Senator Obama’s Momentum Slowed by 'Archie Bunker' Types

Senator Barack Obama is having trouble with Archie Bunker. The white, blue-collar voters personified by the 1970s fictional television character cost Obama this week. Senator Hillary Clinton beat him 54 percent to 44 percent in industrial Ohio. In Ohio's 10th district of Cuyahoga County, a suburban area on Cleveland's west side that includes a large population of Polish-Americans, Clinton trounced Obama 61 percent to 37 percent, according to exit polls. In the state's Belmont County, an economically depressed Appalachian (White ghetto) border area that is predominantly White, she had a 50-point lead over Obama.

The weak showing among the white working class in Ohio reflects a larger vulnerability for Obama, said Joe Trippi, a former senior strategist for John Edwards, who had broad appeal among those voters until he dropped out of the Democratic race last month. Senator Obama has ``had a problem with lower-income, downscale, blue-collar (White) Democrats from the beginning,'' Trippi said. ``He typically appeals to better educated, upscale Democrats.'' Ohio exit polls show white Democrats voted for Clinton 70 percent to 27 percent, while Black Democrats voted for Obama 88 percent to 12 percent. Clinton beat Obama 58 to 40 percent among those with no college degree and 56 percent to 42 percent among those who earn less than $50,000 a year in Ohio. In Rhode Island, she won those with no college degree 61 percent to 38 percent, and those earning less than $50,000 by 59 percent to 39 percent. Obama's chief strategist, David Axelrod, said he doesn't think race would hurt Obama in a general election because the Illinois Senator has done well in other states with large White working-class populations.

I look at it like a basketball game. One team has the lead and then the other team makes a run, gets a dunk and a couple of three-pointers and the crowd get excited and it looks like the second team has a new life and make a comeback, and then you look up at the scoreboard and it still basically the same margin. Senator Clinton's March 4 victories in contests in Texas, Rhode Island and Ohio -- and just one defeat, in Vermont -- pumped new life into her candidacy after 11 consecutive losses to Senator Obama. The media says she now has renewed momentum heading into the next big test on April 22 in Pennsylvania, where the electorate looks much like Ohio. But in reality Senator Obama is still the Democratic front-runner and has shown strength attracting independents and younger voters. While this week's results were welcome in the Clinton camp, she barely cut into Obama's overall lead of about 150 pledged delegates. In addition, the next states to hold contests, Wyoming and Mississippi, are likely to increase his margin. Wyoming on March 8 holds a caucus, a type of contest in which Obama has generally prevailed. Mississippi, which holds a primary on March 11, has a heavy concentration of Black voters. And neither state has big populations of White ethnic voters.

Yet Obama will need to do better with the White ethnic working class in places like Pennsylvania and to build a majority in a general election if he is the nominee. Some die-hard Archie Bunker clone even say they would vote for John McCain if Obama wins the Democratic nomination. Senator Obama has had problems with similar types of voters in Chicago since he began running for public office, though he has made some progress. He beat his White Democratic rivals in the 2004 Senate primary in places like the 41st Ward, which populated by Polish-American, Irish-American, and other ethnic Whites who think like one resident who said “if Obama gets in, it’s going to be a Black thing and it’s going to be all Blacks for Blacks. Everything’s got to be equal.” Some residents still harbor resentment from 35 years ago, when a growing Black population on the city's west side pushed whites north into Edison Park and Norwood Park, said Mary O'Connor, who owns a local bakery. Brian Doherty, the 41st Ward alderman, said he was ``shocked'' by Obama's success in the 2004 Senate primary. O'Connor, a Democrat who voted for Senator Obama and recently won a seat as ward councilwoman, said a new generation that is less concerned with racial politics and history is taking over. There is hope in the next generation.

Belize Elects First Black Prime Minister

The small Central American nation of Belize, located between Mexico and Guatemala, recently elected Dean Oliver Barrow as the nation’s first Black prime minister defeating incumbent prime minister Said Musa who was accused of embezzlement scandals and financial mismanagement in recent years. Prime Minister Barrow is the leader of the United Democratic Party (UDP) that won 25 of the 31 seats in the House of Representatives. “This demonstrates that we have matured, and that Belize has reached a level where, in the words of Martin Luther King, a man can be judged on the content of his character rather than the color of his skin,” Barrow said. The UDP has promised to battle crime and government corruption.


