Obama Takes America to Church

You can explain Barack Obama’s Reverend Wright dilemma easily if you understand his history. Obama was drawn to Jeremiah Wright and his influential Chicago church in his mid-twenties as he searched for his African American identity. Barry, as he was known as a young man, didn’t really have a strong black male influence in his life as he grew up. His Kenyan father deserted the family while he was a young boy and he was raised mostly by his white grandfather. His struggle to define him self as a black man was normal.

Obama learned plenty at Trinity United Church of Christ and he’s using much of it to win the presidency. His rhetorical style and wry humor are straight out of the black church experience. More importantly he has used a hybrid of black church basket passing and slick internet fund raising to raise campaign funds like we’ve never seen. The Obama campaign fund raising machine is an electronic styled black church $25.00 offering line done on the web that produces tens of millions of dollars.

Even his mega rallies have hints of a mega-church service, fainting included. There is a subtly to it, but make no mistake Obama has taken pieces of the black church to mainstream America and many have become members.

Tony Mottley is the producer of the Am I Right? Show.

Obama Does Detroit

A peaceful gathering of more than 20,000 metro Detroit area residents pack the Joe Louis arena in downtown Detroit to hear presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama speak. Former Vice President Al Gore made a surprise appearance to endorse Obama.

Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm got the main event started with brief remarks. The lady governor drew a chorus off boos from many in the crowd when she brought up the name of Hillary Rodham Clinton. Granholm was trying to make a point about Clinton’s achievements but the crowd wasn’t having it. She went on to admit her prior support for the New York senator before saying how it was time to unite behind Obama.

The appearance of Al Gore was a last minute surprise and Gore was in good form. If he had presented himself as well in 2000 when he ran for the Oval office he would have gotten elected.

Gore made points with the audience when he spoke of the need for green energy sources, compared the Obama candidacy to JFK, and the need to turn the page on eight years of the Bush presidency.

Barack Obama came forward with an air of confidence that borders on cockiness. He gave the crowd what they came to hear. His message touched on fair trade, jobs in the 21st century, renewable energy and access to education. The larger point Obama made was that the campaign is not about him, it’s about the people --a smart play on his part.

For all the talk about change and energizing young folks, if Obama can’t get people to the polls in November republican nominee John McCain will be the next president.

Tony Mottley is the producer of the Am I Right? Show.

DNC pays price for messing up Michigan

The Democratic National Committee will have only itself to blame if its presidential nominee wins with an asterisk.

Sen. Barack Obama, after winning big in North Carolina and battling to a virtual tie in Indiana Tuesday night, has all but secured the Democratic nomination.

But it might have been a different story if Michigan and Florida had been allowed to hold primaries that counted. Clinton was the favorite in both states, but never got a chance to put them in her column because the DNC insisted on punishing them for moving up their primaries.

With wins in Michigan and Florida, Clinton would likely be ahead in the popular vote, and perhaps in delegates. With the two states on the sidelines, Obama likely wins a contest that Clinton backers are already calling illegitmate.

DNC Chairman Howard Dean made a mess of Michigan and Florida by putting rules ahead of results.

If he couldn't come up with a solution for getting fair and meanignful primaries in those two states, it's hard to see how Dean can keep the increasing bitterness between the Clinton and Obama camps from hurting Democratic chances this fall.

Posted by Nolan Finley on Tue, May 6, 2008 at 10:38 PM

Wright Sets The Record

In his much anticipated speech at Sunday evening's 53rd Annual Detroit Branch NAACP Fight for Freedom Fund Dinner, Reverend Jeremiah Wright gave the Cobo crowd of more than 11,000 and a CNN TV audience a few lessons. What did we learn? From Chapter President, Reverend Wendell Anthony's introduction we learned that Dr. Wright dropped out of seminary after three and a half years to join the Marine Corps. We learned that Wright served our country for six years and then completed his education.

Wright speaks six languages and is well versed in the traditions of Judaism, Islam and Christianity. He taught us that Arabic is a language not a religion. (So we shouldn't be afraid of Barack Obama's middle name Hussein.) The controversial Reverend also gave lesson's about black speech and music idioms and that different does not mean deficient.

In sticking with the evening's theme of A Change is Gonna Come, Wright emphasized that the overcoming will come when we set aside the view that those of who are different from us are inferior and embrace our diversity.

In the immediate aftermath, some commentators saw Wright's speech as divisive and injurious to the Obama campaign. However, it's clear that Wright speaks for Wright alone. Barack Obama has been unfairly cast as a villain in the "controversy" brought on by Wright's trial by YouTube. If not for the media frenzy to attach Obama to Wright, most who are put off by Wright's remarks would most likely have ignored him altogether.

Tony Mottley is the producer of the Am I Right? Show.

At Least Obama's an Honest Elitist

The Democratic presidential contest in Pennsylvania is coming down to this question: Who's the elitist -- Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton?

Obama, having weathered the racist rantings of his preacher, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, now is taking fire for posing the theory that small town Americans cling to their guns and churches out of frustration with their miserable lives.

Clinton pounced, as you would expect her to, saying the remarks confirm that Obama is out of touch with the common man.

She's right. There's something effete about Obama -- did you see him try to bowl? -- and despite his experience as a neighborhood organizer in Chicago, you get the feeling that the Harvard-trained lawyer never got his hands dirty in that job or any other.

But Clinton is as much an elitist as Obama. She just workers harder to hide it.

