Super Tuesday

Today's the day in which the presidential races on both sides get a little clearer.

It's Mega Tuesday, in which 24 states are either voting right now in primaries or having caucuses. 52% of all pledged Democratic delegates are at stake with the biggest prizes being CA, NJ and Sen. Clinton's state of NY.

The states in which Democratic caucuses are happening are NM, ID and KS. Republican only caucuses are taking place in MT and WV.

Besides CA and NY, primary elections are taking place in AK, UT, AZ, CO, OK, AR, TN, GA, AL, ND, MN, MA, CT, MJ, DE and Sen. Obama's home state of IL

The debate was on Thursday in Los Angeles between Sen Clinton and Sen Obama in front of a celebrity studded crowd.



We'll find out in a few hours if someone delivers a knockout blow or if my earlier prediction holds and my home state of Texas decides it on March 4.

Congressional Black Congress Split Evenly Between Backers of Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama

Wednesday, January 30, 2008
By: Associated Press and BlackAmericaWeb.com

In the race for endorsements in a tightening presidential primary season, the 42-member Congressional Black Caucus is evenly split between Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in its members' support.

Both Obama and Clinton have 17 backers among the CBC's ranks. Three CBC members are supporting Edwards, and five have not committed to any candidate yet.

California Rep. Maxine Waters, who announced her support for Clinton Tuesday, offered the most recent endorsement.

"At a time when the economy continues to worsen and so many of my constituents are losing their homes and their jobs, we need someone with the leadership and experience who can step in on day one to tackle the economic challenges our country is facing," Waters said. "Hillary understands the daily challenges that people are facing and she will fight for them everyday she is in the White House."

Issues of race and gender have come to the forefront of the campaign, pitting Clinton, who hopes to be the first female president, against Obama, seeking to become the first black to hold the job.

Among those endorsing Clinton are Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas; Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Ohio; Kendrick Meek, Corrine Brown and Alcee Hastings of Florida; Yvette Clarke, Charles Rangel, Gregory Meeks and Edolphus Towns of New York; Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri; Dianne Watson and Laura Richardson of California; David Scott and John Lewis of Georgia and Donna Christian-Christensen (V.I.).

Obama’s supporters include Bobby Scott of Virginia; Danny K. Davis, Bobby Rush and Jesse Jackson Jr. of Illinois; Barbara Lee of California; Artur Davis of Alabama; Gwen Moore of Wisconsin; William Lacy Clay of Missouri; Elijah Cummings of Maryland; Sanford Bishop and Hank Johnson of Georgia; John Conyers of Michigan; Keith Ellison of Minnesota; Chaka Fattah of Pennsylvania and Al Green of Texas.

In Waters, Clinton has won the backing of a lawmaker whose support the New York senator's campaign is hoping will help blunt charges of efforts to create racial polarization in the South Carolina primary. Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton, appointed Waters' husband, former NFL player Sidney Williams, ambassador to the Bahamas in the 1990s.

"They are all professional politicians, and the first thing professional politicians learn is to try to be where they think it is more politically advantageous to be," Davis, an Obama supporter, told Politico. "Many people will go with that which is projected, as opposed to going where there is no path and helping to blaze a trail."

Lacy Clay, another Obama backer, told Politico some African-Americans in Congress had miscalculated the presidential race. "Some of our colleagues misread the tea leaves of politics and thought it was a slam-dunk for Hillary, and it’s not," he said.

Clinton and Obama collide next week in a coast-to-coast competition for delegates across 22 states.

Several CBC members, including Jackson Lee, Tubbs Jones, Meeks and Lewis, have been surrogates for the Clinton campaign in television interviews conducted during primary season, both before and after tough state contests.

"Sen. Hillary Clinton is the Democratic candidate with the perfect blend of leadership, talent and intellect to lead our nation in a new direction. It is my honor to endorse Sen. Hillary Clinton to be our next president," Meek said in a statement.

Meek appeared in cable news networks Tuesday to discuss the Florida primary and defend Clinton's decision to conduct a rally in the state, despite the DNC having stripped the state of its delegates.

"In politics, we all understand that the only thing you have is your word," Tubbs Jones said in an interview with The New York Times. "You make a commitment to a person, and you stick with them through thick and thin. My commitment is thick, and I’m in there for the long run."

Many blacks have held Bill Clinton in high esteem since his days in the Oval Office, a sentiment that carries on to his wife. Sen. Clinton has said that if she is elected president, she would make her husband a roaming ambassador to the world, using his skills to repair the nation's tattered image abroad.

"I can't think of a better cheerleader for America than Bill Clinton, can you?" Clinton said. "He has said he would do anything I asked him to do. I would put him to work."

Nonetheless, many young black Americans -- like half the CBC membership -- are supporting Obama.

"Students told me they never were involved, never cared about politics, never thought anybody cared about them until they heard Sen. Obama’s message," said Jotaka Eaddy, 29, a South Carolina native who took a leave of absence from her job to help get out the vote at her alma mater, the University of South Carolina.

"When you look at his campaign, it was very effective. He went into communities and engage the communities that want and are demanding change," Eaddy told BlackAmericaWeb.com.

Eaddy took a leave from her job for U.S. Action and the U.S. Action Education Foundation, managing community awareness in five states on such issues as taxes and budgets, ending the war in Iraq and expanding health care. She said that Obama’s stand on those issues were in sync with hers.

"Every day I go to work, working to expand health care, ending the war in Iraq, excpanding the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), advocating on behalf of others, and Sen. Obama is advocating for those very core values," Eaddy said."That inspires me."

Eaddy, who was the first black student body president at the University of South Carolina, said she was heading back to her job in Washington, D.C., but would look for opportunities to "help in whatever capacity I can to foster young voter turnout" for Obama.

"I consider myself somewhat of a young adult, and he gives me hope for the future -- and I haven’t had that before. He gives me hope that he’s going to make America for his children and for the children I hope to have, and he’s working to make it better for everyone."

Young voter turnout rose in the 2004 and 2006 elections. In the 2004 presidential election, about 20.1 million young people, ages 18 to 29, voted. The turnout rate was 49 percent, up 9 percentage points from 2000. The turnout rate in 2006, a non-presidential year, was 25 percent, up 3 percentage points from 2002.

In the 2004 presidential election, voter turnout increased among all groups of young people, not just college students. This group of young voters is more racially and ethnically diverse than their older adult counterparts. And nearly 44 million 18- to 29-year-olds will be eligible to vote in this year's presidential election, representing a fifth, or 21 percent, of the eligible voting population.

"There’s a change in the air," said Betty Baye, a columnist at the Courier-Journal in Louisville, Ky.

Baye told BlackAmericaWeb.com that Kentucky, which has been a Republican stronghold for many years, is becoming more Democratic.

"We just turned out our Republican governor," Baye said. "Barack has been here, and he has been warmly received."

"I think he’s transformative," Baye said. "And it’s interesting how much Obama strikes people, oddly enough, as 'Clintonesque' … I’ve heard people say he made you feel like he was really hearing you. That’s what (Bill) Clinton had, and to some degree Obama has it. But people say that with Obama, they don’t feel like they’re having their pockets picked."

After the salvos fired by the Clinton campaign against Obama and the ensuing verbal skirmishes, it appears that Obama emerged the beneficiary.

"Several people have said to me that they didn’t like the Clintons’ presumption that they own the black vote," Baye said. "I think the Clintons have done themselves some damage in the black community."