Barrow, a native of Belize, is the father of rapper Jamal “Shyne” Barrow who is currently serving a 10-year sentence for his role in a 1999 New York club shooting involving hip-hop entrepreneur Sean “Diddy” Combs and singer Jennifer Lopez. Shyne legally changed his name in 2006 to Moses Michael Leviy after converting to Judaism in jail.

Prime Minister Barrow, an attorney by trade, served as Deputy Prime Minister and as Minister of Foreign Affairs. Following his party's victory in the February 7, 2008 election, he became Prime Minister. He was sworn in as Prime Minister on February 8. He announced his Cabinet, including himself as Minister of Finance on February 11. Barrow, a senior counsel, is also considered one of Belize's more successful attorneys and has appeared in several high profile cases.

Maybe we will follow suit and elect the first Barack Obama as the Black president of the United States this November and Hillary Clinton as the first woman vice president. Hey, just throwing it out there.

Clinton Stops the Bleeding; Obama Still Leading

Senator Obama, who had hoped to knock Senator Clinton out of the race on Tuesday, said he would prevail despite facing a tenacious candidate who "just keeps on ticking." Clinton won Ohio, Texas, and Rhode Island and Obama won in Vermont. The two presidential contenders made the rounds of the morning network television news shows Wednesday, declaring only one thing certain — that the campaign would go on and that the next big showdown would occur April 22 in Pennsylvania. Senator Obama is expected to win the Wyoming caucus on Saturday and the Mississippi primary next Tuesday. Despite Senator Clinton's victories Tuesday night, Obama came away with a large share of delegates, too, in counting that continues Wednesday.

In Tuesday's four-state competition for delegates, Senator Clinton picked up at least 115, to at least 88 for Senator Obama. Nearly 170 more remained to be allocated for the night, 154 of them in the Texas primary and the caucuses that immediately followed. Senator Obama had a total of 1,477 delegates, including separately chosen party and elected officials known as superdelegates, according to the Associated Press count. He picked up three more superdelegate endorsements Tuesday. Senator Clinton had 1,391 delegates. It takes 2,025 to win the nomination. Based on their current delegate counts, neither candidate can win enough delegates in the remaining primaries and caucuses to secure the nomination without the help of nearly 800 party officials and top elected officials who also have a voice in the selection. This could take the nomination fight all the way to the party's August national convention in Denver.

Obama had a huge lead in Texas caucuses before counting closed for the night Tuesday, to be resumed Wednesday. I participated in the Texas caucus. Basically, if you voted in the Texas primary you can participate in the caucus. You write your name and some other information on a sign in sheet and pick the candidate you want. Observing and listening to the crowd at my precinct Obama was represented at least ten to one. The Texas polls closed at 7 and the caucus was to start at the poll locations at 7:15 for Democrats and 7:30 for Republicans (they said that four years ago there was about 20 people that attended caucuses at every location). As long as you are in line to vote by 7 you still get to vote. Our location was at an elementary school and my wife and I arrived at 7. There were still people in line to vote so the caucus did not start until about 7:45. There were about 100 people in front of us to the door so we figured not bad. Wrong!!! We got to the door at 8 and the line snaked through all the hallways inside the school. We finally got signed in at about 9:15. The only Clinton supporters close around us was a couple of dunt da dunt White women right behind us. I call them that not because they were for Hillary, but, first it was cold (it snowed today) and one had on short sleeves and the other slippers and they were both complaining about it being cold and second, one said this was the first time she had voted since she voted for Jimmy Carter (1976!!!). It was all I could do to keep from saying how ignorant she was for saying it like it was a good thing.

Strictly speaking from a Democratic standpoint voters should be drawn first as to who can better confront Senator McCain and the Republicans in the national election in November, then who is the best steward of the economy, and then who would be the better commander in chief in this order and not in the reverse order as Senator Clinton would have us believe. So much concentration on the commander in chief will be a continuation of our present situation with a president that sends in the military first with worrying about what happens tomorrow. Senator McCain has already hinted that it will be much easier for him to beat Senator Clinton than it would be to defeat Senator Obama. She brings a lot of baggage with her that Senator as of yet refuses to drag out keeping with his plan of running a smear campaign. The economy will not get better until the Republicans are out of the White House. Both Democratic candidates are basically saying the same thing on the economy, health care and education and Senator McCain has already said he is not really up to speed on the economy (does that sound like somebody that we need running the country?). Commander in chief is probably the least of our worries unless we get one who wants to continue the direction that we are going (Senator McCain says it could take 100 years to get out of Iraq. He would have us permanently in Iraq, he says like we have thousands in Germany and South Korea. Hillary Clinton and John McCain both say that Barack Obama does not have the experience to be commander in chief. And I say the man who was commander in chief during the Civil War, the worst time in the history of the United States, was also a senator from Illinois, a man who was arguably our greatest president, a man also will little experience, Abraham Lincoln. Great leadership is about judgment and a will to do what is right for the country. I believe that man is Senator Barack Obama.

Racism in Arlington, Texas

Approximately 300 neighborhood members marched in protest this past Saturday from George Stevens Park in Arlington, Texas to the northwest Arlington home of a Black couple, Broderick Gamble and his fiancée Silk Littlejohn, in response to a December racist attack on Ms Littlejohn and the defiling of their home with racial slurs. Both garage doors were painted with racial graffiti. The doors had been covered with tarps, but ministers in the crowd pulled back the covering to reveal the racist slurs. Gamble, who is rebuilding the house after a 2005 fire, told the crowd that the garage doors will soon be replaced, but the racist slurs on the original doors will remain and they will be donated to the Civil Rights Museum in Selma, Alabama.

On December 19, Ms. Littlejohn was hit on the face with a two-by-four and her vehicle was damaged by a 66 year old White woman, Grace Head, who was arrested and faces charges of assault, criminal trespass, failure to identify and criminal mischief. Criminal charges had previous been reduced against Ms. Head, but, not investigators are asking the Tarrant County district attorney’s office to prosecute the case using hate crime statutes, which would increase the punishment. The racial slurs were spray-painted on the garage two days after the assault.

This march follows a march Friday by an activist group “Enough Racism in Arlington (E.R.A)”, that marched in front of the City Hall and issued a list of demands to the City of Arlington. The group gave the city 10 days to meet their demands, or else they will continue to protest at major city landmarks, including the Ballpark at Arlington, home of the Texas Rangers baseball team, Six Flags Texas and the construction site of the new Texas Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys football team. The group has even threatened to petition the NFL to drop Arlington as a future Super Bowl host city. Arlington has had numerous racism complaints in the past few years.

The E.R.A. demands include; the City of Arlington issue a full page apology in a daily newspaper denouncing the brutal and racist attack on Broderick Gamble and Silk Littlejohn; establish a Minority/Women-owned Business Enterprise Program (MWBE) whereby minorities and women owned businesses can compete for bids to do business with the city; implement a cultural/diversity sensitivity training in the school district and city government; charges be brought against Grace Head for commanding her dog to attack Ms. Littlejohn; adding Ms. Head’s dog to Arlington’s dangerous dog list; and meet the demands of the family which include, the city compensate Silk Littlejohn for all medical and legal expenses; the police officer responsible for the reduction of Grace Head’s initial charges must be terminated.

Senator Obama Fights Back in the Homestretch

Senator Barack Obama worked to fend off an intensified attack on his foreign policy credentials from Senator Hillary Clinton on Sunday as their paths crossed two days ahead of a showdown in Ohio and Texas. "What precise foreign-policy experience is she claiming that makes her qualified to answer that telephone call at 3 a.m. in the morning?" Obama asked of the former first lady at a town-hall meeting. It was a reference to dueling television ads over who would exercise superior judgment in responding to a national emergency in the middle of the night. Obama criticized Clinton expressly for failing to read the classified National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq's weapons capabilities, a report available at the time of her October 2002 vote authorizing the Iraq war. "She didn't give diplomacy a chance. And to this day, she won't even admit that her vote was a mistake — or even that it was a vote for war," Obama said. "When it came time to make the most important foreign policy decision of our generation the decision to invade Iraq Senator Clinton got it wrong," Obama said. In addition to foreign policy, Senator Obama talked about economic issues affecting economically depressed Ohio as well as the rest of the country.

The Illinois senator also sought to ease lingering Internet-fed concerns about his religion, in particular whether he was a closet Muslim. "I am a devout Christian. I have been a member of the same church for 20 years. I pray to Jesus every night," he declared at an earlier appearance in the rural southern Ohio town of Nelsonville. He said he wanted to halt "confusion that has been deliberately perpetrated."

Meanwhile Senator Obama received another powerful endorsement over the weekend. He was endorsed by Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia. Rockefeller, who is chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, endorsed Obama on Friday and campaigned with him on Saturday. Rockefeller called Obama "brilliant" and "well grounded" and prepared to take the reins as commander in chief.

