Georgia heavyweight John Lewis says … Obama
WASHINGTON _ One of the subplots of this Democratic nomination battle has been the jockeying by African American leaders.Members of Congress like Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri, Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Ohio and John Lewis of Georgia endorsed Hillary Clinton.
The Clintons have a sterling reputation among black voters after cultivating friendships over the years and delivering from the White House. African American author Toni Morrison once called Bill Clinton “the first black president.” (She endorsed Obama this year.)
So it was natural for African American leaders to sign up for Clinton, long before Barack Obama ignited a multi-racial grassroots fire in the Democratic electorate.
They have been under intense pressure recently from Rep. William Lacy Clay of St. Louis and others in the Congressional Black Caucus, telling Clinton endorsers that they don’t want to end up on the wrong side of their history. Obama and his allies keep a call list close at hand to make daily phone appeals.
Like the title of that movie — Things Change.
This afternoon, Georgian John Lewis, a superdelegate and a widely known leader in the civil rights movement from his years heading the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), jumped to Obama. He’d been going back and forth for two weeks since he signaled that he was dropping Clinton and then tried to rescind that decision.
“Something’s happening in America, something some of us did not see coming. Barack Obama has tapped into something that is extraordinary,” Lewis said in an interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“It’s been a long, hard and difficult struggle to come to where I am now,” he added.
Update: Clay told us Thursday that some of his colleagues in the Congressional Black Caucus “miscalculated the strength of Barack’s candidacy and what it meant to Americans.”
Of those African Americans sticking with Clinton, Clay said: “All of Barack’s supporters have said everything we can say to them in a nice way, trying to help them understand that he’s going to win, he’s going to be the Democratic standard-bearer. He is the leader of a movement that is moving on, with or without them.”
Yeah, it figures John Lewis would move over to Obama. Lewis was the first major house figure to suggest impeaching President Bush. He was one of 31 congressman who voted not to count Ohio’s votes in the 2004 election. His lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union is 2.4%. Citizens Against Government Waste gives him a 2% rating. The National Taxpayers Union gives him an F. But he got 100% from the ACLU, 100% from the Children’s Defense Fund, and a 98% from the AFL-CIO.
All this fits perfectly with Senator Obama’s views, which are anti-business, anti-freedom, and ultimately, anti-American. As the Wall Street Journal reported today (link below), Obama would provide a tax credit to American companies that provide union-style pay and benefits, while assessing a tax upon foreign profits of American companies. Your average union lug may believe this is smart, but in reality, it will put American businesses at a disadvantage in a global market - or cause them to simply move elsewhere.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120407121574294919.html?mod=opinion_main_review_and_outlooks
Let’s hope that the nomination is decided on the voice of the people, and not by a handful of superdelgates.
We all agree that this election should be about unity, progress, and change–something the nation has lacked for this past 7 years. We should carry this message of unity into the general election.
Obama is a man of substance and conviction. Merely the fact that we would nominate and elect such a man after the past 8 years cannot fail to have positive effects on a world made cynical and disillusioned by the choices and acts of the Administration during that period.
The enthusiasm we see at rallies is more than ephemeral excitement. For many, Obama represents the desire for a transformation towards a politics grounded in truth, genuine compassion, and substantive efforts to benefit the many, rather than the few.
If you haven’t been to a rally, or have, and want to take it with you, you can get the entire Obama rally setlist–all the way from U2’s “City of Blinding Lights”, to which Obama takes the stage, to the Obama victory anthem “Signed, Sealed, Delivered” at ITunes, here:
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewIMix?id=273868596&s=143441&v0=575
If you want to re-read Cara’s pitch, you can catch it, word for word, at;
http://www.topix.com/forum/news/2008-presidential-election/TMACJ0U758TN8DJQQ/p3
Yes. Obama is all about unity, even though he as never shown any interest in reaching across the aisle, in any way, shape or form. His idea of “unity” is that you either do it the way the most liberal senator in congress wants it, or else.
