Steele as McCain’s running mate?
July 15, 2008
- According to Marc Ambinder at The Atlantic, former Maryland Lt. Governor Michael Steele will accompany Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain to the NAACP convention in
Steele has been mentioned in some Republican circles as a potential VP pick for McCain. Hip Hop Republican launched a petition to convince Sen. McCain to select Steele as his running mate back in February.
Is Steele really a possible VP pick? With the recent buzz from some black Republicans potentially supporting Sen. Barack Obama, adding Steele to the ticket could potentially bring back those voters (and as we saw in 2000 – small numbers can make a significant difference.) For those black Republicans who feel conflicted between backing someone who more closely aligns with their views and the historical nature of the Obama candidacy, would an African-American in the VP slot suffice?
As far as reasons beyond race go, as chair of GOPAC (an organization dedicated to getting Republicans elected to state and local office), it would stand to reason that he has built up some goodwill at the grassroots level in local communities throughout the country. As a commentator on FOX News, Steele has built up some degree of name recognition.
While the knock on McCain is that he is so old, his Secret Service name is probably Methuselah - Steele is young, not quite 50 and I’m willing to bet he knows how to use a computer.
With all of the excitement Obama has generated, the GOP needs to do something to generate some excitement on their side. In a perfect world, all elections would be based on issues and the ability to lead – but the fact that Flavor of Love lasted 3 seasons lets you know the world is far from perfect. Let’s be real here – another white man on the Republican side is not gonna cut it. The pick will likely be a women or a person of color. You can’t beat making history with repeating it. And there are several potential picks (Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin also come to mind) who are qualified in their own respects, but bring diversity to the ticket as an added plus.
For those who think the idea of Steele on the ticket is outlandish – how many folks thought we’d have a McCain-Obama matchup this time last summer?
Felicia R. Harvey is the Editor of BlackPoliticsontheWeb.com
Offensive magazine covers, baby mamas, and terrorist fist jabs - Journalism Gone Wild or sheer ignorance?
July 14, 2008
In yesterday’s weekly episode of “Racially Insensitive Ideas Gone Wrong,” the New Yorker has proclaimed that a cover depicting Sen. Barack Obama with an enormously drawn head wrapped in a turban and wife Michelle as some type of heat-packing militant Barbie as “satire.” (May I also point out the subtly placed photo of Osama bin Laden and the flag burning in the fireplace.) Satire it may be - I do get that the New Yorker is attempting to embellish upon all of the recycled and hateful comments tossed around during this very long campaign season, but what it also does is play on the not so subtle fears in the back of some minds.
I’ll save my comments about how it seems all the “satire” and sly references to nefarious behavior has seemed to focus on only one direction, towards the Obamas, for now. If this is truly satire, I fully expect to see the McCains gracing the cover of the New Yorker in the near future - with the good Senator with one foot in a coffin and his wife fashionably attired in a pin-striped designer suit, stealing prescription drugs from the back door of a non-profit.
NABJ issued a news release a short time ago about how the newspaper industry shouldn’t treat diversity as a passing fad. Perhaps that directive should be extended to include magazines, television and radio as well. The media has the power to influence many minds - which is why diversity in coverage is important - not just in the newsrooms but the diversity of the newsrooms. Black media, the blogosphere, freelancers and the mainstream media all have a shared responsibility when it comes to covering the issues of the day in a fair manner and exposing ignorance and bias in coverage.
Now personally, I’m not one to be easily offended - I’m a fan of satire and sarcasm (hell, I’m a an avid practitioner of both and who hasn’t laughed at the many caricatures and cartoons about our current Commander in Chief). But all of the backhanded references (eg. Michelle the baby mama/angry black militant woman, Barack the Oreo/magical negro) to all of the most negative and deplorable racial and ethnic stereotypes have got to stop.
