From the film Philadelphia:

Joe Miller: What do you love about the law, Andrew?
Andrew Beckett: I... many things... uh... uh... What I love the most about the law?
Joe Miller: Yeah.
Andrew Beckett: It's that every now and again - not often, but occasionally - you get to be a part of justice being done. That really is quite a thrill when that happens.

Tom Hanks felt the thrill for real today when he announced his Obama endorsement:




It would be great if more Hollywood A-listers joined the ObamaFest, but that will never happen.  As the ObamaFest intern likes to say, "Stupid is as stupid does."

        

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Senator Obama took time out from campaigning in Indiana yesterday to read (via satellite) Letterman's Top Ten list.  Given the turmoil of this past week, the list was surprisingly tepid and unfunny.  The blame rests with Letterman's writers who, for the last few years, have been phoning it in. 

We asked the ObamaFest Intern to suggest some better answers to Top Ten Surprising Facts about Senator Obama.  She quickly offered:

10.  Since running for president he still lathers and rinses - but no longer has time to repeat.
9.  Stopped watching "Real World" after the Las Vegas hot-tub orgy. 
8.  Once tried to sell Hope to America - on ebay - but reserve was not met.
7.  Started winning primaries after reading Oprah's copy of "The Secret."
6.  Supports home state of Illinois with subsides for corn, coal and - if SB1060 passes - stuffed pizza.
5.  Hopes to unite Democrats and Republicans but could care less about "those Peace and Freedom kooks."
4.  Actually likes baseball's Designated Hitter rule.
3.  Flummoxed that former pastor and former president are losing their marbles at the same time.
2.  He only eats arugula because it's so much fun to say "arugula."
1.  When asked what kind of president he will be, favorite answer is "Millard Fillmore on steroids."

        

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Roger Waters closed the Coachella Music Festival with the timely reminder that Senator Clinton is just another brick in the wall. 

INDIO, Calif. (AP) — Roger Waters brought Coachella to a close with an epic two-set performance that included playing all of "Dark Side of the Moon" and unleashing a giant inflated pig into the night sky.

The pig, which was led above the crowd from lines held on the ground, displayed the words "Don't be led to the slaughter" and a cartoon of Uncle Sam wielding two bloody cleavers. The other side read "Fear builds walls."

The underside of the pig simply read "Obama" with a checked ballot box alongside.

Rogers had already tipped his hand when, following the Texas primary, he politely referred to Senator Clinton as ghastly:

Of course, nobody sets out to be ghastly.  But sometimes too many harsh blows in life, too much betrayal, and your youthful idealism lies bleeding by the wayside:

There is no pain you are receding
A distant ship, smoke on the horizon.
You are only coming through in waves.
Your lips move but I can't hear what you're saying.
When I was a child
I caught a fleeting glimpse
Out of the corner of my eye.
I turned to look but it was gone
I cannot put my finger on it now
The child is grown,
The dream is gone.
I have become comfortably numb.

        

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Ike and Dick share a chuckle when Julie asks, "Why can't a black man
be President?"


Senator Obama is not just blowing smoke up our kilts when he says he can unite Democrats with Republicans and Independents.  The latest proof is Julie Nixon Eisenhower who supported the Obama campaign with the $2300 maximum contribution. 

Clinton apologists are still not convinced.   Fine.  The ObamaFest Team will prove that Senator Obama is the ultimate uniter.  Our top intern has set out to find a supporter named Trudy Lincoln Reagan. 

        

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The ObamaFest Team has once again brought in Rocky Petralia from HelloRocky.com to Liveblog a debate.  His chronicling of January's South Carolina debate set the standard for seat-of-the-pants journalism.  Tonight's (4/16/08) Pennsylvania debate promises to be a dandy. - Nate


Thanks for having me back, Nate.  And speaking of dandies, nice sweater vest.

7:57 - Watching Wheel of Fortune while waiting for debate to start.   The finished the game early and are showing home video of Vanna's cat.  Merv Griffin just rolled over in his diamond-encrusted casket.

8:00 - Charlie Gibson setting the stage.  Introducing candidates.  Applause from crowd.  The seats all have bars - the audience looks like they are seated in a thrill ride.  Hands and arms inside, people.

8:03 - Obama opens.  Struck by decency of Pennsylvania people.  Mentions guy in Latrobe who can't afford gas to look for a job.  I've got an uncle like that, Senator - if you buy him gas he drives to a tavern. 

8:05 - Clinton promises to restore our standing in the world. 

8:05 - First commercial?!?? Four minutes in? 

8:07 - Charlie leads off.  Says candidates appeal to different constituencies.  Quotes Gov. Cuomo who wants candidates to pledge now to take the other as running mate.  Charlie wasn't sure whether to start with an absurd or a banal question.  He went with the banal.  No wonder I haven't watched ABC since they pulled Love Boat.  btw- both candidates dance around the question.  Nice waste of the first five minutes, Gibson. 

8:12 - Gibson brings up Obama's "bitter" quote.  That guy in Latrobe just popped open another Rolling Rock.

8:14 - Senator Clinton says she is granddaughter of bitter Scranton factory worker.  Says she can see why people would be offended by "bitter" remarks. 

8:16 - George Stephanopoulos finally speaks.  Asks Clinton if she thinks Obama can beat McCain.  She dances around the question like Gene Kelly with an umbrella.  George asks again and she says, "Yes, Yes, Yes" but that she could do a better job.

