Show Me State Shows Up For Obama

100,000 people at a St Louis Obama rally held today at the foot of the Gateway Arch.



And how many peeps are the McPalin folks getting when they're not wearing their white hoods on the weekends?

My Local Races

The old political axiom is 'all politics is local'. I'm happy to hear that an Obama team armed with truckloads of cash is searching for more opportunities to put McPalin on the defensive.

I'm overjoyed to hear that Kentucky may get more love and attention and possible visits over the next two weeks as this historic presidential race comes to a contentious, nail biting close.

We're already seeing more Obama ads on the tube here in Da Ville since our local TV stations broadcast into southern Indiana. Indiana is rapidly turning into a meeting engagement in the overall fight for the magic 270 electoral votes.

We're also seeing ads for the latest fight between Rep. Baron Hill and Mike Sodrel for the Indiana 9th congressional district seat.

We have some hot races here in Bluegrass country as well. Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader is in a fierce battle just to hang on to his senate seat with Bruce Lunsford.

It's also highlighted by the fact that Mitch refuses to debate Lunsford, which isn't sitting well with me and many Kentuckians anxious to hear what he has to say about his 24 years in the senate and the current financial mess that he and other Republicans deregulated us into.




Speaking of legislative reruns, Anne Northup is trying to regain the seat she controlled for ten years before she lost it in 2006 to Rep. John Yarmuth.

Yarmuth's not only beating her as of this writing, he's been a vast improvement over little GOP Annie and her vote in lockstep with Bush 90% of the time record.

He also has a 'A' from the NAACP on his congressional report card compared to Annie's 'F' grade. Yarmuth also supported Sen. Obama in the Democratic primary and if the current polling trends continue, Rep. Yarmuth will have a very happy birthday on November 4.

I've had the pleasure of meeting him and discussing issues with him at the numerous community events he makes time for. Since he's also a man of means, he donates his $150,000 congressional salary to various local charities as well.

We also have several Metro council races, judicial races, school board and state legislative ones to weigh in on as November 4th approaches.

As a proud TK, the school board ones definitely have my undivided attention. Two members who voted for the JCPS GLB employment policy, Stephen Imhoff and Larry Hujo are being opposed by Simonite candidates. Imhoff is my rep on the JCPS board so I'll have a say in that race while Hujo is Polar's rep.

Hujo's opponent has school age children in private schools and has openly stated the reason he's running is because he hated the policy that passed on a contentious 4-3 vote last year. I question why somebody who has kids in private school would run for the JCPS board anyway. It's like putting an anti-government zealot in charge of a government agency.

With the presidential election is the Super Bowl in terms of this election cycle, w also need to ensure that Sen. Obama has help in the House and Senate to turn his proposals into law.

We also need progressives at the state, county and local levels as well.

All politics may be local, but in order to begin to think and act globally and see the type of progressive change we desperately need after years of conservative regression, we have to empower people locally who have broad progressive policy visions as well.

McAttacks, Obama Coolly Wins Debate

For its August 2008 issue Ebony Magazine put together a list of the 25 coolest brothers of all time. To no ones surprise, Sen Barack Obama made that list.

That cool served him well in this third presidential debate at Hofstra University. McCain had promised his supporters he was going to 'whip his you know what' and came out swinging.



But in the face of unrelenting attacks on him from John McCain in this debate, Obama was so cool that ice probably would have frozen to his forehead while smoothly countering the angry McAttacks. McCain either needed a overwhelming victory or a major gaffe from Obama and got neither.

Take that James T. Harris.

With 19 days to go it isn't looking good for Team McPalin. They are getting outgunned in the money raising game. They're being forced to defend traditional reliable GOP turf or fight tooth and nail for it. Obama's also blanketing the radio and TV airwaves in these various battleground states with ads and has plenty of cash to buy more.

Obama also has as an ace in the hole in terms of the 30 minutes of TV time he bought on CBS and NBC on October 29. If that date rings a bell, it's the anniversary of the 1929 stock market crash that triggered the Great Depression.

But 19 days is an eternity in politics. Anything can happen, but with the debates out of the way and Obama winning all three, it's looking better and better that he may have a new address after January 20.

Conservative Negroes, Please!

