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Jesse Jackson: Obama's Success Makes Us All Winners
Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
[Oh, the hackneyed hot-button words. If Hugo Chavez is always "fiery"
or a "firebrand," (positively hellish), Obama is supposed to make you
think of cherubs floating in the heavens. His rhetoric is always
"soaring." He "lifts our hearts" with hope. Sounds like the angels in
the Philadelphia Cream Cheese ads. Jesus, can't these people buy a
thesaurus? You can sell the same brand with the same images, but a
slightly varied vocabulary. -NY Transfer]
sent by Ed Pearl
Chicago Sun-Times - Jan 8, 2008
http://www.suntimes.com/news/jackson/729978,CST-EDT-jesse08.article
Obama's success is making us all winners
By JESSE JACKSON
Barack Obama's stunning victory in Iowa lifts our hearts, no matter
whom we sup****t. You can't help but be touched by a brilliant,
passionate African American with a message of hope winning the vote of
Iowa's presidential caucuses. Although it's only a first step in a long
race for Obama, it is surely a giant step for America.
Nearly 44 years ago, Fanny Lou Hamer led the Mississippi Freedom
Democratic Party to the Democratic convention in Atlantic City,
challenging a Mississippi delegation that had systematically excluded
all blacks. Hamer had to kick open locked doors simply to gain a
hearing. She was dismissed by President Lyndon Johnson as an
"illiterate." In the end, two delegates from the Freedom Democratic
Party were seated, on condition that Hamer not be among them. Four
years later, Democrats required equal representation. And now four
decades later, an African-American leader can compete on a more level
playing field.
On the stage of the Democratic debate Saturday night in New Hamp****re
were the leading candidates for the nomination -- a white woman, an
African American, a white man and a Latino -- strong leaders all,
contesting for the presidency. (Dennis Kucinich was unfairly excluded
from the debate.) We have come a long way.
George Bush the First talked in New Hamp****re's primary about having
the "Big Mo," as in momentum. Obama enjoys far more than that. He's got
the "Big M's": magnetic personality, magic moment, message, money and
momentum. And the preposterously short primary season -- it's all over
essentially by Feb. 5 -- dramatically favors anyone who can win the
early contests, in Iowa, New Hamp****re, South Carolina and Nevada. If
Obama wins today in New Hamp****re, he will be well on his way.
The media are into the horse race: Who's up? Who's down? Daily polls,
focus groups, on-the-street interviews. Lost in all this are the issues
Americans care most about.
Never was this more apparent than in the New Hamp****re debate.
Moderator Charles Gibson came with videos on various issues to set up
discussions. The first, on nuclear weapons and terrorism, stimulated a
serious discussion. The second was on the budget deficits, priorities
and entitlements, but Gibson clearly was tired of substance. He turned
to Clinton and asked her what positions of Obama she thought ought to
be "vetted." Rather than substantive differences on Social Security and
spending -- of which there are many -- he teed up the tit-for-tat
discussion that got the headlines the next day.
It is time to get real. This economy is probably already in recession.
Last month, the private sector lost jobs. Millions are facing the loss
of their homes. More and more students are getting priced out of
college. Our infrastructure is crumbling, our cities being ignored; New
Orleans has been abandoned. Oil is at $100 a barrel. The dollar is
sinking. Catastrophic climate change is a real and present danger.
We've squandered lives and resources on the war in Iraq, even as
al-Qaida is consolidating and a nuclear-armed Pakistan is in turmoil.
Kenya (the home of Obama's father), which is now disintegrating into
violence, somehow was not part of the debate.
We need commentators to probe these issues with candidates. Not with
"gotcha" questions -- "Do you know the name of the interim Uzbekistan
prime minister?" -- but in ways that are as sober as the moment.
Obama is now the Democratic front-runner, with Mike Huckabee and John
McCain running strong on the Republican side. They will and should be
scrutinized. But let's put aside the opposition research and partisan
jibes that magnify the petty. Let's focus on their answers to real
challenges.
*
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