Why Do We Do Each Other Like We Do

Please excuse me today but I am going to get a little long winded. There are some things that went on between the Democrats this election that I need to speak on. There are also some things I feel should be brought to light about how our people never miss an opportunity to undermine each other in our quest to make a difference. Some may disagree with my take and I respect that but since this is my blog, I have to (how does it go) KEEP IT REAL!!! SO LET'S GO. TAKE A RIDE WITH ME.

Hillary Clinton will declare her strong support for Barack Obama's White House bid and rally supporters around him, she said in a letter on Thursday, ending her grueling 16-month nominating fight that badly split the Democratic Party. However, she could have won the democratic nomination, but she made the crucial mistake by thinking the old Black control politics would carry the Black vote for her. In other words, instead of going to the Black voters herself, she relied on a bunch of Black lackeys to speak for her. And, it didn’t work… now she’s running around using the same lackeys trying to blackmail Obama for the Vice President spot.

There were a number of prominent Blacks running around flunking for Hillary: most prominent was the ‘Gang of Three:’ Bob Johnson, Rep. Tubbs Jones and Rep. Charley Rangel. Somehow, she thought they had control of the Black vote, but in the end, they did her in! Especially, Bob Johnson who is supposed to be the founder of BET. He has not founded anything… what the brother did was use his contacts with white racists in Congress to get a cable license from the FCC to start a cable station for Blacks. This was when cable TV was first started. There were a million Blacks standing in line to get the first Black cable license from the FCC. Johnson, broke and hungry at the time, didn’t even have the $2500 to buy the cable license from the FCC… he had to borrow the money from family and friends. But, when he got the cable license from the FCC, all he had to do then was take it to the bank, and the rest is history… afterwards, he trashed the one opportunity that Blacks had to be empowered over cable TV. In fact, he got his cable license from the FCC at the same time Ted Turner got the one for CNN. Look at CNN today… and look where BET is now! Bet started out doing good by us but after the man trashed BET with them rap videos and their negative stereotypes, he sold the station back to whites to buy a basketball team. Go figure?

We all remember the statements he made over race in the democratic primaries this year. When Bob Johnson introduced Hillary Clinton at a town hall meeting at Columbia University, he made remarks that undermined Obama. These remarks were made before a group of predominantly Black voters. He took a shot at Obama, by saying: "As an African American, I am frankly insulted that the Obama campaign would imply that we are so stupid that we would think Hillary and Bill Clinton, who have been deeply and emotionally involved in Black issues, when Barack Obama was doing something in the neighborhood that I won't say what he was doing but he said it in his book... When they have been involved, to say that these two people would denigrate the accomplishment of civil rights marchers, men and women who were hosed, beaten and bled, and some died... To say and to expect us now all of a sudden to say we are attacking a Black man.

That kind of campaign behavior does not resonate with me or a guy that says I want to be a reasonable, likeable Sidney Poitier 'Guess Who's Coming to Dinner.'

And I'm thinking to myself, this isn’t a movie, Sidney."

Afterwards, Hillary largely stuck to her stump and took questions from the audience, none of which were about race.

The Obama campaign later produced this statement from former South Carolina Rep. "I.S." Leevy Johnson: “its offensive that Senator Clinton literally stood by and said nothing as another one of her campaign’s top supporters launched a personal, divisive attack on Barack Obama,” said Johnson. “For someone who decries the politics of personal destruction, she should’ve immediately denounced these attacks on the spot.”The Clinton campaign then produced this comment from Johnson: “My comments today were referring to Barack Obama's time spent as a community organizer, and nothing else. Any other suggestion is simply irresponsible and incorrect.

When Hillary Clinton was in her twenties she worked to provide protections for abused and battered children and helped ensure that children with disabilities could attend public school. That results oriented leadership — even as a young person — is the reason I am supporting Hillary Clinton.”The other gang member, Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, on the "Sound of Ideas" show on WCPN defended her endorsement of Hillary Clinton as based strictly on qualifications. She said that in politics, your word is all that you have, and that she will not deviate from her 2006 decision to support Clinton. "If I were to change my position just because the wind has changed," she said, "What would people think of that?"Tubbs Jones acknowledged that Obama has said that his campaign is not about race, but pointed out that for many of his followers it is very much about electing an African American. She bristled at Obama's invocation of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in speeches, pointing out that Dr. King's message was to judge people not on the color of their skin.After Tubbs Jones remarked that Obama is an "excellent candidate," she was asked if she thought that the two of them (Clinton and Obama) could run together. "Absolutely they could," she replied, "They could definitely run together."

