NYT: Recalling Struggle for Civil Rights, Democrats Battle for Black Votes

[Pirate Smile]

Recalling Struggle for Civil Rights, Democrats Battle for Black Votes

By JEFF ZELENY
Published: March 4, 2007

WASHINGTON, March 3 — Representative John Lewis, whose political career grew out of the civil rights movement, had longed for the day he could vote for someone that he believed could become the nation’s first black president. So when Senator Barack Obama entered the race, he was on the cusp of declaring his support.

Until Bill Clinton called.

Now, Mr. Lewis said, he is agonizing over whether to choose Mr. Obama, whom he once described as “the future of the Democratic Party,” or Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.

“One day I lean one way, the next day I lean another way,” said Mr. Lewis, Democrat of Georgia. “Sometimes, you have to have what I call an executive session with yourself, a come-to-Jesus meeting, and somehow, some way we will all have to make a decision.”

In the opening stretch of the 2008 Democratic presidential contest, Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Obama and John Edwards, the former North Carolina senator, are embroiled in what party officials believe is one of the most competitive scrambles for black supporters since the Voting Rights Act was passed four decades ago. The chief rivals will be in Alabama on Sunday when the Clintons and Mr. Obama commemorate the 42nd anniversary of Bloody Sunday, when hundreds of activists — Mr. Lewis among them — crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge during a civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/04/us/politics/04campaign.html?hp

[EFerrari]

1. Is this a DLC crock or someone else's crock?

WHAT ABOUT COUNTING BLACK VOTES?

[goclark]

2. It is understandable

Bill Clinton and Hillary were very in touch with the African American politicians and the Black community as well.

The Clinton Family was/is dearly loved in our community.
It will be a hard decision.


I am not supporting Obama because he is African American.

I am supporting him because he has a new vision that appeals to me, a world view for the 21st Century.

Hillary is wonderful and I will not bash her at all.

Bill and Hillary are in Selma today I heard, that is great!
They did not have to be there.

They could be getting a photo op with Phony George with the Tornado victims. I weep for the victims and it gives me BROWNIE MOMENTS to hear George say that he will help them.:puke:

[EFerrari]

3. But Bill and Hil did nothing to get black votes counted, did they?

And, as far as I know, neither has Mr. Obama.

It doesn't matter who the black community backs if their votes are STOLEN.

Hello! McFly?!

[goclark]

4. I'm not talking about Counting Votes

I don't know anyone running that did specifically help to get our votes counted - not Kerry,not Edwards, not Gore.

Conyers,Jesse Jackson and Michael Moore ~ worked like hell to get ALL votes counted and that sure included our votes. Don't recall anyone even making a dent in DIEBOLD for ANY votes - Black,White or Purple that were Demoocrats.

The issue is, were they even civil to us and I must say YES!

Bush would not even meet with the CBC or the NAACP.

I will not bash Obama or the Clintons ~ I will spend my time fighting the RepubliCONS. They are the enemy.

[EFerrari]

5. If they're not part of the solution . . .

I understand, goclark.

And there are truths people won't want to hear and that they need to hear. :shrug: