barack the prophet and the end of times

WEDNESDAY NIGHT

post debate scorecard: mccain did better

but did he do enuf to change the game, no

obama held his own, tie go to the champion

david allen grier: about what i expected

gross and tasteless and not what we need

3 weeks before the election - boy aint got no gravitas

we need gravitas right along in here

stewart and cobert, they silly but they got gravitas

their shows are hard hitting but not wincing, they got gravitas

grier wouldnt know gravitas if it stepped on him, is that too much to ask

btw: that pic is john mccain at an acorn rally: very same folk he now claim

are a menace to society: blatant republican okeydoke, why are we giving it

the time of day

rdoc

WEDNESDAY

let me drop this on you right quick
apparently this skit wont be on david alan griers special

too bad, my understanding is its much better than the stuff that will be

he say for the whitefolk who just cant bring theyself to pull the lever
just vote for the white half, i dont even like david alan greer but this hilarious

i got to say, the boy smoke this one, this on the money:

MONDAY

okay, ima do this one full monty, from time magazine, i found it moving
written by ta-nehisi coates (these colored folk and they names)

i think what made me teary eyed was when he was talking about his generation
dropping the ball the civil rights generation (mine) carried and how obama representing

them, he say they ready to bust the move, make me teary eyed just writing about it

the beautiful struggle indeed

a luta continua and
all my love too

rdoc

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For Blacks, a Quiet Question: What if Obama Loses?

Thursday, Oct. 09, 2008

The first time I saw the Obama gear, I knew it had begun. I do not mean the official campaign paraphernalia. I'm talking about the wares hawked here in Harlem, the black tees sold in sizes up to 5XL, with Barack Obama's head slightly out of proportion. I bought mine on Lenox and 125th--a mustard number with Martin Luther King Jr. and Obama juxtaposed underneath the words ALPHA and OMEGA. That's when I smelled the air and understood that Obama was running not simply to be President but also to be the next head chiseled on the face of the imaginary black Mount Rushmore. That's when I knew, for the first time in my life, that it would be a good year to be black.

Consider this fact: the most famous black man in America isn't dribbling a ball or clutching a microphone. He has no prison record. He has not built a career on four-letter words. So much of our blues boils down to CNN: you go home, you cut on the TV, and always you're reduced to skyrocketing murder rates, singers on trial for defiling children and overvalued athletes making it rain. All black news is bad news, and lately we've just been very tired.

But for more than a year now, we have been treated to a p.r. campaign for our side of the tracks. There is what the world sees in Obama, and then there is what we see. Words like hope, change and progress might seem like naive campaign sloganeering in a dark age. But think of the way those words ring for a people whose forebears marched into billy clubs and dogs, whose ancestors fled north by starlight, feeling the moss on the backs of trees. The sight of the Obama family onstage that first night in Denver was similarly mind-blowing, an image of black families that television so rarely provides. With its quiet class and agility--the beaming beautiful wife, the waving kids--this campaign has confirmed us, assured us that we are more than just a problem.

Compared with all that, an Obama win would be just a start. Surely the next day we would wake up with the scoreboard still the same. Our life spans would still be shorter, our prison rolls longer and our net worths lower than the average American's. But the psychic impact could be enormous. Young blacks, like me, in particular lived with the burden of having dropped the ball that the civil rights generation advanced. Obama is our particular vindication, in that he can't win without the votes of young blacks and in his specific mannerisms. He is the start of our contribution to the fight.

But what if Obama, our vessel of what is best in us, comes up short? What if Obama loses? What will it mean for us all?

African Americans have had to cope with disappointment since the days of slavery. With that come certain defense mechanisms, ways of guarding ourselves against disappointment. Frankly, I was perfectly fine with the idea of never seeing a black President in my lifetime. When Obama entered the race, any expectations we had were negative. We started to see the light in Iowa, but even as his support became a popular movement, there was always a kind of disbelief in the idea that America would really vote for a black man. We'd like to be wrong, but we think we're right. There is no sense in the black community of the kind of entitlement to the presidency felt by some Hillary Clinton supporters. Many of them expressed shock at the sort of sexism that greeted her. But very few black people were shocked that Michelle Obama was called a "baby mama" or that GOP Congressmen seem to have a penchant for referring to Obama as "boy" and "uppity."

