TURNER'S TWO CENTS

Hollywood, Hype and Hesitation (Danny Glover Hatin' on Barack Obama)

By Cameron Turner

Barack Obama should send the producers of “24” a thank you note. By featuring Dennis Haysbert as the President of the United States three years ago, “24” helped America warm up to the idea of a black man in the White House.

In 1998, seven years before “24” debuted, Morgan Freeman played the President in Mimi Leder’s apocalyptic sci-fi epic “Deep Impact.”


I remember asking Freeman if he thought his portraying the President was revolutionary. He said no, reminding me that Gen. Colin Powell had been mentioned repeatedly as a possible Republican candidate before the 1996 election.


Powell declined the opportunity (to the probable relief of GOP leaders who had already anointed George Bush, Jr. as the candidate), but polls showed that the former Joint Chiefs chairman enjoyed strong support from a broad spectrum of voters.


So, maybe we shouldn’t be all that surprised by Obama’s history-making success. Apparently, huge segments of the American voting public are more than ready for a black man to be a major party’s nominee.


But is blackness is the wrong issue on which to focus?


Acclaimed actor and lifelong human rights activist Danny Glover has endorsed John Edwards because he believes the former North Carolina senator will be the best advocate for poor, working people. Glover doesn’t get excited about the whole “first black President” thing.


“What does it really mean when you look at a situation like Jena, Louisiana, when you look at the birth mortality in Washington, DC or the South Bronx, when you look at inner-city schools or… black unemployment,” Glover says. “Are we just bull----ing ourselves? Does it mean that we trust this Negro enough, or this black man enough that he can mind the house and (have) business go on as usual?”

Barack Obama faces increasingly tough questions as he moves closer to the possibility of securing the Democratic nomination. And, quite frankly, Brother Barack’s going to have to start doing a better job of explaining himself. During Saturday’s debate in New Hampshire, Hillary Clinton criticized Obama for voting to in favor of the Patriot Act and funding for the Iraq War. Obama responded by changing the subject to health care. That was whack. A real politician’s move.


Ice Cube summed up the way a lot of us feel about Obama. During interviews for his new movie, “First Sunday,”


“It’s not just the fact that he’s a black man but he’s looking like the best mam," Cube said. "But my question for Obama is, ‘What you gonna do for my mama?’”

Thanks for listening. I’m Cameron Turner and that’s my two cents. I want to hear yours so hit me at TurnersTwoCents@aol.com.