As Americans, whatever political philosophy you choose to espouse, that's on you. I don't have problems with people who consider themselves to be conservative, even if they are routinely on the wrong side of history. I have some as friends despite the fact we are in opposite political universes.

What I DO have a problem with is Negro conservatives.

They don't deserve to be called Black or African-American. I'm talking about the peeps like the Clarence Thomases and Ward Connerly's of the world who sell out their own people for personal gain.

Last week I got to witness the disgusting spectacle of seeing James T. Harris begging a man who has consistently graded 'F's' on the NAACP Civil Rights Report Card, who voted against the Martin Luther King holiday in 1986, do a 'Stepin Fetchit' imploring him to attack an biracial African-American poised to possibly win the presidency.

And for what? What the hell was going through his mind when he showed up at this Wisconsin town hall? Increasing the audience for his conservative radio talk show in Milwaukee and becoming the new Ken Hamblin?



Maybe it's the same thing probably going through Clarence Thomas' mind (if he has one) every time his self-hating azz votes on a Supreme Court case in lockstep with Antonin Scalia. Maybe it's the same strain of selfishness going through Ward Connerly's mind when he fights to shut down affirmative action programs after he benefited from them.

Maybe it's trying so hard to prove that you're a conservative you forget to look in the fracking mirror and consider the fact that you are supporting the failed policies of a political ideology that bamboozles poor and middle class white people to vote against their own economic interests by using fear of African descended people to promote acceptance of it.

Maybe it's trying so hard to be a conservative that you strain all pretense of being capable of rational intelligent thought when you write a column as Thomas Sowell did trying to compare Sen. Barack Obama to Hitler.

Maybe it's as Tara Wall and Amy Holmes used to make their living doing, being spokeswomen for a party that has hated on us, suppressed our votes and race baited us for 40 years.

One of the reasons I loathe Black conservatives is because they continue to demonstrate time and time again that they don't care about uplifting all African-Americans.

All they care about is expanding their bank accounts.

The Final Debate

Tomorrow night at Hofstra University is the last debate before we go to the polls on November 4.

The stakes couldn't be higher for John McCain.

He's trailing in critical battleground states, he's changed his message once again and he was forced to turn off the race-baiting part of the GOP 'Southern Strategy' when he started losing even more ground as a result of it.

McCain promised his supporters that he'd 'kick Sen Obama's derriere' in this last debate, but he hasn't done so in the previous two and we;ll definitely be watching to see if he can back up his trash talk or is just selling woof tickets again.

With 20 days to go, Sen. Obama is in an enviable position. He's starting to get newspaper editorial endorsements, he's forcing McCain to burn up money defending GOP turf and is raking in the cash.

His task in this final debate is to not make any mistakes. He must continue to look, act and sound presidential and be the cool brother we know he is. Since this debate is focusing on his strong suit, domestic issues, he gets to showcase that formidable intellect he has laying out his agenda for tackling our nation's economic problems.

It should be fun to watch.

2008 Canadian Party Leaders Debates

This is how they roll debate wise in the True North.

Palin Booed At Philly Hockey Game? You Betcha

The one thing about Philadelphia sports fans is that they have never been shy about letting their feelings be known.

Ask Santa Claus, Mike Schmidt, the Dallas Cowboys, Terrell Owens and the long list of people who've been booed by Philly sports fans.

Despite the best efforts of Faux News and the MSM to downplay it, Palin was resoundingly booed at the Philadelphia Flyers-New York Rangers season opener when the 'hockey mom' showed up with her daughters Willow and Piper to drop a ceremonial puck to open the game. Her youngest daughter Piper was clad in a black Flyers jersey.

Ironically, the player representing the New York Rangers was Alaska native Scott Gomez, one of the few Latino players in the NHL.

To a loud chorus of resounding boos and shouts of 'Obama' conveniently edited out of the MSM version of the story, their photo op turned into a nightmare for the McPalin team. Ed Snider, the Philadelphia Flyers owner has donated to the McPalin campaign and visited a Philadelphia bar last month with Caribou Barbie.



The booing was so loud that they cranked the music up to ear-splitting levels just to drown it out.

The NHL said it did not view the Flyers’ invitation to be politically motivated.

“Governor Palin is a supporter of the sport, which she has proclaimed publicly,” NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said. “As a public figure who has a very public connection with hockey, her recent associations with the Flyers and other NHL franchises is not surprising and, in our view, not inappropriate.”

