Obama goes gloves off, head-on

[babylonsister]

Obama goes gloves off, head-on
He discusses how race has flared up in the campaign, a suit over voting on the Strip
Image
By J. Patrick Coolican
Mon, Jan 14, 2008 (2 a.m.)


In a Sun interview Sunday, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama addressed the suddenly front-and-center issue of race in his fight with New York Sen. Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Looking poised and relatively fresh given the grueling schedule of a presidential campaign, the senator from Illinois spoke in his customary manner — cool, measured, deliberate — about urban issues, his appeal to Hispanic voters and a controversial lawsuit about Saturday’s caucus that is pitting some Clinton backers against Obama and the union that endorsed him last week, Culinary Union Local 226.

Also, the TV show “The Wire” came up.

Obama, framed by a portrait of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in a Doolittle Community Center classroom, addressed the lawsuit in which a group of Democratic activists, including the state teachers union, is suing the Democratic Party, declaring as unfair the existence of nine at-large caucus sites on the Strip. Those sites are designed to allow shift workers union and nonunion to caucus in case the 11:30 a.m. start time falls during their workday. The plaintiffs say the Strip caucus sites are designed to give an unfair advantage to the Culinary.

Obama addressed the lawsuit head-on: “Look, the caucus structure was agreed to by every major player in the Democratic Party here in Nevada and was negotiated by the major players in the Democratic National Committee. Six days before the caucus is taking place, some of the people who were connected to setting up this very structure are now filing suit, trying to change the rules. It’s hard not to draw the conclusion that people were unhappy about the outcome of the Culinary Union endorsement process and now people are trying to fix it. In the process it is disenfranchising dishwashers and bartenders who work hard and should be able to participate in their democracy.”

Although Obama didn’t mention it, his surrogates, including Culinary Secretary-Treasurer D. Taylor and state Sen. Steven Horsford, D-North Las Vegas, are quick to point out that many of those who would be “disenfranchised” are black or Hispanic.

For black voters especially, the issue of disenfranchisement is not to be trifled with, considering America’s Jim Crow past and the history of willful suppression of the black vote.

Indeed, race has become a sudden and unavoidable fact of the presidential contest as it moves to the first state with a sizable minority population.

more...

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/jan/14/obama-gloves-off/

[Fresh_Start]

1. if they are worried about shift workers not having the opportunity to caucus

caucus over several days across the state.

There are many ppl that can't caucus on a specific date and time.

[Dogmudgeon]

2. Let the NV Democrats duke it out

All this talk about "voter suppression" is nonsense. It's a typical intra-party political maneuver. The stuff of primaries.

I'd be happy with either outcome, but my opinion is worthless -- I'm in Pennsylvania.

Just as long as we can cut the heart out of the Republican Party in November ...

--p!

[Barack_America]

3. The tone of the article is biased towards Obama...and I say that as an Obama supporter.

But, irregardless of that, it will be read and I'm glad of two things:

1). Obama has gotten the chance to restate that He has had no involvement in the "race argument".
2). That he quickly deflected the "will Hispanics vote for a black man" to policy. That looks especially good.

[killbotfactory]

4. Don't try to disenfranchise voters while running against an ex-civil rights lawyer

Just don't. You're asking for trouble.

BTW, The Wire is the best drama on TV right now, Obama has good taste.

[Dhalgren]

5. Whoever has influence with the persons bringing the suit should

advise them to withdraw it. This is too "Big Machine" Democrat in appearance and will backfire in a large way. The at large caucus sites were agree to by everyone well before the caucus date, this looks like an attempt at disenfranchisement - whether it is or not is beside the point - in effect, it will make participating more difficult for some of the strip workers. The Democratic Party - Democrats in general - ought not to be in the business of making voting more difficult. This is a bone-headed move by the pro-Clinton camp and does not reflect well on the Senator...

[BenDavid]

6. Going to keep writing this so that folks know to whom started

this. It was the obama camp that first brought race into the campaign when obama himself said the following" “minority candidates have ‘a higher threshold in establishing themselves with voters.’” That is a laughable claim but a shrewd use of the race card to position Obama for future manipulation of the electoral process.For him to claim that the barriers are higher, that the bar is higher for him to succeed, is nonsense. It is crass racialism. Obama is a product of the very “24-hour…small-minded politics” that he decries.

The second person to use race by the obama camp was michelle obama. She gave an interview to msnbc and basically said "If You’re Black, Vote for Barack. Because He’s Black."( Now I ask the obama people, Is this racist?) Well of course it is, and it is also stupid.....Read or view the entire interview and in addition to blaming black people’s low self esteem for her husbands failed popularity — Michelle also tells the black community that they should be voting for her hubby for no other reason than they share the same color skin.

The third incident is this flap over what both clintons said, but here again it is people in the obama campaign that choose to jump on this and portray their words as demeaning and disrepectful when there was not anything demeaning and disrespectful of Dr. King or obama......

[Barack_America]

7. kick

[hayu_lol]

8. Obama charges into the room, gloves off...

and votes PRESENT.

Couldn't resist, its whut he does.