Palin talking to the press? Why would you think that?
September 5, 2008
Lest there be any doubt about Palin’s complete inadequacy to be Vice President of the United States, TIME’s correspondent found out that Palin won’t be dealing with the press. Check out this piece I pulled from Jay,
According to Nicole Wallace of the McCain campaign, the American people don’t care whether Sarah Palin can answer specific questions about foreign and domestic policy. According to Wallace — in an appearance I did with her this morning on Joe Scarborough’s show — the American people will learn all they need to know (and all they deserve to know) from Palin’s scripted speeches and choreographed appearances on the campaign trail and in campaign ads.
Wallace’s bash-the-media exercise has its merits as a campaign tactic. It certainly rallies the base. But the base won’t lift McCain to 50% in November. More importantly, in her smug dismissal of the media’s role in asking questions of the candidates, Wallace was really showing contempt not for reporters, but for voters. I bet there are a lot of undecided voters out there who were intrigued by Sarah Palin last night, but who don’t yet know enough about her — what she believes, what she knows — to be comfortable with the idea of her as vice president of the United States. It’s important to them to know if Palin can handle herself in an environment that isn’t controlled and sanitized by campaign image makers and message mavens. Maybe she can, maybe she can’t. As far as Wallace is concerned, it’s none of their — or your — business.
God help us,
Stay up fam,
Brandon Q.
Closing the chapter on Mayor Kwame M. Kilpatrick
September 4, 2008
If you haven’t heard yet, Kwame Kilpatrick resigned today, ending an eight month long text-messaging scandal that has ravaged Detroit and the entire state of Michigan. I am too tired to explain all the minutiae of these cases because it is too emotionally draining but if you want to learn about it, go to the Detroit Free Press.
To be frank, I didn’t want to write about this story until it was over because I knew that 1) The text messages would be the downfall of the mayor and 2) I choose to focus and work on far more important issues that deserves attention like foreclosed homes, the lack of a quality transit system, failing schools, sky-rocket car insurance rates, just to name a few.
Here is the thing, I don’t believe in kicking a man when he is down. Kwame is out of office and while there needs to be healing for the citizens of Detroit, I rebuke anyone who claims to seriously care about Detroit that will harp on this situation as a reason why they won’t fight the good fight. But let’s keep it really real, I really don’t care about what you think about the court cases. I care about whether you care about the citizens of Detroit. This is where I stood before the scandal, during the scandal, and where I stand today.
So as we look towards the future, there are a couple things to keep in mind. Just because Kwame is out of office does not mean that you have to run for mayor next year. Many folks have said today that this is a unique opportunity for Detroit to make a turn for the better. Those opportunities are present every single day and if you are waiting for the next scandal to sort-a-kinda get involved, don’t talk to me. And don’t wallow in despair. So when someone says it’s a sad day in Detroit, tell them that you look towards the hills from which cometh your help.
Stay up fam,
Brandon Q.
Palin…The Conservative Trojan Horse
September 4, 2008
Governor Sarah Palin. I am speechless really. I have been following the coverage since she she was announced as McSame’s VP candidate. Later on I will outline the outright lies she spewed in her speech last night. But first, let me say that I am scared with this Palin nomination because I fear that Democrats will underestimate her ability to sway people toward McCain. Someone once told me that people never remember what you say, they only remember how you make them feel. And if that logic holds true, Palin’s life story is very compelling and will go a long way towards her becoming the Trojan Horse that gets McSame in the White House. Now mind you I have said nothing about issues (of which I disagree with her on so many levels) but in the end issues really don’t matter. And if you don’t believe me, check out this excerpt from George Lakoff,
But the Palin nomination changes the game. The initial response has been to try to keep the focus on external realities, the “issues,” and differences on the issues. But the Palin nomination is not basically about external realities and what Democrats call “issues,” but about the symbolic mechanisms of the political mind — the worldviews, frames, metaphors, cultural narratives, and stereotypes. The Republicans can’t win on realities. Her job is to speak the language of conservatism, activate the conservative view of the world, and use the advantages that conservatives have in dominating political discourse.
Democrats, if you want to win, realize that for as much as issues matter, you can’t do anything about the issues until you win so I beg that anyone supporting Obama imagine that you are the perpetual underdog until the polls close November 4th. Below is a clip from the Daily Show that debunks this whole gender card foolishness followed by an abbreviated breakdown of how Palin lied to America last night.
