Why Zora Neale Hurston Was A Conservative

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By: John McWhorter

The acclaimed author was skeptical of Democrats, special favors for blacks and the idea of taking racial pride in the achievements of individuals. CONTINUE....

Wilson Rebuked by House for ‘You Lie’ Outburst

By: Michael H. Cottman

In an unprecedented session on Capitol Hill, Democrats on Tuesday officially reprimanded South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson for his outburst Wednesday night, when he shouted “You lie!” during President Barack Obama’s speech about health care reform before a joint session of Congress.
 
The contentious question being asked privately – from the halls of the U.S. Capitol to black neighborhoods in Washington, D.C. - is this: Was Wilson’s heckling of President Barack Obama a blatant act of racism?

 

Wilson Rebuked by House for ‘You Lie’ Outburst....

Frank: GOP Attacks are Racially Motivated

By: Glen Johnson

BOSTON - Rep. Barney Frank said Monday that Republican criticism of Democrats over the nation's housing crisis is a veiled attack on the poor that's racially motivated.

The Massachusetts Democrat, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said the GOP is appealing to its base by blaming the country's mortgage foreclosure problem on efforts to expand affordable housing through the Community Reinvestment Act.

He said that blame is misplaced, because those loans are issued by regulated institutions, while far more foreclosures were triggered by high-cost loans made by unregulated entities.

"They get to take things out on poor people," Frank said at a mortgage foreclosure symposium in Boston. "Let's be honest: The fact that some of the poor people are black doesn't hurt them either, from their standpoint. This is an effort, I believe, to appeal to a kind of anger in people."

Frank: GOP Attacks are Racially Motivated....

Michigan Dems file lawsuit against Macomb Co. GOP

By KATHY BARKS HOFFMAN

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Democrats in Michigan are trying to block what they call a Republican effort to deny voting rights to people facing foreclosure.

Barack Obama's presidential campaign, the Democratic National Committee and several voters filed Tuesday for an injunction to prohibit the GOP from challenging Michigan voters whose homes are on foreclosure lists. Republicans say they are doing no such thing.

Macomb County Republican Party Chairman James Carabelli denied last week that he had told a writer for the liberal Web site MichiganMessenger.com that he planned to make sure no one on a list of foreclosed homes voted in his county. "The story is not true," he said.

Michigan Democratic Party Chairman Mark Brewer said Republicans have tried in the past to discourage Democratic voters at polling stations and, "I simply do not believe his denial. This fits the pattern we've seen here in Michigan."


Michigan Dems file lawsuit against Macomb Co. GOP....

Activists: Massive Youth Voter Turnout for Democratic Contests ‘Only Scratched the Surface’

By: Sherrel Wheeler Stewart

Voters under the age of 30 turned out in record numbers in the 2008 presidential primaries, more than doubling their participation in previous contests, according to a Washington, D.C.–based non-profit that encourages youth civic engagement.

About 6.5 million young voters cast ballots, according to CIRCLE, which stands for the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement.

A majority of the young Democrats chose Sen. Barack Obama, CIRCLE officials say. And a recently released Gallup poll suggests that the senator from Illinois is maintaining his popularity among young voters as the showdown with Republican John McCain kicks into high gear.

Activists: Massive Youth Voter Turnout for Democratic Contests ‘Only Scratched the Surface’....

Why America is making history tonight

by Chris Matthews

I think our colleague Ron Allen said it best: “Every time I look at my Blackberry, it seems another superdelegate has gone over to Barack Obama.”

It’s been exactly five months to the day since voters in Iowa went to the polls on January 3 and opened the primary and caucus season. Tonight, South Dakota and Montana close the curtain on the voting. No more caucuses, no more primaries.

There are two big questions for tonight. The first is, will Obama win enough delegates tonight to win the Democratic nomination?

The second big question, what will Hillary Clinton do? Will she bow tonight to the impossible math confronting her or will she keep on fighting at least for a few more days? And of course, if and when Hillary does get out, will she press for number two? Late today, the Associated Press reported she told Democrats, “I am open to it.”

