I'm tired of this Obama/Hilary Reality Show

-So she wins Pennsylvania after being up 20 points, hooray

-If I hear one more pundit say Hilary has 'new life' I am gonna vomit. How many lives does she have exactly?

-She claims Obama should be questioned on why he can't put her away. Isn't the question why are you losing leads, pledged delegates, super delegates, and the overall popular vote?

-The argument that a close second should be awarded the #1 slot is ridiculous. Especially with the use of all the sports metaphors

-She wins by 8-10 points and thinks Obama is not competitive? Silly

-And I love the argument that she is a woman of the people but Obama has more popular vote

-And the woman of the people loves the argument that wins in NY, NJ, CA, TX, OH, and PA make her the best candidate. So the other states are irrelevant. Sounds real inclusive to me

-MSNBC, CNN, and the like have never seen ratings like this. They are going to do all they can to string this out. Don't beleive the hype. If the supers take this from Obama there will be 'blood in the streets' so to speak

-She is just making it easier for McCain, but I am not blaming her for not quitting. I just laugh at the silly arguments.

Geraldine is right

The truth is Geraldine Ferraro is right.
It is empirical fact despite the racist undertones you may or may not hear in her statement.
Obama has unified the Black vote in ways that no one ever has. Not Bubba or The Revs (Al and Jesse).

Her statement is acknowledging the elephant in the room. As Clarence Page said last night on Chris Mathews. If Obama were white he would be John Edwards. The fact is that he is what he is. The first Black politician with a chance to win. And Black people are falling in line with what he represents to the tune of 91% in Mississippi.

Geraldine Ferraro’s comment about Obama is like saying the reason why Shaq has four rings is because he is 7’2”. Or the reason why Johan Santana got so much money from the Mets is because he is left handed. These are cold facts about these people that are fundamental aspects of them as a physical human being. Aspects that are using to their advantage. You can’t choose how tall you will be, what race, or what hand you throw a baseball with.

Honestly, the sooner Hilary realizes what Geraldine said the better for her. Obama has locked up the Democratic base and you can’t win without the base. Each time you belittle Obama you piss of more Black voters and push them towards McCain if their candidate were to lose.
It is you, who should be campaigning for VP not the front runner.

What is really pissing people off are the implications of Ferraro’s comment. That the ONLY reason he is winning is because he is Black. Not only is it not true but it is insulting to any Black person, woman, or minority who has been accused of being a quota by an unqualified white applicant. Maybe that is why he is the front runner, maybe that’s why he won the Senate seat, maybe the same for the State Senate. But you know what; there is no quota system at the Harvard Law Review. At the minimum you have to admit that. The dude is smart. A great communicator with great ideas.
Actually the difference on the issues between Obama and Hilary are not nearly as wide as McCain. McCain talks of a hundred year war, never mentions health care, and has no focus on the economy. It is too caught up with war mongering to have a real agenda.

You better start respecting Obama and his constituents or else you are going to destroy the Democratic Party and let the Republicans walk right in.

But that being said the real issue is that the Hilary camp is pissed. Pissed that Barack has positioned himself as the hero of the Black community. The sum total of 400 years of struggle. While Hilary does not resonate nearly the same with women.
Black women have chosen to be Black first. Liberal white women vote for Barack. He gets a healthy portion of what should be your rabid soldiers while you lose more Black people with each primary.

This battle between women and Blacks is her best bet. But it will be Phyric victory, if it is indeed a victory.

Last point, women, Latinos, gays and lesbians, Catholics, Evangelicals, Jews, replace your group for Black in Ferraro’s comments and tell me how you would feel.

So what's next on the agenda Hil?