Heading into Super Tuesday on Feb. 5, according to several polls, Clinton leads Obama 41 percent to 28 percent in California.

Clinton's lead is largest among women, Latinos, lower income voters, non-college graduates, and seniors. Conversely, Obama is preferred among blacks, college graduates, and Democratic primary voters with household incomes of $80,000 or more. Clinton and Obama run about even among men, liberals, and white non-Hispanics.

Baye pointed out that this isn’t the first time a black person has run for president, or even a woman. Rep. Shirley Chisholm, both black and female, was a candidate in 1972. What white candidates -- and their African-American supporters -- fail to see, Baye said, is not that black people see a viable black presidential candidate as novel, but, rather, as overdue.

"What I think people miss is how long it has been, how long this struggle has been going on," Baye said. "Andy Young and all those people (from the civil rights movement) look ancient. John McCain looks ancient. I think it’s a different America."

Toni Morrison Endorses Obama for President

Monday, January 28, 2008
Nedra Pickler, Associated Press

WASHINGTON - (AP) The woman who famously labeled Bill Clinton as the "first black president" is backing Barack Obama to be the second.

Author Toni Morrison said her endorsement of the Democratic presidential candidate has little to do with Obama's race -- he is the son of a black father from Kenya and a white mother from Kansas -- but rather his personal gifts.

Writing with the touch of a poet in a letter to the Illinois senator, Morrison explained why she chose Obama over Hillary Rodham Clinton for her first public presidential endorsement.

Morrison, whose acclaimed novels usually concentrate of the lives of black women, said she has admired Clinton for years because of her knowledge and mastery of politics, but then dismissed that experience in favor of Obama's vision.

"In addition to keen intelligence, integrity and a rare authenticity, you exhibit something that has nothing to do with age, experience, race or gender and something I don't see in other candidates," Morrison wrote. "That something is a creative imagination which coupled with brilliance equals wisdom. It is too bad if we associate it only with gray hair and old age. Or if we call searing vision naivete. Or if we believe cunning is insight. Or if we settle for finessing cures tailored for each ravaged tree in the forest while ignoring the poisonous landscape that feeds and surrounds it.

"Wisdom is a gift; you can't train for it, inherit it, learn it in a class, or earn it in the workplace -- that access can foster the acquisition of knowledge, but not wisdom," Morrison wrote.

In 1998, Morrison wrote a column for the New Yorker magazine in which she wrote of Bill Clinton: "White skin notwithstanding, this is our first black president. Blacker than any actual black person who could ever be elected in our children's lifetime. After all, Clinton displays almost every trope of blackness: single-parent household, born poor, working-class, saxophone-playing, McDonald's-and-junk-food-loving boy from Arkansas."

Obama responded to Morrison's endorsement with a written statement: "Toni Morrison has touched a nation with the grace and beauty of her words, and I was deeply moved and honored by the letter she wrote and the support she is giving our campaign."

Landslide!

Barack Obama adminstered an electoral beatdown in yesterday's South Carolina primary.

In a South Carolina primary in which an astounding 530,000 voters participated, Sen. Obama earned more than twice the vote that rival Sen. Hillary Clinton did, 55 percent to 27 percent. Obama got 295,091 votes (55%), Hillary Clinton 141,128 votes (27%) and John Edwards finished third with 93,552 (18%).


As expected, he garnered the lion's share of African-American primary voters, but Obama also did well in other demographic groups as well, a fact he noted in his victory speech.

"We have the most votes, the most delegates and the most diverse coalition of Americans we've seen in a long, long time."

Obama beat Clinton in every bracket except voters 65 and older, and overall garnered 58 percent of the vote among 18 to 64-year-olds while 23 percent of those voters picked Clinton.

Obama also said the election "is not about black versus white." Emphasizing his platform for bringing change to Washington, he said "this election is about the past versus the future."



I've been fortunate to not only see some great political orators in my life such as the late Ann Richards and the late Barbara Jordan but have them as my congressmember and my governor. Barack is quickly moving up into those lofty ranks in my eyes as a speaker.

Some CNN analysis of what happened in South Carolina by another of my favorite Houstonians, Roland Martin.



He has momentum going into Mega Tuesday, but is trailing in delegate-rich California as of right now. If he does well on Mega Tuesday, a conversation I had with my sis back in December may actually come to pass with the March 4 Texas primary deciding it.

Caroline Kennedy Endorses Barack Obama

A President Like My Father
By CAROLINE KENNEDY
Published: January 27, 2008
From the New York Times

OVER the years, I’ve been deeply moved by the people who’ve told me they wished they could feel inspired and hopeful about America the way people did when my father was president. This sense is even more profound today. That is why I am supporting a presidential candidate in the Democratic primaries, Barack Obama.

My reasons are patriotic, political and personal, and the three are intertwined. All my life, people have told me that my father changed their lives, that they got involved in public service or politics because he asked them to. And the generation he inspired has passed that spirit on to its children. I meet young people who were born long after John F. Kennedy was president, yet who ask me how to live out his ideals.

Sometimes it takes a while to recognize that someone has a special ability to get us to believe in ourselves, to tie that belief to our highest ideals and imagine that together we can do great things. In those rare moments, when such a person comes along, we need to put aside our plans and reach for what we know is possible.

We have that kind of opportunity with Senator Obama. It isn’t that the other candidates are not experienced or knowledgeable. But this year, that may not be enough. We need a change in the leadership of this country — just as we did in 1960.

Most of us would prefer to base our voting decision on policy differences. However, the candidates’ goals are similar. They have all laid out detailed plans on everything from strengthening our middle class to investing in early childhood education. So qualities of leadership, character and judgment play a larger role than usual.

Senator Obama has demonstrated these qualities throughout his more than two decades of public service, not just in the United States Senate but in Illinois, where he helped turn around struggling communities, taught constitutional law and was an elected state official for eight years. And Senator Obama is showing the same qualities today. He has built a movement that is changing the face of politics in this country, and he has demonstrated a special gift for inspiring young people — known for a willingness to volunteer, but an aversion to politics — to become engaged in the political process.

I have spent the past five years working in the New York City public schools and have three teenage children of my own. There is a generation coming of age that is hopeful, hard-working, innovative and imaginative. But too many of them are also hopeless, defeated and disengaged. As parents, we have a responsibility to help our children to believe in themselves and in their power to shape their future. Senator Obama is inspiring my children, my parents’ grandchildren, with that sense of possibility.

Senator Obama is running a dignified and honest campaign. He has spoken eloquently about the role of faith in his life, and opened a window into his character in two compelling books. And when it comes to judgment, Barack Obama made the right call on the most important issue of our time by opposing the war in Iraq from the beginning.

I want a president who understands that his responsibility is to articulate a vision and encourage others to achieve it; who holds himself, and those around him, to the highest ethical standards; who appeals to the hopes of those who still believe in the American Dream, and those around the world who still believe in the American ideal; and who can lift our spirits, and make us believe again that our country needs every one of us to get involved.

I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my father inspired them. But for the first time, I believe I have found the man who could be that president — not just for me, but for a new generation of Americans.

Caroline Kennedy is the author of “A Patriot’s Handbook: Songs, Poems, Stories and Speeches Celebrating the Land We Love.”

South Carolina Primary

Today South Carolina Democrats head to the polls to choose who they would like to see as our party's nominee for president.

South Carolina is not only the first primary election in a Southern state, it is also the first state that has a primary in which African-Americans voters will have a major say in who wins it. African-Americans are 30% of South Carolina's population and make up approximately 50% of Democratic primary voters.

