"Change has come to America"

It's been a CRAZY 48 to 72 hours.

WE DID IT!!!

Change has come to America and while I'm not deluded into thinking that Barack or any one President or any one person can solve all of our problems, I know that we are off on the right direction again. I know that my President is a man of honor, intelligence, respect given and great respect received around the world. I have NEVER seen the election of an American president this acclaimed and celebrated around the planet. People and nations that were fearful of us before, angry with us before and felt that America's greatest days were behind her will be lining up to work wit this man and that is good for us.

Wow...we can want our children to be like the President, the ULTIMATE positive role model...not just for African-American children but for all children. Just like Dr. King. He wasn't an African-American hero, he was an American hero who just happened to be black and I know tha Obama has yet to earn 'hero' status but something in me tells me that he will.

His presidency will be rough, he'll make mistakes along the way but I believe him when he says that he won't lie to us and that he'll make his decisions the same way he ran his campaign. With discipline, with thought of the future and with the welfare of the American people in mind always.

On a personal note, aside from intermittent crying for the last 36 hours, the second they flashed the words 'BARACK OBAMA HAS BEEN ELECTED 44TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES', I've been so proud, so hopeful, so overjoyed and so reflective. In Astoria, we poured out into the streets cheering and dancing then we heard one of the most inspirational speeches in American history from our new President and I have never heard anything like it.

Then Michelle and I drove to Harlem and I was born and raised there and even I have never seen a scene like it: a brass marching band down 125th street, fireworks, people of ALL CREEDS, COLORS AND WALKS OF LIFE hugging, cheering, dancing, celebrating. I held back the tears as I drove and honked my horn and thought to myself that this scene...is LITERALLY...Martin Luther King's dream come true.

We are one...finally, we are one.

I then proceeded to drive to my grandmother's house (she is 77 and she was still up at 1am) and I double parked the car and RAN upstairs with my huge Obama poster, lawn sign and book to give it to her because if there's anyone who appreciates this moment in history, it's her.

I knocked on her door, she opened it and we were both crying...I've never seen my grandmother cry. She's a strong woman who has had to be strong all these years to endure what she has. We hugged and talked and I presented her with the things and she immediately said that she'd need a frame so that she could put Barack's picture 'right next to Martin's...where it belongs'.

Tuesday night was such a special night and we all made it happen. I think that's the most special part of all this. It was a victory for ALL Americans and even people in other countries are ecstatic.

History.

The Fierce Urgency of Now

A candidate needs 270 electoral votes to win the Presidency.

Both parties have LOCKED DOWN states that they're not losing i.e. New York for Obama and Texas for McCain.

When these states are factored out:

Obama:
Vermont - 3
Connecticut - 7
Delaware - 3
Illinois - 21
Maine - 4
Maryland - 10
Massachusetts - 12
New Jersey - 15
District of Columbia - 3
Michigan - 17
Minnesota - 10
New York - 31
Rhode Island - 4
Wisconsin - 10
Iowa - 7
California - 55
Hawaii - 4
Oregon - 7
Washington - 11

That adds up to 234 electoral votes.

McCain:
Georgia - 15
Kentucky - 8
South Carolina - 8
West Virginia - 5
Alabama - 9
Mississippi - 6
Oklahoma - 7
Tennessee - 11
Arkansas - 6
Arizona - 10
Kansas - 6
Louisiana - 9
Nebraska - 5
South Dakota - 3
Texas - 34
Wyoming - 3
Montana - 3
Utah - 5
Idaho - 4
North Dakota - 3
Alaska - 3

That adds up to 163 electoral votes

Okay...that's where we stand. Some would argue about Iowa and Minnesota on Barack's side but Iowa has gone blue in four of the last five elections and Minnesota hasn't gone red since 1972. Couple that with Obama's large and growing leads in both states and I'd call them solid.

So that's where it sits...234 to 163

Leaving 11 swing states:

Ohio - 20
Virginia - 13
Indiana - 11
Florida - 27
North Carolina - 15
Missouri - 11
New Hampshire - 4
Pennsylvania - 21
Colorado - 9
New Mexico - 5
Nevada - 5

A total of 141 electoral votes up for grabs.

Obama only needs 36 of those 141 electoral votes (25%) to be elected President. McCain has to grab 75% of the contested swing states despite being down in the polls in almost all of those states.

