The Presumptive Nominee
I never thought we’d actually reach this point, but here we are. I’m amazed, excited, and hopeful for the future. I’ve never worked for a candidate in my life, but I’ll be volunteering for this one.
The debates should be wondrous to behold. I hope there are many. Tired talking points, propaganda and straw men won’t stand a chance. I recall Obama being asked a “what if the republicans say ____?” kind of question during one of the primary debates, and he said he was “looking forward to having that conversation”. I am, too. We need some rational dialoge in this country, and it’s going to be difficult to fight the the media talking heads. The debates, though, that is where he’ll shine.
It’s still a long road to go, but I’m with you, Obama.
OBAMA ’08 !!!!
A splash of color at the Democratic National Convention
The DNCC announced the list of bloggers credentialed for the general blogger pool in Denver. The following blogs of color made the cut:
- African American Political Pundit
- Culture Kitchen
- Dallas South Blog
- Georgia Politics Unfiltered
- Jack and Jill Politics
- Oliver Willis
- Pam’s House Blend
- RaceWire
- What about our daughters
My congratulations to all of you! I know which blogs I’ll be reading during the convention. 🙂
Hillary’s Snoopy Helmet Moment? (Updated – Update2)
Via HuffingtonPost:
Hillary Clinton’s argument for staying in the race took a disturbing turn today. While meeting with the editorial board of South Dakota’s Sioux Falls Argus-Leader, she raised the specter of assassination while discussing why she would stay in the race:
“My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. I don’t understand it.”
Oh no she didn’t. She did NOT go there.
There is no way that any thinking person could have believed a reference to any assassination would be appropriate, not this year or any year. Obama has had Secret Service protection for a year because of death threats, earlier than any primary candidate in history.
The Obama camp responded quickly:
“Senator Clinton’s statement before the Argus Leader editorial board was unfortunate and has no place in this campaign,” said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton.
Of course, now she’s backpedaling:
“Earlier today I was discussing the Democratic primary history and in the course of that discussion mentioned the campaigns that both my husband and Senator Kennedy waged in California in June 1992 and 1968 and I was referencing those to make the point that we have had nomination primary contests that go into June. That’s a historic fact.
The Kennedys have been much on my mind the last days because of Senator Kennedy and I regret that if my referencing that moment of trauma for our entire nation, and particularly for the Kennedy family was in any way offensive. I certainly had no intention of that, whatsoever. My view is that we have to look to the past and to our leaders who have inspired us and give us a lot to live up to, and I’m honored to hold Senator Kennedy’s seat in the United States Senate from the state of New York and have the highest regard for the entire Kennedy family.”
Well, the historic fact didn’t need to include any mention of RFK’s assassination, did it. And I really don’t see an apology to Obama in that mealy-mouthed explanation, only to the Kennedys. But let’s face it, she can’t defend her statement because it’s indefensible.
My husband is calling this her “Snoopy Helmet moment”. He thinks she has completely sunk her campaign with this outrageous remark. I hope he’s right.
Update: Nobody, nobody has anything good to say about Hillary’s statement. There are already three posts up on Huffington Post criticizing her. Bob Cesca writes:
If nothing else, the superdelegates ought to receive this as a blaring, siren-light warning. A giant red flag. Senator Clinton is embarrassing herself and the Democratic Party. She has ceased to be a viable, respectable candidate and has, instead, become a ghoulish, desperate shell of her formerly strong and admirable self.
Maybe my husband is right.
Update 2: I knew Keith Olbermann wouldn’t let this pass without a Special Comment.
Where the Black bloggers at
The DNC has chosen 55 bloggers for its State Bloggers Corps (a list of the chosen bloggers can be found at the bottom of this post on African American Political Pundit). Going through the list, one discovers that the majority of the bloggers are White.
African Americans vote Democratic more reliably than any other group in this country. We vote Democratic at rates of 90%, election after election. Common wisdom states that a Democrat can’t win a national election without the Black vote. Yet there’s no room for us as bloggers within the state delegations, even in states where a large percentage of Democrats are African Americans.
Why am I not surprised?
Anybody remember the Yearly Kos last year? They were so utterly surprised that the convention was mostly attended by middle-aged White men. People contorted themselves into knots making excuses for why it would be so, saying stupid shit like “Black people are too poor to have computers”. Of course they missed the point. DKos has never been amenable to voices that might criticize them for racist or sexist stereotyping, and in fact people have been banned for trying. They act as gatekeepers, reject us if we dare criticize them for exhibiting White privilege, and then wonder why we don’t participate in their convention.
Nobody wants to hear us, not if we insist on speaking as Black people from a Black perspective. They don’t link to us, they pretend we don’t exist (“They” being the Big Dogs, ie DKos, MyDD, Firedoglake, etc. and no they get no link love from me). They insist that on the Internet no one can tell your race, but that’s just bullshit. Anyone who bothers to read THIS blog will know very quickly that I identify as a Black woman. They don’t listen to us or link our blogs because they don’t want to. They don’t want to have real discussions about race, they only mention it when it’s a convenient talking point for their own agendas. Otherwise, we might as well be invisible.
We’re out here, though, and we’re not going away. We are not invisible, we have voices, and we will be heard.
NOTE: Before anyone starts with me, no I didn’t apply to blog at the convention. I do consider myself part of the Afrosphere so I use the term “we”, but that doesn’t mean I think I should be blogging at the convention personally. Miss Thing wouldn’t let me go, anyway.
Ylizaville 
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