From Swifty to Hilary

• Congrats on your wins. It was well deserved. You brought yourself back from the brink again. What’s the plan now?
• How will the mathematics leave you with more pledged delegates at the end of the season?
• Are you prepared to take this to the superdelegates and co-sign it if they vote against the popular or pledge delegate count?
• You went negative to win this; I assume you will continue to do so. If you win what is your plan to keep the African American voters that Barack has energized engaged?
• You brought up experience and even stated that John McCain has more than Barack. If you win how will you win that argument with Old Man Winter?
• A breakdown of Ohio shows that you won in Republican turf while Barack won in Democratic turf. Do you think you will when that in the general? And again how will keep the Black voters on your side in the general?
• Do you really think Barack will lose NY, NJ, CA, and other Dem strongholds in the general as you have been claiming?
• Many Black voters including this writer has said that if you win going negative against Barack we will not support you. Either vote Nader, stay home, or even vote McCain because of pure sour grapes. If that plays out how will you win the general? Especially since Blacks vote Dem 9 to 1 over Republicans. And Barack is polling 80-90% of Black voters.
• Some argue that without that base the Democratic are very vulnerable. How will you survive what very well may be a Phyric victory?
• What new voters are you attracting?
• What Barack supporters are you poaching?
• What is the acceptable level of collateral damage you are comfortable with this along this journey?

Sucker Ducks

Sitting here watching the returns on Super Tuesday Part 2.

First of all, if I ever see Joe Scarborough on the street I may just snuff him like Nate Robinson vs. Carmelo Anthony.

His complete disregard for the role of journalists is shameful. All day he has been pushing Hilary while disparaging Obama with the stated goal that Republicans would rather run against Hilary. And he, a hard core and somewhat disgraced, former Florida Congressmen is to little surprise supporting the candidate who is polling weaker against Old Man Winter.

Second I read the following quotes in the Brooklyn Paper from the Congressmen from where I work and live in Brooklyn:

Congressman Ed Towns has explained that he has no intention of straying from his support of Mrs. Clinton. “The district might have gone for Obama,” Mr. Towns said. “But the state went for Hillary. And no matter what, she is the senator from our state.”

Congresswoman Yvette Clarke, in a statement, said she “is a committed superdelegate to Hillary Clinton.” She added that her role as a superdelegate is not simply to follow the lead of her constituents.

“Superdelegates have the unique responsibility to balance the needs of their district, state, party and country,” she said.

I want to point out to these elected officials that your job is to represent the people, not go off the reservation and do your own thing.

From wikipedia - The bicameral Congress came from the desire of the Founders to create a House "of the people" that would represent public opinion.

Hilary won Brooklyn by the slim margin of 52 to 48. Your districts are the ONLY two that Obama won outright. 57 and 56 percent respectively. Your job IS to represent the people.

Go off on your own at your own risk. Ed Towns, my congressman and Yvette Clark the representative of DUMBO, I tell you this if you go against the people in this matter with this blatant disregard, do so at your own peril. For what it’s worth you won’t get my vote.

When push comes to shove this is the cat I will ride with: “State Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries is among the Brooklyn legislators demanding that super delegates vote with their districts or with the majority of pledged delegates.”The public should decide who becomes the Democratic nominee and not backroom party insiders," he says.

It is a new day. Wake up.

Take that bass out your voice

After looking like she was offering our guy Barack the olive branch in the CNN debate last week, Hilary let the claws out this weekend. Did anybody see the clip of her challenging Barack "to come see her in Ohio and let's debate." Then I saw a clip this morning of her mocking Barack and his message of hope. Not so humorously telling people that there is no magic wand that will make the special interests go away and the skies will not open up with a celestial light and solve all our problems. As if Obama ever said there would be. This clearly the tactic of a woman on her last leg.

News flash to Hilary, the last time you went negative it was the pill that killed you. The last time you mocked and degraded Obama you lost the last bastion of Black votes you were gonna get. And Barack is winning White males. If you think that display is gonna do anything to stop your bleeding you are bugging. Bigoted white males who have already decided an uppity Black man is better than an uppity white woman will run away from you now. Even faster.

I guess this will help you with white women but won't that be like preaching to the choir.

After the last debate I kind of liked you. I Liked the high road you took.
While I was mad at the shots you took at my guy in SC now I just feel sorry for you. You look desperate and flustered. Maybe this would have worked a few months ago but now you just look stupid. In the words of the great American poets Erick and Parrish "What a way to go out. Out like a sucker."

