Experience AND Inspiration

Roseanne Barr has in interesting piece on the huffington post today entitled Experience Vs Inspiration. Its quite obvious Roseanne is a supporter of Hillary Clinton and I have no problem with that.

Let me say first, that I respect Roseanne and admire her work as an entertainer. I'm probably one of the biggest Roseanne fans out and I'm still waiting to get the rest of her seasons on DVD. However there is a huge fallacy in her argument that Senator Clinton is more experienced than Obama.

Senator Obama has been an elected official for over 10 years compared to Clinton's 8. Before that, he was a community organizer on the Southside of Chicago fighting for working families. Senator Clinton sat on the board of walmart.

Senator Obama does have the ability to inspire others. He is bringing thousands of new voters into the fold (which may make the difference in downballot elections). So how can we turn that away?

The question isn't, who is the most experienced, the question is which experience is best for working families and which experience will help beat John Mccain.

A Unified Party

The past week has been interesting. First we had the departure of Senator John Edwards from the presidential race. Of course this saddened me as well as many others. Senator Edwards has fought for all Americans and has continuously shaped the debate of the primary.

Last night's CNN debate was great! we saw our two potential nominees have an open discussion of the issues that didn't leave anyone bitter and didn't give the Republicans ammunition for the general election.

Although we don't have a nominee yet, I feel like we are at the right place to go forward to beat any Republican in November.

After watching the debate last night, I wonder if someone pulled the coattails of the 3 candidates and told them that they need to get their act together and work toward the common cause.

Hopefully the last time I will talk about Obama and Race.

Obviously race has become a major issue in this campaign and I'm quite sick of it so I have a few things to say.

I find it INSULTING that people want to degrade African Americans who are not supporting Sen. Obama.

The basis of the criticism is pure hypocrisy. How does ANYONE have the testicular fortitude to say anything about a person whose decision to support a candidate is not based on race. Let's look at this scenario....

Average Joe is a white male and decides to support Senator Obama. A Clinton or Edwards supporter criticized Joe for not supporting a white candidate and called him a "nigger lover." The media outlets, bloggers, and activists would go crazy and DEMAND apologies from the campaign as well as the supporter.

I also have issue with the ignorance of supporting Sen Obama just because he is black. I REFUSE to choose a candidate just because of race. There are more important things to look at including elect ability, character, and if the candidate is speaking about issues that are important to me. Too many times have I seen elected officials and activists, including many African Americans who have SOLD US OUT on too many issues that affect us such as payday lending, affordable housing, public housing, gentrification, police brutality, education, and access to affordable health care, to blindly give them my support. For example, I also wouldn't expect myself or any other African American to support George Bush's nominee to the supreme court just because he is black. (Not to call anyone out but it's something to think about)

I would love to see a Black president in the near future, but its more important to me to win and bring about the change that I think will most benefit everyone and Senator Obama is respectfully not my choice.

As a good friend said recently, "What is HOPE? Hope essentially is the by-product of the absence of a definitive PLAN. (i.e. "Lets HOPE we make it to church on time this week...I HOPE the Lakers win tomorrow...I HOPE Obama isn't the democratic nominee") Something Obama's campaign clearly lacks - a plan"

You know, I never marched with King and my parents were in diapers around that time so they didn't either but I do think I remember hearing him say something about judging someone by "the content of their character and not the color of their skin" but what do I know, I'm just a young buck who is wet behind his ears and has a slavery mentality..

I do challenge everyone before they go to the voting booth to look at a few things...
1. What are the platforms of each candidate? Which one most represents you
2. Who is most likely to beat a republican and help down ballot races as well (US Senate and House, governors, and State Legislature races)

If you can honestly answer that your candidate does this, then I can respect you and your choice, but if you can't respect mine, go kick rocks.