I've been all over cyberspace as one of the participants in will.i.am's music video supporting Barack Obama. I'm very pleased to be one of those who feel that he has what it takes to be president. I first met Senator Obama in the summer of '06 at the Senate building in DC. I was immediately taken with his intelligence and ability to connect with people.
Since that time, his political vision has impressed me as being able to reunite our country along the fault lines caused by the policies of the current administration. Someone who can lead all of us would be the the ideal candidate and I feel that Barack is that someone. I am looking forward to having the chance to vote for a candidate with his gifts.
I've been amused to see how Mr. Obama's critics have tried to pull him down by criticizing his "lack of foreign relations experience." I'm not aware that either Hillary Clinton or John McCain have any huge advantage in the awareness necessary to deal with the foreign relations aspect of the presidency. Only people with a Cabinet or State Department background can immediately state their readiness in that area. Mr. Obama has the intelligence and leadership qualities that will serve him well should he win the nomination and election.
Advisors play a central role in foreign policy areas and all of our presidents have relied on the help of those advisors to form their foreign policy agenda. As President, Mr. Obama will do the same. I'm sure his ability as an inspirational leader will help to attract the best advice.
Read more from Kareem at his LA Times blog
Magic has traditionally been my favorite, but on this issue, I'm with you.
Such a perspective not only helps as leader of the US, but also with foreign powers.
Our problems have been growing since the end of WW2. I don’t believe either Bush was president during that timeframe. It goes like this: Cold War, Korean War, Vietnam “Conflict”, Grenada, Panama, Kosovo, Gulf War 1, Gulf War 2, and several others I’ve probably forgotten. God alone knows what the next one will be but rest assured there will almost certainly be a next one in some poverty stricken corner of the world.
Blame Bush? Nope. Don’t blame him or Clinton or any other president individually. What we have today is the result of the sum of all the mistakes made by all the presidents since Truman (with possibly one exception – Gerald Ford - and I’m not sure about that).
That, of course, supports your point – we need a president who is a fixer-upper more than ever. I hope the next one will be.
http:''www.kcsm.org
http://www.kcsm.org/jazz91
It can't be real. Obama has happily stood by while his surrogates have branded the Clintons racists and divided the Democratic party. Obama has demonstrated that if it benefits him, he'll countenance division. Yes, he will. And so have his supporters, For people who claim to crave "unity," many still don't know the meaning of graciousness. We'll see this demonstrated amply this week when Hillary concedes.
Obama isn't interested in unity. Obama is interested in winning. And it's a good thing he's not interested in unity because it's completely unrealistic to think that progressives, moderates, conservatives, socialists and capitalists, evangelicals and atheists, gays and homophobes--all can co-exist peacefully under one big tent, united in their admiration and faith in Obama.
In order for him to keep the peace, he'll have to govern with the equivalent of those "present" votes, for any effort he makes to move in any direction is going to alarm and disappoint some of his supporters who thought for sure he intended to go their way.
His campaign has been brilliant and effective, but what they're selling is unattainable. As a result, there are going to be some very disappointed people in the future.
Most disenchanted of all will be the progressives who find that one cannot be a uniter and a progressive in America. Obama is necessarily going to be a centrist--just like Hillary, only with better moves and a stronger political apparatus.
For the record, I'm no more a "stalker" or an "operative" than you are. I'm just a person with a different point of view from yours posting on a message board.
If most Obama supporters would indeed have voted for Hillary, then Obama and Michelle should have indicated that. I'm in my fifties, a lifelong Democrat, and I've never heard a candidate and his spouse use this sort of "take our marbles" threat before.
It was a bit divisive.
And it certainly has encouraged a number of bruised and battered Hillary supporters to think along similar lines. After all, if Obama hinted that it's cool to NOT support your primary opponent in the general election, there can't be anything wrong with it, right?
I appreciated the deft way you handled your conversion to Islam, your relationship with Coach Wooden, and the dignity and class with which you conducted yourself. I also appreciate your intelligence and scholarship.
While some celebrity endorsements mean little, yours is quite valuable in my view because of your thoughtful approach to all things in your life.
Apparently the Financial Times is reporting that Senator Obama has called someone in Canada, in wink and nod fashion, to say he would not terminate NAFTA. This truly upset McLaughlin, on the McLauglin Group on Friday night, and I have watched McLauglin for years and he has never disappointed. If this is true I would have to question the integrity of Senator Obama just when I believed we had someone we could trust.
NOT.
The 74-year-old Farrakhan, addressing an estimated crowd of 20,000 people at the annual Saviours' Day celebration, never outrightly endorsed Obama but spent most of the nearly two-hour speech praising the Illinois senator.
"This young man is the hope of the entire world that America will change and be made better," he said. "This young man is capturing audiences of black and brown and red and yellow. If you look at Barack Obama's audiences and look at the effect of his words, those people are being transformed."
HOPE OF THE ENTIRE WORLD-- ha ha ha
Farrakhan compared Obama to the religion's founder, Fard Muhammad, who also had a white mother and black father.
FOUNDER OF BLACK MUSLIMS HAD A WHITE MOTHER AND BLACK FATHER LIKE OBAMA-
"A black man with a white mother became a savior to us," he told the crowd of mostly followers. "A black man with a white mother could turn out to be one who can lift America from her fall."
Farrakhan also leveled small jabs at Hillary Rodham Clinton, Obama's rival for the Democratic nomination, suggesting that she represents the politics of the past and has been engaging in dirty politics.
Farrakhan's keynote address at McCormick Place, the city's convention center, wrapped up three days of events geared at unifying followers and targeting youth.
It had a different tone from a year ago, when Farrakhan made what was called his final public address at a Saviours' Day event in Detroit. The 74-year-old was recovering from complications from prostate cancer and months earlier had temporarily passed on leadership duties of the organization's day-to-day activities to an executive board.
© 2008 Associated Press.
Si se Puede!
PS, Just heard that your old coach and the greatest coach and teacher that God has ever blessed us with ,"The Coach" John Wooden is in the hospital after he injured his wrist and shoulder, at 97 years old he is kind of fragile but he is in all our Prayers.
Your endorsement of Obama is as elegant as your hook shot.
Keep writing those books! Its great to see an athlete who has made a real intellectual contribution. Makes you wish more basketball players would finish college.
Love it when we catch a glimpse of you on the Laker bench. Kareem, Magic, Worthy, Byron, Riley and Chick. It makes me all weepy....
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OTViZjhhNGI1Y2QxYjE0ZDc0YmMwMjJiNmUyZjQ3MmU=