That's why you have seen the fierce and at times contentious battle among Sen. Clinton, Sen. Obama and former Sen. Edwards for those votes. South Carolina tends to set the tone for the rest of the African-Ameeican electorate and with Mega Tuesday looming two weeks from now, the three leading contenders are looking for a win here to build momentum heading into February 5. We saw those tensions flare up during the recent Congressional Black Caucus Foundation sponsored Democratic debate in Myrtle Beach.



Barack Obama has a ten point lead according to polls, but for this race and for the rest of the season, the polls will be useless. As a matter of fact, anytime I hear Barack's poll numbers, I automatically subtract ten points from whatever numbers I hear to get a more accurate snapshot of the electorate. As I mentined in an earlier post, because of the residue of our negative race relations in the States, there's 10 percent of the White electorate that will not vote for a Black candidate no matter how qualified he or she may be.

Then there's the factor of Whites who don't want to appear racist and have a camera or a mic stuck in their face. If they are interviewed, they'll say they're voting for Obama, for example, but their voting booth choices reflect otherwise.

Conversely, African-American voters are not trying to look like we're just automatically voting for the brother, either. We're saying to pollsters and those same reporters we're undecided, we're looking for the best candidate, but when we get in the voting booth we go in the other direction.

We see a historic opportunity that may not come again for a while. A lot of us ar lamenting the fact that we have a chance for two historic outcomes in also having the first female president and are torn by it.

Which way will South Carolina go? We'll find out in a few hours.

Clinton Wins New Hampshire

New Hampshire has been very good to the Clintons. In 1992, Bill's second place finish to Paul Tsongas of Massachusetts earned him the nickname 'The Comeback Kid'. His campaign reenergized, Clinton swept the Super Tuesday primaries a few weeks later enroute to the Democratic nomination and eventually the White House.

His wife Hillary is hoping for similar results after she made history by confounding the polls and narrowly winning the New Hampshire primary last night. She became the first woman and first former First Lady to ever win a presidential primary election.

"I come tonight with a full heart," Sen. Clinton told a crowd of supporters in Manchester. "Over the last week, I have listened to you, and in the process I found my own voice.



"Together let's give America the kind of comeback that New Hampshire has just given me," Clinton said, as supporters chanted "Comeback Kid!"

"We're going to take what we learned here in New Hampshire and make our case," she said. "We are in it for the long run!"


Sen. Obama finished second and conceded victory to Clinton, speaking to a crowd of supporters who were yelling, "We want change!"



"You can be the new majority who can lead this nation out of a long political darkness -- Democrats, Independents and Republicans who are tired of the division and distraction that has clouded Washington," Obama said.

"If we mobilize our voices to challenge the money and influence that's stood in our way and challenge ourselves to reach for something better, there's no problem we can't solve -- no destiny we cannot fulfill," he said.

This is shaping up to be a struggle now between Sen. Clinton and Sen. Obama all the way to the Mega Tuesday primaries on February 5. The next events on the Democratic side will be the Michigan primaries on January 15 and the Nevada Caucuses on January 19.

New Hampshire Primary

Today the peeps in New Hampshire get to go to the polls and cast the first actual ballots in the 2008 primary season.

The remaining candidates have been busily crisscrossing the state over the last few days talking to voters, turning out those supporters, and working hard to win this crucial state with the January 19 South Carolina primary and the February 5 megaprimary looming on the electoral horizon. 20 states (including California and Florida) that contain half the United States population will hold their primary elections on that day.



The small town of Dixville Notch, NH near the Canadian border since 1960 has traditionally kicked off the balloting in the state by voting at midnight EST.

If the results in Dixville Notch are indicative of the rest of the state, it will be a very good day for Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ).

The town has 17 registered voters — two Democrats, three Republicans and 12 independents. The turnout for this election was 100 percent. Four votes were cast by absentee ballot despite the fact that each voter was given his or her own booth at the town’s single polling station.

On the Democratic side, Obama won in a landslide. He picked up 7 votes, John Edwards 2, and Bill Richardson received one vote.

On the Republican side there were only 7 votes cast. John McCain picked up 4 votes, Mitt Romney 2 and Rudy Guiliani got one vote.

Another village that votes around midnight, Hart’s Location, offered its results a few minutes later. The midnight voting tradition there started in 1948 and predates the more well known Dixville Notch, but townspeople weary of the media attention and the late hours discontinued the practice after the 1964 election. They revived the tradition in 1996.

On the Democratic side in Hart's Location, Obama received nine votes, Clinton received three and Edwards received one. On the Republican side, McCain received six, Huckabee received five, Ron Paul received four and Romney one.

The poll numbers are also mirroring the Dixville Notch and Hart's Location results. According to a CNN-WMUR poll released Monday that was conducted Saturday and Sunday evening, Obama has a 9 point lead over Sen. Clinton 39 percent to 30 percent, with John Edwards garnering 16 percent and Bill Richardson 7 percent.

On the Republican side the survey found Sen. John McCain leads former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney by a narrower margin -- 31 percent to 26 percent. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee passed former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani to gain third place. But in this state he won't have evangelical bigots to help him out.

The poll numbers are a good omen, but the only poll that counts is taking place today at polling stations all across New Hampshire.

We'll know the results in a few hours.

You Think Race Explains Oprah's Choices? Better Check The Record

TransGriot Note: Excellent column in the C-J by Betty Winston Baye. Seems like some of her pale fans don't like the fact she's supporting Obama.

December 27, 2007
Courier-Journal.com

Oprah Winfrey has been called out as a racist. That's the fad now, you know -- to brand as racists African Americans who love themselves and seem in general to also love their people.

So now, Oprah is getting her comeuppance. Who does she think she is, detractors ask, to be openly supportive of Barack Obama in his bid to secure the Democratic Party's presidential nomination?

Oprah is showing her "true colors," one critic said, as if Oprah's "true colors" have ever been in doubt?

The mere fact that she is revered by millions of every race the world over shouldn't reduce her to being a slave to others' fantasies.

The idea that Oprah somehow unfairly favors black people over others belies her public record.

Just ask "Dr. Phil."

Who was he before Oprah took a liking to him and rewarded the help that he gave her during a very difficult time in her career, by regularly featuring him on her show, and then by spinning Phil McGraw off into his own show? Today, McGraw is a millionaire several times over, and the last I knew he was very white.

Here lately, every time you turn Oprah on, there's "Dr. Oz," and he's not black.

Or, how about the many scribes, living and long dead, but decidedly not black, whose books Oprah has catapulted into the realm of bestsellers. In fact, most authors that Oprah has championed over the years aren't black and aren't writing about black topics. That's true even in this era, when more blacks than ever are writing and buying books.

Those who've held their head trials and have found Oprah guilty of betraying them by backing Obama should ask Oprah's legion of non-blacks (cooks, personal trainers, designers, wedding planners and actors who are now living the lives that they dreamed of, in large part because a black woman smiled on them) whether Oprah is a racist.

John Travolta, I'm sure, isn't complaining about being Oprah's good friend.

Or how about the fact that any number of black artists have recorded Christmas CDs and no doubt would have loved Oprah's blessings. Yet Oprah chose to anoint Josh Groban's as the must-have Christmas CD for 2007. I doubt that, on the way to the bank, he's thinking Oprah is a racist.

Meanwhile, who has ever confused O magazine, to which I am a faithful subscriber, with Essence, Ebony or Jet?