If that wasn’t enough, here is a more detailed fact-based analysis of how she lied in her unusually cynical speech, (Thanks Laurin!)
Fact Check of Governor Palin’s Speech Read more
Reactions to Sarah Palin
September 4, 2008
It’s taking me much longer than I anticipated to wrap my head around the DNC. Nevertheless, life, and politics, go on.
Now that the Republicans have a Vice Presidential nominee, Sarah Palin, a good friend of mine and of The SuperSpade’s has some reactions to her selection and her speech.
Below are links to Clarence Wardell III’s Giant Steps blog, which has two posts on Palin & much more great content.
On the Palin Pick
By picking Palin, McCain has made himself out to be a hypocrite and liar. The immediate instinct is to react as Obama’s communication’s director did, and talk about how much Palin is unqualified, but that is not the winning attack line, and Democrats would be wise to stay away from this as much as possible. Based on Obama’s response to the Palin nomination on Friday, he gets it, which isn’t surprising at all. One thing we’vecome to find out about Obama is that he’s much more politically savvy than people tend to give him credit for being. By attacking on the front of Palin’s inexperience the Obama campaign opens themselves up to the response that she’s qualified as Obama (which is not true). The central line of attack must be that it was not Obama who thought he lacked experience, but McCain who thought Obama lacked experience. With this pick McCain has shown that either:
- He’s a liar and Obama does have the appropriate experience, or that
- Palin is inexperienced too, and he just picked someone who is not the most qualified.
However, he can’t have it both ways.
Read more of the “On the Palin Pick” post.
Reactions to Palin’s Speech
Some have commented that this speech was on par with the Obama speech of 2004. I have to laugh at this, because for one the speech that Sarah Palin read was clearly written by someone for her, packed with about 30 minutes of lines pulled straight out of the McCain commercials we’ve seen for the past month. Obama’s speech was written by him, and then tweaked by others. Palin’s was a speech predicated on division, while Obama’s was a salvo for unity. For all the energy put into the conservative base by the Palin pick, I can only imagine that her speech tonight did the same for the liberal base.
Read more of the “Reactions to Palin’s Speech” post.
One Love. One II.
Michelle Obama Tries to Create an Era of Understanding
August 27, 2008
Michelle Obama gave a phenomenal speech on Monday night. I have no idea how her husband is going to top her.
I found it fitting that both Obama & Clinton, archetypes for women’s rights and advancement, set the stage for the future of this country’s Democratic agenda. Specifically, both women will be re-defining what their next positions as First Lady and Senator/Former Presidential Candidate mean and how they are managed. Both Mrs. Obama and Sen. Clinton were tasked with re-presenting themselves to the people, for different reasons. Obama had to give us a new image because hers is being assaulted by the conservative press.
Creating an Era of Understanding
Michelle Obama’s speech (full text & video) was one of the most tactically written, beautifully executed addresses in this generation, and she isn’t even a politician. Her and her speech writers successfully reframed both her and Sen. Obama as family people, as Americans, as people who have a Black version of white America’s experience. The reason that she even had to give that speech is because there is a fundamental misunderstanding between Black people and other people about the similarities and differences between one another’s life experiences. One would think that in a society where Black and white have been juxtaposed for approaching 400 years, white people’s pre-conceived notions about Black women would bear some semblance of accuracy. This is not the case, and it is up to the future First Lady to do what Black men & women have to do all too often: carry the image of their entire race on their shoulders in everything that they say and do.
This unfortunate reality will persist as long as there is misunderstanding. There can be no “post-racial” society (sidebar: I hate the term post-racial) or “post-anything” society without first building bridges of understanding and empathy between races, sexes, genders, cultures, sexual orientations, etc. The understanding is something that must be both actively pursued and actively distributed, meaning that we can’t just close our eyes and snap our fingers and have everyone magically move beyond racial tensions. Michelle and Barack Obama have the largest megaphone with which they can usher in this Era of Understanding, and I’m looking to them to set an example for others to emulate.
This is the type of change that we need.
One Love. One II.
