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This Is What Democracy Looks Like
www.NationalView.org's Note From a Madman
August 27, 2008
Racism and a Cup of Joe
If you want to know if racism is still alive and well in America, especially in
American politics and media, all you have to do is watch cable news talking head
shows. As I watched the Imus replacement, Morning Joe on MSNBC (called the
"Liberal" Cable News Channel due to Keith Olbermann's Countdown which has the
audacity to actually tell the truth) this morning, I noticed something which
might pass others by. It was a small thing but something I had noticed before,
in particular during a Bush White House speech about a year or so ago.
Former GOP one-term representative from Florida, Joe Scarborough, (Scarborough
came in with Newt Gingrich in 1995 and left in 1997) while addressing Newark
Mayor Corey Booker, addressed him as "Corey". Now, certainly calling a man
you're familiar with by his first name is no crime, but there appears to be a
concerted effort by many in the GOP to make the distinction between white
politicians and African American politicians, and it goes as high up as the
White House. For example, while addressing a gathering which included a number
of reprehensive from both parties, President Bush had referred to the white
legislators there as "Congressman" or "Senator". However, when it came time to
acknowledge Illinois Congressman Rahm Emanuel, President Bush thanked "Rahm" for
being there.
Similarly, when Joe Scarborough. a former himself, interviewed former New York
City Rudy Giuliani about a year ago, "Rudy" was called "Mayor Rudy Giuliani" and
not once called by his first name.
Is there something about African American legislators and candidates which makes
people such as President Bush and Joe Scarborough feel more familiar with them
than their Caucasian counterparts? Or is it just the good old boy in them which
makes their lack of respect taught for generations before them feel that they
simply can't address these men and women by their appropriate and earned titles,
or even "Mr.", "Mrs.", "Miss" or "Ms."?)
Well at least they stopped calling African American grown men "boy" or the
entire American African American population "You People":...
... at least not in public.
-Noah Greenberg
A Good Night to be a Democrat
It was a good night to be a Democrat last night. First it was Bill Clinton who
was, once more, the Bill Clinton we all loved as President in the 1990's. The
last President to leave a surplus in our national treasury left no doubt as to
who he is supporting for President this November. Former President Clinton spoke
of Barack Obama as an accomplished man with the vision this nation needs to get
us out from under what the Bush administration has left us after these past
eight years.
Comparing last night to Tuesday night, where we heard the likes of Fox News
analysts spewing their venom and telling us all that Hillary Clinton only
mentioned Barack Obama's name ten times, Bill Clinton put his support directly
and firmly behind the now-official nominee:
“Barack Obama is ready to lead America and restore American leadership in the
world. Ready to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United
States. Barack Obama is ready to be president of the United States.”
-President Clinton
According to Right Wing news "analysts" - a term which has come to be synonymous
with editorialists - those were the words missing from Senator Clinton's speech
on Tuesday night, a speech who anyone other than a Bushie, McBushie or Fox News
Hound couldn't have misconstrued as anything but clear and direct support for
her formal rival.
(Note: Look for Fox News "analysts all over the place as "guest-perts - "guest
experts" - on various shows where politics is, at best secondary. On the
one-hour-plus trip from Manhattan to my New Jersey home today, XM Satellite
Radios POTUS station 130 had a Fox "guest-pert" giving his take on the ho-hum
Democratic national Convention. Then as I arrived home and turned on the
television, I had the misfortune to tune in and see another Fox News
"guest-pert" on one of the Hollywood entertainment and celebrity Paparazzi
gossip shows telling the same story as his satellite radio colleague.)
Clinton was Clinton again as he used the kind of humor and insight which earns
him millions of dollars a year in speaking engagements worldwide today. As he
addressed the crowd about the hard-fought primary battle, which saw his wife
take a close second place and make history as the first real female challenger
for a major party's nomination, Clinton joked:
“The campaign generated so much heat, it increased global warming,”
-Bill Clinton
And President Clinton wasn't even the opening act. Prior to his speech, his
wife, Senator Hillary Clinton, stopped the roll call vote when it got to be New
York's turn, and asked for a nomination by acclimation. It was approved and,
just like that, Senator Obama became Candidate Obama.
Certainly the Clinton's were hard acts to follow, but they were followed and in
great and powerful fashion.
Among the many US armed services veterans who graced the stage was a current
sitting Congressman from Pennsylvania, Patrick Murphy, who was joined by a large
contingent of other Iraq war veterans. Murphy, a Democrat and the only veteran
of the Iraq war in either house of Congress, made a compassioned speech and drew
major applause from the partisan crowd. One has to think that he would have
drawn pretty good praise from any crowd as well.
Indiana Senator Evan Bayh, a short-list VP candidate and a man many said was too
dull to be chosen by Obama for the number two slot, lit up the crowd as well.
2004 Democratic challenger Senator John Kerry also came out with fire. Kerry put
forth the best speech of his career. In fact, it was such a great speech many of
us thought that it should have been made sometime four years ago. My first
reaction was, "Where was this guy in 2004?"
And finally it was Joe Biden's turn. The Delaware Senator was introduced by his
son Beau in another emotional speech from the heart that had the camera showing
many a wet eye in the crowd. He spoke of his father's commitment to him and his
brother after their mother and sister had been killed in a car crash; and the
two remaining Biden children were left hospitalized. He reminded us all what a
middle class champion his father has been for thirty-five years in the US
Senate. The Senator's son, who is off to Iraq as a member of the armed services,
is also the Delaware Attorney General, one with a bright future himself.
Stay safe Beau.
Then Senator Biden came out. He and his son shared a great moment together and
then gave his own passion-filled speech about his life, his accomplishments and
why his new friend Barack Obama will be a great President, much better than his
old friend John McCain would be.
My favorite moment came when Senator Biden made the mistake of saying the name
"Bush" when he wanted to say "McCain". Biden immediately called it a "Freudian
Slip" and made the note that it's easy to confuse the two.
The surprise which came at the end of the evening was only a surprise to those
on the floor of Denver's Pepsi Center without the benefit of text messaging.
Senator Obama came out at the end of Biden's speech to cheers and applause and
tears from the crowd, then left the stage to give Biden, his wife Jill and their
family a moment alone on with the Democratic faithful.
It was a very good night to be a Democrat.
-Noah Greenberg
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-Noah Greenberg