And before you address my man again take that bass out your voice

Oh Mammy!

Melissa Harris-Lacewell is is associate professor of politics and African American studies at Princeton University. This piece was forwarded to me and is being published without permission. If Ms. Harris-Lacewell has a problem with that please let me know and I will take it down. I thought it was a great piece that puts my thoughts into better words than I could muster.

There's been a lot of talk about women and their choices since Super Tuesday, when African American women overwhelmingly voted for Sen. Barack Obama, while white women picked Sen. Hillary Clinton. Some pundits automatically concluded that "race trumped gender" among black women. I hate this analysis because it relegates black women to junior-partner status in political struggles. It is not that simple. A lot of people have tried to gently explain the divide, so I'm just going to put this out there: Sister voters have a beef with white women like Clinton that is both racial and gendered. It is not about choosing race; it is about rejecting Hillary's Scarlett O'Hara act.

Black women voters are rejecting Hillary Clinton because her ascendance is not a liberating symbol. Her tears are not moving. Her voice does not resonate. Throughout history, privileged white women, attached at the hip to their husband's power and influence, have been complicit in black women's oppression. Many African American women are simply refusing to play Mammy to Hillary.

The loyal Mammy figure, who toiled in the homes of white people, nursing their babies and cleaning and cooking their food, is the most enduring and dishonest representation of black women. She is a uniquely American icon who first emerged as our young country was trying to put itself back together after the Civil War. The romanticism about this period is a bizarre historical anomaly that underscores America's deep racism: The defeated traitors of the Confederacy have been allowed to reinterpret the war's battles, fly the flag of secession over state houses, and raise monuments to those who fought to tear down the country. Southern white secessionists were given the power to rewrite history even as America's newest citizens were relegated to forced agricultural peonage, grinding urban poverty and new forms segregation and racial terr or.

Mammy was a central figure in this mythmaking and she was perfect for the role. The Mammy myth allowed Americans in the North and South to ignore the brutality of slavery by claiming that black women were tied to white families through genuine bonds of affection. Mammy justified past enslavement and continuing oppression.

In the face of the Mammy myth, real black women spoke for themselves against the monument. It was substantial, sustained, opposition from organized African American women and the black press that killed the Mammy monument proposal.

Black feminist politics is not simple identity politics. It is not about letting brothers handle the race stuff or about letting white women dominate the gender stuff. The black women's fight is on all fronts. Sisters resist the ways that black male leaders try to silence women's issues and squash women's leadership. At the same time, black women challenge white women who want to claim black women's allegiance without acknowledging the realities of racism. They will not be drawn into any simple allegiance that refuses to account their full humanity and citizenship.

Post Super Tues Randomness

Real quick as we have a busy day and I was up until 1:30 last night watching the Super Tuesday returns. I will take the easy way out today and hit y’all with some bullet points of random yet connected thoughts

• Barack has momentum
• Hilary does not
• Momentum is defined as “when an object or body is moving, it possesses a quality called momentum, which means the object tends to keep moving”
• Ever played football or ran track? Barack is “walking Hilary down” His victory is a function of time. Hilary’s lead is evaporating with every day. She is not growing or raising money at Barack’s pace. You DO NOT have momentum when your lead in Georgia goes from 13 points to a loss in two weeks.
• Barack is gonna win this thing. He is the only one gaining steam
• The Republicans are a mess. Poor Romney, he is just getting hated on. Huckabee is scary and McCain is the last Republican the establishment wanted
• They are gonna tear each other apart while my guy continues to gain steam
• Saw the Giants parade. The funniest thing was that the Giants are not really a NY team. Not like the Knicks, Mets, Yankees, or Rangers. Why? BEACUASE THEY PLAY IN NEW JERSEY. So having all these NY politicians shake their hands just looked silly. Sheldon Silver!?!?!?
• I doubt half of those dudes like Eli had been to the City in a year

Be good