COMMENTARY....

Obama and the Values Question Mark

By DOUGLAS E. SCHOEN

With the Democratic nomination all but decided, it's time for Barack Obama to start defining himself in the context of the general election -- before the Republicans define him. Most importantly, he must answer this question once and for all: What are his values?

Mr. Obama began to do so last Tuesday night, by speaking more generally about who he is and how he defines himself. But this is just a first step.

Exit polls in Indiana and North Carolina show clearly that fewer than 60% of white voters believe Mr. Obama shares their values. In a recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, only 45% of the American electorate said they can identify with Mr. Obama's values, compared to 54% who say they can identify with John McCain's values.
[Obama and the Values Question Mark]

Make no mistake, the ongoing controversy over his relationship with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright leaves Mr. Obama vulnerable. So does the flap over his comments at a San Francisco fund-raiser over working-class voters' alleged bitterness leading them to cling to religion and guns. He needs to speak directly and forthrightly to the concerns and fears of these voters if he is to succeed in November.

How does he do that?

ENTIRE ARTICLE....

Barack Obama Overtakes Clinton’s Lead in Superdelegates for First Time in Campaign

By: Stephen Ohlemacher, Associated Press

WASHINGTON - (AP) Barack Obama erased Hillary Rodham Clinton's once-imposing lead among superdelegates Saturday when he added more endorsements from the group of Democrats who will decide the party's nomination for president.

Obama added superdelegates from Utah, Ohio and Arizona, as well as two from the Virgin Islands who had previously backed Clinton. The additions enabled Obama to surpass Clinton's total for the first time in the campaign. He had picked up nine endorsements Friday.

The milestone is important because Clinton would need to win over the superdelegates by a wide margin to claim the nomination. They are a group that Clinton owned before the first caucus, when she was able to cash in on the popularity of the Clinton brand among the party faithful.

Those party insiders, however, have been steadily streaming to Obama since he started posting wins in early voting states.

ARTICLE....

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.

READ COMMENTARY....

Is the Democratic Race Essentially Over? Voters, Pundits Alike Await Clinton’s Exit Strategy

By: Michael H. Cottman

With Sen. Barack Obama’s landslide victory in North Carolina and only a two-point loss to Sen. Hillary Clinton in Indiana, some Democrats said Tuesday that Clinton may now need something that was unthinkable just two months ago: An exit plan.

A senior Democratic strategist familiar with the Clinton campaign’s plans told BlackAmericaWeb.com Wednesday that shortly after the June 3 primaries in Montana and South Dakota, if a number of party figures known as superdelegates are switching their allegiance to Obama, then she would probably cut her losses and drop out of the race.

"She’s not going to tear the party apart," the strategist said Wednesday, "and she’ll be the first person up on the stage supporting Senator Obama."

READ ENTIRE STORY....

Democrats Plunder Their Own Nomination

By Leila Khaled
Bronzeville Metropolis

The Super Delegates are getting nervous and growing increasingly afraid on a daily basis.

They're going to have to award the Democrat nomination to either Hillary Clinton or Barack or Obama.

And in doing so, they'll rob the other of a chance to be president. Obama leads in delegate count, but Hillary has won the key swing states.

Last Friday, conservative talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh put those fears to rest, discussing why Democrat leadership has no reason to fear losing the black vote if they take the nomination away from Obama and give it to Hillary:

President John Kennedy and his brother Robert Kennedy wiretapped Dr. King. Black voters stayed with Democrats. Democrats stood in the schoolhouse doors vowing, "Segregation forever!"

Democrats voted against landmark civil rights legislation; Republicans passed it. Blacks stayed with Democrats.

Bull Connor was a Democrat. Blacks stayed with Democrats.

Democrats created the welfare state, destroying millions of black families. Blacks stayed with Democrats.

