Them Civil Rights Folks

Andrew Young says Obama too young for White House Baltimore Sun, United States Civil rights leader and former Carter Administration U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young says 46-year-old Barack Obama is too young to be president and lacks the network of political allies that can provide important support for a national leader. ..... “I want Barack Obama to be president,” Young said, pausing for effect, “in 2016.” ..... “It’s not a matter of being inexperienced. It’s a matter of being young,” said Young, who is 75. “There’s a certain level of maturity ... you’ve got to learn to take a certain amount of (expletive).” ...... Young added that Obama needs a political network to bolster him in office. He noted Hillary Clinton had a well-established network of allies, including her husband, to provide political protection. ...... “There are more black people that Bill and Hillary lean on,” Young said. “You cannot be president alone. ... To put a brother in there by himself is to set him up for crucifixion. His time will come and the world will be ready for a visionary leadership.” ..... Young also quipped that “Bill is every bit as black as Barack.” ....... “He’s probably gone with more black women than Barack,” Young said of former President Clinton, drawing laughs from a live television audience. Young quickly followed the comment with the disclaimer, “I’m clowning.”
Civil Rights Icon Calls Obama Too Young The Associated Press
Barack Obama is too young to be President, says Andrew Young New York Daily News
Civil Rights Icon Andrew Young Hints at Clinton Endorsement MyFox Atlanta, GA
Young Hits Obama Washington Continent Former Atlanta Mayor and Ambassador ..... You have to have a protective network around you... Leadership requires suffering. And I would like to see Barack's children get a little older, see, because they're going to pick on them." ..... He reflected on his days serving as one of many lieutenants to Martin Luther King Jr. ...... while Obama's rival Sen. Hillary Clinton is surrounded by quite a few black advisors Obama has very few. .... Rev. Jesse Jackson, who had endorsed Obama, has been critical of the presidential candidate in recent weeks. .... Rev. Al Sharpton has said that he has not decided if he will support Obama.

When you learn Newtonian physics too well, that actually makes you less capable of getting a hint of Einsteinian physics. These civil rights era lions are acting like electromagnetism folks who will perhaps never get quantum physics. They deserve respect for the work they did half a century ago, but they don't deserve attention today in 2008. Don't listen to them.

People like Andrew Young find the idea of an occasional phone call from Bill Clinton intoxicating. Oh, access. Oh, mother power. What they don't realize is it is a leap from getting a phone call from Bill Clinton, and being Bill Clinton. Barack is about to become Bill Clinton.

"People don't change their ideas. They die with them."
- Max Planck

Andrew Young is not worth courting for me. Did Andrew Young witness the I Have A Dream speech in person? I doubt it. How did he skip the central message of that grand day? When MLK said "some day," he was thinking of Barack Obama.

There are people who will tell you, Barack should wait. He should wait his turn. Maybe eight years, maybe more. He should wait. Forget eight years, if it were about Barack Obama, I would say, bud, skip this circus, just never run. It's not worth it. You will spend too much time away from your kids. They will make you eat hotel food. They will make you sleep in motels, inns, hotels, and other sanitary but impersonal sleeping facilities invented by capitalism. You won't get to read as much as you would like to. They will put you out in the cold in your jacket because your overcoat might not look cool for the TV cameras. And you will have to deliver your stump speech over and over again. You will have to walk to the same U2 song, did they tell you? You will have to deal with creatures called volunteers. You will have to work to get them excited, and most of them you will never even meet. Some of them probably live unhygienic lives. You are already in history, you are already on TV, you are already in the top 1% income bracket. Just kick back and relax and take it all in.

But, don't you get it? This is not about Barack Obama. Barack can wait. He can afford to not even run, not now, not later. But the world can't wait. America can't wait. This is about America. This is about the world.

But this is also about race. Oprah gets it. Her billion dollars did not save her from the indignity in Paris. She was just another suspicious black person. Andrew Young does not get it. He might have marched in the 1960s, but he is going to have to work harder to convince me he was not blanked out half the time he was marching.

Barack can not wait four or eight or 12 years. If he is thinking about America, if he is thinking about the world. The time is now. It is now or never. Iraq will not wait four or eight or 12 years. America needs universal health care now. Actually it needed it yesterday. There has been enough waiting. This country has waited too long. Global warming will not wait while Barack bides his time.

I am going to admit something. When I got excited about Barack back in November 2006 when he hinted he might run, no kidding, I was not thinking the politics of hope, new kind of politics, what have you. I was itching for fights. Things were looking so good, the country was so sour on Iraq, I felt like I was on a roll. And I am still 101. I am having to learn this thing called new kind of politics, and politics of hope, and bringing people together, and all that. I have been warming to the idea. Some day I might even get it. But then that's the point. Barack is unique in what he bring to the table. He is a leader who will fill up the chasms that divide. That will make it possible for him to do big, bold things.