John Lewis is black. He is endorsing Obama because……well, he’s black too. Have people not noticed that much of Obama’s support is from African Americans? Why? Because they vote for their own. This isn’t rocket science people.
Emanuel Cleaver II , D-Mo is hearing from is irate constituents that voted for Obama. We voted for Cleaver and expect him to follow our vote.
57% Obama
43% Clinton
Cleaver is spreading rumors of threats against black superdelegates; however, he refuses to provide facts to support his allegations. Sounds like a Clinton ploy.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032553/ watch the Cleaver video, it is great, shows Cleaver has no support for his statements of threats.
Contact Cleaver
http://www.house.gov/cleaver/contact.html
You Obama people are NUTS. This may come as a surprise to you, but in fact, Obama is not the messiah, he’s just a senator from Illinois. And while you may be so far to the left that you missed this, Obama is a doctrinaire liberal. It amazes me that so many Americans are dumb enough to buy this “unity” talk … you don’t bring unity by taking the most extreme possible position on every issue, you bring unity by compromising with those who oppose you. While many conservatives dislike him for it, in reality John McCain is the the only candidate who has actually practiced unity. That’s why there is McCain-Feingold, McCain-Kennedy, and so forth - and NOT McCain-Obama. The amazing truth is, Senator Obama is even more liberal, even more inflexible, even more extreme, than that venerable dinosaur of the far left, Ted Kennedy.
Kasoff,
I do not believe that anyone sees Obama as Jesus Christ, just as no one saw or sees Moses as being God, but he was a great leader.
Those with true insight see Obama exactly as what he is and will be as President. A GREAT HONORABLE LEADER. And, yes, Obama recognize and understands that Jesus Christ was and is the Messiah his Savior.
Unlike so many in authority and or power, Obama understands that he IS NOT God.
But many times when unknowing people such as yourself see ones such as Obama with so much goodness within, they become very confused by it because they are not there yet. But, you see so many of us are there now, we want change, (we are in times were things must be done completely different from any other times), some of us know it must be drastic, we don’t fear it like you do.
You and many like yourself are much like the the Old Testiment Hebrews in Egypt, understandly so, because outside a great desire for change, it takes 100 times more in COURAGE and WISDOM (good judgment).
Also, It is truly an insult to God Himself for you Kasoff and everyone else to speak in such mocking context concerning Christ who we Christians know was and is the Messiah and our Savior. Hillary has been doing it, and others including yourself, how awful and insulting it is to do such.
So there!, Kiss-oaf!
Mr. Kassoff: is there ANY way Obama, McCain, Clinton or a dog in the road with distemper do any worse a job of governance than Cheney/Bush? I consider you somewhat more reasonable than
some of the die hard WhiteMenForBush on this site, but you are (and were, when on radio) a bit of the evasive/sarcastic apologist for this 7 year disaster we have seen.
Here’s a thought: if John McCain had not been stabbed in the back by his own party in 2000, he not only would have defeated Gore, but right now we would NOT be in Iraq, we WOULD have Afghanistan more stable, and we would not be watching the Iranian president giddy in the after-glow of his visit to Iraq, knowing the Shiite-majority will be a most firm supporter of any moves Iran wishes to make in the coming years(also, chances are Mr. McCain would have facilitated the martyrdom of Osama Bin Laden way more handily than our current stutter-mouthed president). Lord, the yahoo-ideologues who still consider the needless invasion and expensively botched occupation of Iraq have not a damn clue. My vote in 2000 would have gone to McCain, and this nation would have been better today if that had been the case. Does that mean he is the best candidate for today? No, because it is a different time, and there’s too much bad water under the bridge from Cheney/Bush busting the dam to allow yet another four years of a Republican in the executive branch.
Correction: the line beginning with ‘Lord’ should read: ‘Lord, the yahoo-ideologues who still consider the needless invasion and expensively botched occupation of Iraq a good and wonderful idea have not a damn clue.’ Oh for the ability to modify/edit one’s comments on this board…