Political Insider

By ADL

January 28, 2008 11:35 AM | Link to this

And when the Kennedy’s endorsed Obama it was tough for people in the Clinton camp. If there are any left…

By Robert Campbell

January 28, 2008 12:10 PM | Link to this

President John F. Kennedy himself once said:

“Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.”

Thanks to Carolyn, Ted and Patrick Kennedy and many others for helping us to look towards the future in their endorsements for Senator Barack Obama for President of the United States.

By Will Jones

January 28, 2008 12:26 PM | Link to this

Can a betrayer of Dr. King, John Lewis, “trump” Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of John F. Kennedy, whose assassin, George H.W. Bush, is so tight with pervert whitetrash Bill Clinton?

No.

By Joe

January 28, 2008 1:10 PM | Link to this

Anyone who equates a Kennedy to a John Lewis has their head stuck in the sand. It would be like calling Eldrin brilliant.

By Hope Weldon

January 28, 2008 1:26 PM | Link to this

I am a resident of the state of SC, when things did not go, as well as, as the Clintons anticipated; they left the state like a theft in the night. Prior to the Primary they boasted about their innate relationships with Blacks. Within seconds of the results it wwere as if they had never visited the state. All those true-black tides were quickly broken once the numbers revealed that their tides to Southern Black America were not a tides, but more like a tide-wave that comes and went quickly. It was well that their true colors came out in the south, now others will be able to make inform choices. One lesson I hope was learned, as the Master did more than four hundred years, never assume you know a black person. Blacks of toay are like former slaves- never revealing thy true self .That is a defense mechanism that we aquired from others wanting to own and handle us. Hope Weldon Denmark, SC

By Jay

January 28, 2008 1:59 PM | Link to this

I think the Clintons will evoke lot of sympathy from all this - I am surprised Obama does not see it.

By Lily Toad

January 28, 2008 2:38 PM | Link to this

I think the real question is whether endorsements really affect how people vote.

By Churchill

January 28, 2008 2:46 PM | Link to this

I have no sympathy for Hill and Bill. This is bad news for Hillary. Didn’t Bill frame his presidency as the”new Camelot”?

Anybody But Hillary!!

By Kevin H.

January 28, 2008 3:01 PM | Link to this

What happened in SC was not a surprise at all… the blacks showed there true colors to the Country on Saturday, they showed us that they would backed any one whose BLACK regardless, how wrong he can be for our Country they would probably vote for OJ Simpson, if he would be running.

LET THIS BE A LESSON FOR US ALL…ONCE THEY GO BLACK, THEY NEVER GO BACK !

By Craig

January 28, 2008 4:36 PM | Link to this

So all these people chose to “go black”? What a moron.

By Joni

January 28, 2008 5:42 PM | Link to this

“Democrats have searched for half a century for a successor to the legacy…” Strong words but this is the reality: “If a Hillary Clinton campaign official told a reporter that white voters never support black candidates, would the media have swallowed the message whole? What if a campaign pollster began whispering that Jews don’t have an “affinity” for African American politicians? Would the pundits have accepted the premise unquestioningly? Read Gregory Rodriguez in todays LA Times: Clinton’s Latino Spin. The Clinton campaign’s assertion that Latinos historically haven’t voted for black candidates is divisive — and false.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-rodriguez28jan28,0,1688217.column

By Little One

January 28, 2008 5:42 PM | Link to this

Nobody thinks much of the Lewis endorsement. He can’t even deliver his own 5th district to Clinton. So much for that…

By Joni

January 28, 2008 5:45 PM | Link to this

“Democrats have searched for half a century for a successor to the legacy…” Strong words but this is the reality - playing brown against black:

“Insensitivity was reflected in a recent issue of the New Yorker, when Clinton’s veteran Latino political operative Sergio Bendixen was quoted as saying, “The Hispanic voter — and I want to say this very carefully — has not shown a lot of willingness or affinity to support black candidates.”

That brief quote from an obscure politician has generated shock and awe in Democratic circles. It comes close to validating the concern that the Clinton campaign is not only relying on a brown firewall built on an anti-black base but is reinforcing it. A prominent Democrat who has not picked a candidate this year told me, “In any campaign I have been involved in, Bendixen would have been gone.”

By Scoreboard

January 28, 2008 6:00 PM | Link to this

Why did Kennedy betray his race and endorse a Black candidate?

Kind of a double standard here.

By Will Jones

January 28, 2008 7:30 PM | Link to this

The race of the candidate Kennedy was endorsing is the American race.

By Erika Johnson

January 30, 2008 4:23 PM | Link to this

Hmmm… more relevantly here, might be:

Why did Hillary betray her constituents and vote for resolution 114?

H.J.Res. 114 - Why did they do it?

I came across an article on the Topic of Black Bourgeoisie on which the ensuing thread naturally expended on such issues as the divide endorsement of the Congressional Black Caucus, and the John Lewis endorsement—-and his explanation for his decision:

“As an elected official, you have to lead,” Lewis said. “Sometimes [your constituents] don’t follow, but you still have to lead and not be afraid.” Lewis cited his long relationship with Bill Clinton as the chief factor in his backing Hillary Clinton. “They’re like family,” he said.

My disillusionment with John Lewis begun when he endorsed Joe Lieberman for re-election to the Senate in 2006, despite Lieberman’s loss to Ned Lamont in the Democratic primary, and in spite of John Lewis staunch opposition to the Iraq War (which Lieberman supports.)

What gave?

It’s hard too to know what goes on in a politician’s life…

I am sure John Lewis feels he is doing the right thing, but I am disturbed that his judgment is more easily swayed by his felt allegiance to the Clinton dynasty than by his allegiance to his constituents. On can call this kind of personal loyalty many things, but “leadership” it certainly isn’t.

Bill Clinton’s influence was certainly decisive here. There was an article in the New York Times in March commenting that “Representative John Lewis, whose political career grew out of the civil rights movement, had longed for the day he could vote for someone that he believed could become the nation’s first black president.”

Apparently, still according to that article, “when Senator Barack Obama entered the race, he was on the cusp of declaring his support… Until Bill Clinton called.”

Reportedly, John Lewis said, at the time, that he was agonizing over whether to choose Senator Barack Obama, whom he once described as “the future of the Democratic Party,” or Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.