Yeah, right. One of your owners donates cash to a political campaign, has a team in the largest city in a critical swing state and it's not political?

Sell those woof tickets to somebody that doesn't know better.

If The White Sheet Fits, John And Sarah....

The Repugnicans have their panties all in knots because civil rights icon and legend Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) called them out about their racist sliming of Sen Obama.

"George Wallace never threw a bomb. He never fired a gun, but he created the climate and the conditions that encouraged vicious attacks against innocent Americans who only desired to exercise their constitutional right."

He said McCain and Palin are "playing with fire, and if they are not careful, that fire will consume us all."

McPalin responded by, get this, calling Rep Lewis' comments a character attack on him and demanded that Sen Obama repudiate the remarks.

Yeah right. But Johnny boy, when Rick Warren asked you who are the three wisest men you would rely on in an administation at August's Saddleback Forum, you said this:

"I think John Lewis. John Lewis was at the Edmund Pettus Bridge, had his skull fractured, continued to serve, continues to have the most optimistic outlook about America. He can teach us all a lot about the meaning of courage and commitment to causes greater than our self-interest."

So now that he's called you on your racism, he ceases to be a wise man?

Typical Republican BS. Like the political bullies they are, they like throwing shade and innuendo, especially since they have nothing to talk about, but can't take it.

So if the white sheet fits, wear it.

The GOP Natives Are Restless

As Barack's lead widens, and the news becomes more bleak for GOP candidates everywhere, the pent up anger is starting to manifest itself at GOP rallies for McPalin.

The racist rhetoric is beginning to fly, the old lies are resurfacing as John Sidney McCain III has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that he has no clue about the number one issue on the votes minds, the economy.

So the GOP is dipping into their favorite tactic when they're losing, slime your opponent, lie, and 'scurr' the white working class voters into voting against their own economic interests.



How long are they gonna get away with bamboozling and hoodwinking people?

The GOP's Bad Week

Sarah Louise Palin abused her power as Alaska governor when she had Walt Monegan fired as Alaska's Public Safety commissioner because he refused to terminate her trooper ex-brother in law.

Shoot, anyone with an IQ above 100 and a progressive blog could have told you that.

So the Troopergate report actually confirmed yesterday what we already know and suspected about Caribou Barbie. The mask is off and she has been revealed as just another hypocritical Bible thumping GOP idiot with delusions of national grandeur.

That giant sucking sound you hear is the McPalin campaign nosediving into defeat. That's on top of the news that the Dems may pick up the 60 Senate seats they need for a veto-proof majority in addition to possibly expanding their majority in the House.

The full figured opera singer is about to start singing arias.

While I'm ready to do the holy dance over this news, any urge to prematurely pop a champagne cork in celebration is tempered by the fact we have one more debate left to go on the 15th and twenty plus days until the election.

While I predicted months ago the McPalin peeps would race bait if they found themselves trailing in October, even I'm shocked and alarmed at the desperate level it's reached over the last week thanks to Sarah, McCain, Faux News and Elisabeth Hasselbeck stirring caca up.



I've heard other African-Americans distressed about the rising vitriol and the reports of African-Americans media people being verbally abused at McPalin rallies privately say the 'R' word if Obama is harmed (or God forbid killed) as a result of this dangerous political game you've been playing.



The point is GOPers, you're losing because the eight years of neo-Reaganomics has come back to bite you in the rear. You have played the race baiting card one time too many and your propensity to not deal with facts you don't like has brought you on the verge of political flat lining.

Conservatism is a political philosophy equivalent to communism. Any political philosophy that benefits only a narrow segment of adherents while screwing the vast majority of people is doomed to failure. You have had a mean spirited twenty plus year run of jacking up this country. It's time for it to end and it couldn't have happened to a nicer bunch of people.

The best part is the bankruptcy (pardon the pun) of conservatism is being exposed for the world to see.

You know, President-elect Barack Hussein Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama has a nice ring to it.

2008 Canadian National Elections

While channel surfing earlier tonight I stumbled across a CBC program called 'The Nation' being broadcast on C-SPAN. It was coming from a town library straddling the US-Canadian border in Quebec and compared and contrasted our two elections.

