My little politics blog

Some pundits scratched their heads when Obama was trailing Clinton among black voters. (He recently pulled even or ahead.) But it made perfect sense.

Clinton had a track record of working for African-Americans' interests. Obama was not just skirting controversies such as the "Jena Six" - the black Louisiana teen-agers punished disproportionately last year for their role in a racial fracas - but was aiming his appeals squarely at the white Iowans who he knew could make him the front-runner.

None of this is to minimise the barriers that Obama has faced and still faces because of his race.

Throughout, his voice and cadences suggested that he had studied Martin Luther King Jr.'s register and rhythms, the better to subtly evoke liberalism's great lost moment of revolutionary achievement and unfulfilled promise.

In 1985, according to The Nation magazine, Obama, after graduating with a degree in political science from Columbia University in New York City, became an organizer for the Developing Communities Project to help black people in Chicago's far south side whose lives had been upended because of the steel mill closings. He was just 24 then, made $13,000 a year, and trolled around the area in a second-hand Honda Civic getting congregations involved in transforming their neighborhoods.

"Over the past five years, I've often had a difficult time explaining my profession to folks," Obama wrote in 1990 in Illinois Issues, a publication out of Springfield, Ill. "Typical is a remark a public school administrative aide made to me one bleak January morning, while I waited to deliver some flyers to a group of confused and angry parents who had discovered the presence of asbestos in their school.

"'Listen, Obama,'" she began. "'You're a bright young man, Obama. You went to college, didn't you?'

"I nodded.

"'I just cannot understand why a bright young man like you would go to college, get that degree and become a community organizer.'

"Why's that?

"'Cause the pay is low, the hours is long, and don't nobody appreciate you." She shook her head in puzzlement as she wandered back to attend to her duties.

"I've thought back on that conversation more than once during the time I've organized with the Developing Communities Project, based in Chicago's far south side. Unfortunately, the answers that come to mind haven't been as simple as her question. Probably the shortest one is this: It needs to be done, and not enough folks are doing it."

sozobe wrote:

An "open letter" in response:

Actually I'm not sure if it's in response to Cohen or in response to "Obama is a Muslim"-type emails. The latter might be more likely.

By the way, that African article isn't meant to make a case -- too obscure -- but I do want to note that right now it's the first non-book result for "Obama" in a Google search. (It's the first news item, and the news items [3] appear before everything else.)

A Barack Obama sticker decorates the bumper of Helen Quarles's car. It fit neatly over the Hillary Clinton decal Quarles, a retired auto worker from McCormick, South Carolina, displayed until recently.

Playing to win, by hilzoy (who, judging by his avatar, may be fishin' -- fishin', that you? ;-))

http://obsidianwings.blogs.com/obsidian_wings/2008/01/playing-to-win.html

This is an interesting one, hard to summarize. I agree with a lot of it, but it's one that falls into the category of haven't yet had time to read it thoroughly and critically so I don't necessarily stand behind it as "what he says, I think." Very interesting though. Here's the end:

Quote:

I take it it goes without saying that all of this is unfair. While I think that a number of criticisms of the Clintons, and perhaps a few attacks as well, might have been warranted, I don't think it was the least bit fair that they were subjected to either the amount or the kind of vilification that they received. And everything I've said above is true precisely because Hillary Clinton was vilified. It's because of that fact that many people are inclined to believe the worst of her reflexively. And it's also because of that fact that Democrats are inclined to react to attacks on her defensively and angrily.

But fairness isn't the point when it comes to nominating a candidate for the Presidency. No one is entitled to be the Democratic nominee, and all sorts of people have lost their chance to be nominated unfairly. It's unfair that Chris Dodd and Bill Richardson had to go up against one of the strongest Democratic fields in living memory. It's unfair that Paul Tsongas looked like a dweeb. It's unfair that Richard Nixon's five o'clock shadow played any role at all in the 1960 election, hard as I find it to regret its effects. I could go on and on, and that's without getting into all the people who didn't even bother to run, or for that matter to enter politics, for unfair reasons.

If we want to, we could take this opportunity to redress the injustices done to Hillary Clinton. Personally, I'd rather win, and win in a way that makes it harder for those kinds of injustices to be perpetrated on anyone in the future.

"The Obama of 'Dreams'"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/16/AR2008011603446.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

The "third-culture kid" stuff is interesting. I think it's some of what I was talking about in terms of how I identify with him because of my experience as both Deaf and "hearing." Hadn't seen that term before.

It occurred to me that it would allow Hillary to brush off a loss in SC as an unfortunate result of that unfortunate race row that wasn't even her fault, WHILE scoring long-term points by making Obama the black candidate, bouyed by black voters, and scaring off some white votes. And very handily shunting aside the inspirational, WOW aspect of an Obama win in SC. Just the race card, that's all.

Okay, let him carry South Carolina, as long as he is tagged with Afrocentrism.