Somehow, that doesn’t sound right. Look right. Feel right. When I think of what happened a year ago today, what it meant, and where it’s lead us, I’m not happy at all. In fact, the more I think about it, the pisseder I get.
I could rehash the events that lead up to today’s festivities, but, not only is it more cathartic to just visit PUMA sites and use the search features to find the gut wrenching words written in real time, but itemizing and chronicling the step-by-step process by which we came to be feels more like the stupid torch carrying ceremony on Survivor, or, the let’s-stop-the-party-and-show-you-who-died part of the Oscars.
The truth is, as I see it, none of us wants to be here. If we had our druthers, there’d be no PUMA. And, truthfully, there might not be a Clinton in the White House, either. Whoever had won fairly, by the rules, with even a modicum of integrity, honor, and dignity, would probably have been fine, and not sparked the kind of explosive rage that the piss-in-your-face hijacking the Rules and Bylaws Committee of the Democratic Party had to engage in to prop up it’s shallow sham of an unworthy, unqualified, incompetent, “B” actor wannabe with the way cool money machine, did. Read the rest of this entry »
I am a black, gay, woman. According to popular conventional wisdom, being black and gay means I should hate myself, and be extremely grateful that, as a woman, I’m powerless to do anything about it. There are so many things wrong with politicizing fairness and equality that it makes the one thing that’s right about it, using it as a tool to effect change, sometimes seem hardly worth the cost. “Fair is fair” should be a no brainer any oppressed, or formerly oppressed, person should be able to wrap their heads all the way around. Yet, as an “African American” who, like most of my gleefully downtrodden brothers and sisters, has never seen the Mother Land, I am expected to be far more politically motivated by my victimization a a black person than by the exact same sort of victimization I might have experienced as a woman. I say “might have experienced” because the reality of gender oppression is not a recognized “given,” no matter how high the mountain of evidence proving it might be. I’m not even technically allowed to even call myself gay, either, since “gay” is an appellation appropriated by male homosexuals, me being relegated to the “L” in “LGBT” or, “GLBT.” Even if I don’t want to be referred to as an African American Lesbian woman, and prefer to be called a black gay chick, a politically correct, clued in observer will insist upon recognizing me as the former. Sometimes it’s a real pain in the ass to keep things straight.
As the PUMAsphere rightly, and righteously, continues to rail against those responsible for inflicting the festering wound of Obamanism upon the Democratic party, it might be useful to take a moment to examine exactly where the blame belongs. While there is no doubt that Joe Cannon at Cannonfire and John-South of Melrose at Liberal Rapture are absolutely correct that the Hopium-hooked of Huffcheetoville have caused irreparable harm to the party with their over-the-top, irrational, indefensible, threats, taunts, and vitriolic rants against anyone and anything daring to express anything approaching the appearance of the possibility of potential criticism of the Unworthy One, one must ask oneself, “who are these idiots, and who let them out?” The answer to that question is at once, obvious and, a little convoluted.
We all tend to point fingers at the people who gave these rabid mobs a platform from which to rant, but, that might not be quite fair. While the Arianna-heads and Kossacks of the blogosphere certainly must own up to their fair share of responsibility, the bulk of the blame lies in the laps of David Axelrove’s Astroturfing Army, who, in many instances, hijacked website comment sections freeper-like, with military-style precision, often in response to articles posted on even those sites that don’t fit the Obots’ email ordered acceptability standards. It’s not hard to imagine that this online campaign began with the employment of a relatively small number of paid Obots and their sock puppets, and morphed into the larger online force via the drafting and careful cultivation of inferiority complex-plagued basement dwellers into Axelrove’s email army via their vaunted big donor-hiding, “small donor” list.
That’s what Alan Colmes says. Just leave the Obamessiah alone while he does whatever the hell he wants to do, says the Man Nobody Listens To. Colmes is just too too miffed at all those people who have an opinion about the Baraculator. The commenters on his blog post say you can almost see him stomping his widdle foot as he writes that, gosh darnit to heck, the poor Urkelbama hasn’t even figured out where the bathrooms are, fuhgoodnesssake!
I have a great idea. Leave the guy alone. Yes, LEAVE OBAMA ALONE. I’m not suggesting we shouldn’t hold our government officials accountable, but how about giving the new chief time to find out where the men’s room is in the White House? Read the rest of this entry »
Donna Brazile, who claims her life is going to crap since her “MamaFactor” was elected, nonetheless says when it comes to bashing the Baby Prez on Training Wheels, everybody should just shut the hell up and keep sucking. Okay, she didn’t say that; that’s the punchline to an awful joke, but I thought that, given what she did say, it was a pretty apt interpretation. The Object of Donna’s Desire has been having a pretty rough go of it, lately, and DB is just sick of it, sick I tellya, and hates all the haters hating.
Donna’s mama would be proud that her baby girl is so kind-hearted and forgiving, considering all that her KoolAid-fueled infatuation has cost her. But, Does Donna blame Oboyfriend? Did Juliet blame Romeo? Cleopatra blame Antony? The chick on Dancing With The Stars blame The Batchelor? Noooooo! Whatareyounuts?
Over the last two months, I have seen my hours cut back, a newspaper column canceled, clients unable to renew their contracts with my firm, and others needing to renegotiate my modest fees. Business is drying up, and despite all my frantic maneuvers to move my little retirement funds out of harm’s way, my 401(k) is disappearing faster than the snow from the recent storm. I don’t want to see this president fail, and I suggest that to do so is a partisan luxury none of us can afford.
Barack Obama has been pimping faith, any faith, for political power since the beginning of his professional career as a community organizer. Early on he made a conscious, callous decision to use the pulpit, any pulpit, to attempt to mobilize people into action. This is not a secret, it has been documented repeatedly, yet it has been marketed as most things Obama have been, it is what it is, but it means anything you want it to.
Until recently, when Barack Obama touted his Muslim family members and growing up in a Muslim country on Al Arabiya TV, associating the word, “Muslim,” or anything that might possibly remotely hint at a relationship of any sort between Obama and anything Islamic, including his given name, was considered a completely out of bounds “smear.” Even when he himself slipped up and referred to his “Muslim faith,” specualtion about the nature of the slip and what it might mean, was treated as being highly offensive and unfair to the “Christian” man. The “Christian” man who, as far as anyone knows, has never been baptized, (if anybody has any evidence showing he has, I’ll apologize) who could divorce himself from his church and “pastor who brought him to Jesus” when it became politically expedient to do so, and has used every one of his rare church visits in the last 2 years of campaigning and being elected to the presidency as a photo-op, skillfully talks the Christian talk without being expected to walk the Christian walk.
“Nowhere is the promise of organizing more apparent than in the traditional black churches. Possessing tremendous financial resources, membership and – most importantly – values and biblical traditions that call for empowerment and liberation, the black church is clearly a slumbering giant in the political and economic landscape of cities like Chicago. A fierce independence among black pastors and a preference for more traditional approaches to social involvement (supporting candidates for office, providing shelters for the homeless) have prevented the black church from bringing its full weight to bear on the political, social and economic arenas of the city.”
John Coleman, an Ohio fireman marching in the inaugural parade, winked and waved at President Black Obama in violation of “da roolz,” and was subsequently suspended for six months. From the Cleveland Plain Dealer:
“We had gone over and over time and again with everyone in the band that this was a military parade. Protocol and proper decorum had to be followed at all times,” said bandleader Pipe Major Mike Engle. “Unfortunately, John chose to ignore that.”
Coleman said he didn’t do anything grossly demonstrative: “I looked over, and he smiled and waved. I was just acknowledging the president, who was acknowledging our band.”
Engle, who said other pipe bands complained about Coleman’s gesture, said even sneaking a glimpse was out of bounds.
“He has to abide by the rules,” Engle said. “It had to be done.”
John Coleman resigned from the Cleveland Firefighters Memorial Pipes & Drums a week after the parade in Washington. Publicity about his suspension had gotten to be too much, he told CNN affiliate WEWS.
“It’s come to a point where I don’t want embarrassment anymore between the pipe band and myself,” Coleman, who is a firefighter, told WEWS on Tuesday.