A guide to watching the DNC Convention
August 26, 2008
Just when I think that MSM can’t get worse, I am disgusted at the gross coverage of the DNC National Convention. You are truly missing out on some great speeches because you would think that no one is on stage save for the keynote speakers. Right now, my main man Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer is talking and he is one of the most dynamic politicians I have come across but you wouldn’t know that by watching CNN or MSNBC. For anyone interested in actually watching the convention and not talking heads, watch C-SPAN or listen to NPR instead of supporting MSM.
Stay up fam,
Brandon Q.
Live at the DNC - I survived a PUMA
August 26, 2008
I’m finally at a place where I can write a full on post about what I’ve seen thus far at the Convention. It’s been interesting. In order to stay up to the minute on what I’m seeing, follow The SuperSpade on Twitter at http://twitter.com/superspade, where I’ll be sending updates from my phone on various events.
The PUMAs are coming
My shuttle ride in from the airport was 2.5 hours long. I shared that shuttle with an Obama volunteer, 2 Hillary Clinton delegates from Virginia, and a woman from Real Democrats in DC. What I found in them all were women that were ostensibly passionate about democratic and the Democratic Party, but who underneath were actually angry and disappointed in their party’s treatment of Hillary Clinton and how the party selects its nominee.
Some of the arguments made sense, but others had a strange hint of ‘my discrimination is better than yours’, even if it wasn’t intentional. For example, the Hillary folks never liked the caucus process, and I never really understood why. Now I do. They felt like caucuses gave some voters the chance to intimidate other voters in certain districts. Ladies and gentlemen, don’t be confused: that is code for Black voters scared away white voters in Black districts. It’s just like calling Barack Obama arrogant: the “pc” way of saying that he is out of place.
They did have a different take on why her time as First Lady should count as experience: the analogy was a family-owned business. In many cases, the husband’s name is on everything (loans, bills, etc.) and the wife may not even be on the official payroll. Nevertheless, she contributes to the business operations (management of paperwork, employees, travel planning, etc.) and also is effectively a consultant on business strategy and decisions (e.g. Should we open another store across town? Should I hire an intern? etc.). This I think has merit, since I KNOW that I consult significant other when making business decisions. The nuance of this though was probably lost in the election mayhem.
Another thing they said was that a lot of older women in the Northeast were withholding their money from the DNC, which is dangerous considering the amount of money that the Republican Party has been raising ($75 million compared to the Democrats’ $28 million).
What do they want?
Something has to be done to bring these women to the table. When I asked the woman from Real Democrats who she wanted held accountable, her answers were:
- The Democratic National Committee for ignoring their complaints on caucus practices
- The Obama Campaign for doing that and taking these upset voters for granted
The really scary part: Hillary doesn’t control them
The press and the Obama campaign keeps saying that Hillary Clinton needs to “get her supporters in line.” These women were very clear when they said to me that there was nothing that Hillary Clinton could do or say to change their position. Nothing. What that means is that this thing has legs all its own, and their going to keep kicking and screaming.
Hopefully though, it’ll somehow die this week.
One Love. One II.
Michelle Obama brings the house down
August 25, 2008
Michelle Obama is a great woman not because she gives a good speech or she is clearly chock full of class and grace. She is great because she did one of the most difficult things there is to do: truly honor your parents by doing what you are told. In her speech tonight, Michelle talked about how her parents often complained that too often people go off to college and never come back. Michelle followed her parents advice and married a man who devoted his life to public service when both of them combined could be raking in major dough. Read more
Historic moments and historic movements - Obama edition
August 25, 2008
What’s up fam,
Things are about to get really interesting here at The SuperSpade. Our very own Garlin will be attending the DNC National Convention and giving us behind the scenes insights. My hope is that each of you take time to reflect on how far we have come and how far we have to go in this country to not just work out our racial issues but to deal with pressing issues included but not limited to recidivism, war, global warming, oil dependence, and the economy rooted in the progressive movement. Read more
Obama drops the ball on energy - Black on Black Thought
August 8, 2008
This is part of the bi-weekly Black on Black Thought feature.
What’s up fam,
I am responding to James’ article this week where he lauds Obama’s recent policy reversal on supporting off-shore drilling, essentially claiming that when it comes to comprehensive energy policy reform, there is no magic bullet and we need to embrace all solutions and not the solution. And Obama gave red meat to conservatives by explaining that he would support offshore drilling as part of an overall package in part because “we shouldn’t allow the Perfect to be the enemy of the Good.” Read more
