1. I really like this image but was a bit surprised by how the mainstream networks were covering it. They were like "what is this mysterious gesture?". It is just another reminder of how "white" the mainstream press is in its perspective. It also an example of how Obama's candidacy (and hopefully his presidency) has the opportunity of being a sort of national teach-in on race relations; first by offering a peek into the Black church, and now introducing white people to African-American greeting practices.
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, share a victory "dap" during an election night rally in St. Paul, MN
2. I'm not sure who Obama should pick as his running mate but I've been interested in Senator Jim Webb of Virginia ever since I'd caught part of an interview with him on NPR. He's a Vietnam veteran and an ex-Republican who today is highly critical of George W. Bush and the current Iraq War.
NPR: Senator Jim Webb, Choosing His Battles
3. I never cease to be amazed by the number of third-party candidates who run for president in each election in relative anonymity. Of course you have the Greens and the Libertarians, but there are also at least three different kinds of "socialist" parties (four if you count the Nazi party), you have the Fascist party, the Prohibition Party, the Constitution Party and even the Vampire, Witches and Pagan Party which are all putting up candidates. Some of these candidates seem to be running more as a joke or as a publicity stunt and others are "serious" but are obviously long-shots while many seem to lie somewhere in between.
4. A couple of the third-party presidential candidates are former elected officials who "defected" from the major parties. One is former Republican Congressman, Bob Barr who is running as the Libertarian Party candidate this year. One can only hope that he can serve as a spoiler for McCain in this election.
5. On the scary side, I recently found out that former Democratic member of Congress Rep. Cynthia McKinney is running for president on the Green Party ticket. I say scary because I think McKinney is likely to be a "spoiler". Some of the angry/ disappointed/ disgruntled Clinton supporters have already expressed their willingness to vote for McCain. But now McKinney offers yet another (arguably more attractive) option for liberals who don't want to vote for Obama. Given the tensions which currently exist in the Democratic party between Clinton supporters and Obama supporters, I think that there is a non-trivial mass of people who might be willing to make such a protest vote.
6. Now that I think about it, if Hillary had won her argument to the superdelegates, and they overruled the will of the non-superdelegates who went for Obama, I would have given serious thought to voting for McKinney myself.
7. By the way, times like these are why I wish we had proportional representation in the US so that genuine multi-party system could arise.
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, share a victory "dap" during an election night rally in St. Paul, MN
2. I'm not sure who Obama should pick as his running mate but I've been interested in Senator Jim Webb of Virginia ever since I'd caught part of an interview with him on NPR. He's a Vietnam veteran and an ex-Republican who today is highly critical of George W. Bush and the current Iraq War.
NPR: Senator Jim Webb, Choosing His Battles
3. I never cease to be amazed by the number of third-party candidates who run for president in each election in relative anonymity. Of course you have the Greens and the Libertarians, but there are also at least three different kinds of "socialist" parties (four if you count the Nazi party), you have the Fascist party, the Prohibition Party, the Constitution Party and even the Vampire, Witches and Pagan Party which are all putting up candidates. Some of these candidates seem to be running more as a joke or as a publicity stunt and others are "serious" but are obviously long-shots while many seem to lie somewhere in between.
4. A couple of the third-party presidential candidates are former elected officials who "defected" from the major parties. One is former Republican Congressman, Bob Barr who is running as the Libertarian Party candidate this year. One can only hope that he can serve as a spoiler for McCain in this election.
5. On the scary side, I recently found out that former Democratic member of Congress Rep. Cynthia McKinney is running for president on the Green Party ticket. I say scary because I think McKinney is likely to be a "spoiler". Some of the angry/ disappointed/ disgruntled Clinton supporters have already expressed their willingness to vote for McCain. But now McKinney offers yet another (arguably more attractive) option for liberals who don't want to vote for Obama. Given the tensions which currently exist in the Democratic party between Clinton supporters and Obama supporters, I think that there is a non-trivial mass of people who might be willing to make such a protest vote.