Band manager, Ken Rybka,expressed shock and surprize at the resignation, and said he himself will take a leave of absense from the band:
The band has been inundated with phone calls, e-mails and messages on its Internet pages — almost all of them critical — since the story first broke on Monday, Rybka said.
“It is unfortunate that an internal band issue has raised so much discussion and ire from the general public,” Rybka said in the statement. “It has disheartened me more than you can imagine.”
Rybka said that he will be taking a leave of absence from the band because of the furor.
“The ‘afterglow’ of participating in the inaugural parade is gone,” he said.
Suppose The View’s Elizabeth Hasselbeck announced that she was running for president in 2012? As a Democrat? Feminist? What if she hired a sharp, ruthless, barracuda of a campaign manager who stage-managed an almost flawless production, assembling bright, committed women and men willing to think outside the box in order to get the job done, using the mysteriously acquired unlimited funds at her disposal to get Elizabeth’s unique, yet poignant story to the masses? If Elizabeth, who has always claimed to be politically independent, dramatically recanted all previously uttered conservative statements as having been made under duress; unduly influenced and perpetually frightened as she has been because of years of abuse, would you buy it? How would you feel as you watched millions of people leap aboard her bandwagon, commiserating with her misery, applauding her for her courage in freeing herself from her oppressor, as all women must be made to feel free to do?
As her campaign grew, with Caroline Kennedy and Nancy Pelosi enthusiastically endorsing her, and female Democrats and Republicans of every race coming forward to embrace her and her story, and every male, Democrat and Republican, hurrying to align themselves with her, too, lest they be tarred with the chauvinistic, closet abuser brush her campaign cleverly wielded as a sword of implication hanging perilously over their heads, would you be cheered by the prospect of the seeming inevitability of finally putting a woman in the White House? Or, would you watch in horror, transfixed by the spectacle, with a permanent “what the fuck?!” expression etched upon your face, questioning her experience as your friends, family and co-workers questioned your sanity?
When prominent feminists appeared onstage with prominent celebrities and exhorted frenzied poor people to join hands in history as they supported the women they love as they finally take their rightful place in society, would you want to cry, pull your hair out, or join in? As “Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves” segued into “Respect” at rallies where men women and children waved “It’s Our Turn, Now” and “We Came The Long Way, Baby” signs would you scream at the TV, “yeah, but it’s fucking Elizabeth Hasselbeck, ya shits?!”
When Jeff Probst appeared on the news claiming that Hasselbeck’s experience on Survivor showed that she was indeed capable of enduring hardship, and people cheered so much that Elizabeth joined with Beyonce at fundraisers, even going so far as to sing along when girl group ditching Lady Jigglebooty performed her “Charlie’s Angels” theme song, would you feel like you’d entered an alternate universe? When Joy Behar guest-hosted the Larry King show and professed to the hour’s guest, Donna Brazile, that after 3 years of interacting with the diverse women on The View, Hasselbeck was uniquely equipped to handle the office of the presidency, a position Brazile heartily agreed with and expounded on, would you cry?
If Hasselbeck raised more money than anyone in the history of campaigning, supposedly from millions of women, young and old, sending in withheld portions of grocery, milk, lunch and tithe funds, supplemented by donations from Massengil, Playtex, Gardisil, Black and Decker and other companies eager to cash in on the “She Can Do Anything” theme of the campaign, would you wonder where the start-up money, not to mention rest of the gazillion, came from?
If the sale of blonde wigs went through the roof, with women of every color and stripe wearing them with their “Who’s Stupid, NOW?” tee shirts, in solidarity with their new shero, would you rush to renew your subscription to Ms. Magazine and all the other periodicals whose cover Hasselbeck graced? When Vanity Fair featured her on the cover, naked under a flag with make-up bruises and a black eye, in their “We’re Not Gonna Take It Anymore” issue, would you wonder where the real pictures were and why none of her male family members, let alone the never identified abuser had been interviewed, and how come there were no police reports, or would you keep your mouth shut lest you be accused of blaming the victim?
What if she had won caucuses she didn’t compete in, or just barely pulled out the nomination after her primary opponent was subjected to months of incessant media accusations of his unnecessarily bullying and trying to intimidate her? Could any male candidate, even one with an exemplary record of standing up for women’s rights, stand up himself under a well-coordinated media onslaught portraying him as an insensitive brute willing to beat up on a girl to achieve his goals like men always do?
When she gave tepid thanks to Hillary Clinton, before proclaiming a new way forward for today’s generation of women, encouraging them to move away from the strident voices and divisive tactics of the past, how would you feel? And, when she improbably rode the media generated wave of public sentiment to the highest office in the land, would you be proud? Or would the “what the fuck!?” expression you’d worn for moths now, become covered with tears, despite your best efforts to stop them?
No matter how strongly you believe that it’s time to have the woman president we need, would any woman really do, any way you could get her? For this black woman, Barack Obama might as well be the blonde on The View. They might both be swell, peachy people, but c’mon, president?
I am a PUMA today for the exact same reason I went looking to become something that didn’t yet exist on May 31, 2008; I object to the manner in which Barack Obama became my president. And nothing I’ve seen before or since has mitigated that essential truth in the slightest, in fact, the more I see of the way he operates, the more upset I get. Barack Obama offends my sense of fair play. From what I’ve been able to determine through my research of him, he has pushed the against “da roolz” envelope in every contested election he’s won. Though he cannot be accused of outright cheating, he has built his entire pseudo-impressive career out of finding obscure loopholes to screw to his orgasm, thereby raping the process to his pleasure and advantage.
As has been extensively chronicled, in 1996, Obama won his first election to the Illinois Senate by contesting the voting petition signatures gathered for all of his challengers, getting them all disqualified, and running unopposed. Before he could complete his second term of office, after winning re-election in 1998 over African American Republican Yesse Yehudah (whose name later emerged in Obama bribery allegations) he mounted a disastrous 2000 campaign for sitting Congressman Bobby Rush’s seat, who beat the pants off him like he was a red-headed stepchild, by playing his “my black card on the table trumps the Uppity Magic Negro card up your sleeve.” It worked, and Obama never let that happen again.
Every Senate district elects its members to serve two four-year terms and one two-year term per decade.
…and Obama’s predilection for reticence, the details regarding his Illinois Senate runs are rather sketchy. However, considering that his opponent in 1998, Yehuda, won approx. 10% of the vote, and that in 2002 he ran unopposed, its safe to assume that, for some reason, Obama’s re-elections were basically a rubber-stamp formality. Curiously, Wikipedia mentions that Obama was re-elected to the Illinois senate in 2002, presumably in November, yet numerous sources report that he had already begun preparing for a run at the U.S. Senate by June of that year. From the Boston Globe:
In mid-2002, Obama began to focus on the upcoming US Senate race. The incumbent, Republican Peter Fitzgerald, seemed beatable, and it was not clear Carol Moseley Braun, who had held the seat before Fitzgerald, would try to reclaim it. Obama and his wife made a deal: This would be, as his wife puts it now, “the last hurrah.”
Democratic State Senator and University Law School Senior Lecturer Barack Obama has begun assessing his chances in the 2004 US senate race. Obama has commissioned a statewide poll by the Colorado firm Harstad Strategic Research, and he has filed for federal permission to begin fundraising. Obama will have to win the democratic primary in order to face incumbent Republican Senator Peter Fitzgerald in ‘04.
Note the article from 2002 refers to Obama as a “Senior Lecturer” not “professor,” as he has claimed to be; a claim which was backed up, but “nuanced” (their word, not mine) by Fact Check.org via the University of Chicago. Another example of Obama’s fondness for “nuance”regards his now, much bally-hooed, then, largely ignored, unfilmed, 2002 Iraq war speech:
“My objections to the war in Iraq were not simply a speech,” Obama said. “I was in the midst of a U.S. Senate campaign. It was a high-stakes campaign. I was one of the most vocal opponents of the war.” (Obama delivered the speech in October 2002; he did not officially declare his candidacy for the U.S. Senate until January).
