election 2008 from the eyes of an ebony mom

Sen. Obama did what he had to do. He denounced Rev. Wright and pretty much severed his ties with him. Some have said it was too little too late. Those that say this don’t understand the complicated relationship of a pastor and his flock. Pastors are often revered not just because of their biblical knowledge, but because of their compassionate nature. The members often share some of their deepest secrets with their pastor, some of their greatest joys and some of their worst failures. The pastor serves as the encourager, the admonisher and often the cheerleader. Sometimes the pastor does this one on one and other times he does it from the pulpit. I was raised in the church so I know it is hard to leave a church and go to another one. You feel like you are leaving or deserting your family. So to see Sen. Obama standing at the podium saying what he had to say yesterday was heartbreaking because I know that was a difficult thing to do, but I also know that Jeremiah Wright had to be stopped. This is not the time to vilify Rev. Wright, but hopefully the media will see him as more of a fringe issue and not the lead off story on every cable news show. Sadly Rev. Wright will probably be the jack-in-the-box of this election season. He will continue to haunt this campaign because the media refuses to let go of the ghost.

Sen. Obama wrote a book entitled, The Audacity of Hope, he said the title was inspired by a sermon that Rev. Wright had once preached. After watching Rev. Wright over the past few days it is hard to imagine that he could preach something so beautiful, and then turn around and rant and rave like someone possessed.  Rev. Wright was an  important person in the Senator’s life.  When Sen. Obama gave his speech on race in March he denounced Rev. Wright’s hurtful remarks, but he refused to denounce his friend. Over the past few days Rev. Wright has come out swinging and Sen. Obama seems to be on the receiving end of his relentless blows. There comes a time when you have to realize that someone is no longer your friend. You have to stop reminiscing about how the relationship used to be, but you have to take a realistic look at the relationship you currently have. Today, Sen. Obama had to finally take off the blinders and see Rev. Wright as the grandstanding, showboat that he has become. Rev. Wright is an American with the right to free speech, but he crossed the line when he impugned the integrity of Sen. Obama. Rev. Wright says he speaks as a pastor and Sen. Obama speaks as a politician. He is planting seeds of doubt. With a wink and a smile he leads the viewer to believe that the Senator believes what he believes, but he has to say what is expedient.  Rev. Wright left the Senator no choice. Today, Sen. Obama had to not only distance himself from Rev. Wright, he had to sever the relationship. This had to hurt but it had to be done. Sen. Obama had been a loyal friend but that friendship was not being reciprocated. Divorce is painful, divorce is brutal but sometimes in order for you to move forward divorce is the only answer.  

This morning on the Tom Joyner Morning Show, Tavis Smiley said there was an editorial piece written by Pat Buchanan that was racist and offensive. The piece was written in late March shortly after Sen. Obama gave his speech in Philadelphia on race. Smiley said he had been waiting for over 30 days for the major media to express outrage, but as of April 29^th there had not even been a whimper. Mr. Buchanan is a former presidential candidate, a former speechwriter for President Nixon and a current political analyst for MSNBC. We know that all analysts have their own personal biases but we expect some level of fairness in their analysis. After reading Mr. Buchanan’s piece, “A Brief for Whitey”, I now know there is no way this man is capable of a fair analysis of any political situation that involves a black person. He sees the world through a paternalistic, superior set of lenses. He starts his piece off by referring to Sen. Obama as Barack. In most news articles the person is initially identified by their title and last name, in this case it should have been Sen. Obama, and after that he could have been identified by his last name. No such respect was given to Sen. Obama by Mr. Buchanan.  He went on to equate Sen. Obama’s speech to “the same old shakedown that black hustlers have been running since the Kerner Commission blamed the riots in Harlem…and other cities, as Nixon put it, ‘everybody but the rioters themselves.”  Buchanan went on to say “America has been the best country on earth for black folks. It was here that 600, 000 black people, brought from Africa in slave ships, grew into a community of 40 million, were introduced to Christian salvation, and reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever known.” Let’s look at this statement. Yes, America has been a pretty good black for black people, but Mr. Buchanan has seemingly forgotten it has also been a pretty good place for his people. America was built off the blood and sweat of the black man’s free labor. Your premise that America also introduced black people to Christian salvation is further proof of your feeling of religious superiority. You talk about the tax dollars that have been used to help black people, but what you forget to acknowledge is black people pay taxes too. To dismiss Mr. Buchanan’s piece as the rantings of a racist would be too simple. The thing that makes this important is this man is a featured analyst on almost every MSNBC news show. His contempt for Sen. Obama is so palpable it is impossible for him to see Senator Obama as anything but a boy, and that is why he addressed him throughout the piece as Barack not as Sen. Obama. Since MSNBC has not mentioned this piece we can only conclude that they agree with what he has said because if they did not we would see them denounce and renounce this racist treatise.