8:18 - Obama says Clinton could also beat McCain.  Adds that he is not condescending to people of faith because he is a person of faith.  And he listens to gun owners.  Early gun pander.  I get the feeling that everybody in Penn. is packing heat. 

8:20 - Clinton says she has 35 year proven record of results.  That means she's been bringing it since '73.  That puts her up there with Springsteen, who btw endorsed Obama today.


"Baby I got my facts learned real good right now..."

8:22 - Charlie now brings up Rev. Wright issue.  I guess Charlie prepped for debate by scanning a People magazine.  Stephanopoulos hasn't looked so embarrased for a colleague since Sam Donaldson got caught taking farm subsidies.

8:24 - Charlie now asks Clinton if she thinks all 8,000 members of Rev. Wright's church should have gotten up and walked out.  She mentions 9/11 attacks were on "her city."  Way to pick up the Guiliani indignation.

8:26 - George follows up on Rev. Wright and how Obama will handle Republican attacks on Rev. Wright.  I guess you play down to your colleague's level.

8:31 - Senator Clinton says Rev. Wright issue deserves further exploration.  Says "as leader's we have a choice who we associate with."  Brings up Farrakhan.  Charlie cuts her off before she can link Obama to Wesley Snipes tax evasion.

8:32 - George says six out of ten voters don't think Senator Clinton is honest or trustworthy.  Brings up sniper fire in Bosnia issue.  George must have read Charlie's People.  Where are the War on Terror questions?  Taxes?  Government waste?  Coal subsidies?  I should be asking questions, not sitting here wearing one sock.

8:34 - Snuffleuphagus asks Obama if he thinks Senator Clinton has been truthful about her past.  Obama says people make gaffes when they are recorded all-day, every-day. 

8:37 - Charlie runs tape of some Pennsylvania broad asking Senator Obama if he believes in the American flag.  Like it's the Loch Ness monster or Bigfoot.  I don't know, all the pictures I've seen of the flag look grainy and doctored. 

8:41 - George brings up some Weather Underground guy who Obama knows.  He is a neighbor of Obama in Chicago and an English Professor.  In not so many words Obama tells George to pull his head out of his ass. 

8:43 - Senator Clinton jumps on this.  Says Obama served on a board with Mr. Ayers.  Says "Republicans will raise this issue" - nice way to excuse yourself for throwing dirt by saying the Republicans will throw dirt.

8:45 - Obama mentions that President Clinton pardoned two members of the Weather Underground.   Well played, Barry.

8:46 -  Charlie says he is getting out of balance.  No shit, Charlie, go back to morning TV and interviewing the cast of Desperate Housewives.

8:48 - Commercial break.  So the first hour goes by without a single question on a substantative issue. 

8:49 - Verizon ad for wireless broadband. Like anybody with broadband would be wasting time watching ABC. 

8:51 -  Video question from Mandy Garber of Pittsburgh.  How do we get out of Iraq?  The scoreboard that tallies Good Questions reads: Mandy Garber 1; Chuck Gibson 0; Snuffleuphagus 0. 

8:52 - Clinton will start withdrawing in 60 days.  No more blank checks for the Iraqis. 

8:54 - Charlie asks her if she is saying she knows more than General Petraus.  She says that "nobody can predict what will happen as we withdraw" so there is no way she can be challenged on this.  I think she just gave herself a blank check.

8:56 - Charlie asks Obama if he really can get us out in sixteen months.  Obama reminds Charlie that the Commander-in-Chief sets the mission and the military executes the mission.  That's how we got in this mess and that's how we'll get out. 

8:59 - George turns to Iran.  Should we treat an attack on Israel as an attack on the U.S?  Obama says job one is to keep nukes out of Iranian hands.  Believes we can offer them carrots and sticks.  Why not just carrot sticks?

9:01 - Clinton talks about creating an "umbrella resistance" that goes beyond Israel.  Which is fine unless it gets real windy.

9:03 - ABC goes to side stage camera angle.  We see a booth above the stage with the "Deal or No Deal" banker. 
9:03 - Charlie puts down phone.  Tells Hillary that previous offer of Vice-President has gone down.  New offer: Secretary of Interior.  Hillary looks up at Gov. Rendell, Chelsea and Wesley Clark.  They are shaking their heads "no".   She declares, "No Deal."

9:04 - George turns to economy - says it's the number one issue on American's minds (which explains waiting an hour to get to it???).  Asks if economy is still weak in a year will she still raise taxes on rich people.  She says sure - people making over $250k will pay more.  Charlie Gibson looks queasy. 

9:05 - Obama says he will cut taxes on middle-income ($75k or less). 

9:09 - Obama says 50 hedge fund people made $29 billion last year.   That guy in Latrobe just switched to boilermakers.

9:10 - Obama believes in pay as you go.  Don't cut taxes unless you're eliminating spending. 

9:11 - Clinton says Bush has been good for rich people, but it was better in the 90's when everybody got lifted up.  Camera pans crowd of bored Pennsylvanians. 

9:12 - Charlie follows up strong on capital gains tax - will you pledge not to raise them?  When not reading People, Charlie has been talking to his broker.

9:17 - Charlie wants to go to a commercial but he brought up Social Security so both candidates have to get in their Social Security talking points. 