Even in this era of YouTube and camera phones, a recording of Obama’s speech is all but impossible to find. The Obama campaign has gone so far as to re-create portions of the speech for a television ad, with the candidate re-reading the text, with audience sound effects.
So, according to the above article from NPR, this cornerstone and centerpiece of Obama’s presidential campaign was actually an insignificant speech delivered to about 1,000 people by a little known guy running unopposed for the state Senate, at somebody else’s (Jesse Jackson) rally. Even Obama’s campaign manager, David Axelrod, has admitted as much. Quoted in the New York Times Caucus blog lamenting the lack of recorded Iraq war speech material:
“I would kill for that,” he was quoted as saying. “No one realized at the time that it would be a historic thing.”
Similar “nuance” marks the man’s entire biography, yet he has somehow managed to create the illusion of transparency. When David Axelrod joined (became) Obama’s team in 2004, the elements of Obama’s new, “I am, too, black enough, but not too black, just short of under-handed envelope pushing” political philosophy began to successfully knit themselves together. On his AKP&D Message and Media website, “the Axe” takes his full share of credit:
In 2004, Axelrod helped State Senator Barack Obama score a landslide win in his U.S. Senate campaign, developing a message and media strategy that enabled Obama to defeat six opponents in the Democratic primary with an astounding 53% of the vote. He is currently serving as media advisor to Obama’s presidential campaign.
Barack Obama was elected to the United States Senate as the second African American to do so from Illinois, amid scandal. In fact, from the scandal surrounding Congressman Mel Reynolds in his first state Senate bid, to his predecessor Carol Mosely Braun’s legal troubles, to the fortuitous (for him) scandal and gossip swirling around two of his opponents in his U.S. Senate race that caused them to drop out, to the current Blagojevich brouhaha, somebody in Illinois is always getting into trouble for something that often ultimately benefits Obama, that he’s miraculously never really otherwise affected by.
The divorce records of Obama’s leading primary opponent in 2004, Blair Hull, as well as those of his Republican opponent Jack Ryan were not-so-mysteriously leaked to the Chicago Tribune, (given David Axelrod’s previous association with the newspaper) sinking their chances. Obama/Axelrod could then employ their newly developed “blacker than thou” techniques against last minute, carpetbagging replacement Republican candidate, Alan Keyes, sweeping to victory.
In the presidential primaries, Camp Obama again pushed “da roolz” envelope to their advantage. From the exploitation of delegate appropriation in the caucuses, to the active solicitation of “anybody but Hillary” Republican and Independent temporary crossover voting, to the deliberate, yet unnecessary, removal of his name in the Michigan primary, something he was forbidden to do in Florida, Obama consistently pimped the process. With the complicity of the DNC, the mainstream media and the faux progressive blogosphere, who rewarded, celebrated, and championed his every questionable move, he barely squeaked by enough to be ceremoniously handed the nomination, “fair and square.” Those of us in his party who questioned his experience, qualifications, and tactics were belittled, bullied, and ridiculed when we couldn’t be ignored, as the Obama campaign and the DNC turned their heads and allowed his minions in the media and blogosphere to engage in misogynistic race baiting on his behalf. None of which dampened our outrage in the slightest, in fact, as most any fool besides these would expect, the opposite is true.
Wickedly delightful, completely non-politically correct author Christopher Moore has brilliantly analyzed and explained the concept of “Beta Male” in much of his work. While I recommend you read his books for yourself, and cannot presume to speak for him, the basic point, as I perceive it, is that the world is populated by far more Beta Males than Alpha, yet they tend to fade into the background of life because they’re…well…Beta. Moore hilariously champions their cause. Yet, as a female, I have a couple of observations about the concept of my own. One, Alpha Male is not all it’s cracked up to be. Basically, it just means “first guy through the door.” While a man’s looks, wealth, education, whatever, might contribute to his cockiness, the bottom line is, it’s the cocksure confidence he exhibits that women and Beta Males respond to, often to their detriment. Because, there’s no guarantee that the Alpha Male is the smartest, or best qualified guy in any group, he’s just compelled to go first. This is not always a good thing for him, or the group, after all, the first bull off the cliff in a buffalo jump was probably an Alpha Male, too.
Secondly, not all Alpha Males are created equal. Primarily because, not all male tribal affiliations, teams, clubs, cliques, squads, etc., are. True, there are Alpha Males in Alpha Male societies, but even Beta, Gamma, Delta, Theta and Omega groups have Alpha Males, too. And while those lesser Alphas might not fare well in clubs higher up on the food chain, in their little domains, they rock.
Barack Obama is not an Alpha Male, even in a Tau society. He is an actor, adept at adopting the persona of an Alpha, (when he stays on script) but even then, only as top dog of a Gamma society, at best. Therefore, his campaign, comprised of refugees from Revenge of the Nerds, had to be equally adept at crafting a message designed to dumb down the masses, get them to accept and embrace their Gamma society identity, so that they could then embrace their Gamma society Alpha Male leader. “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for” conjures images of clueless hordes standing around idly, with their fingers in their noses and their thumbs up their asses, waiting for somebody smart to come along and tell them where to go and what to do. Barack Obama is that somebody, for those people.
I don’t want a nerdy fake-Alpha Male president of a Gamma society. America is better than that. I don’t want a president who gleefully resorts to racially guilt tripping a largely innocent society into voting for him so that they might avoid the undeserved lash of the stigma of racism, while the minority of the majority who are real racists, escape unscathed. I want a level playing field. I want the best man to not only have a shot, I want him to win, even if the best man is a woman. I don’t care if state houses and government buildings have to add stalls to the ladies’ rooms to accommodate an arbitrarily mandated quota any more than I want any old black guy to be appointed or elected just because he’s black. If the best government of the people ends up being comprised of an unusually large percentage of third world immigrants, Munchkins, and Buddhist transvestites, so be it. I want to work for a world where those things don’t matter, not live in a country where we agree to pretend they don’t against any and all evidence to the contrary.
I don’t want to have to be political about being political, to activate and agitate society for my right to participate in it. Why should I still be burning my bra and raising my fist, even in this era of “historic accomplishment?” Why should I co-sign the tactics of a group of “win at all costs, by any means necessary” rulebook waving, loophole screwing, process rapists, hellbent on blackmailing the country into validating their Beta Male in a Gamma society twerpitude? What’s wonderful enough to celebrate about the election of a black Alpha Male of a society that has to tacitly agree to Gamma-fy itself in order to elect him? Especially when there was an imminently qualified, female Alpha Male in the race, one who actually had to fight her way out of the shadows of a bona fide Alpha?
I thought leveling the playing field, championing the cause of the little guy, real dedication to fair play, and social responsibility in a color blind, gender neutral country was what being a Democrat was all about.
I found out through this election that I was wrong.
That’s why I am no longer affiliated with any political party.
A few weeks ago, I wrote a post asking if Howard Dean was soon to become the Democratic Party’s most powerful man, given the fact that he is the architect of the once hated, now-hallowed “50 State Strategy” that many people credit with winning the election for Barack Obama and others. I concluded that since Howard is, by and large, a clueless, Dagwood Bumstead-type, lucky bungler, he would not; rather, that Obama would find him imminently expendable. Seems Howard Has come to the same conclusion. Adam Nagourney of the New York Times writes:
Howard Dean will not seek a second term as chairman of the Democratic National Committee, ending a tenure marked by an aggressive attempt to reshape the mission of the committee – and to court support by the so-called Netroots – but also marked by frequent quarrels with Democratic leaders over his abilities and the direction he was taking the party.
The truth is, nobody much likes Howard. Far from being the well-oiled machine the well-oiled, astroturfing, Obama pr machine promotes, the Democratic Party seems to be a loose coalition of back-biting factions, thugged into submission by Camp O. Though some may claim Obama owes at least a portion of his success to Dean, in reality, Obama basically sucked the juice out of Howard’s brain, took what was useful, and discarded the rest. Dean may have provided the blueprint, but Team Obama built the car Obama drove across the finish line.
