Time to Connect the Dots Regarding Obama

[sampsonblk]

*This thread is only for people who can walk and chew gum at the same time.

Michelle Obama talked today about the reasons why blacks are reluctant to support Barack Obama. In my conversatiions with other black people, I haven't found any enthusiasm for Obama either. I don't know why.

So last month, Obama hit the black church circuit. In general, the church is the front door to the black vote. There is absolutely no way that Obama has any hope of winning without carrying the black vote by a wide margin. He doesn't have to campaign like a black candidate, but he has to be the #1 choice of black voters by far.

I don't believe for a second that Obama is a fundagelical. The guy is doing what he believes he is forced to do to win. I don't believe he will win, in the end. But I am very proud of the effort he has made. He is the first black candidate to not be just a black candidate. That's a huge accomplishment.

And I am proud that he went to church. Not my choice of people to fellowship with. But I think it would have been a huge sign of disrespect to the black community if he didn't go.

[Skip Intro]

1. what bothers me about Obama

is that he does and says things for political reasons, rather than conviction, as you just said (doing what he thinks he has to do to win), yet feels free to throw that same rock at other candidates, especially Hillary - that really, really bugs me

having said that, there is a good deal of pride in watching him speak and watching the crowds react - and I agree, he is the first black candidate who is not just a black candidate, and that makes me feel great about our party - you'd never see that on the repuke side of the fence

[sampsonblk]

6. Yep. Every cycle I hope for a candidate who isn't just a politician

To be taken seriously, a candidate has to hire the top, big name consultants and do things the normal way. Otherwise, the media and the voters will skewer them. (See Wes Clark, 2004).

Obama's message is one that resonated with a lot of people who still have hope that American politics can become an honest effort to do what's right. But unlike previous black candidates, he's playing by the rules. Maybe that's why he has little support in the black community.

[hedgehog]

8. On the other hand, does he change his message from audience to audience?

Seems to me he has a fairly decent track record of telling people what he thinks they need to hear, not what they want to hear.

[sampsonblk]

10. Who is he to decide what I need to hear?

That is just a campaign strategy. Ok? John McCain tried it in 2000. Now he's trying something new.

[hedgehog]

12. I was thinking of the occasion he went to Detroit and told the

auto companies to start concentrating on MPG and not cup holders per passenger!

[sampsonblk]

13. Great line. Low risk.

Especially since companies don't get to vote.

[hedgehog]

14. Umm, he was speaking to a crowd of people, not a crowd of

"companies".

Corporations may legally be persons, but they are made up of people. Here's some of what Obama said to the Detroit Economic Club. I imagine these people fall into the category of shakers and movers.


Good ideas are crushed under the weight of typical Washington politics. Politicians are afraid to ask the oil and auto industries to do their part, and those industries hire armies of lobbyists to make sure it stays that way. Autoworkers, understandably fearful of losing jobs, and wise to the tendency of having to pay the price of management's mistakes, join in the resistance to change
....

But we have to be honest about how we arrived at this point.

For years, while foreign competitors were investing in more fuel-efficient technology for their vehicles, American automakers were spending their time investing in bigger, faster cars. And whenever an attempt was made to raise our fuel efficiency standards, the auto companies would lobby furiously against it, spending millions to prevent the very reform that could've saved their industry. Even as they've shed thousands of jobs and billions in profits over the last few years, they've continued to reward failure with lucrative bonuses for CEOs.



http://www.barackobama.com/2007/05/07/remarks_of_senator_barack_obam_12.php

[sampsonblk]

18. That's pro-worker, anti-corporation stuff

Nothing new. Very low risk.

[hedgehog]

20. Very low risk? When you're talking to upper management and bankers? nt

[sampsonblk]

21. Yes

Many of them were probably thinking the same thing.

[yardwork]

2. I see your point. I understand that he must win South Carolina's primary.

I think that we have to address the fact that in the United States, a lot of people still won't support a candidate who is African American. And, sadly, those non-supporters include a lot of African Americans themselves. It's a sign of the pervasive racism and oppression that still permeates our culture. (I'll point out that a lot of folks seem to have a problem with supporting a woman candidate as well.)

I'm one who has been very critical of Obama for the McClurkin incident. On the other hand, I recognize the dilemma he is facing. I think it's sad that we are still at this point in the U.S.

[Bitwit1234]

3. Think people..Obama is a good candidate BUT

no matter how good he is, right now, at this point in time, this country will not elect a black man or a woman to run for president. Face it we are still a bunch of racist, sexist sheep.

[Apollo11]

5. So we can have any candidate we want, just as long as it's a white guy???

The implication of your point is unacceptable to me and should be unacceptable to everyone here on DU.