Democrats bent over forward for the teachers unions, ruining public education for generations of black kids; leaving them unequipped to participate as equals in American society. Yet! Black voters stayed with Democrats.

Democrats urged the early release of criminals to further prey on law-abiding black citizens. Blacks stayed with Democrats.

Democrats threw blacks under the bus during the immigration debate.

After Rosa Parks finally moved to the front of the bus, Democrats threw blacks under it during the immigration debate because Hispanics are now the largest minority voting bloc. Blacks stayed with Democrats. Democrats have not supported blacks achieving power.

It's not that anyone is implying blacks are not intelligent. They've just been lied to by Democrats and made to believe they have no choice. Limbaugh explains:

For 50 years, black people in this country have been told by elected Democrats that Republicans and conservatives are racists, sexists, bigots, and homophobes; that they have no desire for them to become equal or progress economically -- and then you couple that with ministers like Farrakhan and Jeremiah Wright reinforcing what other black leaders like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson do, and it all becomes very simple. They have been scared to death. Black voters have been told for 50 years that their lives will be ruined if they vote for Republicans, because Republicans don't care about them. When you vote out of fear, it's the same thing the Democrats have done with elderly people, our seasoned citizens and Social Security. It's almost predictable that every election cycle, the Democrats will predict or tell old people that Republicans want to take back their Social Security.

It's called Plantation Mentality. As he writes in his book, "It's OK To Leave The Plantation," C. Mason Weaver says Democrats are the new "slave owners." Black Democrat leaders are the "master slaves" and black Democrat voters are "slaves." Plantation mentality is a system that discourages independence and character and encourages reliance on masters or appointed tribal chiefs in our community.

Democrat leaders have long understood that the more money people have control over, the less need they have for liberal government programs. Hence, we see 50 years of lies by Democrats to blacks and it has been most effective. One government program after another, blacks have historically been afraid to vote against the "master slave" and "slave owner." Regardless of this year's nominee, history is bound to repeat itself.

Obama Wins the Most Delegates Out of Texas

By: Associated Press

WASHINGTON - (AP) Sen. Barack Obama has won the overall delegate race in Texas, thanks to a strong showing in Democratic county conventions this past weekend.

Obama picked up seven of nine outstanding delegates, giving him a total of 99 Texas delegates to the party's national convention this summer. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton won the other two, giving her a total of 94 Texas delegates, according to an analysis of returns by The Associated Press.

Texas Democrats held both a presidential primary and caucus. Clinton narrowly won the popular vote in the state's primary March 4, earning her 65 national convention delegates to Obama's 61.

Precinct caucuses began immediately after polls closed primary night and quickly devolved into chaos in many parts of the state because of an unprecedented turnout of more than 1 million Democrats. The state party was never able to provide complete results from the caucuses, which is why the AP withheld nine delegates.

The precinct caucuses elected delegates to about 280 county and state senate district conventions on Saturday. The AP awarded the remaining delegates based on results from Saturday's conventions, showing Obama with about 58 percent of vote, compared to 42 percent for Clinton.

Obama won 38 delegates through the caucus/convention system, and Clinton won 29.

The final delegate allocation will be decided at the party's state convention June 6-7, and the numbers could change if either campaign is unable to maintain the level of support they had over the weekend.

Obama leads the overall race for the Democratic nomination with 1,631 delegates, including separately chosen party and elected officials known as superdelegates. Clinton has 1,501, according to the latest AP tally.

THE HUTCHINSON REPORT: Black Voters Can’t Put Obama in the White House.

By Earl Ofari Hutchinson

African-American voters will help insure that Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama keeps his slight edge over Hillary Clinton—for now. They will not help him beat John McCain if he eventually gets the Democratic nomination.

Yet it’s still a virtual article of political faith that a strong, united, and crusading black vote can tip the scale for a Democratic presidential candidate. This is a myth and it’s risky business for Obama and the Democrats to believe that.