Senator Obama was spending the night in his hometown, Chicago before heading to Texas on Monday for a final day of campaigning before awaiting returns on Tuesday in San Antonio. Recent polls show Clinton retains a lead in Ohio, although it has been narrowing. In Texas, her once formidable lead has all but vanished and the race is now seen as a dead heat. Most Democratic strategists see Texas and Ohio as must-win states if Clinton is to continue her candidacy, a view also expressed by her husband, former President Bill Clinton. But in recent days, Clinton campaign officials have suggested that if Obama doesn't win all four contests on Tuesday, which also include races in Rhode Island and Vermont, she would continue the campaign to the next major primary, Pennsylvania on April 22. This is something that the Democratic National Committee is hoping against. They want to consolidate the party so that they can turn their full attention to winning against the Republicans in November.

A Glimpse of the Obama Family

Senator Barack Obama says his two daughters are huge fans of Hannah Montana and Beyonce, but think anything to do with Britney Spears and Paris Hilton is "yuck." The Democratic presidential contender told celebrity magazine “Us Weekly” that his daughters, Malia, 9, and Sasha, 6, got to meet Beyonce backstage at a concert and "they just love her to death. They're pretty down on Britney and Paris and all of that. They think that's very 'yuck,'" he said.

As for his wife, Michelle, the senator said she has a star crush on Stevie Wonder. "I've been teasing her because Stevie fell off the stage at one of our events," Obama said. "I said to her, 'This is your favorite performer, and you push him off the stage?' Fortunately, he was OK." The Illinois senator described himself as a "pretty cool" dad who tries not to embarrass his daughters even when he's dancing on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," as he did in October.

Though campaigning keeps him away from his family, Obama hasn't skipped a parent-teacher conference. "He did miss one of Sasha's dance recitals in December and was broken up about it," Michelle Obama told the magazine. "No one wants to miss 20 6-year-olds in red cowboy hats tapping to 'These Boots Are Made for Walkin'.'"

Running Scared

It is absolutely a sure bet that the vast majority of Black folks would have voted for Senator Hillary Clinton if Senator Barack Obama was not in the race for the Democratic nomination. At first I was basically supporting Obama because he is Black, but now after hearing his speeches and observing him in a pressure cooker of a campaign, I am convinced that he is the best person for the job. Sure he doesn’t have the name recognition or the national experience as a Clinton or a Bu$h, but this is a new era. We live in a technological age when information is gained so much faster and better. In the past you had to go out and meet and greet every high ranking leader in your field if you wanted to get ahead. Now you can talk to thousands at the same time via conference calls or web conferences, etc.

All of Senator Obama rivals basically speak the same language; the language of Washington, D. C. This is the language of political back-biting and infighting; the language of promising one thing while doing something totally opposite. I thought Senator Clinton would be different, but when the pressure is turned up and her political goals seem to be slipping away she has turned into the typical Washington insider.

Number (1): When the Michigan and Florida moved dates of their Democratic primaries up, against the wishes of Democratic National Committee (DNC), the DNC said it was taking away the delegates from both states for the DNC convention. All the Democratic candidates then decided not to campaign or place their names on the ballot in those states. And they all kept their word, with the exception of one; Hillary Clinton went to both states and also placed her name of the ballot. Now that the race in which she was so confident of winning has turned to the point that she might lose, she is trying to get the DNC to include the Michigan and Florida delegates. This is an outright defiance of the party says it is the party of the people and the kind of underhanded tactic that we can expect from a Washington insider.

Number (2): Texas has a two-step process in its voting; first you vote in the primary and second you can come back and vote in what is called the local convention (basically a caucus). The Clinton campaign is now trying to sue the state of Texas trying to stop the caucus portion of the two-step process. She was fine with this process two weeks ago when she had a 20 point lead in the state. This is the kind of underhanded tactic that is business as usual in Washington, D.C.

Number (3): Now she is running ads straight out of the Republican play book which relies on scare tactics. At any sign that things are going bad, the experienced politician will bring up some sort of terrorist threat (at the news that gas prices may hit $4 a gallon, toxic materials are found in Las Vegas).

They all continue to criticize Senator Obama for not having enough experience. Does this mean that he doesn’t know how to cheat and change the rules if the rules do not benefit him? I support Barack Obama because he has managed his campaign exceptionally well. He has run a campaign on change for the better; a campaign on hope for tomorrow. Most politicians are hoping too. They are hoping that things stay the same. I myself am hoping for a change for the better.