The attacks that Oprah has endured for supporting Obama, unfortunately, aren't surprising to those of us who are aware that, in order for some people to really admire a black person, that black person must never be "too" black, which explains why any number of black people in public life -- at no small price to their mental health, I should say -- invest a lot of energy fleeing from the obvious.



Oprah has given her reasons for supporting Obama. Yes, he and his wife are fellow Chicagoans and dear friends. But she also has said, "We need somebody who is committed to the welfare of all Americans… We need a new way to do business in Washington, D.C., and in the world."

And for sure, a lot of Americans share those feelings.

Meanwhile, Oprah has said that she never has openly supported a candidate before, but that she's doing it now because, she said, and rightly so, "If we continue to do the same things over and over, I know you get the same results."

And yes, for Oprah and millions of others, and not all of them black people, Barack Obama is, in fact, the substance of things hoped for.

If George W. Bush, whose lack of qualifications should be painfully obvious to all by now, can be considered fit for the presidency, surely Obama has every right to aspire to the job.

Even so, Obama doesn't have a lock on the black vote, just as it cannot be argued that Hillary Clinton has the women's vote all locked up. Clinton's black support runs deep and strong. Scores of African Americans, including Maya Angelou, one of Oprah's dearest friends, have thrown their support to Clinton. Angie Stone, in a song titled "My People" on her new CD, has gone so far as to include Bill Clinton on the list of "My People."

Are Oprah's attackers equally upset that there are women who support Hillary Clinton chiefly because she's a woman and because they believe that it's time for a woman to be in the White House, not merely as first lady but running the joint?

Oprah's critics, I do believe, need to search their own souls for good answers as to what exactly is offensive to them about a black woman supporting a black man's aspirations. And while they do that, other Americans are simply deliriously happy to have options that we haven't seen in a while.

Obama Wins Iowa!

I had to work last night, so I was out of the news loop until 6 AM. When I tuned my car radio to the Tom Joyner Morning Show, the upbeat mood of Tom, Sybil and company told me what I wanted to know. Obama won!

He made history in the process. Obama becomes the first African-American presidential candidate to pull off a win in the Iowa caucuses.



Final Democratic returns showed Sen. Obama gaining 38 percent support, with former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards edging out Sen. Clinton for second place. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson got 2 percent to finish fourth.

Obama's victory was much closer in the all-important race for delegates. The AP analysis estimated Obama would win 16 delegates, compared to 15 for Clinton and 14 for Edwards. Clinton will win more delegates than Edwards, despite getting fewer votes, because of Iowa's complicated caucus system.

Clinton leads with 175 delegates, including superdelegates, followed by Obama with 75 and Edwards with 46.

A total of 4,051 delegate votes are up for grabs, with the magic number of delegates necessary in order for a Presidential or Vice Presidential candidate to be nominated is 2,026.

This win gives Sen. Obama some major momentum going into Tuesday's New Hampshire primary.

How Do The Iowa Caucuses Work?

We have finally reached the point where ballots will begin to get cast in order to determine the Democratic and Republican nominees for the presidency. The road to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue starts at tonight's Iowa Caucuses. Kentucky doesn't have its primary election until late May, so the race may be over and done by the time I finally get to weigh in on this.

Then again, it may take a little longer this year to sort out the two peeps left standing that will make their acceptance speeches at their respective party conventions in Denver and Minneapolis (the republicans).

Here's a piece written by Sean Flaherty at VoteTrustUSA.com explaining how the Iowa Caucuses work.

***

A modern caucus, in 13 states still the basis of choosing delegates to Presidential nominating convention, is a descendant of the Congressional nominating caucus, and the early state nominating caucuses, in which members of state legislatures met to choose party candidates for state office, and members of Congress chose party Presidential nominees. The Congressional system died after the 1824 election, and was replaced by national nominating conventions. At the same time, state caucuses gradually gave way to state nominating conventions, and the precinct-level caucus became important.

Caucuses are generally a viva-voce affair, meaning that voters openly declare their choice, but Iowa Republicans now vote for President on a secret ballot.

Many know that Iowa caucus-goers meet among their party members in locations that range from a school cafeteria to a living room, and then make their choice for President. Beyond those basics, the caucus process seems arcane, even for political junkies. It has even been suggested that voting machines of some kind are used in the caucuses, which has made Iowans who have attended caucuses scratch their heads.

The caucuses are entirely party-run, and the two parties' processes are alike in many ways, but differ in important aspects.

Both parties allow any registered voter to participate in their caucus by re-registering as a member of the party on caucus night. A voter can attend only one party's caucus, and since both take place on the same night, "caucus raiding" is not a concern of either party.

In both parties, the caucuses elect delegates to the county convention, rather than to the national party convention. The county convention will then select delegates to attend to a district convention, which will them elect delegates to a state convention. The state conventions elect delegates to the national nominating convention. In neither party are the delegates at the three levels of conventions bound to vote according to the Presidential caucus results, though generally they do so if the national race is still competitive.

The caucuses take place at the precinct level. In both parties, supporters usually make speeches on behalf of Presidential candidates. The Democrats divide into preference groups for Presidential candidates, which must meet a viability threshold to elect county convention delegates. The threshold is either 15% of the attendees or 25%, depending on the number of delegates to choose. If a preference group does not meet the threshold, its members can realign with another candidate's group, as can members of viable preference groups. Then each group elects delegates in proportion to its percentage of attendees.

At the Republican caucuses, there is a straw poll for President and a separate election for county convention delegates, according to Chuck Laudner, executive director of the Republican Party of Iowa. The Presidential straw poll is conducted by secret ballot, in which voters write their choice on paper. The ballots are counted by hand. After the straw poll, other caucus business takes place, and the selection of county convention delegates is nearer the end of the evening. The caucus-goers who run for election to the county convention do not necessarily say which Presidential candidate they support.

And about voting machines: no, they are not used to tabulate votes in either the Democratic or Republican caucuses, according to the Republicans' Laudner and Iowa Democratic Party communications director Carrie Giddins. The Republicans phone in their results to the state party, and the phone call is witnessed, usually by the caucus-goers who made speeches on behalf of the candidates. The Democratic caucus chair also phones in results to the state party, and party rules require a representative from each preference group be present to witness the call.

The Republican precinct chairs will usually allow observers to watch the caucus and the ballot-counting, though they have discretion, said Laudner. Democratic rules allow media and citizen observation.

The caucuses are complex, no way to deny it. Say what you will about the complexity of the caucuses, though; they are orders of magnitude more transparent and verifiable than the roster of Presidential primaries using paperless touch screen voting machines that will follow weeks later. Let's hope that 2008 is the last Presidential election year in which anyone will have occasion to make that comparison.

If I Were President

A year and three days from today, we'll be casting ballots in a presidential election (and a congressional one as well) that will determine the course of our nation for at least the next decade.

So this is your gentle reminder from the TransGriot to not only make sure your voter registration is in order, but spot check it from now until November 4, 2008. The GOP Dirty Tricks Vote Suppression Squad will be out in force from now until then trying to steal another election.

Only you can prevent stolen elections.

We'll now return you back to your regularly scheduled post.

I thought I'd exercise my mind today. Let's presume that I've survived a nasty campaign, secured the Democratic nomination and just been elected president of the United States by a razor-thin margin.