It’s easy to see why Obama might be tempted to think that. When Obama needed a surge early on in the campaign, he called on Oprah, and she delivered. She made a blatant racial pitch for blacks to in the crucial South Carolina primary to vote for him, and they did in near record numbers. That put him over the top and propelled his campaign.


With the black vote firmly in hand, that gave him the freedom to craft his hope and change message in broad, bland, and especially non-racial terms. The idea was to avoid any appearance of a Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton racial tilt. That would be the political kiss of death with many white voters.


But that didn’t change the political reality that black votes still provided the decisive edge for Obama in key primary state wins. And even in his losses to Hillary Clinton in Ohio, California and Texas, black votes kept the race close. Those votes, though, will never be enough to put him over the top in the big states against Clinton, let alone against John McCain in the South and Border states.


The myth that the black vote wins presidential election has been bandied about for so long that it’s taken on the proportion of a political urban legend. In 2000, black voters made up nearly 11 percent of the overall voter. They gave the Democratic presidential contender Al Gore 90 percent of their vote. In 2004, black voters made up nearly 12 percent of the vote and gave Democratic presidential contender John Kerry 88 percent of the vote. Gore and Kerry lost.


The Clinton wins in 1992 and 1996 also helped fuel the myth that black votes put Democrats in the White House. Clinton managed to pry four Southern states out of the GOP orbit but he did it by downplaying racial and social issues and stressing family values, tough defense, and a strong economy. He got lots of white votes, especially, white male votes, and that made the difference since he got the same percentage of black votes that Democrats traditionally got in prior elections.


In 2004, then presidential contender Howard Dean openly worried that Democrats could not beat Bush unless they got a bigger share of white male votes. He quipped that the Democrats had to court beer-guzzling white guys who wave the Confederate flag. That brought howls of protests from Dean’s Democratic rivals and the charge that Dean was pandering to unreconstructed bigots to get more white votes in his column. A livid Sharpton called Dean a turn coat Democrat and warned that heeding Dean would be a betrayal of black voters. They could have saved their breath. Kerry made only a weak, half-hearted effort to court white male voters in the South. Bush still got nearly seventy percent of the white male vote there, a second sweep of the South and a second term.


A chastised Dean got it right. He simply crunched the numbers and recognized that white males make up more than one-third of the electorate. .

In 2000, exit polling showed that while white women backed Bush over Gore by 3 percentage points, white men backed him by 27 percentage points. Four years later the margin was 26 points for Bush over Kerry among white males.


A huge first red flag waved high for Obama and the Democrats in the recent Ohio Democratic primary that warns that they can’t win without white votes. Clinton won a smash victory over Obama in large part with white votes. And even more ominously, blue collar lower income white voters roundly rejected Obama. In fact, nearly twenty percent of white voters defied political correctness and said that they would not vote for an African-American. That contrasted with national polls, which showed that more than 90 percent of whites said that race would not be a factor in determining their vote. The Ohio mini-white backlash to Obama doesn’t bode well for the Democrats if he’s the eventual nominee. No Republican or Democrat has won the White House in the past four decades without winning Ohio.


Black voters will cheer and dash to the polls en masse for Obama, but their votes won’t be enough to put him in the White House. Despite the myth, they haven’t put any other Democrat candidate in the White House either.

THE BUSH ECONOMIC STIMULUS PACKAGE

With the economy verging on a recession which would increase public anger with his administration and the Republican Party, President Bush this past Friday bowed to political pressure and proposed a nearly $150 billion stimulus package aimed, he said, at giving the economy "a shot in the arm."

The Bush proposal basically consists of tax rebates.

What does the proposal mean for American Blacks? In dollars terms, it could mean as much as $800 in tax rebates for individuals and $1,600 for families.

The Democratic controlled Congress must still have its say but if differences in approach can be worked out quickly, Blacks (along with other Americans) could start getting their rebate checks as early as this coming April or May.

The battle will probably center around Democratic demands for less focus on business tax breaks and a greater concentration on tax breaks aimed at the middle class (Those making less than $150,000 a year).