And I'm thinking we should know relatively early into the evening what the outcome is likely to be. Eight of these swing states close their polls at or before 8pm:

7:00pm
Virginia - 13
Indiana - 11

7:30pm
Ohio - 20
North Carolina - 15

8:00pm
Florida - 27
Pennsylvania - 21
Missouri - 11
New Hampshire - 4

9:00pm
Colorado - 9

10:00pm
Nevada - 5

Now, I'm not saying this to be cocky or to say that we've got it made and we can sit back. Quite the contrary, the McCain campaign has known this for some time. Which is why we're seeing this desperate, hyperaggressive push to impugn Barack's character. Because they know they can't win by discussing the issues.

We can laugh at the foibles of Sarah Palin and her 'Pretty Woman' shopping sprees and McCain and those corny air quotes and contorted facial expressions but the reality is that they will be working HARD to try and steal as many states...and votes (wink)...as they can and we Obama supporters please need to keep emailing our friends and wearing our gear and if you can volunteer at all this weekend, it will really make the difference. You can go to barackobama.com to find phone banks and other organizing efforts right in your neighborhood. Let's fight the slanderous robocalls with live voices speaking the truth.

This is it, people...the home stretch. We stand on the precipice of the most historic election in our lifetime and perhaps in American history. The stakes have never been higher.

The choice to elect a lapdog of the current administration who has professed a DESIRE for war, continued tax cuts for the super-rich and a blatant disregard and mocking of issues like education, women's health and the environment. An erratic self-styled deregulator who had one message about the strength of the economy when he boarded a plane and had a completely different message when that plane landed.

And the choice to elect an intelligent, principled leader who knows, firsthand, the struggles of the middle class and has tangible plans to address them. A man who sees other people in other lands not as enemies but as allies first and will restore America's good standing in the world and a candidate for President who has earned the respect, the endorsement and the backing of countless elder statesman, military experts and financial authorities. A rare public servant who wins the respect not only of the Warren Buffetts and the Colin Powells but the bus drivers and the teachers and homemakers of this great land.

In less than a week, we can make history but we have to work at it. We can do this. We will do this. But we all need to lend a hand. We're almost at the finish line, guys. Change is almost upon us.

Let's get 'em...

The Seven Words That Killed John McCain's Presidential Campaign

..."The fundamentals of our economy are strong"

Howard Dean had 'YYYYEEEEEEEEEHHHAAAAAAAAAAA'

John Kerry had 'I voted for it before I voted against it'

Ronald Reagan killed Carter with "...there you go again."

Now John McCain just had his tombstone moment. He made the unfortunate mistake of walking lockstep with the President and the administration on this one just DAYS before the Economic Tsunami hit and he was forced, along with the bumbling President, to retract those statements and ring the alarm bells. It's the equivalent of a carnie assuring nervous parents that 'this ride is absolutely safe' just minutes before their children are crushed under thousands of pounds of smoking, twisted steel.

Those seven words painted John McCain not as a maverick and a shaker-upper but as a mouthpiece for Nero's administration while Rome was ablaze.

In his heart, I honestly believe that John McCain is a good man and that he was a reformer at heart. But in selling his soul to the very people who sank his campaign in 2000, he's been looking less like the driver of the Straight Talk Express and more like just another neocon card in Bush's deck. That's honestly the last thing I expected of him.

It sucks that he had to do that in order to gain support from his own party. They couldn't take him as he was because the GOP, at its core, is not about expressing your ideas...it's about kissing the ring and falling in line with the party's ideals or else you don't get a shot at the title.

Something tells me after this is all over and John's back in Arizona, he'll actually cry in a room alone knowing that his blind lust for a job made him do things that 5 years of physical torture in a dark pit couldn't do...break his spirit and make him compromise his core beliefs.

As far as his decision to postpone his campaign and the first Presidential debate, he apparently won't even need an airplane to fly back to Washington to singlehandedly save the U.S. economy. I mean, without him, we're all doomed, right??? Sure, he's admitted that he doesn't know much about the economy but a little thing like that won't stop him.

What's he going to do? Serve coffee and donuts to the actual Economists who will be solving this crisis?

Maybe the truth lies somewhere in the middle

We get so caught up this time of year in partisan politics (myself definitely included). We're pulling for our team. Red vs. Blue. Sox vs. Yanks. Bloods vs. Crips. It's tribalism in its purest form that transcends the concepts of unity, truth and fairness in its most extreme cases. But there's a political reality that we hate to face.