At noon on January 20, 2009 I stand on the east steps of the Capitol building, take the oath of office and make my inaugural speech. I've checked out the inauguration parade that includes the TSU Ocean of Soul, my high school, the University of Houston band, the FAMU Marching 100 and the Grambling Tiger band. The inaugural ball has been held with Parliament-Funkadelic and Stevie Wonder performing at it and I'm looking fly in my formal wear.

Now I'm waking up the next morning at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue slightly buzzed from the champagne toasts and coming to grips with the reality that I have to clean up the mess George W. Bush left behind. I have to get to the nuts and bolts of running the country and doing the job that 300 million Americans expect and elected me to do.

So what would I do differently (and demonstrably better) than George Walker Bush? What would this country look like under a Roberts administration?

The first order of business is bring our troops home from Iraq with the quickness. They've done their job, Saddam's dead, there are no WMD's there so our boys and girls need to come home ASAFP. I'd withdraw them from Iraq and leave a skeleton force there to help get the Iraqis up to speed enough to defend their own country. Our troops get to come home, rest, rebuild, and prepare for the next challenge facing our country.

The Bush Paris Hilton Tax cuts go bye-bye. They get rescinded and retargeted to middle and lower middle class cuts in order to stimulate the economy. I'd raise the minimum wage, restore the rate the rich were paying under Clinton back to 37% and lower rates for the middle and lower middle class peeps.

I'd ask Congress to pass and have on my desk within 100 days a universal single payer health plan similar to what Canada, Great Britain and 'errbody' else in the industrialized world has. It's a travesty that we're the only industrialized nation that doesn't have such a system. I'd use the money I save from ending the Iraq War and the rescinded tax cut to pay for it. I'd also fold the separate congressional health care system into the new universal health care system so that Congress has a stake in making sure it's properly funded.

In order to continue stimulating the economy I'd end the tax credits for moving manufacturing jobs overseas. I'd give tax credits to companies that not only move plants back here on US soil, but build them near depressed urban areas. Additional tax credits would go to companies that build facilities to provide jobs to inner city areas. I'd maintain the interstate highway system, increase funding for mass transit and start increasing funding to build a bullet train system between major urban corridors. I'd make it easier for people to join unions since union membership has been proven to elevate the standard of living for workers.

I'd make a serious push to tackle racism. I'd not only issue an apology for slavery, but put together a panel similar to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that post-apartheid South African held to expose the ugliness of slavery and being the healing needed to move forward from that period of our history.

My administration would look like America as well. I'd find the best and brightest minds, GLBT or straight. Some Supreme Court seats would probably come open during my tenure and the first one would go to a Latino or Latina jurist. It's past time we had a Latino on the court. The next would go to an Asian for the same reason, followed by an African-American woman to counteract Clarence Thomas' self hatred.

It also goes without saying that any of my judicial nominees would be from the liberal-progressive centrist tradition and would also reflect America as well. No 'strict constructionists' need apply for not only my judicial appointments, but Department of Justice openings either.

I'd not only cut funding for the Faith Based Initiative, but add a requirement through an executive order that in order to get those funds the recipient churches would have to comply with ALL civil rights law.

I'd kill No Child Left Behind. I never liked the fact that it was designed by voucher advocates who hate public schools. I believe in having high standards, but high stakes testing isn't the only way to get there. Unleashing the creativity of our teachers is. I'd ask that teachers be paid well in order to attract the best and the brightest, give them tax credits for as long as they taught in urban districts and create a balanced national core curriculum that emphasizes creative thinking skills, reality-based science, math, history, civics, ethics, physical education, reality based sex education starting at the first grade level and music.


My administration would repair the damage done to our international good name. I'd need to make visits to our friends to repair our frayed alliances with other nations and work to develop partnerships to deal with pressing world problems.

Elevating relationships with African continent nations would be a priority for me. I'd want them on the same profile level we give to European and Asian nations and a few state visits to African nations would be on the agenda. I'd push for more trade, treaty and business alliances with African nations.

Oh yeah, my state dinners would have some slammin' entertainment for our foreign dignitaries as well such as Alicia Keys, John Legend, Jill Scott, Boney James, and two of my Houston homegirls you may have heard of by the names of Yolanda Adams and Beyonce. And that's just for starters.

Finally I'd push for a constitutional amendment I call the FEVA, the Federal Election and Voting Amendment. It would make voting a constitutionally guaranteed right, designates Election Day as a federal holiday and allows felons to regain their voting and full citizenship rights once they've paid their debt to society. The FEVA would specify that the only machines acceptable for any US election would be ones that have a verifiable paper backup.

Okay, I think I've covered the basic themes of the first four years of a Roberts administration. Anybody have a spare $500 million lying around doing nothing so I can run?

Happy Birthday Hillary!

Today is the big 6-0 birthday for Senator Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton.

I'm willing to bet that when she blows out the candles on her cake later today her birthday wish is going to be getting inagurated president on January 20, 2009.



We can only hope and pray it's either her or somebody else with a 'D' behind their name on the ballot.

I'm Not Surprised

During the time I was working for Continental Airlines, Houston hosted the 1992 GOP convention. Many of those delegates went through IAH to get to the convention and return to their homes scattered across the country. I met some of the GOP leadership like now Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN), other George HW Bush cabinet peeps, and convention delegates from various states as I worked flights during this period.

The day after it ended, I had a Seattle flight I was working. I was killing time until a short air traffic control delay was lifted before I could board the plane. In the lobby there was a group of teenaged kids who had just attended the convention. They had their GOP t-shirts on and were energized about working for George HW Bush's reeelection. Three girls approached the podium and engaged me in a discussion about joining their party and voting for Bush senior.

After politely listening to them for a few moments I replied, "No thanks, I'm voting for Clinton."

"But why?" one of the eager young white females replied.

"Your party has engaged in practices and behaviors over the years that have led me to conclude that people who look like me aren't wanted. Until your party gets serious about competing for my people's votes and doing the things necessary to get those votes beyond symbolic measures, I'll continue to be a Democrat."

I'm recounting this conversation because of the news that GOP frontrunners John McCain, Rudy Guiliani, and Mitt Romney all declined invitations to the All American Presidential Forum to be held on September 27 at Morgan State University for the GOP candidates. A similar forum was held on June 28th for the Democrats and all eight contenders showed up at Howard University for it.

I'm not surprised that Guiliani isn't gonna show up. He's 'scurred' about the questions that will pop up about his contentious relationship in NYC with the African-American community and the Abner Louima and Amadou Diallo NYPD incidents that happened under his tenure.

McCain has 'F' grades on his NAACP Civil Rights report cards and Romney is probably afraid he'll get hit with questions about the Mormon Church's negative beliefs about African-Americans. Only one of the GOP candidates, Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) even bothered to show up for the presidential forum during the recent NAACP convention in Detroit.

The journalists who will be asking the questions for the five confirmed Republican presidential candidates showing up in Baltimore as I write this are Ray Suarez of The NewsHour, columnist Cynthia Tucker of The Atlanta Journal Constitution and NPR's Juan Williams. Tavis will once again be moderator for the event which will air on PBS starting at 9 PM EDT.

I read Tavis' comments on the snub and he's not a happy camper.

"The word frontrunner has taken a whole new meaning for me," said Smiley in an interview with Lee Bailey. "I didn't know it meant being out front and running from people of color."

"The frontrunners, specifically Mr. Romney, Mr. McCain and Mr. Guiliani, have said to us they will not be on stage at Morgan State University on September 27th. All the Democrats showed up in June, but the front running Republicans have said they will not be there. They have also told Univision that they will not be there for the Hispanic debate. So, collectively, what the Republican frontrunners have told both black and brown Americans is that we don't appreciate you, don't value your issues and you're not a priority to us."

