To attend or skip?

[politicasista]

There has been lots of interesting discussion about whether or not Obama should attend Tavis Smiley's State of the Black Union conference in New Orleans on February 23rd.

There are pros and cons for attending or not attending the SOTBU, but
CNN contributor, and Obama supporter Roland Martin was on Michael Baisden a while ago laying some of it out on why Obama should not attend the SOTBU.

http://essence.typepad.com/news/2008/02/roland-s-mart-6.html



Tavis' commentaries on Tom Joyner have had lots of Obama snark of late. He has gotten lots of letters, e-mails and other complaints (i.e. that he is working for the Clintons :rofl:). Rumor has it that he is just jealous of Obama because Obama didn't announce his candidacy on SOTBU and instead chose Springfield, IL.

[sandnsea]

1. Michelle would be excellent

And I think that since she grew up in Chicago she might have more credibility than him too. Somebody has got to go, that's for sure. I saw one of these on CSpan a few years ago and it was very interesting. Tom Joyner hosted a Q&A with a panel, I forget who was on the panel. But it was really good. If you don't mind, remind me again because I don't want to miss it!

[politicasista]

2. I think so too

I saw her interview on Larry King Live and she was awesome! She is getting better and better each interview and on the campaign trail. However, Tavis has refused to let her appear there as a surrogate. (Sucks doesn't it?) He is catching hell for that decision also. His commentaries on Tom Joyner have been disappointing, although it's not surprising, he said the same thing about Kerry in 04, that he is saying about Obama in 08 now.

And the State of the Black Union is next Saturday on C-SPAN at 9:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. EST, and 6 a.m. and 12 p.m. on the west coast.

[Major Hogwash]

3. It is strange that his comments are not very different this year than what they were in 2004.

I don't really like Tavis much and I don't agree with him most of the time.
I think that this year is totally different in that Obama does not have to pander to the power brokers that are on BET the way the Kerry campaign had to.
I also think that Obama's position is that if he isn't black enough for those power brokers, then they can vote for someone else, which they will probably do anyway.
I agree with this position, by the way, because it is one way to keep Obama from being hurt very much by other blacks who have some sway with their viewers.