9:19 - Commercial Break -  what is this "Divided We Fail" celebrity ad about?  Aw, who cares.

9:20 - Some kid with allergies just sneezed on his mom.  Children's Benedryl ad.  Right, give your kids drugs.  God forbid they should sneeze once in a while.  And by the time that kid turns 40 he's going to need a new liver and not know why.

9:21 - Jamie Lee Curtis pitching yogurt.   "Hell yes, I'll sit on this couch and eat this yogurt that makes me crap."

9:23 - We're back.  Charlie says he would be remiss if he didn't mention one year anniversary of crazy Korean bastard at Virginia Tech.  Axis of Evil, people.  It's real.  Charlie turns to gun control. 

9:24 - Clinton keeps talking about "Mayor Nutter."  The Beavis in me wants to laugh.  Wants assault weapon ban, says cops are outgunned on streets.  My idea: Since you can't take away the assault weapons, give the cops bazookas. 

9:29 - Obama asked about individual gun ownership rights.  Obama says local governments have rights to regulate gun ownership.  Mentions legacy of hunting in America.  Is against criminals and retards having guns.  The criminal thing is a politically safe position, but the retard proposal alienates a lot of Texans.

9:30 - George asks Clinton if she supports D.C. gun ban.  She starts to dance away from question, George makes her answer question, she says she doesn't know the facts. 

9:32 - George does quick shift to affirmative action.  Asks Obama about rich black kids getting advantages.  Obama says he believes in affirmative action, but not quotas. 

9:35 - Clinton against No Child Left Behind.  For lower interest rates on student loans. 

9:36 - Questions coming quick now.  Charlie and George realizing they pissed away the first hour and a half. 

9:37 - Charlie asks about gas prices.  Clinton says markets are being manipulated.  Brings up windfall profit taxes.  Wonder if it would apply to the fifty New Yorkers who made $29 billion?

9:38 - Obama also calls for windfall profits tax.  Wants to raise fuel standards on cars.  Wants alternative energy strategy.

9:39 - George asks Senator Clinton how should would tap into President Bush once he is an ex-President.  She says it would take careful thought.  Obama says he would rather talk to Bush Sr. 

9:40 - Charlie says one more commercial and than a final question.  I wonder if anybody but me is still watching this turkey.  Even that guy in Latrobe has moved on to foosball.

9:41 - Hey!  The Geico caveman!  Wonder who he's going to endorse.  Dollars to donuts it's Nader. 

9:45 - Charlie - "minute and a half each - what do you say to undecided delegates?"  Clinton goes first.  Says she is going to make everybody feel like they are part of the American family again.  "I will tell everybody who listens that I am ready to be commander-in-chief."  She shouts out to the General Clark.  "You know that I will fight for you."

9:48 - Obama - "Americans had lost trust in their government.  I bet on American people being tired of politicians tearing things down....change starts from the bottom up....my bet has paid off, American people have responded in record numbers...."

9:55 - Debate ends.   Time for the "insta-polls" to see who won.  But I already know - the real winners are the those Americans who skipped this dud and watched HSN - btw, I bought Chef Todd English's GreenPans and they rock. 

Thanks Nate!

Rocky Petralia
HelloRocky.com

        

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Tho road to the White House goes down E Street. 

Bruce Springsteen today endorsed (via his websight) Senator Obama:

Dear Friends and Fans:

LIke most of you, I've been following the campaign and I have now seen and heard enough to know where I stand. Senator Obama, in my view, is head and shoulders above the rest.

He has the depth, the reflectiveness, and the resilience to be our next President. He speaks to the America I've envisioned in my music for the past 35 years, a generous nation with a citizenry willing to tackle nuanced and complex problems, a country that's interested in its collective destiny and in the potential of its gathered spirit. A place where "...nobody crowds you, and nobody goes it alone."

At the moment, critics have tried to diminish Senator Obama through the exaggeration of certain of his comments and relationships. While these matters are worthy of some discussion, they have been ripped out of the context and fabric of the man's life and vision, so well described in his excellent book, Dreams of My Father, often in order to distract us from discussing the real issues: war and peace, the fight for economic and racial justice, reaffirming our Constitution, and the protection and enhancement of our environment.

After the terrible damage done over the past eight years, a great American reclamation project needs to be undertaken. I believe that Senator Obama is the best candidate to lead that project and to lead us into the 21st Century with a renewed sense of moral purpose and of ourselves as Americans.

Over here on E Street, we're proud to support Obama for President.

This comes on the heels of ObamaFest friend Rocky Petralia's recent blog about the Springsteen concert in Anaheim.  Rocky, whose spirits are constantly pulled down by a swirling undertow of pessimism, was guardedly pleased when he heard the news, quoting The Boss:

Talk about a dream
Try to make it real
you wake up in the night
With a fear so real
Spend your life waiting
for a moment that just don't come
Well, don't waste your time waiting

Badlands, you gotta live it everyday
Let the broken hearts stand
As the price you've gotta pay
We'll keep pushin' till it's understood
and these badlands start treating us good.

        

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Not everyone has time to read Senator Obama's speech in Philly.  Some prefer political Pringles, those bite-sized quotes with just enough intellectual salt to satisfy their crude ideological palates. 

For them, we offer Senator McCain's words today on his Middle East swing through Jordan:



McCain in Baghdad, "very pleased" to be waving to a U.S. bound transport.


For those, however, who crave more intellectual and inspiring words, enjoy the following: (full text)

“We the people, in order to form a more perfect union.”

Two hundred and twenty one years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group of men gathered and, with these simple words, launched America’s improbable experiment in democracy. Farmers and scholars; statesmen and patriots who had traveled across an ocean to escape tyranny and persecution finally made real their declaration of independence at a Philadelphia convention that lasted through the spring of 1787.

The document they produced was eventually signed but ultimately unfinished. It was stained by this nation’s original sin of slavery, a question that divided the colonies and brought the convention to a stalemate until the founders chose to allow the slave trade to continue for at least twenty more years, and to leave any final resolution to future generations.

Of course, the answer to the slavery question was already embedded within our Constitution – a Constitution that had at is very core the ideal of equal citizenship under the law; a Constitution that promised its people liberty, and justice, and a union that could be and should be perfected over time.

And yet words on a parchment would not be enough to deliver slaves from bondage, or provide men and women of every color and creed their full rights and obligations as citizens of the United States. What would be needed were Americans in successive generations who were willing to do their part – through protests and struggle, on the streets and in the courts, through a civil war and civil disobedience and always at great risk - to narrow that gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of their time.

This was one of the tasks we set forth at the beginning of this campaign – to continue the long march of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America. I chose to run for the presidency at this moment in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together – unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and we may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction – towards a better future for of children and our grandchildren.

This belief comes from my unyielding faith in the decency and generosity of the American people. But it also comes from my own American story.

I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a Depression to serve in Patton’s Army during World War II and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort Leavenworth while he was overseas. I’ve gone to some of the best schools in America and lived in one of the world’s poorest nations. I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slaveowners – an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters. I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible.

It’s a story that hasn’t made me the most conventional candidate. But it is a story that has seared into my genetic makeup the idea that this nation is more than the sum of its parts – that out of many, we are truly one.

Throughout the first year of this campaign, against all predictions to the contrary, we saw how hungry the American people were for this message of unity. Despite the temptation to view my candidacy through a purely racial lens, we won commanding victories in states with some of the whitest populations in the country. In South Carolina, where the Confederate Flag still flies, we built a powerful coalition of African Americans and white Americans.

This is not to say that race has not been an issue in the campaign. At various stages in the campaign, some commentators have deemed me either “too black” or “not black enough.” We saw racial tensions bubble to the surface during the week before the South Carolina primary. The press has scoured every exit poll for the latest evidence of racial polarization, not just in terms of white and black, but black and brown as well.

And yet, it has only been in the last couple of weeks that the discussion of race in this campaign has taken a particularly divisive turn.

On one end of the spectrum, we’ve heard the implication that my candidacy is somehow an exercise in affirmative action; that it’s based solely on the desire of wide-eyed liberals to purchase racial reconciliation on the cheap. On the other end, we’ve heard my former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, use incendiary language to express views that have the potential not only to widen the racial divide, but views that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation; that rightly offend white and black alike.

I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy. For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely – just as I’m sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.

But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren’t simply controversial. They weren’t simply a religious leader’s effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country – a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.

As such, Reverend Wright’s comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems – two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change; problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all.

Given my background, my politics, and my professed values and ideals, there will no doubt be those for whom my statements of condemnation are not enough. Why associate myself with Reverend Wright in the first place, they may ask? Why not join another church? And I confess that if all that I knew of Reverend Wright were the snippets of those sermons that have run in an endless loop on the television and You Tube, or if Trinity United Church of Christ conformed to the caricatures being peddled by some commentators, there is no doubt that I would react in much the same way

But the truth is, that isn’t all that I know of the man. The man I met more than twenty years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love one another; to care for the sick and lift up the poor. He is a man who served his country as a U.S. Marine; who has studied and lectured at some of the finest universities and seminaries in the country, and who for over thirty years led a church that serves the community by doing God’s work here on Earth – by housing the homeless, ministering to the needy, providing day care services and scholarships and prison ministries, and reaching out to those suffering from HIV/AIDS.

In my first book, Dreams From My Father, I described the experience of my first service at Trinity:

“People began to shout, to rise from their seats and clap and cry out, a forceful wind carrying the reverend’s voice up into the rafters….And in that single note – hope! – I heard something else; at the foot of that cross, inside the thousands of churches across the city, I imagined the stories of ordinary black people merging with the stories of David and Goliath, Moses and Pharaoh, the Christians in the lion’s den, Ezekiel’s field of dry bones. Those stories – of survival, and freedom, and hope – became our story, my story; the blood that had spilled was our blood, the tears our tears; until this black church, on this bright day, seemed once more a vessel carrying the story of a people into future generations and into a larger world. Our trials and triumphs became at once unique and universal, black and more than black; in chronicling our journey, the stories and songs gave us a means to reclaim memories that we didn’t need to feel shame about…memories that all people might study and cherish – and with which we could start to rebuild.”

That has been my experience at Trinity. Like other predominantly black churches across the country, Trinity embodies the black community in its entirety – the doctor and the welfare mom, the model student and the former gang-banger. Like other black churches, Trinity’s services are full of raucous laughter and sometimes bawdy humor. They are full of dancing, clapping, screaming and shouting that may seem jarring to the untrained ear. The church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and yes, the bitterness and bias that make up the black experience in America.

And this helps explain, perhaps, my relationship with Reverend Wright. As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children. Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms, or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect. He contains within him the contradictions – the good and the bad – of the community that he has served diligently for so many years.

I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother – a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.

These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this country that I love.

Some will see this as an attempt to justify or excuse comments that are simply inexcusable. I can assure you it is not. I suppose the politically safe thing would be to move on from this episode and just hope that it fades into the woodwork. We can dismiss Reverend Wright as a crank or a demagogue, just as some have dismissed Geraldine Ferraro, in the aftermath of her recent statements, as harboring some deep-seated racial bias.

But race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now. We would be making the same mistake that Reverend Wright made in his offending sermons about America – to simplify and stereotype and amplify the negative to the point that it distorts reality.

The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we’ve never really worked through – a part of our union that we have yet to perfect. And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every American.

Understanding this reality requires a reminder of how we arrived at this point. As William Faulkner once wrote, “The past isn’t dead and buried. In fact, it isn’t even past.” We do not need to recite here the history of racial injustice in this country. But we do need to remind ourselves that so many of the disparities that exist in the African-American community today can be directly traced to inequalities passed on from an earlier generation that suffered under the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow.

Segregated schools were, and are, inferior schools; we still haven’t fixed them, fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, and the inferior education they provided, then and now, helps explain the pervasive achievement gap between today’s black and white students.

Legalized discrimination - where blacks were prevented, often through violence, from owning property, or loans were not granted to African-American business owners, or black homeowners could not access FHA mortgages, or blacks were excluded from unions, or the police force, or fire departments – meant that black families could not amass any meaningful wealth to bequeath to future generations. That history helps explain the wealth and income gap between black and white, and the concentrated pockets of poverty that persists in so many of today’s urban and rural communities.

A lack of economic opportunity among black men, and the shame and frustration that came from not being able to provide for one’s family, contributed to the erosion of black families – a problem that welfare policies for many years may have worsened. And the lack of basic services in so many urban black neighborhoods – parks for kids to play in, police walking the beat, regular garbage pick-up and building code enforcement – all helped create a cycle of violence, blight and neglect that continue to haunt us.

This is the reality in which Reverend Wright and other African-Americans of his generation grew up. They came of age in the late fifties and early sixties, a time when segregation was still the law of the land and opportunity was systematically constricted. What’s remarkable is not how many failed in the face of discrimination, but rather how many men and women overcame the odds; how many were able to make a way out of no way for those like me who would come after them.

But for all those who scratched and clawed their way to get a piece of the American Dream, there were many who didn’t make it – those who were ultimately defeated, in one way or another, by discrimination. That legacy of defeat was passed on to future generations – those young men and increasingly young women who we see standing on street corners or languishing in our prisons, without hope or prospects for the future. Even for those blacks who did make it, questions of race, and racism, continue to define their worldview in fundamental ways. For the men and women of Reverend Wright’s generation, the memories of humiliation and doubt and fear have not gone away; nor has the anger and the bitterness of those years. That anger may not get expressed in public, in front of white co-workers or white friends. But it does find voice in the barbershop or around the kitchen table. At times, that anger is exploited by politicians, to gin up votes along racial lines, or to make up for a politician’s own failings.

And occasionally it finds voice in the church on Sunday morning, in the pulpit and in the pews. The fact that so many people are surprised to hear that anger in some of Reverend Wright’s sermons simply reminds us of the old truism that the most segregated hour in American life occurs on Sunday morning. That anger is not always productive; indeed, all too often it distracts attention from solving real problems; it keeps us from squarely facing our own complicity in our condition, and prevents the African-American community from forging the alliances it needs to bring about real change. But the anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races.

In fact, a similar anger exists within segments of the white community. Most working- and middle-class white Americans don’t feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant experience – as far as they’re concerned, no one’s handed them anything, they’ve built it from scratch. They’ve worked hard all their lives, many times only to see their jobs shipped overseas or their pension dumped after a lifetime of labor. They are anxious about their futures, and feel their dreams slipping away; in an era of stagnant wages and global competition, opportunity comes to be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense. So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town; when they hear that an African American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed; when they’re told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time.

Like the anger within the black community, these resentments aren’t always expressed in polite company. But they have helped shape the political landscape for at least a generation. Anger over welfare and affirmative action helped forge the Reagan Coalition. Politicians routinely exploited fears of crime for their own electoral ends. Talk show hosts and conservative commentators built entire careers unmasking bogus claims of racism while dismissing legitimate discussions of racial injustice and inequality as mere political correctness or reverse racism.

Just as black anger often proved counterproductive, so have these white resentments distracted attention from the real culprits of the middle class squeeze – a corporate culture rife with inside dealing, questionable accounting practices, and short-term greed; a Washington dominated by lobbyists and special interests; economic policies that favor the few over the many. And yet, to wish away the resentments of white Americans, to label them as misguided or even racist, without recognizing they are grounded in legitimate concerns – this too widens the racial divide, and blocks the path to understanding.

This is where we are right now. It’s a racial stalemate we’ve been stuck in for years. Contrary to the claims of some of my critics, black and white, I have never been so naïve as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle, or with a single candidacy – particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own.

But I have asserted a firm conviction – a conviction rooted in my faith in God and my faith in the American people – that working together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds, and that in fact we have no choice is we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union.

For the African-American community, that path means embracing the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past. It means continuing to insist on a full measure of justice in every aspect of American life. But it also means binding our particular grievances – for better health care, and better schools, and better jobs - to the larger aspirations of all Americans -- the white woman struggling to break the glass ceiling, the white man whose been laid off, the immigrant trying to feed his family. And it means taking full responsibility for own lives – by demanding more from our fathers, and spending more time with our children, and reading to them, and teaching them that while they may face challenges and discrimination in their own lives, they must never succumb to despair or cynicism; they must always believe that they can write their own destiny.

Ironically, this quintessentially American – and yes, conservative – notion of self-help found frequent expression in Reverend Wright’s sermons. But what my former pastor too often failed to understand is that embarking on a program of self-help also requires a belief that society can change.

The profound mistake of Reverend Wright’s sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It’s that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made; as if this country – a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black; Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and old -- is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past. But what we know -- what we have seen – is that America can change. That is true genius of this nation. What we have already achieved gives us hope – the audacity to hope – for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.

In the white community, the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination - and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past - are real and must be addressed. Not just with words, but with deeds – by investing in our schools and our communities; by enforcing our civil rights laws and ensuring fairness in our criminal justice system; by providing this generation with ladders of opportunity that were unavailable for previous generations. It requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams; that investing in the health, welfare, and education of black and brown and white children will ultimately help all of America prosper.

In the end, then, what is called for is nothing more, and nothing less, than what all the world’s great religions demand – that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Let us be our brother’s keeper, Scripture tells us. Let us be our sister’s keeper. Let us find that common stake we all have in one another, and let our politics reflect that spirit as well.

For we have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism. We can tackle race only as spectacle – as we did in the OJ trial – or in the wake of tragedy, as we did in the aftermath of Katrina - or as fodder for the nightly news. We can play Reverend Wright’s sermons on every channel, every day and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words. We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she’s playing the race card, or we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless of his policies.

We can do that.

But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we’ll be talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then another one. And nothing will change.

That is one option. Or, at this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, “Not this time.” This time we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native American children. This time we want to reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids can’t learn; that those kids who don’t look like us are somebody else’s problem. The children of America are not those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st century economy. Not this time.

This time we want to talk about how the lines in the Emergency Room are filled with whites and blacks and Hispanics who do not have health care; who don’t have the power on their own to overcome the special interests in Washington, but who can take them on if we do it together.

This time we want to talk about the shuttered mills that once provided a decent life for men and women of every race, and the homes for sale that once belonged to Americans from every religion, every region, every walk of life. This time we want to talk about the fact that the real problem is not that someone who doesn’t look like you might take your job; it’s that the corporation you work for will ship it overseas for nothing more than a profit.

This time we want to talk about the men and women of every color and creed who serve together, and fight together, and bleed together under the same proud flag. We want to talk about how to bring them home from a war that never should’ve been authorized and never should’ve been waged, and we want to talk about how we’ll show our patriotism by caring for them, and their families, and giving them the benefits they have earned.

I would not be running for President if I didn’t believe with all my heart that this is what the vast majority of Americans want for this country. This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected. And today, whenever I find myself feeling doubtful or cynical about this possibility, what gives me the most hope is the next generation – the young people whose attitudes and beliefs and openness to change have already made history in this election.

There is one story in particularly that I’d like to leave you with today – a story I told when I had the great honor of speaking on Dr. King’s birthday at his home church, Ebenezer Baptist, in Atlanta.

There is a young, twenty-three year old white woman named Ashley Baia who organized for our campaign in Florence, South Carolina. She had been working to organize a mostly African-American community since the beginning of this campaign, and one day she was at a roundtable discussion where everyone went around telling their story and why they were there.

And Ashley said that when she was nine years old, her mother got cancer. And because she had to miss days of work, she was let go and lost her health care. They had to file for bankruptcy, and that’s when Ashley decided that she had to do something to help her mom.

She knew that food was one of their most expensive costs, and so Ashley convinced her mother that what she really liked and really wanted to eat more than anything else was mustard and relish sandwiches. Because that was the cheapest way to eat.

She did this for a year until her mom got better, and she told everyone at the roundtable that the reason she joined our campaign was so that she could help the millions of other children in the country who want and need to help their parents too.

Now Ashley might have made a different choice. Perhaps somebody told her along the way that the source of her mother’s problems were blacks who were on welfare and too lazy to work, or Hispanics who were coming into the country illegally. But she didn’t. She sought out allies in her fight against injustice.

Anyway, Ashley finishes her story and then goes around the room and asks everyone else why they’re supporting the campaign. They all have different stories and reasons. Many bring up a specific issue. And finally they come to this elderly black man who’s been sitting there quietly the entire time. And Ashley asks him why he’s there. And he does not bring up a specific issue. He does not say health care or the economy. He does not say education or the war. He does not say that he was there because of Barack Obama. He simply says to everyone in the room, “I am here because of Ashley.”

“I’m here because of Ashley.” By itself, that single moment of recognition between that young white girl and that old black man is not enough. It is not enough to give health care to the sick, or jobs to the jobless, or education to our children.

But it is where we start. It is where our union grows stronger. And as so many generations have come to realize over the course of the two-hundred and twenty one years since a band of patriots signed that document in Philadelphia, that is where the perfection begins. 

        

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Professional boxing is in the crapper thanks to champion inflation.  With all the governing bodies and all the weight classes, the amount of championship belts in circulation is right up there with the ten dollar bill.  Even the ObamaFesta accountant claims a share of something called the NorCal Senior "Super Light Welterweight" title.  

Contrast boxing with professional politics, which is as popular as ever, thanks in no small part to George W. Bush's long reign as the undisputed Biggest Moron on Earth.

He handily defended his title during his 2/28 press conference, first with his jabbing ignorance of gas prices followed by his hee-haw haymaker when he addressed Senator Obama's willingness to talk to America's adversaries:


Sure, that's it.  World leaders want to meet with George W. Bush so they can say "Look at me!"  That's the photo they all want to put on their Christmas cards.   Jackass!

And if we don't talk to tyrants than why does Mr. Bush spend so much time meeting with the Russians and the Chinese?  We know you liked what you saw in Mr. Putin's eyes, Mr. President, but we are curious how you'd react to a meeting with the Dalai Lama and to his story of ethnic cleansing in Tibet.

Tyrants are like cockroaches, Mr. President.  They don't scurry until you shine the light on them.



...or until you eat them.

        

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Showing typical union patience and waiting until he was on "golden time," Teamsters President Jim Hoffa announced his union's backing of Senator Obama. 

To put this endorsement in perspective,  the ObamaFest Team directs your attention to The Onion.

        

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Being called "The Dumbest Man in Texas" is kind of like being called the wettest guy in the pool.

But still, here's what Mark Davis, WBAP radio host and Dallas Morning News columnist wrote, after a week in which Senator Obama won his tenth straight primary election:

"As the Barack Obama Traveling Hope and Change Show pulls into Reunion Arena today, his campaign has to be looking for a change in the wind.

Hillary Clinton's prospects for winning our state March 4 are alive and well, partly because Texas Democrat politics and demographics favor her, and partly because Mr. Obama is having what professional observers call "a really bad week.""

So what made it a "really bad week?" (btw- since when did the shrill voices in Mark Davis's own head count as "professional observers?):

"First came the harmless but odd YouTube montages of peculiar fainting spells at his campaign events, with the candidate repeatedly offering water and presumptuous claims that the fainter "will be all right."

Guess they take their YouTube montages very seriously down in Texas - in sharp contrast to their distaste for libraries and anything too "high-fallutin'".

" Then came the sheepish admission of his theft of inspiring rhetoric from Deval Patrick's 2006 campaign for Massachusetts governor. Again, not a big deal, but an embarrassment an heir apparent to his party's presidential nomination does not need."

Senator Obama did not sheepishly admit to theft.  Deval Patrick works for the Obama campaign and gave the Senator the lines.  Obama admitted that he should have given credit (not that this would placate Davis, who couldn't tell his ibid from his op. cit., and who is known to parrot Rush Limbaugh - though without all the three syllable words that confuse Texans).

"The topper came as Mr. Obama's wife delivered the shocking insult that nothing in the last 25 years had made her proud of America."

Fine.  If this election is going to turn on spousal gaffes the Obama camp is in great shape as long as a certain former president keeps breaking his shackles to launch frothing tirades. 

        

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Hillary Clinton's communication director, Howard Wolfson, has accused Senator Obama of plagiarism, claiming that the Senator stole from a speech given by Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick.

This episode plays out poorly for Wolfson, who ends up looking like the pontificating schmuck in "Annie Hall" who gets intellectually body-slammed by Marshall McLuhan. 

In this case, Governor Patrick does the body-slamming:


Finally, if there is any plagiarism at all, it is Wolfson himself stealing the iconic look of "Actor's Studio" host James Lipton.



"Your least favorite word?"  Lackey.

        

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The Los Angeles Times editorial board has endorsed Senator Obama for the Democratic nomination.

Reaction around the ObamaFest office ranges from mild surprise to outright flabbergassiness.   The new ObamaFest Intern, after spending a moment with her thesaurus, admitted to feeling "waylayed."

The ObamaFest Team chronicled the L.A. Times year's worth of snarkiness towards Senator Obama, including editorials, op-eds and elsewhere throughout the paper.

Thus today's endorsement leaves us flummoxed--in a good way.

 

        

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The ObamaFest Team celebrates another blow to the status quo:




StatusQuo.org, aka The Los Angeles Times, is expected to endorse Senator Clinton at any moment.



h/t: Independent Sources

        

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While major media remains myopically focused on breaking down the female, African-American, Latino and Evangelical demographics, one category has been shamefully overlooked: how are Hulkamaniacs going to vote? 

That was answered last night on Jimmy Kimmel as Hulk Hogan announced he would be tag-teaming with Senator Obama.

The ObamaFest Team doesn't hate Stallone for endorsing McCain.  We pity the fool.




UPDATE:  2/13/08 - Hulk backtracks on The View, says he's confused.  Translation: Producers of "American Gladiators" did not want a host with political views that alienate half the country.   When the man signing paychecks asks the Hulk to jump, he knows enough to reply "Off of which turnbuckle?" 

        

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Chivas Regal all around!  Today The ObamaFest Team has a designated blogger while the rest of the office celebrates Senator Kennedy's endorsement of Senator Obama.

"It is time now for Barack Obama," the Massachusetts senator and brother of the late President Kennedy added.

He stood with Obama, his son Rep. Patrick Kennedy and his niece, Caroline Kennedy before a screaming capacity crowd of students at American University in Washington, DC.

"Like you, we want a president who appeals to the hopes of those who still believe in the American dream," he said.

"I've found that candidate. And it looks to me like you have too," he said.

While this election is not about the past but about the future, today we are making an exception and going back about twelve years, to the point in time when this elixir was concocted:

        

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Miss Teen South Carolina - such as she is.


While it's true that "some people out there in our nation don't have maps, and while our education, such as South Africa and the Iraq should help our education over here, such as in the U.S.," it is also true that South Carolinians put on their thinking caps for at least one night, mapped their way to the polls and gave Senator Obama a sweet victory:

Former Sen. John Edwards was third with 18 percent.

        

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Heads Up!  The ObamaFest Team has brought in Rocky Petralia from HelloRocky.com to Liveblog tonight's (1/21/08) debate from South Carolina (8:00pm Eastern on CNN). - Nate


ROCKY:
Thanks for having me, Nate.  This should be fun.

Wolf Blitzer has put on his game face - and he still looks befuddled.


8:00 (Eastern): Candidates coming out one by one.  Like start of an NBA game.  Where's the Salt n Pepa music?

8:02: Can already tell that the audience will be insufferable tonight.

8:04:  Suzanne Malveaux tells us people are suffering, afraid.  Candidates posing for pictures on stage.

8:05:  Joe Johns says economy and war will be issues.  Do ya think?

8:06: Housekeeping - Candidates should use circadian clocks in keeping answers to "a minute, minute and a half.

8:08:  Joe Johns asks Clinton, "How much money would your stimulus plan put in pockets of South Carolinians?"  Clinton: "$70B to deal with mortgage crisis.  Millions of Americans in danger of being homeless.  Give people $650 to pay energy bills.  Put money in clean energy jobs."  Then she mentions Congressional Black Caucus and MLK, just because.

8:11:  Senator Obama says King marched for jobs as well as justice.  Points out he was against Iraq war (didn't see that coming on economy question).  Suggests $500 tax rebate (we're glad he didn't weasel and call for $651 rebate to top Clinton). 

8:13:  Edwards not for rebate. Mentions MLK.  Was against Free Trade deal and NAFTA. 

8:16:  Obama says Dow may go down 5% tomorrow.  Get me Schwab!  Also calls NAFTA a mistake. Says Edwards vote for free trade with China was a blunder. 

8:17:  Clinton says worldwide markets crashing is "a wake up call."  Schwab!  Edwards says he can create Green Collar Jobs within 30 days.  Adds Peru to his shit list.  So it's China and Peru causing our problems - hopefully in that order.

8:22:  Suzanne Malveaux reads a Clinton charge that Obama says is untrue.

8:23: Clinton says Obama said Republicans had good ideas (which he didn't, he said they were the party of ideas, not that they were good).  Obama slams Hillary by pointing out he was fighting Reagan policies while she was on board of directors of Wal-Mart. 

8:27:  Getting nasty.  Now he accuses her of praising Reagan.  Let's see who hates Reagan more.  Take back control, Wolf.  Somebody wake up Joe Johns.  Hillary says Obama represented slum lords.

8:30:  Edwards steps back in.  "This kind of squabbling - how many kids are going to get health care because of this.. " Big applause line.  Picking up the Bill Richardson role of peacemaker.

8:35:  Joe Johns comes out of slumber.  Asks about African Americans being sold more sub-prime loans per capita.   Asks if blacks were targeted with these loans.  Edwards says yes.  Legacy of slavery, segregation, discrimination still keeping blacks down.  Wolf quotes Greenspan who says bailouts simply prolong the agony.  Clinton says she was calling for action since last March. (?)  She says her moratorium is "a work out, not a bail out."  Obama brings up Clinton's admission that she voted for Bankruptcy bill but hoped it wouldn't pass.  Wolf lets Obama explain slum lord charge.  Nicely played, Wolf.  Russert would have stumbled forward like the deaf dolt that he is.

8:41:  Clinton throwing out mud about Obama's record in Illinois legislature.  Obama is getting mad.  Clinton says Obama never takes responsibility for any vote.  Crowd actually boos her.  I change my mind about the crowd - they're cool. 

8:48:  Now Edwards picks on Obama for voting "present" in Illinois.  Obama explains it's a technical way to oppose a bill you might agree with but would like to see modified.  Why is this hard for Edwards and Clinton to understand?

8:50:  Suzanne Malveaux turns to health care.  Clinton says her plan would be comprehensive but not government run. 

8:53:  Joe Johns asks Obama if his plan covers illegal immigrants.  Obama says no.  Johns says why not?  Obama says because we have limited resources.  Okay Joe?  Go back to sleep.

8:55:  Edwards says Obama has taken more money from Drug Companies than anybody and Clinton has taken more insurance money than anybody.  Obama says it's from individuals, not PACs. 

8:59: Edwards is wearing a big honking wristwatch.  Looks like a hockey puck.

9:00:  Clinton says Obama's policy is not universal. 

9:02:  Joe is up again!  Asking Clinton about Iraq, "Are you planning to end this war or win it?"  She says there is no military solution.  Edwards says surge is not working. 

9:10:  Turns out they all want us out of Iraq.


Commercial Break:  Wolf is teasing us with promise of a new set and "no rules" when we come back.