claim to historical significance based on nothing but stagecraft.  But, hey, you go with what you’re good at, right?

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s big speech on Thursday night will be delivered from an elaborate columned stage resembling a miniature Greek temple.

What could be more perfect?  Well, maybe scantily clad showgirls from Caeser’s Palace twirling flaming batons while the Grambling State Marching Band, playing a funked-up version of “Hail To The Chief, spells out O-B-A-M-A in the end zone followed by a lone, naked marathon runner bringing forth a proclamation that the Republican Party and John McCain have ceded victory to He Who Shall Rule Eight To Ten Years By Decree.  After the symbolic chariot race, of course.

I’m sure they’re working on all that.

PUMA

Just Say No Deal

But, But, You’re Blaaaack!

Every African American who supports Hillary Clinton has heard this whine a million times.  Clueless, these Obots don’t realize how insulting their words are.  Of course it’s an insult to me and other black Hillary Clinton supporters; the assumption that choosing a candidate for president using criteria other than a commonality of pigmentation is an infraction worthy of causing me to lose kinship with those whose shared experience, background and blood shapes my identity, is wrong on too many levels to count.  It is also an insult to the person making such stereotypical statements.  Whether they realize it or not, basing an opinion on racial assumptions is pretty much the definition of the word “stereotype,” and qualifies the person making such comments as a bigot.  It’s also an insult to the candidate such people are trying to promote.  It says that there are no other grounds for supporting his candidacy.  Whatever.

Ann Price Mills, in this video, says what a lot of us feel, and I am grateful to her for having the courage and strength to speak her mind.  I am saddened by the fact that to speak as she does requires courage and strength in the first place.

PUMA

Just Say No Deal