Chris Cilliza tells us newly appointed White House Chief of Staff-elect, Rahm Emanuel, hates Dean, and his plan, and has never been shy about colorfully saying so. Paul Begala once said on CNN that Dean’s 50 State Strategy amounted to hiring people to “wander around Utah and Mississippi and pick their nose.” James Carville called Dean’s DNC “Rumsfeldian in its competence,” and called for his resignation. Though she seemed to be an active collaborator with Dean to disenfranchise Florida and Michigan to Obama’s benefit, Donna Brazile and Howie-baby have clashed, too, most notably over the inclusion of gay rights into the DNC’s Affirmative Action platform. Uptight Howard Dean testified in a deposition that sensible shoe-wearing Donna is against it, claiming it was an “affront to the Civil Rights Movement.” Though Brazile claimed to have no interest in being DNC Chairperson in 2004, her name is currently being bandied about as a possible replacement, as are Claire McCaskill, Tim Kaine, Kathleen Sebelius, and Bill Richardson. Given the Obama campaign’s rather complete takeover of the DNC operation, however, whoever gets the job will likely be nothing more than a glorified figurehead.
Not a lot of love going ’round, to put it mildly. But, since Brazile’s vision relative to gay rights most closely resembles Camp Obama’s, and since she was invaluable during his campaign with her “cheerleading disguised as neutrality,” on CNN, and her considerable input as Chair of DNC Voting Rights Institute, I’d say put your money on the “dark horse.”
PUMA site after PUMA site, mine included, repeatedly warned Republicans not to fall for the tactics employed by “Axelrod’s Tools of Astroturfing,” i.e., the mainstream media and the bullies of the blogosphere. We told you they would try to create a culture of inevitability designed to suppress Republican enthusiasm and voter turnout. We told you we would do our part and vote against the Democratic ticket, “Country Before Party” was the PUMA rallying cry. Did the Republicans listen? No. And I blame Karl Rove.
For some reason, the Republican leadership was perfectly content to let this one go; hell, that’s why John McCain got the nod in the first place. But cross-partisan Americans could have prevented an Obama presidency if Republicans had held up their end of the bargain. However, it seems that cross-partisanship the other way held sway. Karl Rove and Donna Brazile have had a weird kind of “strange relationship” since at least 2000. From Donna’s website:
Last year, following the Supreme Court intervention in the 2000 presidential campaign, I called my friend and Bush chief strategist Karl Rove to wish him well. I offered to send him a map of Washington, DC and recommended that the President sit down early with Mayor Tony Williams and with members of the Congressional Black Caucus. He listened and I appreciate Karl’s tenacity and commitment to making things happen. We also talked about cooking — one of my favorite hobbies when I am not running around stirring the pots and cooking up ways to win a campaign.
Karl and I met over a year ago at a small restaurant in Manchester, New Hampshire. Like most political operatives who meet for the first time, we made a bet on the outcome of the 2000 presidential election. Karl also likes a hot kitchen, so we bet on a meal. The winner would cook his/her favorite dish; the loser would probably pick up the tab. Back in December, Karl reminded me that it was time to get back to cooking. We planned the menu: I’ll stir up some Louisiana-style Creole — red beans and andouille sausage. Karl will likely provide some Texas-style chili and rice. With the election no longer in doubt, and two Southerners in the kitchen, all we have to agree to is who will fry the chicken.
The final Rove & Co. electoral map of the 2008 election cycle points to a 338-200 Barack Obama electoral vote victory over John McCain tomorrow, the largest electoral margin since 1996. All remaining toss-up states have been allocated to the candidate leading in them, with Florida (27 EV) going to Obama, and Indiana (11 EV), Missouri (11 EV), North Carolina (15 EV), and North Dakota (3 EV) going to McCain. The two candidates are in a dead heat in Missouri and North Carolina, but they go to McCain because the most recent polls conducted over this past weekend show him narrowly ahead. Florida, too, could end up in McCain’s column since he’s benefited from recent movement in the state.
However, CNN had this to say about the actual voter turnout:
“A downturn in the number and percentage of Republican voters going to the polls seemed to be the primary explanation for the lower than predicted turnout,” the report said. Compared to 2004, Republican turnout declined by 1.3 percentage points to 28.7 percent, while Democratic turnout increased by 2.6 points from 28.7 percent in 2004 to 31.3 percent in 2008.
If Republicans had just matched their 2004 totals and added a lousy 1.4 percent, or maybe held on to those “Obamacans” who voted for “hope and change,” we’d be talking about President-elect McCain right now. So, to those Republicans who care, don’t blame us. We did all we could.
Okay, the world is spinning backwards and only people who can wiggle their ears and belly dance are going to be able to stay on. Well, maybe that’s not true, but given the amped up craziness factor in this election cycle, it could be. As has been reported everywhere imaginable, Colin Powell might be endorsing Barack Obama for president soon, primarily because they’re both black. Or half-black. Or married to black women. Or have used black ink. Or wear black pants a lot. I’m not sure, but then, I’m wiggling my ears and belly dancing as I type this and try to keep from falling off the planet.
Then, there’s Fox News. They think Powell will endorse Obama because there are African Americans in London. And Colin P busted a move wit’ ‘em.
Colin Powell has his dancing shoes on, fueling speculation that he’s gearing up to do the Obama Two-Step.
The normally staid former U.S. secretary of state and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff performed an impromptu hip-hop dance alongside well-known rap stars Tuesday following a speech at a festival in London celebrating African-American music and fashion.
Powell, who had obviously been drinking heavily, then went on to say, for no apparent reason:
“I stand before you as an African-American. Many people have said to me you became secretary of state of the USA, is it still necessary to say that you are an African American or that you are black? And I say yes, so that we can remind our children.”
“It took a lot of people struggling to bring me to this point in history,” Powell told the audience. “I didn’t just drop out of the sky. People came from my continent in chains.”
This guy was Secretary of State and he thinks dancing with a group of Nigerian rappers at a hip-hop concert for Africa in London, for an audience who is obviously blind, is an appropriate setting for a “legacy of American slavery” history lesson? Because his children don’t know he’s black? Are they blind, too? Or do they think black people came from outer space? And, Obama wants his endorsement…why? Oh, yeah, I’m spinnin’.
Anyway, for some reason, Fox thought it would be nice of them to share the following video of Karl Rove rapping in honor of…a…white Republican looking silly, too? Separate, but equal time? At any rate, I thought, just to keep things balanced, I’d provide the video of Donna Brazile and Roland Martin gettin’ d-double-dog-down at the Democratic National Convention, celebrating Donna’s contributions in stealing the nomination. And hey, since she and Karl are such tight homies, it’s all just most perfectly righteous, boo.
It seems that everybody else has. Most of the people bringing up the race of the Democratic nominee do so in an attempt to explain away his potential loss. Some of those mentioning Obama’s blackness are clearly in need of supervision. Dick Meyer, writing for NPR, seems to fit into both categories. It is his theory that the subconscious racism of undecided voters will be the determining factor in their ultimate decision to vote against him.
This polling indicates something else astonishing to the politically plugged in: Many undecideds haven’t really connected their negative feelings about race to Obama yet. Their view of Obama is unformed, and their negative feelings toward African-Americans could be easily triggered when they finally tune in.
edit
But some who have been doing recent research on race believe there is a current of racism that has not been triggered and that is likely to be — perhaps triggered intentionally by Republicans, but also as a natural consequence of the undecided voters finally focusing. And plenty of pundits and advice-givers think Obama is not doing enough to minimize or counter the racial impulses of undecided voters. (I am not convinced there is any way to spin this: What is, is.)
That someone who would suppose something might happen if something undocumented and unproven happens to happen, would then claim that his suppositions amount to the reality of “is,” obviously indicates a cerebral malfunction of some sort, resulting in seriously flawed thinking. Yet, Mr. Meyer is not alone. Time’s Karen Tumulty says John McCain is already trying to capitalize on America’s pervasive undercurrent of subliminal racism. She says the following ad is racist.
While Tumulty believes the attack on Obama’s record to be fair game, the fact that Franklin Raines is featured is a problem:
This is hardly subtle: Sinister images of two black men, followed by one of a vulnerable-looking elderly white woman.