The civil rights movement was a task incomplete. Barack is the dream that MLK talked about. Them civil rights era folks are going to have to wake up, or they are going to have to disown their involvement in the civil rights movement. It really does boil down to that.

Barack "lacks the network of political allies?" Are you kidding me? This is the largest grassroots movement in human history. What planet are you on? Noone built a more impressive network before.

It is almost like some of these older black folks need the chronic poverty in the inner cities to continue because if that disappears then so does their relevance. That is pathetic.

It is pathetic that the most well known blacks in America need whites to like Barack before they will decide they like Barack also. It is weird. How about maybe not supporting Barack regardless of how white America feels about him? Or supporting him? Or not let Bill Clinton tell you how to think? Have some dignity and make up your own mind? Judge Barack on the merits.

If he is the best qualified, support him. If not, go support someone else who you think is best qualified. This is not about race. This is a job application. Just don't act more racist than the racist white folks you complain about.

MLK dreamt the dream. Barack will realize the dream. And you just might get the historical significance of Barack in about four, or eight or 12 years. Barack and America do not have to wait, but you take your time, be my guest.

And then Young totally loses me on all merits when he goes on this racist tangent about Barack's mother having married a "Chinese" and Barack having gone to Islamic schools (not true), and I am like, they never found out who was behind the anti-Mormon push calls in Iowa recently, but we now have the guilty party for the racist mud on Obama. Shame on you, Andrew Young.

"I can talk to white folks because I grew up around them when I was two," he says. Apparently he does not know his math. Barack also was around white kids when he was two. Young is confused. He is past his prime. He should lolly up and get off TV. He is being a disservice to the cause that gave him his entire identity.

The lowest part of Young's diatribe is when he feigns concern for Barack's kids as the reason why Barack should not even have run. Remember JFK and his two young kids? Barack reminds people of JFK. Where have you been? Boating?

Barack: Black Enough For Me







On The Web

Andrew Young - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
New Georgia Encyclopedia: Andrew Young (b. 1932)
Bio of Ambassador Andrew Young
AYSPS People - Andrew Young
YOUNG, Andrew Jackson, Jr. - Biographical Information
In Defense of Andrew Young
Andrew Jackson Young, Jr. - SourceWatch
Lesson Plan - Andrew Young
Andrew Young resigns from Wal-Mart group - U.S. business- msnbc.com
Andrew J. Young, Jr., Oral History: LBJ Library
Michelle Malkin » Video: Andrew Young disses Obama, extols the ...

O O O

In The News

Oprah and Obama a hit in SC Chicago Tribune, United States
Oprah tries to give Obama a lift with black voters Reuters
Oprah Winfrey backs Barack Obama Telegraph.co.uk, United Kingdom
Andrew Young says Obama too young for White House Baltimore Sun, United States
Oprah-Obama double bill largest political NH rally in recent memory Boston Globe, United States Around 6,000 people -- young and old and predominately female -- filled up about half of the Verizon Wireless Arena, the state's largest facility ....... This was the most attended political event in recent state history. ..... The event was also remarkable for its stagecraft. Over 30 television cameras, blaring music, grand, long entrances from both Oprah and Obama with standing ovations added to the idea that something was different about this rally. ..... The crowd clinged to Oprah and her stories. Teenage girls shook like they saw a member of the Beatles when she was introduced to a 30 second standing ovation. ....... there was an authenticty in Oprah's voice.
Clinton No Longer Should Worry Just About Iowa MSNBC the race for the Democratic nomination is no longer a tight 1-state contest, but a truly competitive race across the country. ...... Obama is nipping at her heels, trailing in Iowa by 2 points and trailing in New Hampshire and South Carolina by just three points. ..... Bill Clinton is still VERY popular among Democrats, in most cases, more popular than all of the actual contenders, though Obama matches the FPOTUS in FAV rating in New Hampshire. ...... Hillary Clinton's support is what you'd expect: women, folks over 50 and union members. ..... the biggest demographic gap is generational, not gender. ..... in all three states, she's seen as having run the most negative campaign to date. ...... Obama's support is overwhelmingly among independents and those under 50. ...... If Clinton and Edwards are sharing some supporters, doesn't that signal that those two may begin going after each other more so than Obama ...... Obama leads overwhelmingly on change and is seen as more honest than Clinton ..... South Carolina ... among black voters, as he leads Clinton by 16 points among African-Americans. But among whites, Clinton leads by 16. ..... experience doesn't appear to be all that important to voters
Roger Cohen: Obama and the American idea International Herald Tribune, France "We can and should lead the world, but we have to apply wisdom and judgment. Part of our capacity to lead is linked to our capacity to show restraint." ...... the failures in Iraq; the abyss between U.S. principle and practice (Abu Ghraib); the rise of other nations (China); startling displays of American incoherence (Iran); economic vulnerability (the dollar as a declining store of value); and resentments stirred by any near hegemonic power. ....... As Joyce Carol Oates put it in The Atlantic: "How heartily sick the world has grown, in the first seven years of the 21st century, of the American idea!" It has become a "cruel joke." ........ the universality of the American proposition: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness under a constitutional government of limited powers. "I believe in American exceptionalism," he told me, but not one based on "our military prowess or our economic dominance." ......... "our exceptionalism must be based on our Constitution, our principles, our values and our ideals. We are at our best when we are speaking in a voice that captures the aspirations of people across the globe." ........ America's capacity to inspire; it remains unique. ..... And I still see no credible alternative for stability to the far-flung American garrisons that act as the offsetting power to old rivalries in Asia and Europe. ....... There are cousins of mine in Kenya who can't get a job without paying an exorbitant bribe to some mid-level functionary. ...... I can speak forcefully about the need for Muslim countries to reconcile themselves to modernity in ways they have failed to do. ...... Al Qaeda attacked the West in Kenya, Bali and New York. Obama's father was Kenyan. The senator was schooled in Indonesia. He attended college in New York. The parallels are strange. They can also be a source of the toughness married to intuition for which he still seeks complete expression. ........ Nowhere in American history has the gulf between ideals and sordid practice been greater than on questions of race.