Democrats are also expected to insist on an extension of unemployment benefits. Bush increased the likelihood that differences will be quickly resolved by dropping his demand that his previous tax cuts be made permanent.

Some Democrats and Civil Rights advocates have derisively labeled those cuts "tax cuts for the rich."

BLACK PA. LAWMAKERS STAGE WALK OUT

Officials from state's urban areas fed up with stalemate on gun control measures.



Black lawmakers from the state's urban areas, frustrated in their efforts to get a vote on gun control measures, walked out of a House session in protest Wednesday.

According to the Associated Press, a majority of members of the House Legislative Black Caucus, all Democrats, are from Philadelphia, where 369 people were killed this year through Monday. About 80 percent of the deaths involved handguns.

"It's time for our colleagues on both sides of the aisle to understand that this issue, when it comes to saving lives in our various districts, is extremely important to us," said Rep. Thaddeus Kirkland, the caucus chairman. Sixteen lawmakers walked out, Kirkland said.

A spokesman for Majority Leader Bill DeWeese, a Democrat, declined to comment. Democrats control the House by a single vote.

Gun bills are always contentious in the Legislature, where many Democrats represent rural areas with strong hunting constituencies and the National Rifle Association has friends among both parties' leadership.

"I think there's no appetite to do what they want to do, as far as passing additional restrictions on firearms to deal with Philadelphia," NRA lobbyist John Hohenwarter said.

CAN OPRAH ACTUALLY HELP OBAMA WIN THE NOMINATION?

History says celebs not effective in persuading voters to support a particular candidate.

Can campaigning by television talk-show diva Oprah Winfrey help Illinois Senator Barack Obama with the Democratic Party's nomination for president?

That was the question coming from a wide range of media pundits last week shortly after it was announced that starting in December Winfrey will join Obama on the campaign trail in the key early primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

Historically, celebrity endorsements and campaigning have not been particularly effective in persuading voters to support a particular candidate.

But the Obama camp is hoping that Winfrey's huge popularity among both Blacks and whites will reverse the historic trend. Currently, New York Senator Hillary Clinton is holding double digit leads over Obama in most national pools.

The exception is the Iowa caucuses where Obama holds a slight lead over Clinton and former North Carolina Senator John Edwards.

Obama's strongest base of support appears to be under 30, educated white females. Clinton, meanwhile, continues to outpoll Obama among Blacks and she is especially strong among Black women.

The Obama strategy is to secure a win in Iowa and with Winfrey's help make strong showings in New Hampshire and South Carolina and thus convince hesitant voters that he can indeed become the first African American to secure the Democratic Party's presidential nomination.

source: Taylor Media Services

BlackAmericaWeb.com Launches Survey

BlackAmericaWeb.com Launches Survey to Gauge Views on Issues in ’08 Presidential Race.

BlackAmericaWeb.com will launch a comprehensive issue-oriented survey today to engage readers about topics of concern to the black community during the 2008 presidential election.

The purpose of the survey is to solicit feedback from readers about issues being discussed by Democratic and Republican presidential candidates in what is perhaps the most significant presidential election for black Americans in modern history.

The Democratic frontrunners are Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL). Clinton, who is leading in most national polls, is trying to become the first female president, while Obama, who is leading Clinton in fundraising, hopes to be elected as the first black president.



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HAVE YOUR SAY RIGHT NOW! Click here to take BlackAmericaWeb.com's “Election '08“ survey.



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On the Republican side, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, Arizona Sen. John McCain and former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson are among those vying for the nomination.

The 2008 BlackAmericaWeb.com survey will feature a variety of questions on issues, including the war in Iraq, jobs & immigration, poverty, criminal justice, education, economy & housing, health care and rebuilding New Orleans after Katrina.

TPMtv: Dem Debate Highlight Reel

TPMtv: Highlight Reel: DARTMOUTH DEMOCRAT DEBATE