That's how I discovered we aren't the only peeps on the North American continent having elections this year. While much of the world's and our attention have been focused on our upcoming November 4 election, our northern neighbors are having their own pivotal election as well on October 14.

This Canadian election was necessary because of the dissolution of parliament on September 7, thus forcing new elections to be held.

As a child of historians, I've been fascinated by Canada ever since I noted that the African descended peoples of both nations share some interesting connections and parallels in our cultures despite being separated by the world's longest undefended border. It was also heightened by my fascination with a Afro-Canadian junior high classmate who was born in Calgary and lived there until he was eight.

For you Canadian politically challenged Americans, here's a quick primer on Canadian politics (Veronique, Renee and my other Canadian commenters please chime in on this where necessary)

Canada has a federal parliamentary system on the British model. It's a constitutional monarchy, composed of the Queen of Canada, who is officially represented by the Governor General (or by a lieutenant-governor at the provincial and territorial levels), and Parliament. The House of Commons has 308 seats directly elected by the people in national or by-elections at the provincial level. There is an upper chamber, the 105 member Canadian Senate.

The Constitution Acts of 1867 and 1982 set the maximum time between federal general elections at five years, except in time of real or apprehended war, invasion or insurrection. An election can also be called earlier than the five year period if the Prime Minister so chooses or if the Government is defeated on a motion of confidence in the House of Commons.

The Canadian Parliament just recently passed a bill implementing fixed election dates every four years on the third Monday in October starting in 2009, subject to an earlier dissolution of Parliament.

MP's represent a riding, which is akin to our congressional districts.

There are 15 registered political parties in Canada, but the three major political parties are considered to be the Conservatives, The Liberals and the New Democratic Party or NDP. There are other parties who are players in the Canadian Parliament such as the Bloc Quebecois, who are the heirs to the Quebec separatist movement and the Greens.

The Conservatives and PM Stephen Harper are currently running thangs in Canada pending the results of the October 14 election. Liberal leader Stephane Dion and NDP leader Jack Layton are vying in this election to deny the Conservatives (or Tories) the 155 seats they need for a clear majority of the parliament and replace him as prime minister.

BTW, if you're interested and seeing a different style of political debate, the Canadian leaders debates will be broadcast on C-SPAN.

So this political junkie, while she awaits her chance to weigh in our on national elections, will be keeping an eye on what's happening with our northern neighbors as well.

'Rednecks for Obama' Want To Bridge Culture Gap

'Rednecks for Obama' want to bridge yawning culture gap

by Michael Mathes Thu Oct 9, 9:50 AM ET

SAINT LOUIS, Missouri (AFP) - When Barack Obama's campaign bus made a swing through Missouri in July, the unlikeliest of supporters were waiting for him -- or rather two of them, holding the banner: "Rednecks for Obama."

In backing the first African-American nominee of a major party for the US presidency, the pair are on a grassroots mission to bridge a cultural gap in the United States and help usher their preferred candidate into the White House.

Tony Viessman, 74, and Les Spencer, 60, got politically active last year when it occurred to them there must be other lower income, rural, beer-drinking, gun-loving, NASCAR race enthusiasts fed up with business as usual in Washington.

Viessman had a red, white and blue "Rednecks for Obama" banner made, and began causing a stir in Missouri, which has emerged as a key battleground in the run-up to the November 4 presidential election.

"I didn't expect it would get as much steam and attention as it's gotten," Spencer told AFP on the campus of Washington University in Saint Louis, the state's biggest city and site of last week's vice-presidential debate.

"We believe in him. He's the best person for the job," Viessman, a former state trooper from Rolla, said of Obama, who met the pair briefly on that July day in Union, Missouri.

The candidate bounded off his bus and jogged back towards a roadside crowd to shake hands with the men holding the banner.

"He said 'This is incredible'," Spencer recalled.

It's been an unexpectedly gratifying run, Viessman said.

Rednecks4obama.com claims more than 800,000 online visits. In Denver, Colorado, Viessman and Spencer drew crowds at the Democratic convention, and at Washington University last Thursday they were two of the most popular senior citizens on campus.

"I'm shocked, actually, but excited" that such a demographic would be organizing support for Obama, said student Naia Ferguson, 18, said after hamming it up for pictures behind the banner.

