Although I don’t expect anything conclusive, today is the beginning of something. Will the Democratic Party vote their aspirations?
I found out at the last minute that Barack Obama would be making a noon campaign appearance at the Izod Center (the former Brendan Byrne Arena) in the Meadowlands in Rutherford, New Jersey. My 10-year-old son really wanted to go but, thinking we would not be able to get in anyway, I insisted he go to school.
I ran some errands in the morning: took my laptop to be repaired, went to village hall to pay property taxes, then to the post office to mail bill payments. On a moment’s inspiration, I went to the gym. I hadn’t been for four months, since my soccer season ended in November. Did some strength training, which hurt but I was glad I went.
I suggested to my wife we take a drive to the Obama event, see if we could get in. She was game so we went.
We missed Newark Mayor Corey Booker’s full-throated speech. We could hear over the loudspeakers that old warhorse Ted Kennedy giving a vintage performance getting the crowd primed for Obama. Obama took the podium as we were taking our seats.
He gave the same speech I watched him on C-Span give to a St. Louis, MO campaign event, hit some of the same grace notes the very same way I had seen on television. I have seen so many Obama speeches now that I come to expect certain bits and I’m disappointed when I don’t hear them. But Obama rarely disappoints. There are new twists to some old themes but it’s still the same campaign speech.
My wife was still undecided between Hillary Clinton and Obama and was deeply disappointed by his handling of an issue the New York Times wrote about. I, too, am disappointed. It is cases like this that might put doubt in a person’s mind about whether Obama is a real change agent, as he claims to be.
Obama does seem to have a good heart and, because of his service in the Illinois state senate, I believe he has valuable experience. I like that he was a community organizer. That has largely fueled his campaign. He has done a good job against incredible odds and built unprecedented support among the young and across a broad section of our society.
His best moment of the campaign, surpassing even his Iowa caucus victory, was in his defeat in New Hampshire. Listen to his speech. A portion of that speech has even been set to music. Never mind the rich people in the video. Just Listen to the words.
I don’t know what my wife will do in the morning but I believe I will vote for Obama.
Novelist Toni Morrison who famously dubbed Bill Clinton “the first black president” of the United States is now supporting Barack Obama.
Poet Maya Angelou says make for Hillary Clinton President of the United States.
She said recently: ‘I made up my mind 15 years ago that if she ever ran for office I’d be on her wagon. My only difficulty with Senator Obama is that I believe in going out with who I went in with.’
She announced her support in a poem she apparently gave to the Guardian, a newspaper in London. Here’s a portion of their story:
The 79-year-old poet was the centrepiece of Bill Clinton’s inauguration in 1993 when she read her poem On the Pulse of Morning, playing on the idea of a new political dawn. Last week she handed this new poem over to the Clinton campaign.
Angelou says that she has had many long telephone conversations with Winfrey on the subject of Obama versus Clinton. ‘She thinks he’s the best, and I think my woman is the best,’ she has explained. ‘Oprah is a daughter to me, but she is not my clone.’
Here’s a portion of Angelou’s poem:
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may tread me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.
Figures. Frank Rich, too, 
s Barack Obama.
I wish I did not enjoy this Charles McGrath piece so much.
I used to debate Jim Sleeper when we both toiled at the New York Daily News. I thought many of his columns were wrongheaded. Although I was a young reporter, he graciously listened to my criticism and even deigned to debate me. I lost touch with him over the years.
It’s good to see him still writing.
Chris Rock on Obama: “Sometimes I feel like Barack forgets he’s the black candidate in the race. He’s running like he can win this s— fair and square.”
Of all things that have amazed me about Obama’s run for the Democratic Party nomination for president of the United States, the tone that he set for his campaign is the one that has impressed me the most. Obama is multi-racial but, as if he has choice in our society, he consciously cultivated a “black” outlook without diminishing other parts of his heritage.
His earliest and biggest hurdle was whether he was “black” enough. Then, it turned out, he might be too black. Yet, he persevered.
I still have my doubt Obama will win the nomination, much less the presidency, but is a credit to him that his campaign has focused on his character and qualifications and (despite Hillary and Bill Clinton’s best efforts) not on his race.
Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, despite playing up the significance of her gender, at least earlier on, has made it possible for a woman to be taken seriously because she is clearly competent and is qualified to be president.
Her run bodes well for many of the current group of female governors and other leaders to credibly consider that option.