My little politics blog

It's about the breakdown of the black family -- how the buck is being passed and black fathers, especially, are not living up to their responsibilities. This isn't something that is said TO the black community often. Bill Cosby caused a pretty big commotion when he tried it.

<shrug>

I have the impression it is. It definitely got a huge response -- why do you think it did?

The Clinton campaign is pushing hard on the idea that the press has been kinder to Barack Obama than it's been to her, and I know a lot of her supporters are totally up in arms about this. I'd say it's definitely true that, on balance, Obama has gotten better press than Clinton. Still, I think Clinton fans are going more than a little overboard with this monocausal account of the campaign. For one thing, one important exception to this is that if Obama had lost eleven contests in a row, there's no way he'd still be treated as a viable candidate. Similarly, if Obama had reached a situation where nobody can mathematically see a way for Clinton to catch his lead without altering DNC rules, I seriously doubt the race would continue to be covered as a serious competition.

From another direction, even though the press has often been unfair to Clinton about petty stuff, they have been very willing to go along with the idea that she has a vast experience edge over Obama even though it's always been unclear what exactly that edge consisted of. On top of that, the country's most prominent liberal columnist has been pretty consistently attacking Obama for months now. Now, yes, I do think there's been more BS thrown in her direction and there's obviously been an "Obama swoon" factor that there's no equal of on the other side (even Krugman, for example, writes only about his loathing of Obama and his supporters and never says anything good about Clinton) and that's been a factor in the race. Still, on the central argument of her campaign, Clinton's been treated reasonably well and the press has actually bent over backwards to keep her in the race under circumstances when almost anyone else would have been written off.

Meanwhile, local color:

Went to Obama HQ today. Really hard not to be optimistic there. Lots of people, lots going on. No yard signs left -- huge demand. Sozlet chatted with several staffers for a while and generally had fun. I'm going to be bringing lunch food to them tomorrow.

So I'm pretty optimistic about Columbus, but I know it's kind of a bubble in terms of Ohio in general. As in, what I see here is not that representative.

...

Cosby has been critical of what he sees as the African-American community's acceptance of fatherless single parent households, high crime rates, and high illiteracy rates. He encouraged a more proactive effort from African-Americans to reduce those problems. He expanded upon his remarks in San Jose, California during an event to promote the Read-2-Lead Classic. The way his speeches were portrayed by popular media provoked a great deal of anger from some African Americans.
Cosby was the impetus for the formation of ARISE Detroit! when, in a 13 January 2005, speech at Wayne County Community College he challenged black Detroiters to stop blaming white people for problems they could solve themselves. "It's not what they're doing to us. It's what we're not doing", the entertainer told the audience of nearly 2,000 people. A little more than a year later, ARISE Detroit! was formed to address this issue.

...

In May 2004 after receiving an award at the celebration of the 50th Anniversary commemoration of the Brown v. Board of Education ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court's decision that outlawed school segregation (Wu, Frank H.), Cosby made public remarks critical of those blacks who put higher priorities on sports, fashion, and "acting hard" than on education, self-respect, and self-improvement. He has made a plea for African American families to educate their children on the many different aspects of American culture (Baker). According to the Washington Times, he has had a long history of endeavors to advance African Americans (DeBose, Brian).

In "Pound Cake", Cosby, whose doctorate degree is in education, asked that African American parents begin teaching their children better morals at a younger age. He directed this address to the leaders in the lower and middle economic classes of the African-American community (see main article). Cosby told reporters of the Washington Times, "Parenting needs to come to the forefront. If you need help and you don't know how to parent, we want to be able to reach out and touch" (DeBose, Brian). Richard Leiby of the Washington Post reported, "Bill Cosby was anything but politically correct in his remarks Monday night at a Constitution Hall bash commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Brown vs. Board of Education decision."

Cosby again came under sharp criticism, and again he was largely unapologetic for his stance when he made similar remarks during a speech in a July 1 Rainbow Coalition meeting commemorating the anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education. During that speech, he admonished blacks for not assisting or concerning themselves with the individuals who are involved with crime or have counter-productive aspirations. He further described those who needed attention as "blacks [who] had forgotten the sacrifices of those in the Civil Rights Movement." The talk was interrupted several times by applause and received praise from leaders such as Jesse Jackson.

Meanwhile, local color:

Went to Obama HQ today. Really hard not to be optimistic there. Lots of people, lots going on. No yard signs left -- huge demand. Sozlet chatted with several staffers for a while and generally had fun. I'm going to be bringing lunch food to them tomorrow.

So I'm pretty optimistic about Columbus, but I know it's kind of a bubble in terms of Ohio in general. As in, what I see here is not that representative.

OK, some good news. Just checked the weather and the temperature isn't supposed to get below freezing all day.

... Winter Weather Advisory remains in effect until midnight EST
tonight...

A Winter Weather Advisory remains in effect until midnight for
Northern Ohio and northwest Pennsylvania.

A little rain and snow and freezing rain is expected this
morning. Freezing rain is expected to redevelop this afternoon and
continue into tonight... then change to snow. A glaze of ice is
expected. Snow accumulations later tonight should be about an
inch.

Monitor the latest forecast for updates. There is still some
doubt as to the amount of freezing rain that will occur. If the
freezing rain becomes heavy... an ice storm is possible.

Be careful... even a light coating of ice can make driving and
walking dangerous. It is sometimes difficult to recognize an icy
surface... it may look wet.

The absentee factor: Yesterday, NBC/NJ's Mike Memoli reported that there are signs Obama might have the early-voting edge in Ohio. Indeed, these contests could very well be the first ones in which early/absentee voting actually benefits Obama, because that voting will have started after Obama went on his post-Feb. 5 run. Factor in some bad weather -- lots of rain -- expected in Ohio, and does that cut into Clinton's lead there?

Some said that the Obama campaign in particular seems to have generated the most activity. In Montgomery County, Harsman said that the day after the Obama campaign did a massive phone push to get people to vote, more than 1,000 people came in person to vote, doubling or tripling the usual day-to-day traffic. "From our experience, it's Obama that's having the impact here," said Summit County's Williams, who added that some voters have been mistakenly putting "Obama" in the part of the form where they are supposed to indicate their party.

Clinton's campaign has been active as well in encouraging early votes. On the first day of balloting, Gov. Ted Strickland led events all over the state to draw attention to early voting as he cast his ballot in Franklin County. This weekend, it held events in all 88 counties in which early voting was a focal point.

But it appears that Obama's campaign has been more deliberate about encouraging these votes, even at events for campaign surrogates. At an event in Akron for Michelle Obama last week, a field organizer asked for a show of hands of how many people had already voted. More than a third of the crowd raised their hands. And the next day, at an event in Canton, the campaign had vans waiting outside the event waiting to bring people to vote at the Stark County Board of Elections.