The last time I was in Pennsylvania, working for Kerry. That won't be necessary this time. November 4 is going to be a great night. We might as well start planning. America will change that night, it will amaze the world, and us. We don't know what it looks like on the other side of the ridge, but it's going to be transformative culturally. This is the culmination of the civil rights struggle and of the emancipation proclamation. The colorblindness that Martin Luther King Jr. spoke of will at last be truly tried out. And we will all get to try it.
I expect I'll watch with a few close friends, we'll have a party. But I'm tempted to go to a great public space in New York City, to be in the streets, to see the public demonstration, to see the expression on people's faces and hear the shouts from the cars. Where were you the night that America elected a black man president?
America will not change on November 4th. It will be the same country with a different representative of the business party as titular leader. Killing in the Middle East may emphasize Afghanistan/Pakistan rather than Iraq. Sometime in the next couple of years, Israel will destroy Lebanon (again), with the approval of Obama-Biden and the filibuster-proof Senate. People like Anthony Lake and Robert Rubin will be back in power. Social programs will continue to be cut in deference to military spending, bailouts, and budget deficits. Sorry to be a party pooper. Obama has been allowed to get this far because he has been vetted by the business and media establishments. This is the end of the civil rights movement as we have known it, an anticlimax of affirmative action for the privileged, identity politics, and the prison-industrial complex for the black male masses who ironically don't exist as part of Obama's so-called vision.
We might as well prepare for another four years of expanded war and a peace process that promotes occupation. Unless there is a mass movement, we're in for eight years of Clintonism–at best.
I often think that commenting on politics is useless for most people (myself included) since the process seems to be only superficially open. The actions are fairly predictable, but the real players and their actual motives are probably hidden from common view. That being said, how can anyone believe that Barack Obama is color-blind? And who can't understand that the diversity coalitions seek power, privilege, and a little bit of revenge? At least be honest!
Oh, yes "a little bit of revenge." The real question is (especially in view of the latest US Census Bureau projections), what will come after an Obama 4 or 8 year Presidency? What end game will we have by default?
Obama will win confidently. And, it will be a great cause for celebration, as JFK's presidency was an island in the stream.
He is a uniquely competent man, capable of listening and brainstorming and also of intense focus, discipline and accomplishment.
We did well this time.
Obama isn't the period on the sentence of the era, as Phil will certainly agree.
In subsequent clauses and sentences, the youth is again inspired.
After years of shadow, idealism and inquiry is again a virtue.
I have to respond to David Green. Would you rather have Bill Richardson and Anthony Lake or Richard Holbrooke and Dennis Ross?
Are you one of these silly lefties who believes "mass movements" are what effect politics or serious change in this country? Facts on the ground are what will push the elite to dismantle the empire and reform the perpetual credit economy.
Mark my words – Ron Paul was Norman Thomas to Obama's FDR.
way, way too early to start planning parties. a month from now the newspapers will be trying to explain to us how Obama's 10-point lead evaporated at election time. same ol' same ol'
It will be one of the greatest days of my life.
A rejection of Christofascism and an affirmation of intelligence and goodwill.
That night will be a time of great celebrations.
But we must gird ourselves for the assault afterwards. The rightist vengeance machine will be cranked up to a level we've never seen it at before. They will strive by main force to hamstring his agenda and if possible drive him out of office. Get ready.
When doesn't the opposition try to hamstring the agenda of those in power? I look for each side to crank up the nonsense like never before.
I'm guessing that the Palestinians are hoping against hope that Obama's mixed racial genes will somehow immunize him from
total deference to AIPAC–along with his dead mother's take on
race.
Is that THE Jack Ross?
"way, way too early to start planning parties."
Indeed. Even if you think Obama will turn out to be worth partying over, remember that the 2000 Gallup tracking poll for Oct 2-4 had Gore ahead by eleven points. (From Sam Smith.)
We may have to introduce a new term into the political vocabulary. There's the "Tom Bradley effect" to describe whites who only pretended to vote for a black man; what will we use for Jews who pretended to vote for a progressive goy?