You can find the entire piece through Google: A Brief for Whitey

This morning MSNBC, CNN and Fox News all agreed the most important story in the world was Jeremiah Wright’s speech to the Washington DC press club. All cable news networks covered this story including the question/answer session after the speech. This is incredible since these three cable outlets rarely agree on a lead story. Rev. Wright is loving all the attention and playing to the camera. Whatever he says is news. Our intial introduction to Rev. Wright was via a series of fiery snippets from his sermons. At that point what we had was a legitimate news story. This was Sen. Obama’s pastor and to some what he said was a little bit unsettling. I understood the fascination, but now Rev. Wright is no longer the Pastor of Trinity and Sen. Obama has already denounced his remarks, so why is the media still fascinated with this man? Rev. Wright has become the distraction of Campaign 2008. He has become the thing that will keep Americans off the main thing. He is not a part of the campaign. Rev. Wright is an angry, hurt man with an ax to grind and the media are gladly providing him with a platform. Obama wants to talk about the issues facing real Americans: the cost of housing, the loss of housing, the war in iraq, the cost of food and gas. These are the real issues of the 2008 election. Rev. Wright is not providing a strategy to address these issues. As he said he is a pastor not a politician. It is time for the media to start talking about the real issues, but they won’t. They will continue giving camera time to the distraction of the election season: Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

Rev. Wright is out on the circuit setting the record straight. He is seemingly an angry man who is caught up on his own legacy. His fiery rhetoric is just what the opposition has been waiting for. When he was interviewed by Bill Moyers he said some of the clips that were played for mainstream media were 7 to 15 years old, but he is out now re-igniting the controversy. When Sen. Obama first met Rev. Wright he was looking for a way to connect with the community. Trinity United was a thriving church in the community and Rev. Wright was the perfect person to give him insight into the minds of the community.   At this point in Sen. Obama’s life Rev. Wright was the “big man” on campus. He was teaching the Senator the ropes. Sen. Obama went from community organizer to state senator and most recently to US Senator. At each of these points Rev. Wright was actively involved in his ascension.  Now Sen. Obama is moving toward the White House and he has had to drop any uncomfortable baggage. Sadly, Rev. Wright was viewed as baggage. Sen. Obama had to denounce his words, but he did not denounce his friend and mentor. Over the last few days we have seen Rev. Wright on the offense. Rev. Wright has to be hurt by how the media has portrayed him, but this is not just about him. It is about us. Sen. Obama has run a campaign that speaks to all Americans, not just African-Americans. What the Rev. Wright controversy has done is marginalize the movement. Rev. Wright gives Clinton ammo to go to the super-delegates and say this Wright controversy is so lethal that it will cripple the Democratic Party in November. McCain will say that Rev. Wright’s views are so extreme and by extension if he is an extremist so is Sen. Obama.  The Rev. Wright situation has become a front and center issue and that too is sad. Today gas is almost $4 a gallon, milk is $4 dollars a gallon, we are in the 6^th year of an ill-advised war, the government is issuing stimulus checks to jumpstart the sagging economy, the jobless rate continues to increase and we are talking about what did Rev. Wright say?  My prayer is that someone can get to Rev. Wright and ask him to “chill”. Rev. Wright please stop giving the opposition the ammunition necessary to kill this campaign. Rev. Wright this is bigger than you.

While others are watching the Hillary and Barack slugfest John McCain is quietly re-introducing himself to America. While in New Orleans devastated by Katrina he said, “we know we didn’t have the right kind of leadership. Government agencies were getting information from watching cable television rather than have a flow of information.” He went on to say “It was not only a perfect storm as far as its physical impact … it was a perfect storm as far as the federal, state and local governments’ inability. ” McCain also said “never again will there be a mismanaged natural disaster. he went on to pledge “it will never happen again in this country, you have my commitment and my promise.” These are strong statements coming from a Republican nominee describing the actions of a fellow Republican administration. McCain is showing that he is not preparing for a 3rd Bush term,  he is charting his own course and over the past few days he has been reaching out to people who have been ignored by the current administration. The Democrats have taken the black vote for granted for far too long. Republicans have traditionally not tried to seriously court the black vote, but this might be the year to start talking to the black community and I  believe McCain has already started the dialogue.