That's why an Obama defeat would be met with resignation more than rage. No one is more tired of talking about racism than black people. The disenchantment with protest politics, the fatigue from refighting old battles over school integration and affirmative action, even the rise of politicians like Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick point to a shift in the disposition of black America. The big issues of the day aren't so much racial profiling and police brutality as the achievement gap, the incarceration rate and unemployment. The great race conversation has not only decreased in volume; for black people, it's also become much more introverted. At this moment, black America is in the grips of a kind of barbershop conservatism that is more concerned with its own progress than with the attitudes of whites.

So, yes, an Obama defeat would be greeted with a loud sucking of the teeth and a deepening of self-doubt. A loss would be hugely disappointing, and to put it crudely, it would also be more of the same. But it is also true that the biggest change has already taken place. The Obama campaign has been the anti--O.J. trial, a 24-hour ongoing drama about a black man cast not as a problem but, potentially, as the solution.

Coates is a contributing editor for the Atlantic. His memoir, The Beautiful Struggle, was published in May

SUNDAY

i have felt lately like the grump who stole the audacity of hope
everybody else seem to think barack gon coast to victory

i would like to think so too but i guess im hardwired:
expect the best, prepare for the worst

im my heart i believe we will win, i just dont believe in slacking up till we reach the promiseland, such as it is - 3 weeks is an eternity in a presidential campaign

these are the factors got to be took into consideration:

1) primary is economy, long as it continues to tank mccain will be behind: feel funny and somewhat unethical hoping for 3 more weeks of pain, better that than 8 years of palin

2) next up is groundgame: will youngfolk, blacks and other underrepresented folk turn out: unprecedented registration numbers but a history of underperformance on election day: what about independents, moderates and new democrats: obama depending on his ground game, which appear to be superb, as befitting an old community organizer with a new lick

3) how effectively will obama use his money advantage: instead of usual focus on states you can win campaign has decided on a longgame strategy of contesting states previously ignored because financially able: hoping it will turn redstates blue and help demo downtickets everywhere, dems looking for filibuster proof majorities - big gamble

4) electoral college strategy: mccains strategy of targeting industrial states for flipover in trouble because of economy tanking, recently abandoned previously must win state michighan, in trouble in penn, minn and wisconsin - hold on redstates ohio, iowa, newmex, ncarolina, florida, nev, colorado under pressure from growing democratic constituencies

and obamas imcomparable ground game

5) october surprises - in 2004 bin laden videotape worked for bush because its speculated bin laden prefers bush as a recruiting tool - samesame mccain if videotape or attack or some foreign incident bring the focus back to national security, which may or may not still be mccains strength, he been so erractic lately who knows - so far the october surprises been in our favor, the economy, troopergate et al but 3 weeks a lifetime in a presidential campaign - 3 weeks ago the economy was 'fundamentally sound' if you recall

6) the bradley factor: will race play a part, of course it will, the question is how much a part, how much of a lead does obama have to have to counter any lingering bradleys, race factor may be offset by folk uncomfortable voting for an old man, and mccain get older every day

7) the big question at this point is will mccain be able to slime obama, so far it hasnt worked, if anything its been counterproductive and mccain been locked into playing to a dwindling rabid base - in choosing palin he pretty much committed presidential suicide, turned off independents and turned on the rightwing and thats who show up - palin and rovian acolytes have pulled his rallys into demagogic ground and he is no longer in control of his own message - such as it is

truth be told barack didnt have to be that much of a prophet to know republicans
would go there but back in july barack the prophet called it correct:

heres a prophecy by rickydoc: nov 08: the beginning of the end of the rightwing/republican
era for a couple of generations: the pendulum has swung, a change is gonna come

hold steady

word by rickydoc

Comments

[Dave Malosh]

Amen,

The worst thing that could happen would be for a significant number of those newly registered voters to think "Yeah, we're so far ahead, I don't need to vote." Talk about an okeydoke!