D: i've been hearing, saying the same thing so i just went back to the polls, indeed Gore led by 11 in CNN-Gallup 10/2 BUT the poll made clear that it was conducted PRIOR to the first debate, which the MSM ended up throwing to Bush because of Gore's "sighs". debates already over in this case and O clearly won, opened lead. but we're on the right track: you dont know how the GOP will win, but chances are they will, and i think the back-story will be the market rally engineered by Fed and Treasury off these horrific lows: "dont change horses in the middle of the stream, specially for a rider in black. blah blah blah". we wont know until it's over. only question will be reaction to a third stolen election. combined w looming Depression.
Jack Ross: "I have to respond to David Green. Would you rather have Bill Richardson and Anthony Lake or Richard Holbrooke and Dennis Ross?
Are you one of these silly lefties who believes "mass movements" are what effect politics or serious change in this country? Facts on the ground are what will push the elite to dismantle the empire and reform the perpetual credit economy."
Mr. Ross:
Please try to elevate your tone from the condescending to the merely dismissive.
Which one of the four mentioned above will not be a member of an Obama administration?
What significant change has been made in our history as a result of anything other than a mass movement?
What evidence is there that elites in this country will not continue to benefit from whatever "reforms" are made in response to current facts on the ground. Certainly none during the past month.
"Facts on the ground", in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as Palestine, will perpetuate empire. More so when military spending is all that's left to stimulate our economy, after the dot-com and housing busts.
Do you really think that the elite will ever do anything without rewarding themselves handsomely prior to whatever benefits are allowed to trickle down?
Both parties, since Carter, have promoted a massive transfer of wealth to the rich. What evidence is there that this will not be Obama's top priority? I think the bailout provides evidence that it will be. Indeed, it has to be.
Obama will not oppose any Israeli behavior that this blog purports to condemn.
Weiss: "Where were you the night that America elected a black man president?"
I still can't understand why anyone calls Obama our first "black" president. I would never call Obama a white man just because he had a white mother. Why do you can him a black man just because he had a black father? What's so hard about saying the man is of mixed parentage? At least this label has the advantage of being true.
Duscany: walking down the street as a child, do you think he was allowed to think of himself as anything other than black?
Read Greg Palast.
I am not at all convinced that Obama will win in the ballot box – not unless all voters are allowed to cast the vote and have it counted afterwards.
Right now purging of votes is in full swing and on an un-imaginable scale.
America's democracy itself is at risk. You need to be from old continent and/or have studied history from between the world wars to be truly alarmed.
I have no problem with purging the dead, fraudulent and ineligible from the voter lists. What's wrong with that? There is a history of voter fraud in elections on both sides.
Let's all come together and celebrate the victory of the Goldman Sachs candidate! He's half African and wholly compromised!
America will change that night, it will amaze the world, and us.
Nothing will change. The only difference between Obama and McCain is that Obama wants to bomb Pakistan and McCain wants to bomb Iran.
Until Americans, and humans in general, stopped getting suckered by the "Ve moost find Der Leader and follow him!" propaganda that's pushed by the proponents of centralized, militarized states, we'll always end up with million of dead innocents at the end of it all.
Obama rallies are almost starting to look like Nuremberg circa 1936, minus the leather and steel.
James Carville suggested last week that if Obama didn't win, blacks would riot in the streets. Frank Rick said the other day that Obama did win, whites would riot in the streets. Well that's just great. A lose-lose election.
"Duscany: walking down the street as a child, do you think he was allowed to think of himself as anything other than black?"
I don't know. It's a good question. Though I must say when I hitchhiked through Germany as a college student people were always mistaking me for a German (I'm Italian and English). Still that never caused me to think of myself as anything other than an ordinary American. Obama says he spent much of his childhood watching TV with his white grandfather. One would have thought that would have made an impression on him as well.
But I do agree that most American blacks are a mixture of black and white. Since Obama looks much like them and they consider themselves black it wouldn't be out of the question for Obama to think of himself as black too. I just wonder then what went through his mind when he looked at his mom.
I hope you have a great party, Phil.
But I won't be joining you. After saying he's going to escalate the war in Afghanistan, Oreobama said today that he thinks women should be compelled to register for Selective Service.
Said like a true statist. I'm ready for America's first black president. But this is the wrong one.
Geez, Phil, I'm hoping for an Obama victory, too, but let's not get prematurely triumphant!
Don't be like the football player who lofts the ball in the air twenty yards before he reaches the end zone!
