Temper, temper

I was going to write a lot after watching this, but it’s left me speechless. I’ve decided to let the video from a U.S. Senate hearing speak for itself and will leave it up to you, the reader to draw your own conclusions.



Is this who we want negotiating or talking to allies and non-allies at the conference table? Do we want our next president to get up and storm out when the going gets tough? What do you think?

-Golf

Why Jesse Wants Obama's...

Jesse Jackson’s utterance while anchored to a mic, on Fox News of all places, belies a deeper jealousy that might be held by civil rights icons and Jackson, the self-appointed leader of black Americans.

The stone in Jackson’s shoe (so he says, but more on that later) is that he doesn’t like the way Barack Obama has been “talking down” to black people. Obama gave a speech on Father’s Day calling for black men to assume responsibility for their children and to actively participate in the upbringing of their offspring. I haven’t figured out what’s so condescending about such a request since it’s a known fact that women head many black households and a father being absent is the norm, not the exception. Obama, similar to Bill Cosby has said what most people think and are too afraid to say for fear of being called racist or accused of dumping on their own kind as Cosby and Obama have.

My take on Jackson’s latest “slip” of the tongue has nothing to do with Obama and more to do with the old guard of the civil rights movement. The world has changed, not as much as some would like, but it has changed. This shift in attitudes by those who now benefit from the struggles and noble efforts of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Julian Bond, Andrew Young, Jesse Jackson and others has made it easier for many in the black community to move ahead. The actions of these pioneers paved the way for the younger generation of African Americans to walk a path with fewer potholes. The problem: Those who have helped clear the path still want homage paid to them for good works accomplished through their struggles. Instead of basking in the glow of watching an offspring achieve extraordinary success resulting from “parental” sacrifice, many civil rights leaders appear to simmer in resentment. That simmering resentment yields the most unsavory of stews and once served it leaves a really bad taste in the mouth with no chaser.

Jackson’s unintended “public” outburst is probably the deep recognition that his sphere of influence has or is about to be eclipsed; in a word ego. The real stone in the shoe for Jackson is that Obama appears to argue that we all need to give a little to get a little and there’s no more free lunch. Obama won’t blindly promote “entitlements” or espouse the “failures” of government to provide for the black community that has helped perpetuate an “us vs. them” mentality. That’s why Jesse Jackson wants to cut Obama’s...
-Golf

Veepstakes for 2008

If you believe MSNBC’s

Veepstakes poll

there are four democrats left as “options” for Barack Obama to choose from for his vice presidential running mate: Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Joe Biden and Kathleen Sebelius.

I won’t go into each candidate’s bio, you can do that by checking in at MSNBC, but I will offer up my feelings about why I think Hillary Clinton would be a bad choice.

Odd as it may seem, I firmly believe that Senator Clinton would make an excellent president; however, over the course of the campaign it became increasingly clear to me that her operatives would stoop to any level to wrestle the nomination away from Obama. The behavior reminded me of the schoolyard bully who when confronted with the prospect of losing would rather destroy the fun for everyone else by any means necessary. In fact, the “kitchen sink” strategy throughout the Democrat’s primary season is the very same behavior that has made me sore at the Republican Party. For the Clinton’s this was politics as usual: if we don’t win (note the word we), we’ll make sure you’re so bruised that you won’t win either.

Fast-forward to the end of the primary season and note Clinton’s belief that an immediate concession speech was unnecessary, even after all math and delegate counts were etched in stone showing it impossible for her to win. Then recall the week-long dance and meeting before she did finally concede. Meanwhile, during this “cooling-off” period her surrogates attempted to browbeat Obama into putting her on the ticket with calls that “she deserves to be his vice president.” I wonder if the shoe had been reversed would there have been similar calls? No white male candidate has or would have been backed into a corner with slightly veiled ultimatums from the runner-up or their

supporters

. In fact this stunt was interpreted by me to mean “you may have won, but you still need my blessing.”

The Clinton’s or maybe it’s her supporters, egged-on by the candidate, talk about sexism toward her throughout her run. There are rumblings about a need for an examination of media and public behavior toward her too; while digging into that red herring, I suggest an examination into what also appeared to be condescension toward a black man. Does anyone remember her mocking statements of Obama in her sunshine yellow pantsuit where she went on and on about how “the heavens will open and celestial choirs will sing.” Not a peep was heard, more importantly however it wasn’t just an attack on Obama but a swipe at his supporters who apparently were so entranced by his speaking ability that they couldn’t distinguish fact from fiction.

Then there’s the Bill Clinton factor. Why would anyone, unless they have taken leave of their senses, want the two-for-one deal that has always been the makeup of the Clintons? Why would Obama want Bill snooping around in the goings-on at the White House, second guessing his decisions or sending Hillary Clinton in to parrot his thoughts to a President Obama?

Putting Hillary Clinton on the ticket is a win-win for two people and one of those people isn’t Barack Obama. If Obama wins, Clinton is set up for a run in eight years, sooner if she wishes hard enough that something bad happens; as an added bonus Bill gets to roam around and get into “stuff.” If Obama loses and she’s on the ticket, she gets to say “I told you so” to the party BUT she also gets to say she campaigned her heart out for him. Here again, she’s set for another run and Obama’s off to the trash heap with all the other has-been Democratic candidates.
-Golf