The Left and the Right NEED one another.

Trust me when I say that the kid in the Che Guevara t-shirt with the eyebrow ring does NOT want to live in a 100% Leftist country with the central government controlling how many children he can have as in China or whether or not he may own a television set or a cell phone as in Cuba. You don't want to go full on Socialist with 60% tax rates and overt economic redistribution so you definitely don't want to go full-on North Korea style Communism.

At the same, Ma and Pa O'Shansky out in the suburbs of Indiana...you REALLY don't want a completely Conserative, completely deregulated, socially intrusive system of government where there IS no central government to speak of. It's the Wild West. Tax money doesn't go to protect the common peace so you'd better save up for a better and bigger gun than the local roving band of thieves and rapists. Also, you'd really hope that nothing catches fire because there's no organized fire department and the roads, bridges and tunnels you take for granted everyday...forget it. All financed and maintained through the tax money that you railed against. You'll have to home school your children as there is no longer such a thing a public school and literally take your chances when you put your money in a bank as there are no government protection ensuring your money. If you lose your job, there's no unemployment insurance. When you grow old, you'd better hope that you'd played the stock market correctly or its Cat Food Fridays for you as Social Security is a chapter in a history book.

The truth of the matter is that both of the dominant political philosophies NEED one another because there is one concept that ACTUALLY keeps America strong and secure. It's not Liberalism. It's not Conservatism. It's EQUILIBRIUM. Balance. A mixture of the two.

It's knowing that someone out there is ensuring that the water that comes out of your tap is clean and safe without paying a 70% tax rate. It's knowing that every element of that cheeseburger you're biting into was inspected by a human being at some point in its development. It's having banks and mutual funds and money markets but having them regulated so that robber barons and crooks can't just steal your money...and if they do, there's a government agency that exists to go after them.

It's the constant tug-of-war between Democrats and Republicans that keeps this nation strong, sharp and responsive and responsible to the people of this nation.

So Democrats, while we don't like Karl Rove or Dick Cheney...they are not Satan (I'm pretty sure, at least)

Republicans, the word Liberal is not a dirty word and we don't spend all our time smoking weed, having unprotected gay sex and figuring out ways to spend your money. We totally use condoms.

I kid. I kid.

Either way, this is my call for people, during the 24-hour news spin cycle that FoxNews, CNN and MSNBC has us in, to reisist the temptation to hate and mistrust thy neighbor. Republicans can be funny and Democrats love their children.

We all want a safe, prosperous nation with a stable, growing economy and a completely fair and just social and judicial system. We just have different ideas of how to get there.

What part of 'small town values' was Sarah Palin's $2,500 RNC jacket part of?

I don't know many small town hockey moms who own $2,500 Valentino jackets?

Wake up, people. Anyone running for President or Vice President is NOT LIKE YOU...

They are, by nature, elite. Being elite isn't a bad thing. It's a good thing. But what is bad is playing the 'baby-holding, straight-talking, PTA-directing, hockey-momming' role when you're SWIMMING in cash and not feeling any of the effects of the downturning economy.

It's like that slumlord who parks his Mercedes 10 blocks from his tenement and changes out of his suit into overalls so that he can play the role of 'long-suffering small-business owner who's just like his tenants' to keep them from beating him to death for the lack of heat and hot water in December.

McCain's New Campaign Slogan: "Yeah......What HE Said"

Funny...who was that war hero who was openly mocking the message of hope and change just a couple of months ago???

Why that would be John S. McCain.

In the biggest speech of his life, guess who switched from a platform of 'experience' to one of change and hope for the future???

Why that would be John S. McCain.

I was honestly expecting him to say "Yes, we CAN bring about change that we can believe in, my friends..."

Dancing John McCain is deseprate...he brings on an exciting neophyte to boost ratings...he's switching his message left and right...he's pimping his service record...even longtime Republican Congressmen are saying that they've never heard John go into such explicit detail about his years in captivity.

John "Whatever Works" McCain has jumped the shark and is gassing up the motorcycle for another run.

The Biggest Crab In The Barrel?