Someone on here, I forget who, made a comment not too long ago that has really stuck with me. He said essentially that if the civil rights movement was based on income rather than color, we'd be a lot better off right now. I can't disagree. This is not to dismiss the fact that we may have a "black" president for the first time in our history. And I put black in quotes because I agree with both sentiments that have been expressed on here: that Obama, as a child, could only have felt black, and that Obama, although black in appearance, isn't exactly some ghetto kid from Harlem. I am reminded of Noam Chomsky's words about Obama and the president of Brazil:
"At the Democratic Convention, Barack Obama said, “Only in this country, only in America, could someone like me appear here.” Well, in some other countries, people much poorer than him would not only talk at the convention—they'd be elected president! Take Lula. The president of Brazil is a guy with a peasant background, a union organizer, never went to school, he's the president of the second-biggest country in the hemisphere! Only in America? I mean, there [Brazil] they actually have elections where you can choose somebody from your own ranks. With different policies! That's inconceivable in the United States. And it's true of even the dissidents. There is a huge propaganda effort to reduce political participation to showing up every four years to push a lever in a personalized electoral extravaganza, and then go home and let “your representatives” run the world." -Noam Chomsky
I guess my point is let's not get too elated over the prospect of our first black president. We must keep the pressure on from a "grassroots" level to end Israel's inhumane policies (among other issues, of course), and hope that the Obama administration, if indeed it is in power, is at least a little bit swayed by our words and actions. Of course, with the financial and political power of the Israel lobby and Zionism and its various "agents of the cause" around the globe, this is no small task. But it can be done. Just ask Lula.
Obama is the second modern idealistic president.
That is what gives me hope.
The skin color issues are residual.
"Obama is the second modern idealistic president. "
I don't trust anyone that actually wants to be president of the US. I certainly don't trust anyone that kowtows to the Jewish lobby to get the job.
McCain could be like the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday, receiving a kickoff with 11 seconds to play and a point behind. With a team of supporters like Diebold, he may yet live boldly. I'll vote for Obama, but I think he won't be able, even if he wins the election, to stop the Is-Lobs from ruining this country and Israel.
–
Aloha ~~~ Ozzie Maland ~~~ San Diego
"Obama is the second modern idealistic president. That is what gives me hope."
What does that mean? "Second modern idealistic president?"
It means that JFK was the first.
The psychology of the country shifted as a result of JFK's presidency, much more than the direct affect of his policies.
One GREAT consequence of the Obama presidency will the severing of the right/left alliance, and particularly on Israel/Palestine.
Israel will reconcile with the Arab world (if the Arab world is sufficiently well-meaning to actually make peace).
The idealism that Obama represents will spread to Israel as well as Europe, moreso than in Europe, and stimulate a great desire for the kind contact that liberal attitudes stimulate.
Helpful mutual engagement will be the driving motive, rather than protective resentment.
ALL of the rightest logic, will be irrelevant (as far as in relation to the powers that be). There will still be idiocies perpetrated by opportunist wedgers, whether "libertarian", "Islamic", "Zionist" (in quotes for the false meanings of the terms).
' Later, another supporter told McCain, "I don't trust Obama…He's a Jew."
McCain stood shaking his head as she spoke, then quickly took the microphone from her.
"No, ma'am," he said. "He's a decent, family man, a citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with." ''
First of all, I want to know what drugs you are taking so I can get some of them, too.
Secondly, if you think that America is going to change overnight, you must have taken a double dose of those damn good pills. I don't know if you are aware, but your preferred candidate's campaign is 150 mil. Why couldn't he take a modest amount of that money and donate the rest to the causes he keeps mouthing off about? Instead, his campaign is calling my house, my parents house, is having people lined up at Walmart to beg people to register to vote, has someone stalking people at the Farmers Market…yes, the Farmers Market!!, and lastly, his campaigners are walking cardboard flyers around my neighborhood after ringing our doorbells. Those cardboard flyers are now in people's yards because people threw them on the ground. Why doesn't his campaign stop littering?! And stop harrassing? It's almost like he is rushing to get in the popular fraternity. I found out today he is already planning his "Win Party" for 2 mil. My god. This man loves publicity. Today I saw an Obama bumper sticker in Arabic. Nice. Now, back to those drugs. I am not a huge fan of McCain & Palin, but I think they might just win my vote.