London Times notes that so-called black activists are not yet supporting Barack Obama, and wonders why. Does it have to do with Hillary? Harry Belefonte on Obama (An "influential civil rights activist"? Oh, never mind.): "We don’t know what he’s truly about." And then there is the poetry of presidential candidate Al Sharpton: "Right now we’re hearing a lot of media razzle-dazzle. I’m not hearing a lot of meat, or a lot of content. I think when the meat hits the fire, we’ll find out if it’s just fat, or if there’s some real meat there." I like that.
He is a Democrat, he is African-American, so no wonder that you people are not going to like him. I am sure that he will sooner get black support than any Republican candidate ever will. It is common sense. Don’t worry about Obama, worry about your own party.
Oh Rita, Barack actually gets some support on this blog. But, since you didn’t bother to read the post, it is addressing not only Barack’s failure to win African Aemricans’ votes generally, but also within the democratic party African American leadership. I do enjoy your version of common sense, however...amusing on a sunday night before dinner.
Aren’t those guys just letting Obama know to whom he ought to be beholden? Or better yet is this: "They are basically jealous,” said a Democratic strategist who has not yet decided which candidate he intends to support. “They’ve been toiling in the trenches for decades, and along comes this son of a Kenyan farmer and suddenly he’s measuring the drapes in the Oval Office.”
Well argued, Rita. All Republicans are racist. All Ashbrook teachers and bloggers are racist. Does that include Juan Williams, Lucas Morel, Judge Thomas, et al.?
There was nothing in the Times column that one could not pick up from the oh so tepid applause Jesse Jackson gave to Obama’s stirring Democratic Convention Address in 2004. The video of Jackson’s reluctant applause said everything. Jackson witnessed what Belafonte, Sharpton, and their ilk could not help but notice: their days as civil rights "leaders" are pretty much over. The more America frees itself of color-coded statutes (e.g., most recently, Michigan’s Prop. 2), the more folks like Jasckon et al. have to cry "Wolf!" for even the slightest appearances of racism. One can almost count on the insignificance of their vicitmization rants by the rising decibel level of their rhetoric. Of course, a few Wall St. types continue to pay their dues to Jackson (literally) b/c it’s just too much of a hassle not to, and frankly, the Bush years have been very good to them so they can afford to. As I posted at the time, except for the few boilerplate anti-Bush/GOP lines, Obama’s speech was anything but a call to join the Democratic Party; in his first prime-time appearance before a national audience, Obama was smart enough both to hide his longstanding leftwing politics and trumpet fairly conservative, sensible principles of human equality, individual hardwork, etc. The best news of all is that there appears to be no rising generation of Jesse Jackson types. Pro-affirmative action groups like BAMN ("By Any Means Necessary"), if they ever got truly national attention, will be seen as marginal extremists for their unruly and juvenile tactics, and not the laudable standard bearers of King’s legacy.
That’s remarkable about Sharpton... he’s applying the "George Foreman Grill" litmus test.