The New York senator has seldom looked more ridiculous than she did throwing back a whiskey shot in a lunch bucket bar to emphasize the differences between her and Obama.

Or as she recalled fondly for her drinking buddies how her father took her behind the family's summer cottage -- the one her grandfather built by hand; the one that didn't have heat or hot water -- to teach her how to shoot a gun.

That sounded like another Clinton fairy tale. Does the Wellesley feminist really make a habit of belting back cheap hooch with the boys before firing off a few rounds?

Was she channeling John Kerry trying to buy himself a hunting license?

Neither Clinton nor Obama have any idea what it's like to be an average American. The breed is a curiosity to both of them.

But at least Obama isn't trying to reinvent himself into the common man.

And that may give him an edge on Clinton. Voters are looking for candidates who are genuine, not necessarily ones who pull on flannel shirts and work boots and belly up to the bar.

Obama is an elitist who doesn't pretend otherwise. Clinton is an elitist who has pretended to be so many different things that even she can't tell which one's the real deal.

Posted by Nolan Finley on Tue, Apr 15, 2008 at 4:06 PM

Johnson’s Comments About Obama are Telling But Untrue

You’d think after the misguided comments he made in January about Barack Obama’s drug use, BET founder Bob Johnson would have learned his lesson. Apparently he hasn’t.

Johnson made the following comments Tuesday in a published report in the Charlotte Observer.

"What I believe Geraldine Ferraro meant is that if you take a freshman senator from Illinois called `Jerry Smith' and he says I'm going to run for president, would he start off with 90 percent of the black vote?" Johnson said. "And the answer is, probably not... ."

"Geraldine Ferraro said it right. The problem is, Geraldine Ferraro is white. This campaign has such a hair-trigger on anything racial ... it is almost impossible for anybody to say anything."

Can Johnson really be picking up Ferraro’s argument and attempting to advance it?

The comments are both despicable and ridiculous. There are no facts to back the argument that Obama is leading Clinton among registered black voters simply because he’s black. In fact there is much evidence to the contrary. In an October 2007 CNN poll, Senator Hillary Clinton had a commanding 57 percent to 33 percent lead over Obama.

Just a few months later the tables turned. In a January 2008 survey by CNN/Opinion Research Corp., 59 percent of black Democrats backed Obama, for their party's presidential nomination, with 31 percent supporting Clinton, the senator from New York.

What happened? Well it was during a January appearance for the New York senator in Columbia that Bob Johnson first stepped into controversy, referring to Obama and "what he was doing in the neighborhood." The comment was a veiled reference to Obama’s drug use as a youth. Johnson later apologized for the remark, but the damage was done.

The Clinton campaign is still getting it wrong. They want us to believe that in the arena of political ideas and personality, Senator Obama is winning simply because he’s black. That’s an insult to the blacks, middle class whites and independents that support Obama in large numbers.

If simply being black was the issue than any black guy could be President. Not likely. Obama is not Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton or Alan Keyes or any other “brother”. He’s a smooth resilient politician with a message and style that resonates with voters.

If Hillary’s attack dogs focused more on Obama’s message and why voters are reacting to it positively, they might have a chance. Instead they keep covering their eyes and shouting, “He’s winning because he’s black.”

Maybe they need to look in the mirror. After a series of gaffes and misstatements, that some would call outright lies; Senator Clinton’s ability to tell the truth is being questioned.

A Charlotte Observer/WCNC poll finds North Carolina voters believe Hillary Clinton is far less trustworthy than either Barack Obama or John McCain. More than half of those surveyed, 54 percent, described McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, as trustworthy, while 48 percent said they trust Obama. Only 25 percent say Clinton is trustworthy.

Maybe Obama has his largest lead of the campaign in the Gallup national tracking polls, not because he’s black but because voters find him credible.

By Tony Mottley Am I Right? Show producer.

Richardson Endorsement A Major Blow to Clintons?

The highly courted endorsement of New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson has gone to Barack Obama. Is Richardson’s decision to back Obama, despite his strong ties to the Clinton’s, a signal of disapproval to the Clinton camp?

Gov. Richardson, who gave up his bid become the nation’s first Hispanic president made the announcement at a campaign event in Oregon. Mr. Richardson, a former congressman and energy secretary in the Clinton administration, dropped out of the Democratic race in January after finishing behind Mr. Obama and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in Iowa and New Hampshire.

In the face of the recent racial drama that has plagued Obama, Richardson is still backing the Senator from Illinois. “I believe he is the kind of once-in-a-lifetime leader that can bring our nation together and restore America’s moral leadership in the world,” Mr. Richardson said in the statement, provided by the Obama campaign.

“As a presidential candidate, I know full well Senator Obama’s unique moral ability to inspire the American people to confront our urgent challenges at home and abroad in a spirit of bipartisanship and reconciliation.”

In his statement, Mr. Richardson, who served as ambassador to the United Nations under Mr. Clinton, said “there is no doubt in my mind that Barack Obama has the judgment and courage we need in a commander in chief when our nation’s security is on the line. He showed this judgment by opposing the Iraq war from the start, and he has shown it during this campaign by standing up for a new era in American leadership internationally.”

This has to be a crushing defeat for the Clinton’s who probably thought that Richardson’s support was a sure thing. What would make Richardson break ranks from the Clinton’s to whom he owes much of his political career? What kind of retribution can he expect? Time will tell. Maybe it’s because he knows the Clinton’s too well.

By Tony Mottley Am I Right? Show producer.