"You can't go through an entire primary process and refuse to talk to black and brown voters," he continued. "It's unconscionable, it's untenable, it's unthinkable and no one should be elected president in 2008, in the most multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-racial America ever and, in the process, ignore and ditch those voters. If you're not going to talk to all of America then you don't deserve to be president of all of America."

That's been the GOP game plan since Nixon concocted the 'Southern Strategy'. Like Tavis, I'm sick of Black conservatives spouting that bullshit 'you need to get off the Democrat plantation line'. You Black conservative clowns continue to apologize and make excuses for your GOP massas. These GOP peeps say they want to compete for our votes, but don't have the cojones to show up at our conventions, our events or give interviews to our media peeps to address our issues.

You black conservatives have shown the African-American community repeatedly over the years where your loyalties lie.

In 2004 the negro Ken Blackwell led the charge to suppress our people's votes in Ohio (he doesn't deserve to be called Black). Ward Connerly is the point negro in trying to get affirmative action programs killed. Don't even get me started on Uncle Thomas, the 'honorary white man' as conservative commentators call him on the Supreme Court.

And all you Black conservative bloggers and GOP butt-kissing preachers have been deafingly silent about how your vaunted GOP showed the world how much they cared about New Orleans and its African-American residents, but can flap your gums ad nauseum when it comes to same-sex marriage and hatin' on GLBT people.

And you want to know why reality based African-Americans vote at a 90% clip for Democratic candidates?

Thanks to the naked racism that's spewing out of your base over the immigration issue, you're driving Latinos away from your party as well at a record clip. 'Bout time they woke up to the true nature of the Republican Party.

Can't wait for September 27 to get here. I'm gonna make sure I have plenty of popcorn on hand to munch on for what promises to be an entertaining evening.

The DNC Is Ready To Embrace Us

Guest column by Monica F. Helms

I recently spent three informative and productive days in Las Vegas with the hierarchy of the Democratic National Committee. Kathy Padilla from Philadelphia, PA was also there. I’m happy she came because she is a very knowledgeable person in the political arena. We were visible, we were vocal and we were active.

The structure of the weekend was such that on the first day, Thursday, they had the “Women’s Leadership Summit Agenda,” then an Issues Briefing with Q & A after lunch. During the Issues Briefing, two people had a presentation on the issues facing the DNC and the country. They used a Power Point slide that listed the various areas of the population the DNC include. On the list I saw the words “sexual orientation,” but I didn’t see “gender identity and gender expression.”

When they asked for questions, I got up and stated the DNC needs to start including those words, because “sexual orientation” doesn’t cover transgender people. If they don’t use them, they will be leaving out 3 million Transgender Americans. Kathy also got up and asked if all the vendors at the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver had non-discrimination in their EEO policies that covered all GLBT people. Apparently, one didn’t.

On Friday, we had what was called “Constituency Sessions,” where the various constituency groups held all-day workshops that pertained to their specific issues. Besides the LGBT group, there was one for the Asian and Pacific Island Americans, African Americans and Hispanic Americans (which is how it was listed in the manual.) Some people checked out different workshops in different groups to get a feel of what the various groups were talking about, while others, like myself, stayed with one group all day.

I found the discussions interesting. The six different workshops/panel discussions in the LGBT Constituency Sessions were broken up into different subjects, with people on the panel who have had experience in that subject matter. Kathy was on the “Diversity in 2008 and Beyond” panel, which talked about diversity in the LGBT community. In that session, a very frank and heated discussion broke out on the issue of racism that is so prevalent in the LGBT community today.

On one panel, a lesbian from the Gill Action group presented us with various polls with American people that have been taken on LGBT subjects. Not surprising, most of the issues excluded anything having to do with transgender people. However, even when she was making generic statements, she used only “gay and lesbian.” I held up my hands and formed a “T” with my index fingers. She asked me if I had a question and I said, “No. I’m making a ‘T’ with my fingers so you won’t forget it.” From then on, she started saying, “gay, lesbian and transgender,” still leaving out the bisexuals.

Dennis Kucinich was there. I came up to him and thanked him for including transgender people all along. He told me it was the right thing to do and gave me a big hug. Another time, Gov. Howard Dean stopped in the room where the LGBT panels took place and gave a little speech. After that, he asked for any questions and I asked, “In 2004, transgender people were left out of the Platform. Will we be included in it this time?” He said a quick and strong, “Yes.” He then followed it by saying that he didn’t have complete control of that and reminded us that he was the only candidate that included transgender people in 2004 and couldn’t understand why others have a difficult time even saying the word. I’m hoping he has a little control over the Platform language in 2008 to ensure we are there. Of course, one of us needs to be ON the Platform Committee.

What I have also found out during that weekend was that all of the candidates support including us in federal legislation that has language for “sexual orientation.” The candidates should have updated their websites to have fully inclusive language. If anyone has a problem with their websites, they should contact the web masters of those sites and bring it up with them. Keep in mind, the one issue where we are not included and where we shouldn’t make a fuss about is Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Yes, it affects us, but the language doesn’t include us, so we just support the repeal of this law.

You have to keep in mind that the people who attended the summit were the heart and soul of the DNC. These were District Coordinators, National Caucus Chairs, DNC Officers, State Chairs, State Diversity Officers and many ground troops that will run the DNC’s “50 State Strategy.” These people are the ones who will have control over the Platform language. They will help and train others to work with the party and get the people out to vote. The DNC wants to focus on one state at a time, one county at a time and one neighborhood at a time, all done by thousands of people at the same time.

These were also the people who set the goals for their state to ensure that the 2008 Delegates look like the face of America. This includes us. Some of the people there are the ones running the various state and local Stonewall Democrats chapters. One person from the Colorado Stonewall Democrats stated that they are working with the Convention Planning Committee to set up “family restrooms,” so women with small children or anyone else who wants privacy can use them. They thought of us.

One thing that bothered me was when they discussed the way each Republican candidates make a case for themselves and what we needed to do to focus on making a case against them. When they put up Rudy Giuliani, they showed a picture of him wearing a dress and makeup. Many people in the audience laughed, but I was angry. Before I could say something, a gay man got up and said that he was a member of the LGBT Caucus and the picture highly offended him. He pointed out that by using that picture it says that people can make fun of the transgender community. I shook his hand. They got the message and apologized for using the picture, saying they would not do it again.

I walked away from that weekend completely convinced that the DNC heard Kathy and I. Everywhere I went (except in the general population,) I wore my “2004 Transgender Delegate” button and one that said, “Trans and Proud.” I now know in my heart and soul that WE WILL NOT BE LEFT OUT THIS TIME. I’m sure several people won’t even believe it if they saw the language in the Platform, but it is true.

So, now what? If any transgender person wants to get involved in getting the “T” out to vote, contact me at mfhelms@earthlink.net. I have a plan on what we need to do in regards to the DNC this time. We need to drive home one simple message. “One Percent.”

Why “One Percent?” Over the last 5 years there have been various independent surveys/studies/researches done that when combined, we get a picture that one percent of the American population falls under the transgender umbrella. We don’t need to get into details on whether some no longer identify as being transgender or never were. For the sake of politics, if anyone has crossed the gender lines, even temporarily, they are in that One Percent. Hell, non-trans people are confused enough as it is, so let’s not make it worse for them.