Like many other African-Americans of my age group (34) and older, I am, in large measure a product of the African-American church. A multifaceted and multipurpose institution that, since the times of slavery, has served a myriad functions. Community center, spiritual base, social networking hub and nexus of political organization. It was the rock-solid foundation of the black church that first gave voice to brave visionaries such as Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. DuBois, Booker T. Washington, Medgar Evers, Fannie Lou Hamer and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and many others. We, as an African-American people, have always been able to rely on the guidance, the stability and the leadership of the church in times of peril and in times of joy. It served as our collective backbone as the physical shackles of slavery fell, emboldened us to stand up for our rights as the social and bureaucratic bonds of Jim Crow were broken and as a new generation began to take their place, slowly but surely, in the halls of academia, business, entertainment and public life in this country.

With that said, there is another side of many black churches and their teachings that doesn't get publicized to outsiders. You won't find these sermons on days when the Clintons or any other non-minority guests are sitting up on the stage.

As much as the themes of promise and hope and optimism for the future are preached in many circles of African-American spiritual life, so, too, are the motifs of victimhood and remembering the pain and scorn and 'the white man's out to getcha'. It is infused, sometimes subtly and sometimes overtly, right along with the lessons learned of Paul on the road to Damascus and the Sermon on the Mount. It is burned into the mind of many small black children that he is not American but he is African-American and he will encounter a wall of hatred, a nation ready to scorn and mock and step on him if he is too successful or too unapologetic. It preaches that there are two Americas and two sets of rules that he, unfortunately, is on the wrong side of. Even if that child's path is unimpeded, that paranoia that this programming and those lessons manifested still exist. Every time a scowl is thrown our way or a taxicab fails to see our hail, we wonder...'was that it?...was that the vile racist scourge preparing to eat me up?'...or was it just a person having a bad day or a daydreaming taxi driver who missed the opportunity for a fare.

Here in 2008, many black preachers like Jeremiah Wright take their sermons almost directly from the pages of sermon books from the 1960s without regard or care that we are in a new time. Without pause to think that maybe, just maybe, we have finally overcome. Maybe we finally did reach that Promised Land that Martin talked about just days before his death. Maybe the social medicine that America was forced to take some 40 years ago has cured the patient. Maybe we are in a post-racial time after all.

The problem is this. Old school pastors like Wright, like the Reverend Al Sharpton and many others cannot fathom this. They cannot understand that while individual instances of racism or classism or sexism will always exist, the institutionalized barriers to the success of African-Americans throughout the country have been smashed to bits. There will always be individual instances of redlining or racial violence or intolerance but to hold every white American accountable for the actions of a shrinking few only keeps the wounds open. Only keeps those forces that Barack mentioned yesterday, those who use hate as their sword and intolerance and bigotry as their shield, emboldened and justified in their sick way of thinking.

You'll hear differently in younger African-American churches. Congregations with members who only know a world with a free Nelson Mandela, where the best golfer in the world has brown skin and the prospect of becoming a success is not a pipe dream as it was for their parents. A world where college is a reality and making it out of the hood does not have to include a basketball, a microphone or a gun. It's a beautiful world where any man or woman can take hold of their own destiny and make it closer to their American Dream. We are there.

For whatever reason, Rev. Jeremiah Wright is insisting on making himself a central character in the sideshow that has become the quest for the Democratic Nomination for President. For some reason, he's chosen this crucial time to be as vocal, as incendiary and as divisive as he can be.

Rev. Wright is a very intelligent man and he knows that such a distraction, such polarizing speech as he's been engaging in, will do nothing but harm to Barack Obama's chances not just for the nomination but against John McCain in the general election. I pray that this is not the ULTIMATE instance of 'crabs in a barrel'. That Wright is not somehow fueled with some sort of personal vendetta against Barack and has thus taken up a cause to ruin his chances at the office. That would be, without a doubt, the highest form of treason against black America. To cause the downfall of the first African-American Presidential hopeful, 40 years after the death of Martin Luther King, to quench the flames of your own ego.

End of the day, Obama is handling all this the right way and he's still on track to win the nomination and the Presidency but this act by this one preacher, hopefully, will get many in the African-American community taking longer, harder looks at what we're being taught and led to believe about our own potential and our place in this country. And, honestly, what some in the pulpit are prepared to do to make sure that we don't achieve TOO much as to invalidate their politics of division, their sermons of victimhood and their profitable agenda of displaced blame.

The Dream Lives On

I hear alot of people trying to disparage Sen. Obama by saying 'oh...he's just trying to sound like Martin Luther King'. If only Barack were so lucky. If only ALL OF US were so lucky to be as eloquent, as principled, as passionate and as sacrificing as Dr. King.