Discussing Clinton's performance in a debate, Tubbs Jones said that it reflected "frustration" on her part that the media has failed to draw out the distinctions between the candidates.Rep. Tubbs Jones also discusses her determination to stick with Hillary Clinton in an essay published today on TheRoot.com, an interesting new online magazine focusing on Black perspectives. “In late 2006, I made the choice to support Hillary Rodham Clinton for president, long before Sen. Barack Obama or even Hillary herself had declared their candidacies” Jones said.

Hopefully, a Black will challenge Jones for her seat in Congress.

“When I made the decision to contest the counting of the electoral votes from Ohio following the 2004 election, a move that was highly criticized by the Republican Party and even by some in the Democratic Party, Hillary stood with me and joined me in introducing groundbreaking election reform legislation,” Jones said.
She went on to state that she watched Senator Obama defy the odds, running a stellar campaign. His success fills me with pride, and I celebrate his candidacy. Yet, I choose to stick with the candidate that I feel is best suited for the job of president, Hillary Clinton. I made that commitment to Hillary to support her through thick and thin, not to be a fair-weather friend only to leave her when the going gets tough.“After 26 years in public office, I would hope that my constituents would respect my judgment and my choice to support Hillary Rodham Clinton, just as I respect their decision to support the candidate of their choice.”

Another of the ‘Gang of Three,’ Rep. Charley Rangel, an old time Hillary supporter, has now come out today in support of Obama. He switched at the last minute.News MSNBC seems to be showing money flowing toward Obama more than Hillary now. That is a change.Charley Rangel might in retrospect in now that the tealeaves of how the election has turned out, but he had some dirty things to say about Obama in the past.

Whichever person wins, I will be voting against the Republicans in November.

Maybe Obama can unite the Democratic Party better than Hillary can. If that is so, then nominate him.If Obama wins, will he pick Edwards as his running mate? Was Edwards counting on a VP anyway? It's heating up out there. So much for burying the race hatchet.

Despite an attempt to put the race genie back in the bottle after a week-long tit for tat between Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton over comments she made regarding the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.Clinton supporter, and Harlem Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel, who happens to be the highest ranking African American in Congress, has stepped all in the spat, even though Obama and Clinton seemed to pull back from their squabble.

On NY-1's 'Inside City Hall,' Rangel called Sen. Barack Obama "absolutely stupid" for going after Clinton for her seemingly insensitive remarks about Dr. King and Pres. Lyndon Johnson and the passage of the Civil Rights Act.Rangel told NY-1 reporter Dominic Carter:"How race got into this thing is because Obama said 'race.' But there is nothing that Hillary Clinton has said that baffles me.

I would challenge anybody to belittle the contribution that Dr. King has made to the world, to our country, to civil rights, and the Voting Rights Act. But for him to suggest that Dr. King could have signed that act is absolutely stupid. It's absolutely dumb to infer that Dr. King, alone, passed the legislation and signed it into law."For good measure, Rangel also mentioned Obama's youthful drug indiscretion.I guess that is one way of doing damage control. However, if there is a lesson to be learned from all of this, it’s that Blacks are not controlled by the old Black establishment, but have minds of their own.Clinton will publicly back Obama on Saturday and pledge to work for party unity in the general-election race against Republican John McCain.

"On Saturday, I will extend my congratulations to Senator Obama and my support for his candidacy," the New York senator and former first lady said in a letter to her backers released early on Thursday morning.
"I have said throughout the campaign that I would strongly support Senator Obama if he was the Democratic Party's nominee, and I intend to deliver on that promise."Clinton confirmed she would hold an event in Washington on Saturday to thank everyone who had backed her campaign. The event was originally planned for Friday but the day was switched to allow more supporters to attend.

"This has been a long and hard-fought campaign, but as I have always said, my differences with Senator Obama are small compared to the differences we have with Senator McCain and the Republicans," she said in the letter."I will be speaking on Saturday about how together we can rally the party behind Senator Obama. The stakes are too high and the task before us too important to do otherwise."

Please understand I defend your right to your own opinion and I hope you respect my right to mine, heck, I just call it as i see it. Put your minds to work. This is history in the making so do your part no matter who you choose to vote for.

Peace and Blessings