We can easily use this “One Percent” to our advantage by constantly reminding the DNC on how many elections that took place in the past where a Democrat lost by less than one percent. In 2000, Al Gore lost by 537 votes in Florida. That comes to .003% of the population of Florida, according to the 2000 Census. If Al Gore carried just one more percent of the population in Florida, he would have won by over 158,000 votes. In 2004, John Kerry lost Ohio by 136,000 votes, which is slightly over one percent of the population in Ohio, but he lost Iowa by only .4% and New Mexico by .3%. We are no longer a voting block they can afford to ignore.

If any of you get asked about the hard numbers and where the One Percent comes from, a friend of mine, Jessica Xavier, told me to say something to the affect, “The intensity of the social stigma of transgenderism and things like violence, discrimination, harassment and multiple barriers to access of health care, drives most of us into secrecy, out of a need to survive an intolerant culture.”

I realize that not all Transgender Americans are registered to vote, or even old enough to vote. I also know that some transgender people vote Republican. (Yes, it’s true.) Many are registered Independent. When Transgender Americans talk to the DNC, they don’t need to get into those details. “One Percent” is all the DNC needs to know.

What I personally would like to see is an increase in registered Democrats in the transgender community and to see an increase in transgender people volunteering with the DNC at a local level. I would also hope to live long enough to see an openly transgender person speak from the podium at the Democratic National Convention and to see an openly transgender person elected to Congress. This is truly the MOST IMPORTANT ELECTION in our lifetimes. It is time for the Democratic Party to fully recognize us a part of their party, on all levels. They appear to be doing that. Now, it’s time for us to help Democrats on all levels of government to win in 2008.


Monica F. Helms is one of the founders and president of TAVA, the Transgender American Veterans Association

Ralph, Stay Out In 2008

The news that Ralph Nader is considering another futile run for the presidency next year brought back all those angry feelings that I still harbor for him because of the 2000 election.

If you want to piss off a Green Party member, tell them that Ralph cost Al Gore the election. So I'm not only gonna say it, I'm gonna crunch the numbers and back it up.

Ralph Nader cost Al Gore the 2000 election.



So Naderites, before we get started, spare me whatever spin you've come up with to salve your guilty consciences. Your Nader votes made it possible for the worst president in my lifetime to take office. (I was a teenager during the Nixon years) The blood of 3000 plus dead soldiers is on YOUR hands. The conservative Supreme Court majority we have is YOUR fault.

And it's all because you and Ralphie boy lacked the vision (and failed to listen to us Texans) to see what a disaster a Bush presidency would (and has turned out to be) for our country.

Before we start, here's the basics. In the 2000 election Gore received 266 electoral votes, Bush 271. 270 is the magic electoral vote number to win office. Gore actually received 267, but one DC elector didn't cast their vote in protest over the Florida travesty. I'm going to presume that Nader votes are progressive ones that I'll add to Gore's totals and Buchanan ones are conservative that I'll add to Bush's.

Let's start with the two states that the 2000 election hinged on, New Hampshire and Florida.

Ralph pulled enough votes from Gore in New Hampshire to swing the state in Bush's direction along with 4 critical electoral votes.

Gore 266,348
Bush 273,549
Nader 22,195
Buchanan 2,615

Now assuming Ralph (and Pat) aren't in, lets take their votes and add them to the respective candidates totals. (Nader votes=progressive ones, Buchanan votes =conservative ones) I reject the Naderite assertion that without him in the 2000 race those voters would have stayed home. That's bull feces and y'all know it. The 2000 election was critical to our country's future and everyone knew it.

Gore 266,341 + 22,198 = 288,556
Bush 273,559 + 2,615 = 276,174



No Nader, and Gore not only takes New Hampshire but the presidency as well. New Hampshire's 4 electoral votes puts him over the top and makes Jeb and Katharine's thuggery in Florida irrelevant.

Gore 267 + 4 = 271
Bush 271 - 4 = 267


Moving on to Florida. Remember the Supremes stopped the recount. At that time the vote totals were:

Gore 2,912,293
Bush 2,912,790
Nader 97,495
Buchanan 17,484

Check out the new totals with Nader votes going to Gore and Buchanan ones to Bush.

Gore 2,912,293 + 97,495 = 3,009,741
Bush 2,912,790 + 17,484 = 2,930,274

Gore not only wins Florida, it's not even close enough for them to steal it. That adds 25 more electoral votes to the Gore column and your new electoral vote total is:

Gore 267 + 4 + 25 = 296
Bush 271 - 4 - 25 = 242

That means we have no Supreme Court intervention, no Iraq War, an erasing of our national debt by 2009, a 6-3 PROGRESSIVE majority on the Supreme Court with a Latino/a judge sitting on the bench...

Shall I continue listing what Ralph and y'all screwed up besides a Gore presidency?

Naah, think I'll drop some more political science on y'all. Y'all desperately need a refresher course in it.

In that 2000 election there were six states, Iowa, Oregon, Wisconsin, Washington, Minnesota and New Mexico worth a total 55 electoral votes that Gore narrowly won.

Nader polled 29,374 votes in Iowa, and Gore only beat Bush by 1144 votes there. In Oregon, the 77,357 votes he received there had Gore trailing most of the night until a late surge gave him a 6715 vote win. In Wisconsin, the 94,070 votes he received made it so close Gore only won by 5708 votes there.

Washington was a nail biter most of the night thanks to the 103,002 Nader votes cast there. Gore eventually pulled it out and won by 78,825 votes. In Minnesota, the 126,696 votes Nader garnered there also made that state uncomfortably close but Gore won that state by 59,607 votes.

In New Mexico the 21,251 votes Nader got almost cost Gore the state. Gore won by a razor thin 566 votes.

So what you Naderites say? Here's the problem. Because of Ralph, in the closing weeks of the 2000 campaign, instead of using that precious time to attack Bush in Missouri and Ohio and going home to Tennessee to mend fences he was forced to defend what should have been friendly turf.

Gore lost Missouri by 78,786 votes, Tennessee by 80,209 votes and Ohio by 165,019 votes. No Republican gets elected without having Ohio in their electoral vote column and that's where Gore needed to be, not in the Pacific Northwest and the Midwest. He could have also spent time in West Virginia, which he lost by 40,978 votes.

The only thing I can take solace in is the fact that the 'there's no difference between Republicans and Democrats' line has been exposed for the lie it is. The last 7 years have proved there's a major difference when Democrats run thangs as opposed to when Republicans do.

There's one other thing you Naderites need to chew on. If you want progressive policies for our country, you definitely aren't going to get them by helping to elect CONSERVATIVE politicians.

Ralph, stay home in 2008. You've done enough damage to our country.

All-American Presidential Forum

Friday, June 29, 2007
By: Associated Press and BlackAmericaWeb.com

WASHINGTON (AP) A historically diverse field of Democratic presidential candidates -- a woman, a black, an Hispanic and five whites -- denounced an hours-old Supreme Court affirmative action ruling Thursday night and said the nation's slow march to racial unity is far from over.

"We have made enormous progress, but the progress we have made is not good enough," said Sen. Barack Obama, the son of a man from Kenya and a woman from Kansas.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, the first female candidate with a serious shot at the presidency, drew the night's largest cheer when she suggested there was a hint of racism in the way AIDS is addressed in this country.

"Let me just put this in perspective: If HIV-AIDS were the leading cause of death of white women between the ages of 25 and 34 there would be an outraged, outcry in this country," said the New York senator.