"When most people think 'redneck,' they think conservatives, anti-change, even anti-integration," she said. "But America's changing, breaking stereotypes."

A southern comedian, Jeff Foxworthy, defines the stereotype as a "glorious lack of sophistication".

Philistines or not, he said, most rural southerners are no longer proponents of the Old South's most abhorrent ideology -- racism -- and that workaday issues such as the economy are dominating this year's election.

"We need to build the economy from the bottom up, none of this trickle down business," Spencer said. "Just because you're white and southern don't mean you have to vote Republican."

To an important degree, however, race is still the elephant in the polling booth, experts say, and according to a recent Stanford University poll, Obama could lose six points on election day due to his color.

Racism "has softened up some, but it's still there," Viessman acknowledged from Belmont University, site of Tuesday's McCain-Obama debate in Nashville, Tennessee.

Despite representing the heartland state of Illinois, and having a more working-class upbringing than his Republican rival John McCain, Obama has struggled to shoot down the impression that he is an arugula-eating elitist.

Surely he alienated many rural voters earlier this year when the Harvard-educated senator told a fundraiser that some blue-collar voters "cling to guns or religion".

But Viessman, who says he owns a dozen guns, said Obama "ain't gonna take your guns away."

The South traditionally votes Republican -- victories for southerners Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter were exceptions -- but with less than a month to election day, four states in or bordering the South are considered toss-ups: Florida, Missouri, North Carolina and Virginia.

Viessman says he'd like to think his grassroots movement could sway enough people in small-town America to make a difference.

"There's lots of other rednecks for Obama too," he said. "And the ones that's not, we're trying our best to convince them."

Lynda Carter To Caribou Barbie: You're No Wonder Woman

TransGriot Note:Philadelphia magazine recently interviewed Lynda Carter about her three week show at an Atlantic City casino. The interviewer asked a question about the comparisons that Repugnicans are making to Palin and the Wonder Woman character she played back in the 70's.

Needless to say Ms. Carter has very definite opinions about that.


PHILADELPHIA: Okay, last question. I'm sure you've seen all the comparisons in the media and among Republicans of Sarah Palin to Wonder Woman. How do you feel about that?

CARTER: Don’t get me started. She’s the anti-Wonder Woman. She’s judgmental and dictatorial, telling people how they’ve got to live their lives. And a superior religious self-righteousness … that’s just not what Wonder Woman is about. Hillary Clinton is a lot more like Wonder Woman than Mrs. Palin. She did it all, didn’t she?

No one has the right to dictate, particularly in this country, to force your own personal views upon the populace — religious views. I think that is suppressive, oppressive, and anti-American. We are the loyal opposition. That’s the whole point of this country: freedom of speech, personal rights, personal freedom. Nor would Wonder Woman be the person to tell people how to live their lives. Worry about your own life! Worry about your own family! Don’t be telling me what I want to do with mine.

I like John McCain. But this woman — it’s anathema to me what she stands for. I think America should be very afraid. Very afraid. Separation of church and state is the one thing the creators of the Constitution did agree on — that it wasn’t to be a religious government. People should feel free to speak their minds about religion but not dictate it or put it into law.

What I don’t understand, honestly, is how anyone can even begin to say they know the mind of God. Who do they think they are? I think that’s ridiculous. I know what God is in my life. Now I am sure that she’s not all just that. But it’s enough to me. It’s enough for me to have a visceral reaction. And it makes me mad.

People need to speak up. Doesn’t mean that I’m godless. Doesn’t mean that I am a murderer. What I hate is this demonization of everybody but one position. You’re un-American because you’re against the war. It’s such bullshit. Fear. It’s really such a finite way of thinking about God to think that your measley little mind can know the mind of God. It’s a very little God that way. I think that God’s bigger. I don’t presume to know his mind. Or her mind.

Debates-Round Two

In a few hours Sen. John McCain and Sen. Barack Obama will conduct their second round of debates from the campus of Belmont University in Nashville, TN. While it's a town hall format and McCain's favorite debate format, the stakes couldn't be higher on the heels of a week in which the Dow dropped below 10,000 for the first time in four years and Sen. Obama starting to build an eight point overall national lead.