Felicia R. Harvey is the Editor of BlackPoliticsontheWeb.com
51% of Democrats support Obama-Clinton ticket
June 5, 2008
Staff Writer, BlackPoliticsontheWeb.com
- According to a Rasmussen Reports survey of 1,000 likely voters on June 4, 51% of Democrats surveyed support a Clinton-Obama ticket, with 30% opposed and 19% unsure. Among African-Americans surveyed, less than half - 45% support Clinton in the VP slot, with 35% opposed and 19% undecided.
If not on the Democratic ticket, 30% of all voters surveyed feel Clinton should wage an independent campaign, 28% of Democrats share that view, while 16% of African-Americans polled hold that same view.
No way, no how: No HRC for VP
June 4, 2008
Felicia R. Harvey, Special to BlackPoliticsontheWeb.com
- No. Nein. Non. Mai. Nope. Uh-uh. Nah.
Seven different ways to say no and a quick language translation or use of profanity will yield you a lot more. All of which should be the answer to the question of whether or not Sen. Hillary Clinton should be on the Democratic ticket.
A campaign centered around change cannot bring into the fold a throwback to the politics of old. Sure some would be happy with a so-called “Dream Team,” but I would also think just as many voters who really took the message of change and a new brand of politics to heart would be disillusioned.
As I sat and watched the Clinton infomercial (because her ‘go to my website at hillaryclinton.com and share your thoughts’ sounded a lot like Ms. Cleo’s ‘call me now’), I listened to her squander an opportunity to take the high road and not elbow her way into the spotlight of a historical night. I heard her plea for the 18 million people who voted for her to “be respected, to be heard and to no longer be invisible.” Unfortunately we hear and see them, we saw just how tacky and classless they could be at the DNC Rules & Bylaws Committee meeting. We hear their chants of “Denver, Denver, Denver” and “McCain 2008.”
We saw her backers try to hijack rules that they supported at the outset. Where were all the cries of disenfranchisement when the rules were passed? And not having a crystal ball and being able to see the train wreck that has occurred is no excuse.
The Clinton campaign has essentially written the Republican’s general election campaign strategy and I am sure that McCain and company are no doubt appreciative. If by some travesty, we end up with an Obama-Clinton ticket, she’ll have written their campaign commercials as well.
Announcer: If Hillary Clinton has no faith in Barack Obama answering the phone at 3 a.m., why should you…
If Clinton held out any hope of being on the ticket, she squandered it last night by not exiting stage left gracefully. Instead she pumped herself up a la Stuart Smalley - “I’m Good Enough, I’m Smart Enough, and Doggone It, People Like Me” and moonwalked off the stage like everyone on planet Earth missed CNN/Fox/AP call the State of Denial for Clinton and award its 219 delegates to her.
Enough is enough. If the Democrats truly want to take back the White House, no HRC for VP.
2008 Democratic presidential race or high school politics? You decide…
May 11, 2008
Once upon a time there was a girl named Tillary. Tillary was a zealous overachiever – she was the president of her high school’s junior class, made straight As, always did her chores at home – a real standup student. At the end of her junior year, she decided to run for Student Government president. Everyone just knew Tillary was a shoo-in, she seemed to be born to lead. A lot of the other popular student leaders figured there was no way to beat Till so they decided not to run against her – and besides they could always run for president of the other clubs and who knows, maybe Tillary would choose them as the SG Vice-President or Secretary of Student Activities.
To everyone’s surprise, when it came time for students to run – a few of the bolder students decided to throw their hats in the ring. There was the president of the National Honor Society, the captain of the debate team, and a few others – but one person caught everyone’s attention- the president of the sophomore class decided to run. Everyone liked the kid, but noone really thought he would win – everyone knew the president was ALWAYS a rising senior!
Initially, only a few kids that really liked the guy Owama decided to help him out, but as the election played out – the freshman (who the rising seniors usually ignored because they didn’t know any better), the athletes (that never voted), and the whiz kids started to rally around Owama. Even the kids that weren’t from the surrounding neighborhood started to get involved. Owama caught the bus to school like them, so they were so excited to see someone from the neighborhood have a real shot, they went all out to help him. Owama wasn’t the first “kid on the bus” to run, but he had the best chance.