Forty years ago, a great man died for what was right. He was an idealist. He was an optimist. He was a dreamer. A man who loved this nation so much that he couldn't go on seeing it harm itself with a spirit of hypocrisy and hatred. He detested the backward, self-destructive nature of racism while loving the racist who spat in his face.

Forty years ago, the Dreamer died. But the dream lives on.

Martin lived for hope. He died for change. He opposed a corrupt and unjust war and paid the ultimate price for daring to speak up and change this land for the better.

Today, Barack Obama speaks of that same hope. Today, Senator Obama challenges us to remember that same spirit of change. He, too, opposed a rushed and questionable war. Today and tomorrow, he dares to speak of the power within all of us to stand up and change our nation for the better. To not stand idly by with our arms folded in cynicism. But to reach out to one another, embracing our fellow American in brotherhood and love and with a spirit of cooperative hope.

There is a reason that Barack Obama's message touches the heart and stirs the mind. It's because we have heard it before. We heard it in Selma and Montgomery from Dr. King. We heard it in Johannesburg from Nelson Mandela. We heard it in India from Mahatma Gandhi.

It's a universal song so sweet to the heart and so common to the human experience that it's lyrics will always energize people who hunger for freedom and equality. It will always quench the thirst of those seeking a better life free from hatred, bigotry and corruption.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the death of the Dreamer but his Dream is about to come true. A man shall rise among us in the greatest nation on Earth with a message of peace and love and equality and hope. His skin color won't matter. His lineage won't matter. Only his ideas will matter. Only his heart and his mind and his ability to unite us will matter.

"Free at last" said the dreamer.

Free at last. Thank God almighty...we are free at last.

There's nothing democratic about the Democrats, it seems

It's the day after Super Tuesday and, according to CNN, Barack Obama is leading Hillary Clinton according to Pledged Delegates 603 to 590.

This means that more of THE PEOPLE want Obama to be our next Democratic nominee for President.

Then along comes the past. The old days of backroom decision making. The 'Superdelegates' including her own husband.

Now, because of these insiders who are apparently way more important than the average voter, she's now up 783 to 709.

Is it just me or does anyone else see a problem with allowing a person (who cares if they're a former President) to have such a glut of power in our electoral process and be able to personally hijack this election from the will of the people? With this system, there are actually two elections going on. One out in the open and one being decided over high-priced dinners and on the golf course. The people can never truly have a grassroots outsider rise up from amongst them because the old entrenched suits within the Democratic Party can just strike him down.

It's not over and I believe that Obama will still win but the concept of the Superdelegate needs to be done away with. How disgusting would it be if a former President is able to personally install his own wife as the "Democratic" nominee?

Obama's the man in Iowa. Time to start screening his calls.

Just saw Jesse Jackson on CNN and he couldn't go two minutes without running down the laundry list of offenses that African-Americans have to endure on a daily basis. The question was: why did you say that Barack was 'acting white' in that article some months back.

Damn.

I'll give you Al Sharpton. A bullhorn has nothing on him in terms of volume. He's a big, fat, loud, arrogant political boss who offers knee-jerk reactions to racial situations that just happen to suit and promote his personal agendas. I fell out of love with the guy when he strongly hinted on NYC radio that the reason he's supporting Hillary and not Barack was because Hillary had no problem ponying up a check to his Political Action Network aka his pockets.

But I've always seen Jesse as a very diluted MLK. Is he really hopelessly stuck on the issue of race in terms of what he can focus on???

I'm saying this because I've been reading alot about Obama's win and one refrain keeps coming up by his supporters and even people who didn't vote for him but respect and admire him:

"He never plays the race card. He wouldn't be the first Black President. He'd be a smart, young, honest President who just happened to have a father born in Africa."

Damn. I have to agree with another poster here that Barack would be best served to never appear in a photo with either of these two divisive forces. And when I say 'divisive forces', I'm not saying that what they're saying isn't true or valid but just that taking everything to the racial level makes people want to vote for you less and less and less. Your greater message gets lost in the whole 'black man' thing.

If I was Obama's campaign manager, I'd hire two people. One to monitor the physical whereabouts of Sharpton and Jackson 24/7 and MAKE SURE there was never an occassion before the general election where they'd meet and have 'that picture' taken by a member of the press.

Damn.