Let me stipulate: Obama’s Fannie Mae connections are completely fair game. But this ad doesn’t even mention a far more significant tie–that of Jim Johnson, the former Fannie Mae chairman who had to resign as head of Obama’s vice presidential search team after it was revealed he got a sweetheart deal on a mortgage from Countrywide Financial. Instead, it relies on a fleeting and tenuous reference in a Washington Post Style section story to suggest that Obama’s principal economic adviser is former Fannie Mae Chairman Frank Raines. Why? One reason might be that Johnson is white; Raines is black.
The idea that two black men being accused of unethical activity is racist, is in itself racist. Washington Post linked Obama/Raines on more than one occasion, here, and, in an article on the candidates and the economy called “Tough Decision Coming,” on August 28:
McCain also released a second ad feturing Jim Johnson the following day. The monumentally devastating impact on women, blacks and other minority victims of the sub prime mortgage crisis has been examined by The Nation, USA Today, The New York Times and The Boston Globe, to name but a few. The role of racism inherent in the exploitation of minorities by the sub prime lending industry and its effects in the current crisis is the real story. Since the referenced racism is so hard to see in the above examples, being mainly implied and inferred, one can only conclude that these are cases of personal projections, or, of the pot calling the kettle white. And, yet, the attacks about imaginary racism against Barack Obama, just keep on coming. From Ohio’s WYTV:
Monday afternoon, state Representatives Bob Hagan of Youngstown and Tom Letson of Warren met with reporters.
They argue many voters who call themselves “Democrats” or “Independents”, but won’t vote for Obama, have only one excuse, with Letson saying, “I would say that a lot of it is they’re not going to vote for ‘the black guy’”.
According to Politico, when asked what happens if Obama fails to win, Donna Brazile also got into the act:
“If he doesn’t, then Obama didn’t lose,” she said. “The country just wasn’t ready.”
Yet, none of these race card plays are as inexcusable as the one made by “comedienne” Sandra Bernhard in her re-vamped “Without You, I’m Nothing” show. The New York Daily News comments on one of many intentionally provocative and controversial lines in the show:
The Republican V.P. nom would be “gang-raped by my big black brothers” if she enters Manhattan, Bernhard said. Palin is said to be making a campaign stop in New York next week.
Forgive me if gang-rape jokes don’t greet my ears as oddly and subtly positive, as the Examiner suggests, and forgive me if gang-rape jokes aren’t “a rotating sprinkler that a spectator washes in most happily,” like the Washington Post insists.
First of all, Sandra doesn’t have any “big, black brothers,” and anyone who equates black maleness with gang rape does not deserve any. The invocation of D. W. Griffith-esque imagery of lust-crazed black savages hell-bent on ravaging a white woman, at the behest of another white woman, no less, is too irresponsible to justify the energy and creativity it would take to channel the generated vitriol required to denounce it properly.
The sudden increase in the number of baseless cries of racism on Barack Obama’s behalf are more than troubling, they are as scary as they are creepy and wrong. If, and when, Obama loses, it will be because he is the lousiest candidate imaginable and the American people will have woken up to the fact that they have become the victims of the world’s largest scale practical joke. Racism will have nothing to do with it. Racial manipulation by ill-intentioned political pranksters with no regard for the potentially devastating consequences of their misguided and irresponsible actions will be behind the door of the house upon whose steps blame should be placed.
Every time Hillary Clinton makes an appearance on behalf of Barack Obama, she makes him look bad. She doesn’t do it on purpose. It’s not even her fault; she says and does all the right things, with much more sincerity evident in her demeanor than one might imagine possible. The problem for Barack is, she just looks so damned impressively presidential doing it.
Every time she offers a suggestion about how a Democratic presidential candidate should handle an issue, it highlights another Obama deficiency. Those rabidly suffering wretches infected with virulent cases of Clinton Derangement Syndrome will, of course, suggest that she’s doing it on purpose, just to make Obama look bad. Once again, the Obama Delusionally Faithful give their Messiah way too much credit.
Hillary Clinton is the superior candidate. To Barack Obama. To John McCain. To Bill Clinton. That’s what her supporters saw, and what made us vote for her. That’s what made the sexism and downright mysogyny directed at her so infuriating. That’s what made the bogus racial exploitation by her opponent, with the blessings of the greedy, misguided Democratic leadership, so egregious.
While Obama flounders in the waters of his own political undoing, further fouling his prospects for rescue by pissing in the pool, he might want to consider that deploying Hillary Clinton to do his dirty work is like asking someone to throw you a cement lifeline. Even a sincere desire to fulfill your request puts you down.
Hillary’s GMA interview this morning was bittersweet. She looked relaxed and comfortable, sounded poised and composed, and, as always, had a firm grasp of the issues. She handled the questions easily, even the attempted “gotcha” ones about Sarah Palin and Joe Biden. She expressed her disappointment with the outcome of the primaries while imploring her supporters to vote Democratic. She said she was excited to work for an Obama/Biden ticket, and in the process of doing her very best to make them both look good, made them both look pitiful.
The DeaNC, Obama, Biden, Pelosi, et al, should have remembered something I’m sure Donna Brazile’s mama taught her:
Be careful what you ask for, you just might get stuck with it.
Face it, Barack, you’re toast. Running as a gimmick in Howard Dean’s revenge scheme might have seemed like a good idea in the beginning, but it was always doomed to fail. Sure, it got you through the early primaries and caucuses, but it faded pretty quickly, and by the convention, you were really dragging ass. If it wasn’t for Dean’s maniacally desperate need to prove himself worthy (a nearly impossible task,) along with Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi’s desire to prove themselves relevant (equally undoable) and Donna Brazile’s bet with her BFF, Karl Rove, you never would have even been invited to Denver. To be fair, the self-interests of John Kerry, Ted Kennedy and James Clyburn played a role too, but it wasn’t as significant as even they would like to believe.
All the polls show you spiraling downward and the word on the street is that your fundraising is lagging. Whether the abandonment by the early Republican mischief makers you and Dean so obviously exploited is now playing enough of a major role in your imminent demise to be definitive, and/or other equally devastating miscalculations by you and your crew are to blame, the bottom line is, you’re screwed.
Being black when convenient works to an extent, but it’s not sufficient to win the big game. The truth is, there are people who will vote for you because you’re black and probably an equal number who won’t for the same reason. However, that’s never been the sole reason you can’t win, and the new developments in the contest have nullified any imagined advantage you might have had in that regard.
You’ve been played. See, the “bro’s before ‘ho’s” mentality is wrong on so many levels that if even one of those levels comes into play, you lose. Too bad that now they all are. Hillary beat you, Barack. You, I and everyone else who’s been paying attention knows that. For one thing, there are just more “‘ho’s” than “bro’s.” And to make bad matters worse, at least some of the “‘ho’s” come from the “bro” side. That’s one problem. Another is, McCain, that savvy old pro, along with his team, knows the game, too, and by picking Sarah Palin, he steals some of your “‘ho’s” and gives some of your racist foes a convenient place to park their racism. See, they don’t have to wear the big “R” on their cowboy hats to vote against you. They can plaster the big “F U” of feminist understanding proudly across their chests.
So, yeah, Palin’s a gimmick, too. But unlike you, where a lot of people in your party really, really don’t like you, primarily for the way you’ve played the game, her side sees her as the ace in the hole that trumps you. They love that. And as for those “bro’s” you thought you could count on, some of them are not going to be there for you, either. See, you’re not really there for them and they know that. You put them down, call them “Pookie;” lazy boys who can’t be depended upon to man up to their responsibilities, and believe it or not, a lot of them plain don’t like that. Go figure. Just the fact that you would exploit the “bro” thing subliminally rankles, too, Barack. Black men usually don’t even refer to each other that way. I’ve never heard it, and I’ve been black longer than you. The word is “bruh.” The fact that you and your t-shirt making cronies don’t know that, may seem like a small thing, but it speaks volumes about on whose behalf you put black people down.