Most ominous to the McPalin campaign in addition to the lead that Obama's built up in the critical battleground states of Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania is that some of the GOP 'Solid South' is starting to slip. Virginia and North Carolina are beginning to lean to Obama in addition to Florida.

Other states that Bush took in 2004 such as Missouri, New Mexico, Colorado, Indiana and Nevada are either leaning Obama's way or are uncomfortably close



McCain's campaign is reeling thanks to his party's mismanagement of the economy, his attempt to rebrand himself and his intellectually challenged running mate as 'mavericks' has failed, and hot on the heels of his pullout in Michigan he's now resorting to a 'ramp up the negative attacks' strategy.

And every time the worst president in US history goes on TV, it helps Democrats everywhere.



While the trends are looking good for Team Obama, we still have four agonizing weeks to go. They also realize that another solid performance in this debate and the next one at Hofstra University on October 15 could set the stage for a Democratic landslide.

While I'll be stuck at work for this one, I will get an opportunity to watch the replay later.

Republicans ARE Racists

If you Republicans are wondering why you had only 38 African-Americans out of 2080 delegates to your recent convention in St. Paul, while the Democrats had an all time high of 1500 at their convention in Denver (including the first African-American transgender delegate), just look in the mirror when you take your pointed hoods off.

While I know there are some good Republicans who are appalled and ashamed about this sorry state of affairs, you need to own your failure to stop the negative behaviors that were going on in your party apparatus.

If there was any question that the Republican Party stands for racism and bigotry and has for decades, Rep. Lynn Westmoreland's (R-GA) recent 'uppity' statement should have removed all doubt.

Party of Lincoln? More like the party of Jefferson Davis.

Now that the McPalin campaign is showing signs of going down in flames, their party's economic mismanagement chickens are coming home to roost sooner than they planned. Since their 'Guns, God and Gays' attacks aren't resonating with the public any more, and people are more 'scurred' of the economy than McPalin bellowing 'terrorist' at every speech, the only thing left in the GOP electoral dirty trick bag short of suppressing votes is hatin' on black people.

So why would any rational, proud, free thinking African-American (or any other person) consider joining this party?

I said rational, proud, free thinking African-Americans, not sellouts.

While I agree that African-Americans aren't monolithic in our thinking and need to be engaged in both parties, the historic agenda of lifting up all African-Americans come first, not selling out your people for your own personal gain.

And no, Condoleezza Rice, Clarence Thomas, Alan Keyes and Thomas Sowell don't count as African-Americans. They can shuffle on back to the conservative plantation and serve their massas like they have for the last decade or so.

But back to the post.

Ever since Richard Nixon and the GOP concocted the 'Southern Strategy', GOP pols keep showing us their inner Klansman and keep making racist statements on a seemingly monthly basis.

That GOP racism keeps them in a perpetual state of barely disguised hostility that has them consciously and subconsciously acting in negative ways toward minority communities. Their arrogant, non-compassionate governance style generates policies, procedures and campaign tactics that are insensitive and harmful to minorities as well.

Even non-whites within the party, in their zeal to be 'more conservative than thou' are infected by the racism of the predominate ethnic group in the GOP. New Mexico's Bernalillo County GOP chair Fernando C. de Baca had to resign after making the now infamous 'Hispanics consider themselves above Blacks and won't vote for Obama' statement.



So no, you Republicans can't hide or spin this. Racism became part of your party's DNA when you clutched the Dixiecrats to your bosoms after the 1964 elections. If you'd been paying attention to my party's history with the Dixiecrats, you would have been leery of being associated with them. You wanted to win one for the conservative movement so badly you threw away your moral compass to do so.

Until the good Republicans get control of your party and turn it back to the principles that made it the 'Party of Lincoln', you will continue to see the numbers of African-Americans in your party ranks precipitously dwindle.

So if the white sheets fit GOP boys and girls, wear them.

Happy 16th Wedding Anniversary Barack and Michelle!

On October 3, 1992 Barack and Michelle got married. 16 years and two adorable kids later Sen. Obama suspended his campaign for a day so that he could take his wife out to dinner in Chicago Saturday night to celebrate their 16th wedding anniversary.








Happy anniversary Sen. and Mrs. Obama! May you be celebrating your 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th wedding anniversaries at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

One Month To Go

We are 30 days away from the most important presidential election in my lifetime. This election will basically set the tone for how things will go in the Unites States for the next four years.