Rev. Wright is on a mission to set the record straight about the controversial statements he made during his sermons. He will appear on PBS tomorrow night with Bill Moyers. Anything Rev. Wright says will be used against Sen. Obama. When Obama gave his speech on race he denounced the hate-filled rhetoric that had been espoused by Rev. Wright. He denounced the remarks but he remained loyal to his friend. He said Rev. Wright was the man that led him to Christ and he would not throw him under the bus. Well I wish that loyalty was a two-way street because it looks like Rev. Wright is revving up the truck and getting ready to mow Obama down. Rev. Wright is letting his own bruised ego stand in the way of the Obama campaign. Wright  said,“The persons who have heard the entire sermon understand the communication perfectly. When something is taken like a soundbite for a political purpose and put constantly over and over again, looped in the face of the public, that’s not a failure to communicate. Those who are doing that are communicating exactly what they want to do, which is to paint me as some sort of fanatic or, as the learned journalist from the New York Times called me, a ‘wackadoodle.’ This is about him not about Obama, but the only reason the media wants to speak to Rev. Wright is to link whatever he says back to Obama. This is tragically a no-win situation. The public perspective of Rev. Wright is set in stone. He will never be able to live down or adequately clarify any of his statements, but what he does have is the ability to hurt Obama, and that is what he is doing. In his heart he means no harm, but in this political season he is like putting gasoline on a fire. Rev. Wright respectfully we ask you to be silent during this season

Martin Luther King dreamed of a society that did not judge us by the color of our skin, but by the content of our character. He said that almost 45 years ago when many black and white people lived in areas of the country that were segregated by law. It seemed like that day was never going to be a reality. Here it is 2008 and we are asking the question is America ready to elect a black president? When Barack Obama started his campaign 16 months ago he was one of several candidates vying for the nomination, and at the time Hillary Clinton was the presumptive nominee. Obama toured the country with a message of hope. He had a message for all people and at every stop he was greeted by massive crowds looking for something new. He talked about a new type of politics that spoke to real issues that affected real people. The other day when he lost the Pennsylvania primary Hillary posed the rhetorical question, “Why can’t Barack Obama close the deal?” She knew the answer to the question. We can pretend this is a color-blind society, but we know this is not true. Sen. Obama is black and some white people simply will not vote for a black man. They’ll attend his rallies and they’ll shout “Yes We Can”, but when they go to their polling places they say “Oh No I Can’t.”  It does not help matters when his opponent plays on their fears. Her chief supporter in Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell categorically stated that conservative white voters in Pennsylvania would not vote for Obama. Hillary counted on this fact and used it to her advantage. She successfully portrayed herself as one of the people and by doing that she subtly suggested he was one of them. The pundits are all touting Hillary’s victory and asking is Obama tough enough for the job? Toughness has nothing to do with it. In America, Barack Obama can be a lot of things: a law professor, a state senator, a United States Senator and a presidential candidate, but one thing he can not be is white, and that is what might stop him from becoming president.

John McCain has asked the Republican Party of North Carolina to not run an anti-Obama Ad. The ad features a picture of Obama and his former pastor Jeremiah Wright. They play a clip of Rev. Wright’s controversial remarks, and end the 30-second spot  with this  ”He is Just to Extreme for North Carolina.” The North Carolina state Republicans say they will run the ad because it is not just targeted at Obama it is also targeted at some state officials who have thrown their support to Obama. Now we have guilt by association twice removed. 1. Wright makes the statements 2. He was Obama’s Pastor so  he too is responsible 3. State officials support Obama so they are also guilty of lack of patriotism. When does this madness stop? Obama has denounced Rev. Wright but that is not enough. We knew Wright would be used throughout the campaign, but I never thought a Republican would cry foul, and today I am proud of Sen. John McCain.

When Sen. Obama launched his campaign he had a message of hope embodied in 3 little words, Yes We Can. This message was new and it was inspiring, and America loved it. That was before the Clintonites viewed Sen. Obama as a very present threat. At the beginning of the year Sen. Clinton was polishing her crown and making plans for her “coronation” this summer in Denver, but a funny thing happened on the way to the coronation. Obama started winning and he had to be destroyed. After winning 11 primaries the Clintonites knew that they had to seek another road to the Oval Office and that is the low road. So now it is April and that is where we find ourselves. The Clinton machine has thrown the kitchen sink at Obama, and he has had his own missteps, and has lost 3 major contests. Clinton has defined him as unelectable. She has successfully portrayed herself as a fighter who is not afraid to throw a punch. Sen. Obama has tried to stay above the fray, but you simply can not let your opponent define you. When we were kids we learned this saying, “sticks and stones can break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” That is simply not true. Words hurt and they can kill a career, and they can definitely kill a political movement. Sen. Obama has to not only be able to take a punch he has got to throw a punch. Last week, in the debate when given the opportunity Sen. Clinton talked about Rev. Wright, but Sen. Obama never really expanded on Sen. Clinton’s lies concerning her Bosnia trip. Americans already believe Sen. Clinton is not honest and the Obama campaign needs to exploit this issue. John Kerry waited to long to defend himself in 2004 and the Republicans won the election. John Kerry was a decorated Vietnam veteran who let himself be defined by people who never served a day in the military. He let them turn a positive into a negative.  Hillary has already re-written the message of hope from Yes We Can to Yes We Will. It is time to take back what is our’s—Yes We Will Beat Hillary.