Oh, yeah, bruh, you’re gonna lose. And racism nor sexism will be the cause. Those two gimmicks cancel each other out in the long run. The reason you don’t have a prayer is because you and your “sell-out-the-base-for-a-pipe-dream” crew just aren’t as good at the game as the other guys. Clinton offered you the best deal going early on; her running mate. Sure-fire win. No gimmick from the other side plays against that dynamic ticket. But you and your boyz got greedy enough to convince yourselves you were not only better than the other teams you would face, but that you were better than you actually are. That’s clearly delusional thinking on the part of people who can’t even do basic math. “Bro’s” vs. “ho’s?” “Ho’s” win, hands down.
Okay, I saw this over on HillBuzz and just had to post it. I don’t know if Roland Martin is Donna Brazile’s “boo” or not, or whether Anderson Cooper knows, or cares. Frankly, I can’t really imagine Donna being anybody’s “boo,” but that’s probably because I’ve got a lousy imagination. I mean, Donna’s what I would call a “handsome woman;” handsome in the slightly masculine sense, not the “she’s got a face like a horse and I’m trying to be nice” sense, so somebody must love her for her. They certainly can’t love her for her dance moves. But then, Roland’s no John Travolta, either.
What the hell do you call a post-racial black guy running for president? Everything anybody says seems to offend somebody else. Not Obama, though, he doesn’t seem to care what you call him. Which is not surprising, really. I mean, when you’re “post-racial” do racial epithets even apply?
“Just from what little I’ve seen of her and Mr. Obama, Sen. Obama, they’re a member of an elitist-class individual that thinks that they’re uppity.”
Supposedly, Obama, “took no offense” but when his people called Wetmoreland out on it, Westmoreland’s people pushed back:
“He meant the Webster’s definition of uppity, he didn’t mean anything racially tinged or anything used as a code word,” Robinson said in an interview. “He never heard the term used in a racially derogatory sense. He used the word as a synonym for elitist, which he stands by. He thinks the Democratic nominee has an inflated sense of self esteem and is snobbish. He is sorry if it was offensive to anyone who took it in any way that it was not.”
Sounds to me like Westmoreland said it and was glad. Doesn’t that mean the Obamas really are “elitist,” though? When another white Republican, Rep. Geoff Davis , R-Ky., criticized Obama in April, there was a mini-uproar then ,too:
“That boy’s finger does not need to be on the button,” Davis said. “He could not make a decision in that simulation that related to a nuclear threat to this country.”
The article says Davis apologized but doesn’t specify if he was sorry for the “boy” part of the statement or the “he doesn’t know what the hell he’s doing” part. Probably doesn’t matter, Obie didn’t seem to mind, either way. The article lists all the familiar white Democratic racial transgressions against Obama, too, Bill Clinton compared him to a black man, Jesse Jackson, (horrors!) Geraldine Ferraro called him a black man, (it was probably the “he wouldn’t be where he is” part that rankled, though) John Kerry not only agreed with Ferraro, he basically implied it was Obama’s one and only virtue, (?) and Joe Biden said he was “clean, articulate and good-looking” (the nerve!). Through it all, even though people made a big deal about it in the media, Obie chilled. Wasn’t offended at all. In fact, he made Biden his running mate. What a guy, huh?
For him to go after Obama, using ‘fairy tale’, calling him a ‘kid,’ as he did last week, it’s an insult. And I tell you, as an African- American, I find his words and his tone to be very depressing.”
“So, we’re up against a new young kid, who’s a nice young kid. I’m only saying: think it over, tell your friends and your neighbors and your family. There’s nothing like experience,” Knoll told the crowd.
“I guess a small town mayor is sort of like a community organizer except that you have actual responsibilities,” Palin added later in the night. The line drew cheers and derisive laughter, but not from Obama.
Obama’s response?
“I’ve been called worse on the basketball court,” he said. “It’s not that big of a deal.”
Shoulda thought about that a long time ago, Dr. Deanenstein and Frau Nancy Blucher. You’re the ones who gave the rabid Clinton Derangement Syndrome suffering “Anybody But Hillary” lunatic fringe free reign while you allowed your creation to traipse around the country like a real boy playing dress-up in the Emperor’s see-through suit. Now you want to complain because the McCain camp has given your monster a Lilith-like bride. Ha, ha, again.
Your pathetic little formula was so obvious and easy to copy. It only worked a little bit in the primaries, but you’re too power-lust crazed to realize that once Hillary and Co. realized what you were up to, she cleaned your clock nine ways to Sunday, even with both hands tied behind her back. By you. And your Republican mole, Donna Brazile, who along with her crew, kept the Rove playbook working overtime. You scrambled, thugged and mugged your way across the finish line, barely ahead, dragging your wounded, limping creation behind you and thought you had gotten away clean. What a schmoo.
Oh, yeah, Dr. Deanestein, your little theory worked. Even better than you hoped. That was your undoing. Drunk with the success of the midterm elections in ‘06, you thought you and your guy were ready for the big, “Puttin’ on the Ritz” tour, so you ramped up your plans and rushed off half-cocked, just like you did in your own presidential run. Good plan, lousy execution, Deanenstein trademark.
Your scheme is so transparent, so easy to copy, are you really surprised that an old warhorse like McCain borrowed the formula, Deanenstein? His feminized, Stepford-influenced clone is going to reduce your Emperor Pinocchio to a puddle and walk all over him without even taking off her glasses.
The Washington Post is reporting that Donna Brazile was hit by pepper spray at the Republican convention:
Donna Brazile was hit by pepper spray as she walked to the Xcel Center at the start of the Republican Convention here.
The well-known Democratic pundit and strategist confirmed the incident, but declined to comment further. Protests outside the convention center led to 56 arrests earlier in the day.
Brazile is the Chair of the Democratic National Committee’s Voting Rights Institute and was a delegate at the Democratic National Convention in Denver.
Originally from New Orleans, La., Brazile has worked on several presidential campaigns and was the campaign manager for Al Gore in 2000. She frequently appears on CNN as a political commentator.
What the hell was she doing there, visiting her BFF, Karl Rove? Story’s kinda sketchy, isn’t it, but that’s all I could find anywhere. Was it about being on the wrong political turf or “WWB” (walking while black)? Or did Donna mouth off to somebody about the “rooolz” and “cheatin’”? I guess her mama never told her about pepper spray. Maybe she should call her “boo.”
Greta Van Susteren has a question up on her blog, GretaWire, asking if PUMAs are real. Boy, is she getting an ear/eyeful! She also has an accompanying video up of Sarah Palin’s speech with John McCain, but nobody’s paying attention to that. PUMA after PUMA is expressing all the outrage we’ve felt over the way the Democrats have treated us this year. What’s interesting is that while Hillary Clinton’s name comes up, since she bore the brunt of the abuse, it probably is mentioned no more than the names of Howard Dean, Nancy Pelosi and Donna Brazile. All the pent-up anger and frustration we, and people like us who didn’t even know they were PUMAs, have been feeling, is pouring out from keyboard after keyboard in an unrelenting deluge.
There is this notion being put forth by some in the media, pushed by the DeaNC and the Obamacrats, no doubt, that the PUMA movement is a myth. Somebody wants people to believe that a few Republicans have been making mischief by infiltrating the Democratic party and agitating the base. Whoever is trying to peddle this poop knows better.
The way the primaries unfolded didn’t sit right with us voters not jumping on the O train, but we gave the Dems the benefit of the doubt. Maybe there was something to this guy we weren’t seeing. But week after week, more and more stink kept rising. The Rules and Bylaws committee was the last straw. See, unlike the Obots, we’re not kids. We see, and we know what we’re looking at. “Rules are rules,” “we all agreed” and all that other parental sounding happy crappy is fine and dandy if you don’t know that “the rules” are always fluid and “we all agreed” not to mention that “we all know” there are “rules around the rules.” We also know fair is fair, and “rules or no rules,” the nomination process between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama was not fair. Two hour private “lunches” at a public meeting on the same day the preferred candidate “sees the light” and dumps his contentious church, for which he is rewarded with delegates he couldn’t possibly have earned, not being on the ballot, don’t exactly inspire confidence. But that’s not the point. We can re-litigate the primaries later, I’m happy to do it. But right now what I want to address is the notion that the DeaNC and the media are surprised that we exist.
