McCain & the Gang Now Say Barack Obama is Playing the Race Card

I don’t know how we are going to last until November because each day brings us another batch of lunacy. Now McCain’s people say Barack Obama played the race card when he said this “Nobody thinks that Bush and McCain have a real answer to the challenges we face. So what they’re going to try to do is make you scared of me, You know, `he’s not patriotic enough, he’s got a funny name,’ you know, he doesn’t look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills.” If you look at the McCain ads and the statements that are coming out of his camp you can see their goal is to make Obama different from Middle America. They have criticized what he eats, what he drinks, they have even criticized him for going to the gym. He has been called Osama, they have attacked his wife, he has been branded anti-American by McCain when he said Barack Obama would rather win an election then win the war. They have compared Obama, a Harvard educated lawyer to Paris Hilton. All of this and they have the nerve to say he is playing the race card when he points out why he is different from the other presidents. In America you are not playing the race card when you acknowledge a very visible fact. For McCain and the gang to criticize Obama regarding race is like the pot calling the kettle black and that is what McCain & the gang are doing.

Barack Obama is Nobody’s “Empty Suit”

McCain and his crew have developed a strategy to destroy Obama. They are trying to portray him as an empty suit, a rock star, a celebrity and an elitist. The thing that is most appalling about this is by doing this they are saying the people who voted for him in the primaries are stupid. Hillary Clinton tried this when she attacked his followers and tried to cast their belief in their candidate as a case of blind hero worship. Sen. McCain is a former POW has served his country and for that alone he should be respected, but the campaign that he is running is not honorable or worthy of respect. Eighteen million people voted for Obama in the primaries and they believe in his message of change. They believe in his judgement and they believe this country is going in the wrong direction. They know that because McCain does not have a plan other than to continue business as usual he has decided it is seek and destroy time. Obama deserves respect for his accomplishments and while he gives McCain credit for his service he is not afforded this same courtesy.  Instead of spending all their time concentrating on trivia it would be very interesting to see McCain & the Crew tell us how he can make this country better not what Obama likes to eat or drink.

Fearmongers Love the New Ludacris Song

Throughout this campaign one of Barack Obama’s greatest challenges has been to convince Americans that he is not a scary guy. He has had to fight off smears that have painted him as a non-flag pin wearing, wild-eyed Muslim.  Obama even had to launch a Fight the Smears website just to address baseless emails, lies and rumors. Obama has admitted that he enjoys Ludacris and that he is on his IPOD. So when the Ludacris song drops featuring lyrics that insult Obama’s fellow candidates the one who receives the negative headlines is not Ludacris, but Barack Obama. As a songwriter in America Ludacris has a right to write whatever he wants, but when you start talking about painting the White House black you play into the fears of many who are predisposed to distrust Barack Obama. Some say it is just a song  and the goal is to rally one segment of Obama’s base, but what it does is highlights the fact that Obama is so different and that he will completely change the everything that some American’s hold so dearly. When you have conservatives like MSNBC Pat Buchanan talking about the lyrics of a rap song you’ve got a problem.  Buchanan and others have a singular mission and that is to position Obama a different. Buchanan has used the term”exotic” to describe the Senator. So when a song like this hits the streets it is like manna from heaven for Buchanan and his crew (Read Pat Buchanan’s (Google) -A Brief for Whitey to truly understand his mindset).  The Obama team has come out and denounced the lyrics, but in this political season that simply will not be enough. Some in the media will try to act as if Obama wrote the lyrics. This will become just another bullet in the arsenal of the fear mongers as they continue in their goal to paint Obama as the candidate that is worthy of their fear and not worthy of their vote.

3rd Bush Term–This is What Barack Obama Needs to Talk About

The mudslinging is in full effect. John McCain has showned us that his campaign is about trashing Barack Obama. Over the past few days he and his crew are dropping negative ads like they are going out of style. The Obama campaign learned from the swiftboating of John Kerry that you have got to answer these negative charges, but you can not let your opponet define your campaign. The Obama team needs to start painting a clear picture of what they are bringing to the table and they need keep talking about the last eight years.  We have wars on two fronts, we have massive foreclosures, we have milk for $4 a gallon and we see companies laying off workers on a daily basis. John McCain is a Republican and he is running from George Bush like he has the plague, but the facts are they agree on most policies. That’s the issue so the Obama team has to be careful engaging in too much petty bickering with the McCain crew and concentrate on the real issues that face America. The last thing Americans need is a 3rd Bush term.

Ludacris is Not a Member of the Obama Camp

Today the news shows are abuzz about a new song by rapper Ludacris. Ludacris has written a song that makes some unflattering comments about Hillary Clinton, George Bush, John McCain and Jesse Jackson. His lyrics are raw and offensive, but why is this news? Rappers write lyrics that are offensive and it does not make mainstream news. It is news because Obama said that Ludacris is on his IPOD. So therefore Obama is responsible for anything that he says or does. This is crazy talk, but the Obama campaign released a statement denouncing the song. Today on Race to the White House Pat Buchanan took the occasion to link Obama to Ludacris by saying the song was from “one of his own folks”. Buchanan’s mission is to always try to make Obama so different from the mainstream. Buchanan repeatedly said that Ludacris was a member of Obama’s camp. Ludacris might be a fan of Obama, but I can assure you Ludacris is not writing policy for the Obama team. This guilt by association can only go so far. Buchanan happily brought up Rev. Wright and Father Pfleger and said this could show that Obama is militant by association with these “racially hyped” people. Obama had to denounce, renounce and disavow the preachers, but this Ludacris nonsense is just that ludacris.

