2008

Not to go all Tabitha Soren on you, but wouldn’t it be nice if national politics really became the next big urban youth trend? I know that Diddy tried it with his 2003 “Vote or Die” fashion venture youth campaign, but maybe this time around might we go for something a bit more, uh, nuanced?

This week Barack Obama ended his latest Harlem World tour with a $50 ticket fundraiser at the Apollo Theater. One of the openers for the night’s events was Chris Rock, who I guess was there to keep the crowd happy while Obama dined with Al Sharpton at Sylvia’s (cliche much?) before his big speech.

Keeping in mind the ongoing fascination with the national black leaderships alleged dislike of the latest Big O (hi Juan!), this moment couldn’t have been better timed: dinner with Sharpton, stumping by Chris Rock, and some fancy words from Cornel West.

And whatever any of the above’s motivation in falling in behind Obama might be, I can’t help but think that Rock himself best summarized the changing tide of sentiment. As Bonney Kapp reports:

Rock, never one to shy away from blunt language, told the crowd that he was glad to see the crowd “on the right side of history.” Because, he said, “You’d be real embarrassed if he won and you wasn’t down with it. ‘I can’t call him now! I had that white lady. What was I thinking? What was I thinking,” he joked, referring to Obama’s main rival for the Democratic nomination, Hillary Clinton.

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I must say, this is my favorite Michelle Obama picture, the lower body solid and powerful the upper posture bespeaking “from the heart.” And all, of course, in a really cute outfit.

The picture is from a New York Times story by Katharine Seelye, about presidential candidate wives, “They Stand By Their Men, Loudly.” The story is a little bit weird in its construction, though I guess it wants to be about the changing presence of wives in the campaign.

Indeed, the story suddenly made me wonder if I should come up with a campaign equivalent of the “weight statement,” a term I’ve used to describe these sort of non-stories that are frequently trotted out by celebrithon media, in which a female actress declares that she “loves her curves,” or so on. It becomes a way for the media to talk about women’s bodies without saying anything directly, instead reporting what women are saying about themselves.

There’s a tinge of nonstory around this NYT report, so must ask, what is it really trying to say?

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Isn’t it interesting how, on the one hand the Obama and HClinton candidacies supposedly signal a new day for America, but at the same time all this ugliness can’t help but seep out around the edges?

Admittedly, I don’t have much faith in Romney, but I did expect better from John Edwards, before the Esquire thing (see below).

First, of course you’ve seen this: Mitt Romney posing with a sign that reads “No to Obama, Osama, and Chelsea’s Moma.”

Now, I’m all for poetry. I even harbor a genuine soft spot for prosody in general. And I must say, the sign is quite genius in its use of thematic regression, using “osama” to shine some radical Islam/terrorism on Barack Obama, and “moma” to shine some black on Hillary Clinton. Lead-footed American genius!

But really, Mitt. Show some class, not your ass.

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Huh, Andrew Sullivan at The Daily Dish, one of the Atlantic Monthly’s blogs, has posted this video of Barack Obama first hearing the Libby news, while giving a speech in New Hampshire. (The video is after the jump).

On hearing the news (did he really hear it right that moment? I’m unclear), Obama immediately makes the connection between the Genarlow Wilson sentence and the Libby commutation.

This is the same connection Obama would go on to use in a speech he has given in a variety of venues, which I mentioned in an earlier post.

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According to this story by Christi Parsons in the Chicago Tribune, Barack Obama came with it during a Democratic candidate’s forum yesterday to the NAACP (story below). The article compares his statements to the NAACP with a speech he gave at Howard University, where he spoke in “mostly lofty terms.” At the NAACP event in Detroit, however, Parsons’ describes Obama’s statements as combining “his intellectual assessment of social problems with a stronger does of personal feeling.”

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