We told Howard Dean! He’s the one who sat up in the RBC meeting and called for “party unity” signaling from the jump that we were going to get screwed. We knew that going in, but the blatant, dare I say it, “audacity” of these petty criminals trying to “hoodwink” and “bamboozle” people who wrote the game, in broad daylight, no less, was unbelievably appalling. That was the moment PUMA was born. Party Unity My Ass!
SM77: Our spicy Latina in Florida gave PUMA a name when she said after the RBC hearing in May: Party Unity My Ass!
The sentiment was already there, however. All the PUMA movement needed at that point was a name. And that name went viral. More than one group co-opted it and adapted it to their vision, and while different groups took different approaches, throughout this loose-knit coalition, the underlying mission was the same: screw you back, DNC!
One of the PUMA groups, PUMA Pac, changed the acronym to mean People United Means Action and, in short order, became a registered pac. But they didn’t start that way. The frustrated visitors to their new website wanted to do something so they soon started organizing various missions called “action alerts” One of the first was an e-mail campaign to Howard Dean. On Jun 5, 2008, this call to action was printed:
All Pumas, please send an email to Howard Dean, chair of the Democratic National Committee right now @ howarddean@dnc.org
Tell him that we are Democrats who will not vote for Barack Obama for president. We will not support a “Unity Ticket” with Hillary Clinton as the vice-president. We will not donate one thin dime to the DNC or any of its affiliate organizations until they wake up, listen to the voices of the voters in ALL 50 states, and start distancing themselves from this disastrous nominee.
Subsequent “action alerts” from PUMA Pac and many of the other groups, organizations and websites in, and out, of the Just Say No Deal coalition alerted the heck out of Brazile and Pelosi, too. And if you check with them, they have their own stories of how they came to be and what they’ve done about their anger. So, as you can see, the DeaNC knew about PUMA almost as soon as we did. As well they should. They started it. They started us.
This is the first in a series of posts reflecting the views of people responsible for pushing me from the Democratic party, in their own words, with links.
Last year, following the Supreme Court intervention in the 2000 presidential campaign, I called my friend and Bush chief strategist Karl Rove to wish him well.”
”I call Republicans because I can talk outside the box with them,” she said. ”I can talk with Democrats, but when I talk with Republicans, I learn a lot more.”
“Howard Dean has the power to empower a new generation of activists, to bring more people into the political process and to turn more people on,” Brazile said. “Some voters were very uncomfortable with Howard Dean as a candidate. But I think they will rally to him as a cheerleader for democracy.”
I live to be on Bill Clinton’s coattails.” She said she envisioned bookstore appearances with “the first black president (as Clinton has been metaphorically called) … and his little sister right there on the side.”
This is a new moment to identify and recruit better messengers. Perhaps it’s time to tap into the “Obama” factor: Scour statehouses for young, energetic, inspiring, and emerging leaders with the ability to connect the head and heart. Too many of the old Democratic guard have stayed in Washington, D.C., too long to fully recognize how most Americans live their lives.
On Thursday night President Bush spoke to the nation from my city. I am not a Republican. I did not vote for George W. Bush – in fact, I worked pretty hard against him in 2000 and 2004. But on Thursday night, after watching him speak from the heart, I could not have been prouder of the president and the plan he outlined to empower those who lost everything and to rebuild the Gulf Coast.
As we begin to contemplate the calendar for 2012, and the rules that will govern that process, both major parties must craft a system that makes sense for voters and candidates. We can begin by setting a reasonable starting date — I suggest the time when the snow gives way to tulips and daffodils. We can make sure the nominating schedule does not unfairly favor the rock stars of politics. And we must make sure the campaign finance laws allow more than just the candidates with deep pockets and ties to big donors to be competitive.
I can understand his frustration at this moment, but, look, he shouldn’t take out all his pain on Barack Obama. It’s time that they regroup, figure out what Hillary needs to do to get her campaign back on track. It sounds like sour grapes coming from the former Commander-in-Chief, someone that many Democrats hold in high esteem. For him to go after Obama using “fairy tale,” calling him a “kid,” as he did last week, it’s an insult. And I tell you, as an African-American, I find his words and his tone to be very depressing.
“Despite Obama’s impressive victories in February, Clinton’s comeback is based on sowing political seeds of doubt,” said Donna Brazile, a Democratic strategist and one of nearly 800 party leaders known as superdelegates for their ability to determine the nomination. “In order to clinch the nomination, he must anticipate the worst attacks ever.”…
edit
“If these attacks are contrasts based on policy differences, there is no need to stop the race or halt the debate,” Brazile said. “But, if this is more division, more diversion from the issues and more of the same politics of personal destruction, chairman Dean and other should be on standby.”
“He is culturally both black and white,” she told me. “Why is it that everyone has all of a sudden made Barack Obama the blackest black man on the planet? Malcolm X would be jealous of Obama at this point.”
“Thanks for the joyful email. Like most of the other pro Clinton emails, I have now put them in a special folder called ‘tales from the gutter.
Stay positive and remember if she wins, you will need Obama supporters and donors. So please stop throwing stones. Give her the support now and stop sending frivolous emails.”
Do you know how many undeclared supers are now just turned off by people like you? Do you understand you’re hurting her and not promoting Hillary? Perhaps that explains why a candidate like Obama has raised $40 million in one month. You don’t have to e-mail me again.
And also:
I just sent Hillary a private e-mail telling her that supporters like you are destroying her candidacy.
Blacks have been deeply wounded by the duplicity of the Clintons . Now, you may not like it or agree. But as a black person who helped saved the Clinton presidency, please just respect what I am saying. [emphasis added] Again, you disagree. But, I honestly believe the wounds will not heal. It’s personal and the Clintons have shown their darker demons. [emphasis added] Now, I will end it here. I was Al Gore’s Campaign Manager. Let the buck stop here. If I make a decision to go with Obama, people read it as Al Gore hates the Clintons. So, I stay above the bull and do not take bull from the Clintons or the Obamas or the McCains. I don’t owe anybody a dime. And if I counted who has helped me since 2000, it’s Republican men and not Democrats.
Well, Lou, I have worked on a lot of Democratic campaigns, and I respect Paul. But, Paul, you’re looking at the old coalition. A new Democratic coalition is younger. It is more urban, as well as suburban, and we don’t have to just rely on white blue-collar voters and Hispanics. We need to look at the Democratic Party, expand the party, expand the base and not throw out the baby with the bathwater.
Honestly, this is the 9th email today, so I believe you’re ready to not only
destroy Roe versus Wade, voting rights, civil liberties and civil rights.
Perhaps adding trillions more to the deficits through non stop tax cuts to
the wealthy and 100 more years in Iraq.
Yes, please join Rush and McCain asap. The train has left. Catch it.
Please don’t send these emails to working people like myself. Notice you
sent it to my campus address. I am a working class person. Can you find
someone who drinks latte?
As of today, I am not going to respond to any more anti American, Anti Democratic emails. Have a nice day.
I am sorry because you are sincere, but the Hillary forces are uncivil, repugnant and vile. When you come up for air and would like to email a person who cares about America and not just a personality, I will respond.
“My momma taught me to play by the rules and respect those rules. My mother taught me, and I’m sure your mother taught you, that when you decide to change the rules, middle of the game, end of the game, that is referred to as cheatin.’” — Donna Brazile to former Michigan Gov. Jim Blanchard, who was making the case for the Clinton campaign to get 73 delegates out of Michigan with 55 for uncommitted.
“What’s clear is much of this so called rage is being stirred not by Hillary, but those pretending to be her supporters. Stop the hate. You have totally disrespected the Senator with your emails. Stop the hate. Not sure if you know, but we are keeping copies of all these emails in the archives. Yes, you are not going to get away with pretending to be for Hillary. She is a leader of the Dem party.”
