According to the New York Post The Rev. Al Sharpton directly accused Sen. Obama of trying to “grandstand to white people” during a phone call yesterday. Sharpton was referring to Obama’s call for nonviolence following the outcome of a controversial case involving Sean Bell who was shot 50 times by undercover police officers. Those officers were found not guilty of various charges this week.
“[Obama] issues this statement and not a single rock had been thrown,” said a source. “How does the candidate of change ask people to accept a verdict that is unjust?”
The source said Sharpton had hoped Obama would “side with the Bell family” and not use it as an “opportunity to grandstand in front of white people.”
Sharpton has threatened to “shut down New York City” to protest.
My take? Obama is not going to be helped with the sections of white America he is trying to win over by Sharpton, Jackson or this weeks media tour by his former pastor Rev. Wright. Honestly the best thing Obama could do is to tell Sharpton where he can stick the grandstanding charges.
SCRIPT: Questioner: “President Bush has talked about our staying in Iraq for 50 years ”
McCain: “Maybe 100. That would be fine with me.”
Announcer: “If all he offers is more of the same is John McCain the right choice for America’s future? The Democratic National Committee is responsible for the content of this advertising.”
KEY IMAGES: The ad shows a split screen, the left half with the text of the questioner’s comments, the right with a fuzzy image of McCain listening. After McCain responds, “Maybe 100,” the McCain image freezes and the words “100 years in Iraq” appear across from him. After he says, “That would be fine with me,” the full screen cuts to images of U.S. troops under fire in Iraq and violence on its streets. The words “5 years,” “$500 billion” and “Over 4,000 dead” appear over the images. Then McCain reappears on a split screen, this time facing images of violence, and the question and response are repeated. The ad concludes with a photo of Bush with his arm around McCain.
THE SPIN: The ad plays up a McCain comment about U.S. troops in Iraq, links McCain with Bush and suggests that McCain will continue the policies of the unpopular president. The spot is the second of two in a half-million-dollar, three-week campaign on national cable television aimed at a key argument against the expected GOP nominee.
ANALYSIS: In tone, the ad is much like the previous DNC spot on the struggling U.S. economy. It quoted McCain as saying “I think we are better off overall” than eight years ago. Using his own words against him is part of the overall DNC strategy to put McCain on the defensive while Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton continue to compete against each other for the Democratic nomination.
The “100″ years remark has dogged McCain since he spoke those words last January while campaigning in New Hampshire. McCain gave what seemed to be a flippant response to a question about how long the U.S. would remain in Iraq. A questioner in a town hall setting had challenged McCain about Bush’s view that troops could be in Iraq for 50 years.
“Maybe a hundred,” McCain said. “We’ve been in South Korea. We’ve been in Japan for 60 years. We’ve been in South Korea for 50 years or so. That’d be fine with me as long as Americans, as long as Americans are not being injured or harmed or wounded or killed. Then it’s fine with me. I hope it would be fine with you if we maintain a presence in a very volatile part of the world where al-Qaida is training, recruiting and equipping and motivating people every single day.”
McCain’s opponents have suggested those remarks mean that he would continue to wage war in Iraq for a century. Not so, McCain says, though he offers no specifics for when U.S. troops would be brought home or when the violence might end. Instead of framing the comments in terms of warfare, McCain says the U.S. military would remain there much as it has in Germany, Japan and South Korea.
McCain opened himself up to the ad because of his imprecise remarks, which didn’t spell out what he meant.
Exit polls from the Pennsylvania primary indicate that half of Clinton’s supporters would not vote for Obama in the general election. Can you believe it?
JOHN MCCAIN: The problem with health care in America is not the quality of health care, it’s the availability and the affordability. And that has to do with the dramatic increase in the cost of health care.
Let’s give every American family a $5,000 refundable tax credit so that they can go out across state lines and get the insurance policy that suits them best.
I can characterize my approach on health care by choice and competition, affordability and availability.
We need community health centers. We need walk-in clinics. We understand that emergency room care is the most expensive in America.
There’s many, many solutions to this problem. I think we can address them. The fundamental problem is not the quality of health care; it’s the cost of health care. So health care must be made affordable and available.
Last week Howard Fineman had the scoop that Elizabeth Edwards was backing Clinton and was considering appearing at an event in support of her. Today the Times adds weight to the story.
On the other hand, Mrs. Edwards, her husband’s closest and most trusted adviser, has made it clear that she favors Mrs. Clinton; aides said she had recently tried to persuade Mr. Edwards to do the same.
The story also adds further weight to the notion that John Edwards is sitting on the sidelines in the hope that he will play a role in the next Democratic administration. “He doesn’t want to pick the loser,” is the continued word from those around him.
My take? As I have said before, John doesn’t gain much politically by coming out for either candidate right now. With that said, many of his supporters are people who believe he is honest and driven by conviction. If he believes the potential loser is the best choice, it would serve him well with his base to come out and say it.
“You cannot do terrorism on other people and expect it never to come back to you. Those are biblical principles not Jeremiah Wright bombastic divisive principles.”
Raila Odinga is the Prime Minister of Kenya and head of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) who is accused by human rights watch of coordinating ethnic based cleansing in the country after the countries disputed 2007 presidential elections. In 1982 he was also convicted of treason and thrown in prison after plotting a failed coup attempt against then president Daniel Arap Moi.
After violence erupted in Kenya following the elections, Obama reached out to the leader.
Violence erupted in the wake of the disputed elections throughout the Rift Valley and the west of the country as angry citizens burned and looted factories, shops and homes, and chased those perceived to be supporters of Kibaki (mostly, but not exclusively, members of his Kikuyu tribe) away. Kikuyu homes in the Rift Valley have been selectively burned and Kikuyu residents killed. Thirty people were burned to death in a church near Eldoret where they had been seeking shelter.
The police confirmed the deaths of 526 people nationwide, including 81 shot by police officers, but independent estimates suggest that the total figure could be much higher. Thousands of Kikuyu and members of other tribes have been displaced and are in the process of leaving the region if they can.
With Obama making his potential to reach out to world leaders and influence despots the question does remain, if he cannot help control his cousin how can he work with the leaders of Iran or Cuba?
DNC head Howard Dean drops the gauntlet and says either Clinton or Obama must drop out by June to unify the part even though delegates can wait until August based on party rules to make up their minds.
My take? The Democrats created the worst system in the world and they should live with it.