6. Now that I think about it, if Hillary had won her argument to the superdelegates, and they overruled the will of the non-superdelegates who went for Obama, I would have given serious thought to voting for McKinney myself.
7. By the way, times like these are why I wish we had proportional representation in the US so that genuine multi-party system could arise.
11 comments:
As salaamu alaikum,
Ther funny thing about the "fist bump" is that the media knows FULL WELL what the hell it is. There are enough sports channels and Rap channels out there for these people to know. It is just ALLOWABLE for White people to claim that ANYTHING Black people do is MYSTERIOUS, no matter how damn common it is among ALL AMERICANS. They know the fist bump, they are just being idiots. Someone is probably going to do a YOUTUBE montage of all of the times the fist bump has been in the media through the years, like movies and tv shows and break down the number of ratings and the impossibility for the fist bump to be a mystery gesture based on those numbers.
No McKinney will not be a spoiler. Those people who would vote for her would not have supported Hillary or Obama.
wa alaikum salaam dynamite soul, you might be right.
sondjata, I don't think you are right. I mean, even Rosanne Barr has endorsed McKinney, basically in order to vote for a woman.
Rosanne who?
That's funny.
But in all seriousness, Most people have no clue who Mckinney is aside from her run in with DC police. White women had a chance to vote for a (black)woman in 2004, didn't do it then so I'm not expecting any significant number of them to embrace McKinney.
Black Women are by and large supporting Obama, the few that may not like him are not significant in numbers to be a "problem."
Who are you thinking of in 2004? Carl Moseley-Braun? She didn't get the Democratic nomination. And I think McKinney just recently got the Green Party nomination. This year is also different because of the role that gender has played in the race.
Exactly right. Why didn't these liberal white women who have been talking about how it is time for a woman to get the nomination go for M-B? Answer that question honestly and you'll have the same reason why McKinney will not be seeing significant support from white women.
Hello. We are writing from Venezuela. We are trying to make a research about Grenada, and we interested to know how is the educational system in your country. We've been looking for it on the net but we think that information is not enough.
Can you help us?. We will appreciate it.
Bye.
Andina, in spite of the name, this blog actually *isn't* really about the island nation of Grenada. I kind of explain where the name comes from in an early post. In retrospect, a name based on Granada (the last Muslim holdout area in Spain) would have been more appropriate... except I later found out that Planet Granada is actually taken. Maybe I should have gone to the original Arabic name where both words came from?
in any case, good luck in your quest. sorry i couldn't be more helpful.
Sondjata, I think there is a difference between seeking the nomination of the party, and running for President as the nominee of a given party.
So for example, this time around there will presumably be a ton of white women who are loyal to the democratic party and will vote for Obama in large numbers.
At the same time, based on the news coverage I would say that there are also white women who are really upset that Hillary didn't get the nomination and won't be voting for Obama. So the question is, what will they do? Stay home? Vote for McCain? Vote for McKinney?
And all I'm saying is that a few will probably vote for McKinney.
The question is why those women opposed Obama. My point before was that if it is simply gender then they had the opportunity before (2004) to vote for a woman in the primaries and did not. Clearly then, white women were not voting for Clinton ONLY because she was a woman. If you followed my primary coverage on my blog, you'll note that I made a prediction after the SC vote that the vote was heavily racialized and gendered. The white vote was split along black/white lines and within the white voting block (unlike the black one) the men tended to vote for Edwards and the Women for Clinton. I predicted that if Edwards left the race, you would have the race question brought into focus.
Would white men vote for Hillary or Obama, the white male vote split about evenly at first between Obama and Clinton, then later you saw this huge swing when both white men and women voted the white candidate.
Look at CNN.com's voter maps and exit polls and look at geography. A lot of this boils down to the race of the candidate.
Now what will these women do? If they are in urban areas or in liberal states, they will vote for Obama by a wide margin. If they are in more rural areas, I predict that they will, in significant numbers either vote for McCain or not vote at all. Never underestimate the white voter's willingness to vote against their own interests in order to protect their whiteness. Sad but true.
Will a few vote for McKinney? Yeah, a few. A few people will vote for Ron Paul too.
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