[BeyondGeography]

4. Nice post

[XemaSab]

7. Not to nit pick, but if he's black isn't he by default campaigning like a black candidate?

:shrug: :P

No, I underrstand what you mean, but I'll ask you this: If he campaigned like a "black candidate," (which I understand to mean many visits to churches and a lot of spiritual metaphors in his speeches), would that not alienate as many people as it brought in?

It also seems like he's one of the few black men on the national political stage not to come from a background as a minister... would you say this is accurate, or notsomuch?

Thanks.

[sampsonblk]

11. Straight Answers

1. I don't know. Probably so. But I know this: if he doesn't carry the black vote by a huge margin, he won't win the nomination. He is not going to get a majority of whites.

2. I would say that's very accurate.

[Catchawave]

9. I don't see color, but I don't see substance either.

I didn't even realize Richardson was latino (he looks just like one of my Italian uncles, Salvatore) until his campaign brought it up.

What confuses me about O is that he threw a rock at the 60's generation and Hayden, but now embracing the civil rights movement of MLK ?

His JJ speech introduced a new southern accent, why? Isn't he from Chicago/Hawaii ?

Obama's a head scratcher for me. Michelle's interview on MSNBC this a.m. was uncomfortable to listen too. "Black voters will wake up...." ? x(

[sandnsea]

15. Maybe he threw a rock at the McCain boomers

Who still thinks we could have won Vietnam. Maybe he simply said it's time to turn the page on all of that. More is going on in the world that the old fights of the 60's. Every current issue doesn't have to be framed in the context of the fights of the 60's. And he's right. I can't even imagine what it's like to be of a different generation in this country, boomerism overshadows everything and it is self-centered of us.

[killbotfactory]

16. Here is something Obama wrote in the early nineties about working with church leaders

I encourage anyone who really wants to understand Obama, and the way he works, to read the whole thing.

Nowhere is the promise of organizing more apparent than in the traditional black churches. Possessing tremendous financial resources, membership and — most importantly — values and biblical traditions that call for empowerment and liberation, the black church is clearly a slumbering giant in the political and economic landscape of cities like Chicago. A fierce independence among black pastors and a preference for more traditional approaches to social involvement (supporting candidates for office, providing shelters for the homeless) have prevented the black church from bringing its full weight to bear on the political, social and economic arenas of the city.

Over the past few years, however, more and more young and forward-thinking pastors have begun to look at community organizations such as the Developing Communities Project in the far south side and GREAT in the Grand Boulevard area as a powerful tool for living the social gospel, one which can educate and empower entire congregations and not just serve as a platform for a few prophetic leaders. Should a mere 50 prominent black churches, out of the thousands that exist in cities like Chicago, decide to collaborate with a trained organizing staff, enormous positive changes could be wrought in the education, housing, employment and spirit of inner-city black communities, changes that would send powerful ripples throughout the city.

In the meantime, organizers will continue to build on local successes, learn from their numerous failures and recruit and train their small but growing core of leadership — mothers on welfare, postal workers, CTA drivers and school teachers, all of whom have a vision and memories of what communities can be. In fact, the answer to the original question — why organize? — resides in these people. In helping a group of housewives sit across the negotiating table with the mayor of America's third largest city and hold their own, or a retired steelworker stand before a TV camera and give voice to the dreams he has for his grandchild's future, one discovers the most significant and satisfying contribution organizing can make.

In return, organizing teaches as nothing else does the beauty and strength of everyday people. Through the songs of the church and the talk on the stoops, through the hundreds of individual stories of coming up from the South and finding any job that would pay, of raising families on threadbare budgets, of losing some children to drugs and watching others earn degrees and land jobs their parents could never aspire to — it is through these stories and songs of dashed hopes and powers of endurance, of ugliness and strife, subtlety and laughter, that organizers can shape a sense of community not only for others, but for themselves.

http://www.edwoj.com/Alinsky/AlinskyObamaChapter1990.htm

[sampsonblk]

22. NOT good.

That, in my opinion, crosses the line. Its one thing to go to a church and ask for votes. Its something different to go the GOP route and try to encourage churches to become involved in partisan electoral politics.

Appealing to individuals in churches = fine.
Trying to create/encourage a lng-term, established church presence in politics is very very very bad - for the church.

[William769]

17. So in actuality your saying he's pandering.

BTW that pandering has cost him big time.

[sampsonblk]

19. No, its called campaigning.

Happens all the time. If Obama hadn't done it, he would have been the first major black candidate to not go and ask for the black vote. And that would have been stupid.

And his numbers have not suffered because of it.