Have you ever gone to a party that got a little out of hand, so you and your friends were asked to leave? It might not even have been your fault, maybe one of the people you were with got into a hotly contested game of oh, say, Scrabble, and tempers flared over a challenge to the word…”globsmuck.” Now, you and most of the other people observing the game know that “globsmuck” is not a word, but the guy who used it (who you never liked anyway) would have gotten a lot of points and won the game if it had gone unchallenged. But it was challenged because the smarmy guy who made it had a reputation for making up words in Scrabble and always refused to back down. “It’s in the Scrabble dictionary!” he was known to exclaim, knowing full well that the only dictionary available would likely be a ratty old Funk and Wagnalls. In fact, some people would swear that he was not above hiding a Webster’s or two before an anticipated game, if need be. So, figurative lines would be drawn in the carpet, and after all the heated words were exchanged, all the accusations made, all the fingers pointed, (causing marginal friends to almost come to blows) some people would start heading for the exits. At which point the hostess (who was, of course, dating the Scrabble guy) would proclaim “globsmuck” to indeed be a word, awarding him additional double-word points and causing the challenger to forfeit her turn. (And giving time and cover enough for him to slip the tiles he had earlier palmed back in the bag.) The hostess/girlfriend would then declare the cheater the victor before asking the challenger’s friends to leave.
Fast forward a few minutes to the scene on the front lawn of the party site, where all the dis-invitees would be milling about and commiserating before getting in their cars. These angry, grumbling, former party-goers might well spend a little time grousing about being cheated, then unceremoniously tossed out, before deciding to reassemble at one of their numbers’ home to have their own, more harmonious, party. However, some might decide that their former friends were not only wrong about the Scrabble rules interpretations, they had no right to put anybody out in the first place, since the challenger was the hostess’ roommate and thus, wasn’t even one of the people on the lawn! And “globsmuck” is not a word! At this point, a number of the lawn gatherers just might decide to march right back inside and force the Scrabble cheaters to play fair. Some might demand that the cheater’s girlfriend’s roommate come with them to the new party. Others might even want the challenger to move out altogether. No matter which course of action individual members of the the bounced coalition ultimately decided to pursue, they would all probably remain united in spirit against the Scrabble cheater, his suck-up friends who co-signed his cheating (since they conveniently said they couldn’t find a Scrabble dictionary) and his big mouthed, know-it-all girlfriend, whether they really liked her roommate or not.
Donna, PUMAs don’t care what your Mama taught you, “globsmuck” is not a word, and the problem is not with your roomie, it’s you and your lousy, Scrabble cheating boyfriend. So, don’t expect us to bring presents to your stupid wedding, even if you do manage to strong-arm your roommate into being your maid of honor.
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.
A lot of Dems are so disgusted with the DNC’s “presumptive nominee” selection that they have either left the party or vowed to actively work against him. Some are doing both. This is a fact. It’s a damned inconvenient fact for the best laid plans of certain people, but it is a fact nonetheless. Understandably, this pisses a lot of those movers and shakers off, to the point that they go to ridiculous lengths to minimize the impact of that fact. They call us deadenders, Clinton diehards, bitter, angry white women, sore losers and crybabies. No big deal, even if some of us are really men, not all of us are white, most don’t feel like we’ve lost yet, and we’re all too pissed to cry. We understand, the wannabe gamers are pissed too, so name-calling is to be expected. But the worst thing they call us is (gasp!) Republicans! Republicans? Why would on earth would Republicans be upset if the Democrats nominate an inexperienced Nutty Professor whose whole campaign is based upon pie-in-the-sky classroom theory? They should be so over-the-moon happy that hell, they could even run an unpopular, uncharismatic old geezer against him if they wanted to, and still expect to win. Calling people who are upset because they feel they are being strong-armed into voting for a candidate they find unacceptable Republicans is just stupid. But, gee, that’s the Howard Dean for you.
The whole Republican smear is pretty dangerous, too, considering that CampO has it’s own dubious associations with the dark side. There’s Obama’s 2004 Senate campaign against Alan Keyes for starters. Alan Keyes?!?!! C’mon, in the whole state of Illinois, (hell the whole country since they had to import Keyes from Maryland) they couldn’t find a more viable candidate against Obuhbuh than Alan Freakin’ Keyes? Obuhbuh who had lost an earlier (2000) election for Congress to Bobby Rush by an embarrassing margin was so intimidating that all the good Republicans were quaking in their boots about the prospect of facing him, except Alan Flippin’ Keyes? Suuuurrrrre, I buy that.
But I admit, I could be wrong, everything could be straight-up and above board; just because a guy has a tendency to benefit from the implosion of his oppositions’ campaigns doesn’t make him a Republican, right? Just like it could be a coincidence of little to no importance that in 2006 a small group of GOPers formed a group called Republicans For Obama for the express purpose, in their words, to “encourage Senator Obama to run for the Presidency.”
Then, there’s the now-famous Democrat For A Day campaign:
I have spoken of the Democrats’ desire to tie Barack Obama’s candidacy to the legacy of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy before. That desire is no secret, though it is not given the notice in the media that it deserves. That this is the Democrats year to win is a given, yet the fact that there is a largely unspoken wish to make this election bigger than a mere power grab is, for the most part, being portrayed as an undercurrent to the more widely acknowledged wave of perceived inevitability. However, the symbolism of racial progress that nominating an African American candidate provides is the fuel that powers the engine of the Obama campaign.
Happy birthday PUMA!????
I am a black, gay, woman. According to popular conventional wisdom, being black and gay means I should hate myself, and be extremely grateful that, as a woman, I’m powerless to do anything about it. There are so many things wrong with politicizing fairness and equality that it makes the one thing that’s right about it, using it as a tool to effect change, sometimes seem hardly worth the cost. “Fair is fair” should be a no brainer any oppressed, or formerly oppressed, person should be able to wrap their heads all the way around. Yet, as an “African American” who, like most of my gleefully downtrodden brothers and sisters, has never seen the Mother Land, I am expected to be far more politically motivated by my victimization a a black person than by the exact same sort of victimization I might have experienced as a woman. I say “might have experienced” because the reality of gender oppression is not a recognized “given,” no matter how high the mountain of evidence proving it might be. I’m not even technically allowed to even call myself gay, either, since “gay” is an appellation appropriated by male homosexuals, me being relegated to the “L” in “
As the PUMAsphere rightly, and righteously, continues to rail against those responsible for inflicting the festering wound of Obamanism upon the Democratic party, it might be useful to take a moment to examine exactly where the blame belongs. While there is no doubt that Joe Cannon at 
“Leave my president alone!”
Donna Brazile
Barack Obama has been pimping faith, any faith, for political power since the beginning of his professional career as a community organizer. Early on he made a conscious, callous decision to use the pulpit, any pulpit, to attempt to mobilize people into action. This is not a secret, it has been documented repeatedly, yet it has been marketed as most things Obama have been, it is what it is, but it means anything you want it to.
John Coleman, an Ohio fireman marching in the inaugural parade, winked and waved at President Black Obama in violation of “da roolz,” and was subsequently suspended for six months. From the 
Suppose The View’s Elizabeth Hasselbeck announced that she was running for president in 2012? As a Democrat? Feminist? What if she hired a sharp, ruthless, barracuda of a campaign manager who stage-managed an almost flawless production, assembling bright, committed women and men willing to think outside the box in order to get the job done, using the mysteriously acquired unlimited funds at her disposal to get Elizabeth’s unique, yet poignant story to the masses? If Elizabeth, who has always claimed to be politically independent, dramatically recanted all previously uttered conservative statements as having been made under duress; unduly influenced and perpetually frightened as she has been because of years of abuse, would you buy it? How would you feel as you watched millions of people leap aboard her bandwagon, commiserating with her misery, applauding her for her courage in freeing herself from her oppressor, as all women must be made to feel free to do?
I am a PUMA today for the exact same reason I went looking to become something that didn’t yet exist on May 31, 2008; I object to the manner in which Barack Obama became my president. And nothing I’ve seen before or since has mitigated that essential truth in the slightest, in fact, the more I see of the way he operates, the more upset I get. Barack Obama offends my sense of fair play. From what I’ve been able to determine through my research of him, he has pushed the against “