McCain & the Crew Seek the Low Road

McCain’s newest ad calls Barack Obama a celebrity. Britney Spears is also featured in the ad. It shows the crowd shots from Obama’s trip to Berlin. It basically acknowledges he is famous, but he is not ready to lead. McCain and the crew have been sniping at Obama the entire time he was on the trip and now that he is back the sniping continues. This ad says nothing about McCain’s fitness for office. He is just shown smiling. An old man smiling is simply not enough. The McCain strategy is simply to attack and the facts are irrelevant to their strategy. To juxapose the troubled star in a presidential commercial is simply unacceptable. If the campaign is going this negative this early what do they have in mind for the future? Will they have a white woman saying call me like the Republicans did when Harold Ford was running for a Senate seat in Tennessee?  Maybe they have a Willie Horton up their sleeve? Remember nothing is too low for this crew to do. It’s still early so there is still a long way to go to get to the bottom of the barrow, but the McCain crew will get there soon because this rocket has just started to plummet.

Morning Joe Should Just Wear a McCain Button

Joe Scarborough does not like Barack Obam. He can find something negative to say about him on any given day. Obama made this statement  “I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions.” Joe said this proves his point that Obama thinks to highly of himself. One of his guest this morning was Washington Post Johnathan Capehart who chimed in he agreed and he also accused Obama of acting “uppity”. By the way Capehart is also African-American. To hear one black man call another black man uppity is disgusting and very disappointing. Whether they admit it or not Obama is a symbol of the possibility of America.  He is the first black man to lead a national party and that shows that America has come a long way. He is the guy that black mothers can point to as they tell their children that they can grow up to be president. Joe and his crew say Obama needs to be more humble and Joe even had the nerve also say that Michelle Obama possesses this same feeling of superiority.  As the old folks used to say the Obamas have a “tough row to hoe.” They are the first people of color to do this and everything they say and every move they make is criticized and over-analyzed. They are damned if they do and damned if they don’t.

There is Nothing Wrong with Being Confident

On Hardball today they played an audio tape of Barack Obama. He was attending a fundraiser in Arlington, VA and he said it looks like he has a good chance of winning. He said that when he first started the campaign most people did not get him much of a chance, but he admitted it would be difficult. Today Mike Barnicle posed the question was it for arrogant Obama to make such a statement? One of the guest on his panel Del Waters, an African-American made a statement that is often repeated in the black community. When a black man exemplifies confidence he is accused of arrogance, but when a white man shows these same traits he is viewed a confident. Arrogance is a false belief in one’s own greatness, whereas confidence is an assurance of success predicated on preparation. What should Obama have said to the funders? It looks like we are going to lose so start writing your checks? That’s ridiculous– we need confidence in these difficult days. We need a leader who believes in himself and most importantly believes in the greatness of America.

Scott McClellan Needs to be Quiet

Scott McCellan appeared on Hardball on Friday, and said that Fox News took talking points from the White House. He singled out Bill O’Reilly as one of the people that received such points. On O’Reilly’s show on Fox News last night O’Reilly denied it and said that McCellan was a liar. Today McCellan appeared on O’Reilly’s radio show saying he messed up yesterday and O’Reilly did not in fact receive such points. McCellan has been out selling his book and he is seemingly have a problem separating fact from fiction. This incident calls into question some of his assertions in the book. We know that any book is seen from the eyes of the author, and there are two points of view in play: the author’s and the truth. His book is his truth but incidents like this call into question his version of the truth. There is no excuse for making false statements anywhere including the White House, Hardball or a press tour. McCellan has had his 15 minutes and hopefully made his millions but, now it is just time for him to be quiet.

What do Black People Expect from Barack Obama?

Barack Obama is truly a source of pride in the black community. I have seen several writers suggest that black people will be disappointed with Obama if he becomes the president. This suggests that there is a basic lack of understanding of the role of the president. As most 6th grade civic students learn there are three branches of government: legislative, judicial and executive. The three branches provide us with a system of checks and balances. No one branch can reign supreme or usurp the rights of the other branch. So if you look at it like this you know that Obama can not come in and just do anything. Some might say the Bush administration did cross the line and that would be correct, but that is not the ideal or what the forefathers envisisioned when they developed our governmental framework. Obama will be able to make a difference, but he would not be the king. Contrary to what some people and CNN still believe a large percentage of black people are doing quite well and are not looking for a governmental handout or 40 acres and a mule. What we expect from him is fairness, clarity and a level of truthfulness that we have not had in the past 8 years. For years white men have been representing all of us and there was never a question that they had the capacity to represent all people. Obama has that same capacity to represent all of us if given the same chance. So with 98 days left until election we look forward to Obama meeting and exceeding our expectations.