Sen. Obama told a black south Texas audience today that they should turn off their tvs, help the kids with their homework and do better than feed the kids cold Popeye’s chicken for breakfast.
He’s got Bill Cosby’s vote.
What other presidential candidate has America had that could get away with that? This guy is a game changer.
Amazing.
He wrote an open letter to the GLTB community saying they should come into the big tent and he favors state action to allow civil unions, etc.
He put his balls on the line for that one.
Hillary put up an attack ad, a so called “red phone” ad, and there was a response ad playing within hours — a good one.
Amazing.
They say he may raise as much as $60 million this month with most guessing around $50 million. Average donation: $109. Total number of contributors: 1,000,000. Percent “maxed out” at $2,300? 3%.
Amazing.
In a month — only 4 weeks! — he’s gone from 16 points behind in the polls in Texas to a slight lead. In Ohio, he’s gone from 24 points behind in the polls to 5 points behind and closing. He’s leading in North Carolina and has closed 15 points in Pennsylvania without ever running a single tv ad. He also leads in Vermont, but trails in R.I. (who knows?).
You don’t have to favor the guy to find these things to be rather singular in presidential politics. I saw it here in Oklahoma when David Boren first ran for governor and, from what I hear, it must have been like that when J. Howard Edmondson ran for governor. They were both come from behind unknown young outsiders who campaigned on “reform” and “change”. They also finessed the party “machine” and built their own volunteer and financial base. Both of them were judged good at the job, although Edmondson died very young and before he could rise to the federal level, as Boren did.
Since we’re getting into March Madness, please forgive me a basketball analogy. Sometimes, a “cinderella” team has a series of upsets in the NCAA brackets and gets to the final four or even the championship. Valvano’s North Carolina State is an example. I think Hillary’s campaign is like one of the heavyweights, the Duke or Kentucky if you will, who loses to the North Carolina State. The more highly ranked and perpetual powerhouse team just can’t quite shake the pesky upstart team and maybe gets ahead a little but can’t quite put ‘em away. The longer the upstart stays in the game, the more confidence they get and play lights out and have a little luck here and there and — next thing you know — gets a win to move to the next level of the bracket. If you go back to last year when they were first starting to campaign and Obama was a 20 point underdog, Clinton, at that time the undisputed heavyweight in the field, slacked off and didn’t put him away. She let him get ahead in Iowa, caught up in N.H. and pulled ahead in Nevada. He caught up in So. Carolina and hung in there with her, albeit ugly, through Super Tuesday. Then, his shots from behind the arc began to fall like he was Michael Jordan and he went on an 11-0 run. Now, she’s got more game than she can handle and it’s looking like her late flurry in Ohio and Texas are too little, too late.
The sports riff is a cheap one, but I especially wanted to use it to say that watching the campaigns is, for me, what sports is for other people. I like looking at the box scores. I have my “heroes”. It’s exciting for me because there’s much more at stake in politics than in a game or sport. Tiger Woods makes $30 million. Big deal. The federal budget is trillions. Patriots lost the Super Bowl? Ho Hum. My son in law goes to Mesopotamia? THAT’s a big deal. I was a lucky reporter to get to cover campaigns and I was lucky to be in a few. That adds to the excitement for me because beyond the policy, it’s great to watch a well-played game. Thought maybe you’d like to know why politics has so consumed my entries of late.
At least it’s only every other year.
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A PARTING SHOT TO TICKLE YOUR FANCY