Tillary and the rest of her friends didn’t like this at all. They started saying negative things about Owama – “he cheated in algebra,” “he’s not from the neighborhood, he’s not a diehard Dragon like the rest of us,” “he’s only a sophomore, he’s barely been here long enough to know the alma mater.”
None of this seemed to work, in fact the more they talked about Owama, the more popular he became! Even the current senior class (who could vote, but generally stayed out of it because they were content to let the classes that would still be around determine the outcome) tried to talk some sense into Tillary. “Till,” one said, “don’t you realize that the more you talk about Owama, the more you will divide the school. And the real prize is the student that leads the county council (which is chosen from the SG presidents from all the county high schools). You are going to make it easy for our rival Jack to win the county council chair!”
But Tillary didn’t care about that, it was her turn! She’d started putting together her campaign team and strategy in middle school and damnit she was going to win! So she tried to convince the seniors (who usually stayed neutral) to vote for her because they’d known her longer, they were her friends and they couldn’t let this kid come and mess up their school! She told them that freshmen didn’t know any better so that’s why they were supporting him, the whiz kids are only voting for him because he was on the math team and that noone really cared about the neighborhood kids – they were going to come to the county council meeting and vote for her anyways because they always do.
Voting began on Monday and ended on Friday. Each day the totals were posted and each day she was more behind at the end of the day. She would get a little closer, but never really close enough to have a serious chance at winning. She tried to get the SG advisor to change the rules – kids who were suspended from school couldn’t vote because they broke the rules, but since they were her friends – she thought they should have a vote.
Of course she didn’t have to drop out, voting really didn’t end until Friday. But the only way she could really win was to let the suspended kids vote and encourage all of the seniors (who traditionally voted on Friday for the candidate who was ahead on Thursday) to vote for her – some earlier than Friday. But all of the bad things she was saying about Owama were spreading through the county and Jack from RHS (who’d easily won SG president) and his friends were licking their chops because she’d done all the dirty work for them!
On Friday afternoon – the results were announced and to noone’s surprise Owama won. And Tillary looked really foolish because most of the seniors she’d lobbied to vote for her, ended up voting for him just because they didn’t want to damage Owama’s chances further in running for county council chair. While the seniors don’t usually get involved, all of the DHS family takes pride in holding the county council chair, and the president of RHS had won the last three times. A lot of students throughout the county were tired of RHS and since RHS and DHS are the largest high schools – Owama would have a good shot at winning… or so they thought.
Fast forward to the county council assembly - RHS had all of their students out and ready, they’d had time to really rally around Jack and they were even able to pick off a few DHS students who just got tired of all the drama around their own elections. Owama was energized and so were all of his supporters, even those from some of other high schools. But the election at DHS had taken its toll. While Jack and RHS were out holding bake sales and car washes to raise money for their campaign, Owama and Tillary were still in the middle of their election – even when it was almost certain that Owama would win. Jack went to some of the other high schools like IHS and GHS to campaign while the fight was still raging at DHS.
So in the end, Jack won, but it was really close – so close that all of DHS knew if Tillary wouldn’t have stuck around saying bad things about Owama and trying to change the rules of the election – they would have won the county chair handily.
And since Owama ran as a rising junior, at the end of his junior year – he ran again and won easily and DHS was ready to take on RHS this time and won by a landslide!
And what happened to Tillary? Well, class elections are at the beginning of the school year, so while Owama was SG president, Tillary ran for senior class president. And even though she’d been president of the freshman, sophomore, and junior classes – she lost badly. Everyone was tired of Tillary and they blamed her for losing the county council chair. The seniors that had graduated and gone on to college, military, or to the workforce wouldn’t speak to her or help her out with their friends that were still there. She was an outcast. She eventually graduated and went to a small college overseas, never to be heard from again.
The End
Felicia R. Harvey is the Editor of BlackPoliticsontheWeb.com.
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