Commentary: Sen. Jesse Helms Will No Doubt Get a Send-Off That’s Far More Honorable Than He Was

By: Deborah Mathis, BlackAmericaWeb.com

Speaking kindly of the dead is one of those things expected of civilized people even if it pains them to do so, strains credulity and requires utter hypocrisy.

This is particularly so when the departed is a person who once held a position of honor, prestige and authority. Like, for example, a former United States senator. When there is such a high station involved, the expectation of fond farewells is even greater. Take Richard Nixon’s death, for example. Had you not known already, you would not have learned from the eulogies and benedictions that he once betrayed the very Constitution that he swore to uphold, casting the government into disarray.

Nor, this week, are we likely to hear anything about what made North Carolina’s Jesse Helms one of the late 20th century’s most memorable members of the world’s most deliberative body.

Helms’ prepossessions about race and sexual orientation, combined with his stubborn, blustery, mocking demeanor, made him a stranger to middle ground, and it to him. He was either for or against something. And Americans either loved or loathed him.

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The Hutchinson Report: Racially-Polarized Democratic Party Now a Far Greater Peril to Obama and Clinton

By: Earl Ofari Hutchinson

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama’s divvy-up of North Carolina and Indiana between them further deepens the two perils the Democrats face. One is that neither heavy hitter can deliver the knockout punch that the Democrats desperately need to get on with the business of mounting a united front against John McCain. The other is the much-talked and much-worried-about peril of a divided party and what that means.

There are two big reasons that preordained that the Democrats would find themselves in this muddled, confused and frustrating danger. The Democrats’ winner-not-take-all proportional delegate system and the system of superdelegates that they dumped onto the primaries was a prescription for disaster. The idea behind this was to bring democracy with a small d to the vote process and snatch the decision about who gets the big prize out of deal-making party bosses at the national convention. This supposedly would insure a smooth, happy-faced party convention and a coronation for the party’s pick.

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Obama Wins North Carolina Primary – and Most Delegates – While Clinton Ekes Out Indy Win

By: Associated Press and Michael Cottman, BlackAmericaWeb.com

Barack Obama swept to victory in the North Carolina primary Tuesday night and declared that he was closing in on the Democratic presidential nomination. Hillary Rodham Clinton, meanwhile, won a narrow victory in Indiana by two percentage points, 50 to 49 percent.

Returns from 99 percent of North Carolina precincts showed Obama winning 56 percent of the vote to 42 percent for Clinton, a triumph that mirrored his earlier wins in Southern states with large black populations.

That made Indiana a virtual must-win Midwestern contest for the former first lady, who was hoping to counter Obama's persistent delegate advantage with a strong run through the late primaries. Returns from 92 percent of the state's precincts showed Clinton with 51 percent of the vote to 49 percent for Obama.

"Tonight we stand less than 200 delegates away from securing the Democratic nomination for president of the United States," Obama told a raucous rally in Raleigh, North Carolina -- and left no doubt he intended to claim the prize.

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