Democratic National Convention
Round Up — Day 4

Obama Speech Has Special Meaning for Southern Delegates

Barack Obama’s bid for the White House made Seanta Clark, a former Republican, switch parties and become a Democratic activist.

A black delegate from South Carolina, Clark joined the Obama campaign in March of 2007, because she felt “Obama’s blood is my blood.”

“Instead of being African American, we can be American now,” Clark said. “This is a civil rights moment that gives us the groundwork for what’s to come.”

Obama has been careful to avoid allowing race to color his campaign. But Southern delegates from communities that have borne the brunt of the civil rights struggle can’t resist comparing Obama’s acceptance speech to another historic speech given 45 years ago on Aug. 28, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” address.

“Most people who have a sense of history think he’s going to invoke the memory of Martin Luther King,” said Joe Reed, a black delegate from Montgomery, Ala., of Obama’s acceptance speech on Thursday.

Deep South delegations, which are majority black, can’t avoid the emotional impact of helping to confirm the first black presidential nominee for a major party. In Louisiana, for example, 44 delegates are black, 31 are white and one is Asian.

“We have a sense of pride,” said Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., a black lawmaker who, like Obama, was once a community activist.

The day of Obama’s speech is also the 55th anniversary of the murder of 14-year old Emmett Till in Money, Miss. Till was murdered because he had reportedly whistled at a white woman.

The then nascent civil rights movement was energized after Till’s mother insisted on a public funeral service with an open casket to show the world the brutality of the killing. Her son had been beaten, his eyes gouged out, then shot and thrown into the Tallahatchie River. (more)

Fat Joe Calls Daddy Yankee A ‘Sellout’ For Endorsing John McCain

Up until a few days ago, it was easy to assume that Senator Barack Obama is the overwhelming favorite presidential candidate of music-makers from urban communities. MCs such as Jay-Z, Nas, Big Boi, Lil Wayne, Young Jeezy, Common and Diddy have all openly said that the Illinois politician needs to be the next man in the White House. The King of Reggaetón, however, has a different opinion.

Daddy Yankee surprised many earlier this week when he showed up at a Phoenix high school and gave a glowing recommendation for Republican Senator John McCain.

“I believe in his ideals and his proposals to lead this nation,” Yankee said. “He’s been a fighter for the Hispanic community.”

The news of Yankee’s endorsement left a sour taste in the mouth of one of the Hispanic community’s most visible and verbal leaders: Fat Joe.

“Put this in the MTV News headline: ‘Fat Joe Says Daddy Yankee Is a Sellout,’ ” the MC said via phone from Denver, where he’s attending the Democratic National Convention. “Just like that! I gotta go in. I’m talking to little cousins that like [Yankee] and all that, and they’re starting to believe that John McCain is [the best candidate]. I can’t have that. (more) (H/T)

Obama Embarks on 67-Day Sprint to Election

Fresh off his historic nominating convention, Democrat Barack Obama is embarking on what likely will be the most important 67 days of his campaign for the White House. Republican John McCain is looking to upstage his rival with the announcement of his running mate.

Obama leaves the convention city of Denver as the first black man to be nominated for president by a major political party. The 47-year-old Illinois senator won over the party faithful—even some die-hard backers of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton—but the broader electorate awaits.

His first stop: the battleground states of the Midwest. On Friday, Obama flies to Pittsburgh, where he and running mate Joe Biden will kick off a bus tour of Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan.

The goal is to maintain the buzz of a convention that culminated Thursday night with Obama addressing an energetic, flag-waving crowd of 84,000 packed into Denver’s pro football stadium.

“Change happens because the American people demand it—because they rise up and insist on new ideas and new leadership, a new politics for a new time,” Obama told the adoring crowd at Invesco Field. “America, this is one of those moments.” (more)

The Morning After Obama’s Speech: Gone is the Day When Politics is Business as Usual

It’s an understatement to say that Barack Obama’s acceptance speech last night for the Democratic nomination was a success.

But it wasn’t a success because of the historic speech he delivered or the line-up of speakers that preceded him or even because of the musical talents that shared the stage or the celebrities sprinkled among the audience, but because of the NUMBER of people his speech attracted.

Eighty-four thousand people of all colors and walks of life packed into Denver’s Invesco Field and thousands more milled around outside who couldn’t get in. Across the country, people created “watch parties” just to share in this event.

Obama hit the nail on the head and exemplified how he and his campaign “get it” when he said:

What the naysayers don’t understand is that this election has never been about me. It’s about you. It’s about you.

How true is that? When you have thousands of people contributing across the country to a political campaign for the first time in their lives because they were deemed important enough to be included, not because of their social influence or professional position, but simply because they are an American voter then finally this great political system that started all those many years ago by our forefathers who counted on EVERYONE’s support, whether it was with money or sweat, is finally returning to its roots.

Gone should be the days when such politics is reserved for the elite or influential among us with deals and celebrations behind closed doors or accessible only via a television screen. Gone should be the days when such politics excludes the youngest voters because the assumption is that they are not fully informed. (more)

Look Out For Flying Pigs

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Pat Buchanan-praising Barack Obama. (more)

McCain’s Own Family’s Not Voting for Him

On the evening when Senator Barack Obama is making history, it seems things are getting worse for his rival, Senator John McCain. You know things are bad when your own sister-in-law is saying she’s voting for Barack Obama:

Cindy McCain’s half sister says she will not vote for Republican John McCain and plans to cast her ballot for his Democratic rival, Barack Obama. (more)

Righteous History

We are people of privilege. I say that because we are living in a moment in history that is almost too great to comprehend. From our beginnings as slaves in this country, we are witnessing the ascension of an African American to heights our ancestors might never have imagined. Many of us didn’t either.

When Senator Barack Obama accepted the Democratic nomination for president of the United States of America on Wednesday, a link in the chain of our history was broken. From slavery and the insult of being considered property, our people have moved to the possibility of one of our own being on the verge of the presidency.

It is almost too awesome to take in. At the moment Senator Obama was officially nominated, black people wept. My friends’ parents, both octogenarians and participants in the Civil Rights movement, sobbed. A little boy, fascinated but not fully understanding what was going on, asked, as he watched his parents cry, “Are we supposed to celebrate or something?”

A friend of mine recalled how her mother – who had told her of how her father had been lynched – called, crying. Another friend called, reminding me of how it had been for her and for her parents in the South, being called the “n” word at will and being challenged to do anything about it. A member recalled how her grandmother had been forced to leave the South because she had had a fight with a white woman.

I remembered my own father, a brilliant man who had memorized the entire dictionary but was consistently passed over for a promotion at the IRS where he worked. I remember the last time he was passed over, how he wept and how my mother comforted him. As I peeked at the two of them from around a corner, I could hear my mother remind him that he could do something else, that he didn’t have to take the insults anymore.

My father listened and began his own business as an accountant. (more)

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