Attention Women of Iowa: Oprah!!! Time The first person to arrive outside Des Moines' HyVee Center on Saturday morning — a mere seven hours before Oprah Winfrey would take the stage ....... Dressed for a long wait in snowy 12-degree weather, Spurlin, 37 ...... a woman voter who knows what she's doing every day at 4pm ....... "Oprah's so personable and funny," said Spurlin ...... In 2004, just 66,690 of 340,241 female registered Democrats in Iowa caucused. ..... 1,385 people (no gender statistics were available) worked four-hour volunteer shifts for Obama in order to qualify for a ticket to Winfrey's appearance ....... the mostly-female crowd exploded in joy. Many women were moved to tears.

China steps up Tibet campaign in Nepal Times of India
Obama and the 'Oprah Effect': can she sway voters? Christian Science Monitor
Behind The NIE CBS News
Eight shot in two church incidents in Colorado Reuters
Nearly 30000 See Obama-Oprah In SC MSNBC Oprah Winfrey took the stage at William Bryce Football Stadium to deafening cheers. Over 29,000 people filled the risers, some having driven from as far as Savannah, Ga. .... "For the first time, I'm stepping out of my pew because I've been inspired. I've been inspired to believe that a new vision is possible for America. Dr King dreamed the dream. But we don't have to just dream the dream anymore. We get to vote that dream into reality," she told the crowd. ........... "I got some sense, I know the difference between a book club and this seminal moment in our history." ....... asking Obama to wait to run was the same as someone telling someone that they should wait to try and better their lives. ....... the atmosphere was infectious with Arrested Development and local bands playing, getting the crowd to sing and dance along. ....... Obama also had a fine moment, bringing thousands to their feet saying that it was time to "stand up" for change. ......... Music from U2 swelled across the stadium, and Obama sauntered up to the stage, throwing his arms around both women and the three waved to the screaming crowd. It was a beautifully choreographed political moment ........ One older woman, Manatha Young, from Columbia said that she had been deciding between Hillary Clinton and Obama but after Oprah she's looking more positively at Obama. ...... asking the crowd to text their cell phone numbers to the campaign. ...... broke a Guinness World Record by conducting the world's largest phone bank, 36,426 people in the audience called four names of South Carolinian voters listed on the back of their tickets and asked them to support Barack Obama. ........ 18 percent of the first 8500 people who signed into the event said they wanted to volunteer. Sixty-eight percent of people who got tickets online to the event had never been contacted by the campaign before. ...... Black voters will be convinced of his viability in a general election if he can win the majority-white states of Iowa and New Hampshire. ..... Manchester, New Hamphshire to speak at the sold out 11,000 seat stadium there. ..... months of buzz and speculation.
Offer your election scenario Chicago Tribune The majority of forecasters said Hillary Clinton will beat out Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination (52 percent to 44 percent), but so many of them think Clinton, if nominated, will lose in the general election that Obama is actually the best bet of readers to win the presidential election -- 36 percent picked Obama to win, 28 percent went for Clinton and only 10 percent chose Mitt Romney, the next closest candidate. I, too, think Obama will win. My guess is that Clinton will get hit with an Obama-lanche in Iowa, lose narrowly to him in New Hampshire and then, in a furious attempt to right her campaign and puncture Obama's balloon, go too negative and remind many Democrats that they've had enough of the polarizing pageantry of the Clintons and it's time to move on.
New Clinton Ad in Iowa, NH The Associated Press
Clinton campaign branches out by generations Los Angeles Times












Oprah Winfrey Campaigns for Obama in Iowa NH