The choices haven't been this stark since 1980. We can either elect Barack Obama and begin to reverse the horrible Bush policies of the last eight years and restore our tarnished reputation in the world, or we elect John McCain and continue the path to also ran status as a nation.

Fortunately the reality based part of the American electorate is leaning toward Obama. Even hard core Republicans are repulsed at just how badly this country has fared under Bush and are now feeling it in their wallets thanks to the economy tanking.

It has laid bare the failures of conservatism and Republican laissez faire policies for all to see.

Early voting has begun for people in several states, and I hope to see lines on election day as long as the ones South Africans stood in for their 1994 elections that catapulted Nelson Mandela to the presidency.

I also hope and pray that Nelson Mandela is blessed to see we Americans elect an eminently qualified man of African descent to become our leader as well.

But we still have a month to go and two debates left. The GOP isn't going to go down without a mudslinging, vote suppressing, dirty tricks laden fight. This next five weeks is going to be the hardest and most nerve racking part of this historic journey.

What keeps me motivated is visualizing November 4 and imagining what will happen when the announcement is finally made on Election Night when he has passed the magic 270 electoral vote mark and there is a sea of blue on a map of the USA indicating he's won.

Shoot, I already know what will happen. We'll be partying like it's 1992.

VP Debate Blowout?

Tonight we get to watch the only vice presidential debate from the campus of St. Louis' Washington University. And if expectations hold to form, it will be Sen. Joe Biden taking Gov. Sarah Palin to school on the big leagues of national politics.

The Rethuglicans are already trying to lower the bar for their not ready for prime time political Barbie doll. They're trying to whine that Gwen Ifill, tonight's moderator for the debate is biased. They're trying to paint the picture that mean ole Joe Biden and the 'liberal media' is gonna ambush and beat up on poor little Sarah.

Spare me that bull feces, okay?

The bottom line is that the conservative darling and paragon of 'small town values' is George W. Bush in drag. She's a politician who left her high heel pump prints all over her Alaskan GOP rivals and I don't underestimate her. She needs to be smacked down and shown to be the unprepared, unfit for national office fundamentalist idiot she is.

Palin may be a representative for conservative white women, but I would submit that there are sizable segments of the American population that look at her and are appalled by what they see.

Sen. Biden on the other hand has to be careful not to come off as condescending or arrogant while he rips her butt to shreds with a smile on his face every time she makes a gaffe.

But as a sports junkie I'm aware that predictions don't necessarily play out when you play the game. Ask the New England Patriots about that.

Whatever happens, people will be watching. 52 million tuned in for the first presidential debate between Sen. Obama and Sen McCain. This one has the potential to become the most watched vice presidential political debate since 57 million people watched the faceoff between George H.W. Bush and Geraldine Ferraro back in 1984.

So I'm popping the popcorn, have the pop chilling in the refrigerator and will have the TV tuned in to watch the debate that starts at 9 PM EDT.

What Obama Running For President Means To Me

TransGriot Note: The post I wrote for 'Trans For Obama' Blog week.


We are less than 33 days from Election Day and I'm cautiously optimistic that I will see a historic event take place on November 4.

But this journey for me has been (and still is) a mind blowing, emotional roller coaster ride as a proud, politically aware transgender African-American. I'm saddened that my grandmother Tama isn't here to witness it, but I'm savoring every delicious historical moment as it unfolds.

Almost 400 years after the first Africans arrived here in North America, a man who is the son of a continental African may be on the verge of becoming the first United States president of African descent. And as Dr. King foresaw it, the African-American vote will play an important, if not decisive role in that happening.

For the first time in my life I have seen someone of my ethnic heritage run and have a legitimate shot at taking the oath of office on January 20.

Yes, Rep. Shirley Chisholm, Sen. Carol Moseley Braun, Rev. Al Sharpton and Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. have run and paved the way for this moment in time, but this presidential run with Sen. Barack Obama is fundamentally different.

It's one time I will happily say (and will write the post on November 5 if it plays out) I was wrong about an issue. I've always told friends that I believed the United States was too obstinately racist to ever put in my lifetime an African-American man in the Oval Office. I've always believed for that reason the first African-American president would be a woman rather than an African-American man.

