Yes, yes, yes, despite my earlier thoughts on Obama, I have gained new insights and reasons to support him as president of the United states! http://www.barackobama.com/index.php
Of course the Chicago Sun-Times has endorsed Barrack Obama for president, which we expected since the paper is considered 'democratic', but the Chicago Tribune-a republican (Right leaning) paper which has never endorsed a democrat, has also endorsed Obama a Democrat over McCain a republican!
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-chicago-tribune-endorsement,0,1371034.story?track=email-alert-breakingnews
Most unions, including the Chicago Teachers Union and the AFL-CIO, among many others are also supporting Obama for president! You may ask, rightly so, how I can support him, after all that I've written to date. Well, if Hillary Clinton can support Obama for president of the United States, after all that she's said initially while running against him, I can certainly support him! http://cbrkelvinrealestate.typepad.com/the_ins_and_outs_of_real_/2008/04/hillary-clinton.html
Also, former Secretary of State and Republican, General Colin Powell has endorsed Barrack Obama for president of the United states, which speaks volumes about Obama's appeal!
Additionally, the Chicago Sun-Times (of course) and surprisingly the Chicago Tribune - traditionally thought a republican newspaper - for the first time in it's history is endorsing Barack Obama!
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-chicago-tribune-endorsement,0,1371034.story
And my supporting Obama for president doesn't invalidate my earlier disappointment at some of the things that he has said (namely the talking down to blacks during his personal responsibility speeches and the inappropriate references to blacks eating fried chicken for breakfast), but rather reflects the fact that I know that he is the only logical choice for president, Edwards, my first choice is no longer in the race (and it's time for me to get over it) and McCain/Palin is just not a viable option for a host of reasons!
To backtrack, earlier this year during the start of his 'personal responsibility' speeches to black fathers, Obama used some racial stereotypes in his speeches that I absolutely deplore (and was accused by The Rev. Jessie Jackson (who is also an Obama supporter) and rightly so, of talking down to black folks! http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/07/09/jesse.jackson.comment/
For one thing, he said that blacks need to cook nutritious meals for their kids in the morning and stop letting them get fat eating Popeyes chicken every morning for breakfast! http://egarooo.blogspot.com/2008/03/obama-says-black-folks-eat-fried.html
'Obama's fried chicken speach' was extremely offensive, in retrospect - I believe, even to Barack Obama! In a recent newsletter by a California Republican women's club in San Bernardino County a mock $10.00 food stamp was created with a photo of Barack Obama surrounded by a bucket of fried chicken, a slab of ribs, a pitcher of kool-aid and a slice of watermelon!
To add insult to injury, when the group's president, Diane Fedele said that she was merely poking fun at Obama because he had said no one on us currency ever looked like him.... so they put him on a food stamp!
http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_S_buck16.3d67d4a.html
Yet another symbol of the majesty of American Intellect, originally uploaded by permanently scatterbrained.
The Obama camp was also offended, and rightly so, at the inappropriate 'satirical' cover of the New Yorker Magazine's caricature of Obama and his wife as al quaida operatives, with Obama in full 'Muslim garb'!
http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/07/14/obama-camp-slams-satirical-new-yorker-magazine-cover/
While the mock $10.00 dollar bill pictured above is extremely crude and offensive, I'm glad that the Republican group did it and got lots of exposure for it. Because, despite John McCain's repudiation of the image(s), it proves that there is a mean spiritedness and overtly racist element that has always been a part of the Grand Old Party and remains so to date! Black republicans............... shame on you!
And if Obama is offended by racist stereotypes, why would he have used one in his 'Personal Responsibility' speeches to blacks. It's important to remember (and for me to remind myself) that, as with most high level politicians, and especially presidential hopefuls, Obama doesn't write most of his speeches, and may see some speeches just minutes before they are delivered and before he has a chance to have them changed or re-written!
The speech that Obama gave with the references to blacks feeding their children 'fried chicken for breakfast' was very likely written by his top speech writer; John Favreau who is white, and the insensitivity of what I have coined 'Obama's fried chicken speech', may more closely reflect Favreau's feelings than those of Obama. (Or as I mentioned in an earlier post, may have been purposely written to endear Obama to White Americans)
I am not a member of Obama's close circle, but one thing that I can tell you for sure, for sure, for sure, is that after the Inland Republican women's groups racist caricature of Obama on the mock $10.00 bill, Obama will NEVER again give any speeches denouncing blacks for feeding their children fried chicken for breakfast! I GUARANTEE IT!
Also, I stated earlier that Obama is so smart that he had to know that he couldn't win the presidential race, because of deep seated and often subtle American racism. Because Obama said "definitively" in a 2006 Chicago magazine article that he would not be running for president in 2008.
But in retrospect, since Obama is half white, was raised and nurtured by his white grandparents (unlike most half blacks whom are overwhelmingly disowned by their white relatives) and raised in Hawaii - mostly - where racism is shunned and considered bad mannered, Obama probably did believed that he could win the white house!
Most 'first blacks' in any field or profession are almost always either half white, or more white (genetically) than black, (Booker T. Washington, Frederick Douglass, Halle Berry, Vanessa Williams and Susette Charles, Walter White, Lena Horne, Dorothy Dandridge, Adam Clayton Powell) so why should't Obama have felt that he had a chance to be the first 'black' president of the USA?
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/jefferson/mixed/onedrop.html
Obama wants to raise taxes on the upper class and big business, while lower the taxes on the middle class! Other things that Obama will do is..............
1. Obama wants to reign in corporate America and more closely regulate private industry in order to safeguard the public and prevent the kind of economic turmoil caused by the last 8 years of republican 'Rule'!
2. If you have a son or daughter in Iraq, Obama wants to bring them home to you and allow the Iraqi people to resolve their own problems while we deal with more pressing economic problems here at home!
3. Obama wants to keep employee paid health insurance as is and not tax it as income, which would raise employees' (with employer paid health) taxes. [More on this in a future post.]
4. Obama wants to end tax breaks given to companies that off-shore, to encourage more companies to remain stateside or repatriate themselves. Off-shoring is partially responsible for the current housing crisis, as every job that is shipped overseas is onel less job here in America and one more home owner with a mortgage that will likely go into foreclosure!
After careful examination of Obama's plan, I have to say that it makes sense! We do need change in the White House, [and not laxed regulation and government hands off approach to regulating business while they wreck havoc on our economy and the economies of the entire world], same old trickle down economics; "Bushonomics" that have plagued our country for the last 8 years and that have driven our financial system right down the drain, along with the housing market!
The only way that Obama can loose now is if there is once again massive voter election fraud and disenfranchisement, and if the supreme court steps in again to block a recount, if the count is contested, as they did to ensure that George W III could keep the election win that he stole!
As i've written before, I don't think it's smart to vote for someone based on their Gender or Race. I initially supported John Edwards, not Obama, [partly because I believed that Edwards had the best chance of winning, and also because I felt that (and still believe that it was the case) the GOP felt Obama had the least chance of beating them, while Edwards could have beaten them easily, then Hillary could have also beaten him, but that because of his race, Obama had the least chance and that was why they insured that he won the nomination. Call me a conspiracy theorist, it's ok.
I am objective to the point of coming off as...........critical. I didn't rush in, obviously, to support Obama for President, but have done so only after careful thought, tons of reading, and just plain 'observing the economy under the current republican administration. So, I believe that if I can support Obama, even though I have had some misgivings about some aspects of his candidacy, you should strongly consider supporting and voting for him as well!
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