In their third primary debate, the two leading candidates and their fellow Democrats played to the emotions of a predominantly black audience, fighting for a voting bloc that is crucial in the party's nomination process.

One issue not raised by questioners, the war in Iraq, dominated the past two debates. Queries about AIDS, criminal justice, education, taxes, outsourcing jobs, poverty and the Bush administration's response to Hurricane Katrina all led to the same point: The racial divide still exists.

"There is so much left to be done," Clinton said, "and for anyone to assert that race is not a problem in America is to deny the reality in front of our very eyes."

While the first two debates focused on their narrow differences on Iraq, moderator Tavis Smiley promised to steer the candidates to other issues that matter to black America. In turn, the candidates said those issues mattered to them.

"This issue of poverty in America is the cause of my life," said John Edwards, the 2004 vice presidential nominee.

Said Obama: "It starts from birth."

Obama criticized President Bush's No Child Left Behind program. "You can't leave money behind ... and unfortunately that's what's been done," he said.

Clinton spoke of her efforts in Arkansas to raise school standards, "most especially for minority children."

Delaware Sen. Joe Biden urged people to be tested for the AIDS virus, noting that he and Obama had done so. Cracked the Illinois senator: "I just want to make clear I got tested with Michelle," his wife, Obama said drawing laughter from the predominantly black audience.

The debate was held at Howard University, a historically black college in the nation's capital.

Black voters are a large and critical part of the Democratic primary electorate, making the debate a must-attend for candidates seeking the party's presidential nomination.

A half century of desegregation law -- and racial tension -- was laid bare for the Democrats hours before they met. In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court clamped historic new limits on school desegregation plans.

Clinton said the decision "turned the clock back" on history, and her competitors agreed.

The conservative majority cited the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case to bolster its precedent-shattering decision, an act termed a "cruel irony" by Justice John Paul Stevens in his dissent. The 1954 ruling led to the end of state-sponsored school segregation in the United States.

Obama, the only black candidate in the eight-person field, spoke of civil rights leaders who fought for Brown v. Board of Education and other precedents curbed by the high court. "If it were not for them," he said, "I would not be standing here."

Biden noted that he voted against confirmation of Chief Justice John Roberts, who wrote the majority opinion. He said he was tough on Roberts. "The problem is the rest of us were not tough enough," he said, seeming to take a jab at fellow Democrats. "They have turned the court upside down."

All the Democratic candidates in the Senate opposed the confirmation of conservative Justice Samuel Alito, another of President Bush's nominees. Clinton, Biden and Obama voted against Roberts; Sen. Chris Dodd voted for his nomination.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, the first major Hispanic candidate, said race is about more than passing new laws and appointing new justices. "The next president is going to have to lead," he said, vowing to do so.

Dodd said "the shame of resegregation in our country has been occurring for years."

The nomination fight begins in Iowa and New Hampshire, two states with relatively few minorities. But blacks and other minority voters become critical in Nevada, South Carolina and Florida before the campaign turns to a multi-state primary on Feb. 5.

About one in 10 voters in the 2004 election were black, according to exit polls, and they voted 9-to-1 for Democrat John Kerry. In some states, blacks make up a bigger share of the voters. In South Carolina, for example, blacks made up about 30 percent of the electorate in 2004, but were more than half of the voters in the state's Democratic primary.

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, the country's only black governor, introduced the candidates with a warning that a dispirited GOP "is not enough to elect a Democratic president nor should it be. We need to offer a more positive and hopeful vision ... to run on what we are for and not just what we are against."

Among those in attendance were entertainer and activist Harry Belafonte, congresspeople Sheila Jackson Lee, Maxine Waters, Elijah Cummings and John Lewis; National Urban League President and CEO Marc Morial, the Rev. Al Sharpton, Children’s Defense Fund founder and president Marian Wright Edelman and noted scholar Cornel West.

“This is really historic," syndicated columnist DeWayne Wickham, who has covered every presidential campaign since 1984, told BlackAmericaWeb.com in an interview before the debate. "In the tradition of the black press, we seek to tell our own stories."

“This debate was relevant. It connected with African American people,” Rep. Jackson Lee (D-Texas) told BlackAmericaWeb.com. She went on to say it was provocative. “It was a real debate, real issues for real people in a black environment.”

Two women in the audience who declined to give their first names said they enjoyed the debate, but wished the candidates could have gone more in-depth.

“Overall, I thought the debate was good, but some of the candidates played it too safe,” said Y. Thompson from California. “Tavis echoed what many in the audience thought. Hilary was an excellent venue for this kind of forum.”

R. Smith from Washington, D.C. said she would have liked to have heard more of what she called the “urban agenda,” but she liked that the candidates dealt with “racial disparity, health issues, Hurricane Katrina and issues pertaining to New Orleans.”

“Clinton was strong on three issues: Health care, Darfur and AIDS,” said Dr. Silas Lee, who joined the Clinton campaign as a pollster from New Orleans, focusing on black issues related to Hurricane Katrina. He said he thought, though, based on conversations with several audience members, that a number of people wished they had heard more about the living wage, affordable housing and health care.

Colorado State Sen. Peter C. Groff, executive director of the Center for African American Policy at the University of Denver and publisher of Blackpolicy.org, said this debate was the toughest to date for the Democratic candidates.

"One can make the argument that this was the most challenging debate for the candidates since it wasn't all about Iraq. For the first-time to date, candidates were required to consider other critical issues other than the war in Iraq,” Groff told BlackAmericaWeb.com in a statement. “The issue of war remained a sub-text throughout, but this debate seemed to satisfy a general hunger for discussion on other major bread-&-butter issues. The forum was a great opportunity for presidential candidates to answer questions about the unique issues facing African-Americans and Africa. It is the first time in the history of the republic that all major candidates for president were gathered -- on an HBCU campus no less -- to discuss these issues."

The Republicans candidates will engage in an All-American Presidential Forum at Morgan State University in September.

"Regardless of what you think about Sen. Barack Obama, Obama was in a unique position," Groff said. "He had to ‘prove’ his authenticity -- a role not required of any other candidate -- while not pandering or acting ‘too black’ for the remaining 80 percent of the electorate. He had to strike a balance between authenticity and preventing general election campaign fodder for his potential GOP rival who could use footage against him as a racial wedge issue.”

“The debate was a lot of conversation of agreement and little clarity of the distinctions between the candidates,” said Dr. David Anderson, radio talk show host and pastor of Bridgeway Community Church in Columbia, Md.

“Clinton was the clearest communicator about the disparity of AIDS, race, health care and had a strong response to the tax burden issue between the wealthy and middle class. Richardson gave a succinct and cogent response to the tax problem by recommending a policy to give tax breaks and holidays for corporations that invest in our inner cities. That was one of the most practical statements of the night, in my opinion," Anderson told BlackAmericaWeb.com. "Obama was clear on trade with Africa, which was right on."

"I do think Sen. Obama missed an opportunity, however, when the candidates were asked about Darfur and how America did nothing in Rwanda,” Groff said. “This should have been an opportunity to 'remind' Biden, Edwards, Dodd, Richardson and Clinton of their inaction on Rwanda despite previous influence, and that many remain in those same positions today while faced with genocide in Sudan."

“The night's most disingenuous moment is when Sen. Dodd roundly criticized today's Supreme Court ruling on race in public schools despite his voting ‘yea’ for the confirmation of Chief Justice John Roberts,” said Groff. “This should have presented an opportunity for both Tavis Smiley and panelists."