Enter a first term senator from Illinois with a funny name who began this race with far more support from white Americans that he had from African-Americans. I myself only made my decision to support him in the Democratic primary on January 1, only a few days before the Iowa caucuses.

I watched Sen. Obama's 2004 Democratic convention speech in Boston and began to do research about him at that time. The more I read and heard about him, the more I liked him. As someone who grew up being represented by great orators with substance like Rep. Barbara Jordan and Gov. Ann Richards, I was hungry for that type of visionary, morally principled leadership once again. I also longed to have a leader that I could unconditionally be proud of. I wanted a leader that represented me in which I didn't have to cringe every time he or she opened their mouths or expressed pride at being anti-intellectual.

Basically, I support Barack Obama not because he shares my ethnic heritage, it's because I was hungry for and wanted someone smarter than me in the Oval Office to handle the serious problems and challenges this country faces. Hell, intelligence is a primary criteria in ANY politician I elect to office.

This race, if it continues to a successful conclusion on November 4, will also fundamentally alter the way that African-Americans look at ourselves and our long tortured relationship with this country. It has already had a positive effect on some African-American men in that they're standing a little taller these days. Black women and girls see in Michelle Obama, the potential First Lady, someone like themselves.

If he pulls this off with the help of the reality-based thinking electorate tired of the last eight years of Bushit, no longer will an African-American kid have to wrestle with the contradiction of being told that you can be anything you want to be in this country, then be told in the same breath you can't be president.

Political junkie that I am, I get excited about but don't get too emotionally invested in many political campaigns. But when I saw this race unfold and realized that this man actually had a legitimate shot at win the Democratic nomination, win this election and move into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, I got jazzed and excited about a candidate in a way I haven't since Jesse Jackson's 1984 presidential run and Lee Brown's 1997 run for Houston mayor.

I cried tears of joy the night I watched Sen. Obama's nomination acceptance speech in Denver and if the positive trends continue, my tear ducts are in for an additional workout between now and January 20.

This race has already helped foster frank cross cultural discussion that we have long needed to have in the States about various issues including race.

It has helped begin to tear down some of the centuries old stereotypes that are being disproven every time Barack stands there at a podium giving a stump speech, is thoughtfully giving an interview or holding his own in a debate. It's also cool that he has by his side in Michelle a strong, proud, educated, statuesque African-American woman from Chicago's south side with two adorable kids. That's blowing away stereotypes about Black women and the Black family as well

I believe that Barack Obama has that rare combination of skills, abilities and life experiences that give him a chance to be an outstanding president at a time when our nation sorely needs one. This is a man who not only graduated from Columbia and cum laude from Harvard Law, he taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago. His time as a community organizer and growing up with a single mother gives him an insight and sensitivity to the issues that ordinary working class Americans face. Being biracial also gives him insights into both sides of the racial divide in this country as well.

As a trailblazer who was the first Black president of the Harvard Law Review, and now the first African-American to win a major party presidential nomination, he understands the unique pressures and attention that being a 'First Black' can bestow upon you and the magnified expectations they bring.

And most importantly to me as a transgender African-American, he wants an ENDA that is fully inclusive. It was the decisive factor in why I chose to support him over Sen. Hillary Clinton.

It's also been quite a while since we've had an American leader who has captivated and caught the world's attention. It makes me exceedingly proud when I read the accounts from all over the globe that various world leaders like him and that citizens of other countries (and our own) are hoping and praying this man, one who shares my ethnic heritage, becomes the 44th president of the United States.

It's not only African descendants here in the States who are standing a little taller these days, but our pride in how well he's doing also extends across the African diaspora to Kenya and across the African continent

A presidential campaign is a marathon, and to borrow a metaphor from the Boston Marathon, we're now approaching Heartbreak Hill. We have two more presidential debates and the vice presidential one left to go along with 30 plus days of hard fought campaigning. While I'm nervous about how the rest of this month will unfold, I'm cautiously optimistic as well. I'm beginning to have the audacity of hope that he will be standing on the Capitol steps on January 20 taking the oath of office as president.

It's been a long time in the African-American community since we've produced this type of leader. I and other African-Americans are hoping and praying that we'll happily get to share President Obama with America and the rest of the world for the next four years and beyond.