Anderson@Large

Dems Debate in LaLa Land

In recent days, the Democratic presidential campaign has become soap operatic (and here). The conversation has shifted from the “subprime crime” crisis to whether Barack Obama gave Hillary Clinton the cold shoulder.

Did Hillary diss President John F. Kennedy’s civil rights legacy?

Tonight, the Democratic all stars will take center stage for the last debate before Super Tuesday. Without John Edwards in a supporting role, it will be mano-a-mano.

The debate will be held at the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles, but there probably won’t be any Kodak moments. At least none of the warm and fuzzy variety.

BTW, Obama is naive if he thinks his nomination "would not unite the other party against us." Republican provocateur David Bossie, a charter member of the "vast right conspiracy," reportedly is producing a film about Obama.  And the soundtrack will not be "Kumbaya."

Buh-bye, Rudy

Ain’t no sunshine for Rudy Giuliani in the Sunshine State, where he had campaigned for months. On Election Day, Florida voters told Giuliani to get lost.

Giuliani’s defeat will bring a smile to the faces of New Yorkers who can’t stand the sight of his smug mug.

For months, New Yorkers questioned the sanity of respondents who had Giuliani riding high in national polls. But it was Giuliani who was nuts to think he could ride 9/11 to the Oval Office.

If keeping one’s cool under extreme pressure is a test of leadership, then the keys to the White House should be turned over to New York’s Bravest. Like millions of New Yorkers, firefighters loathe “America’s Mayor.” (Memo to America: You can have him.)

On the eve of the primary, Giuliani called for civility and an end to the “name-calling.” How quaint coming from such a “nasty man” that the New York Times ripped him a new one:

The real Mr. Giuliani, whom many New Yorkers came to know and mistrust, is a narrow, obsessively secretive, vindictive man who saw no need to limit police power. Racial polarization was as much a legacy of his tenure as the rebirth of Times Square.

Mr. Giuliani’s arrogance and bad judgment are breathtaking. When he claims fiscal prudence, we remember how he ran through surpluses without a thought to the inevitable downturn and bequeathed huge deficits to his successor. He fired Police Commissioner William Bratton, the architect of the drop in crime, because he couldn’t share the limelight. He later gave the job to Bernard Kerik, who has now been indicted on fraud and corruption charges.

The Rudolph Giuliani of 2008 first shamelessly turned the horror of 9/11 into a lucrative business, with a secret client list, then exploited his city’s and the country’s nightmare to promote his presidential campaign.

Hey Rudy, thy name is Loser.

Abraham, Martin and Barack

Barack Obama has pulled off a trifecta. Obama launched his campaign in Springfield, Ill. During his announcement speech, he compared his candidacy to Abraham Lincoln, saying:

And that is why, in the shadow of the Old State Capitol, where Lincoln once called on a divided house to stand together, where common hopes and common dreams still, I stand before you today to announce my candidacy for President of the United States.

In recent days, Obama has claimed the mantle of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Speaking from the pulpit of Dr. King’s former church, Ebenezer Baptist Church, he said:

I'm talking about a moral deficit. I'm talking about an empathy deficit. I'm taking about an inability to recognize ourselves in one another; to understand that we are our brother's keeper; we are our sister's keeper; that, in the words of Dr. King, we are all tied together in a single garment of destiny.

And yesterday, Sen. Edward Kennedy passed the torch to Obama. Talk about a fairy tale. The old lion roared:

Harry Truman said, “We needed someone with greater experience,” and added, “May I urge you to be patient?”

And John Kennedy replied, “The world is changing. The old ways will not do. It’s time for a new generation of leadership.”

So it is with Barack Obama.

The endorsement by the liberal icon and members of the Kennedy clan should boost Obama’s suite cred among the Democratic elite, amnesty supporters, and those still longing for a return to a mythical Camelot.

Kennedy’s rebuke notwithstanding, Billary will likely stay on the attack. The Kennedys, after all, are not the only family with dynastic ambitions.

Black Voters Turn Out S.C. Primary

Barack Obama won the South Carolina Democratic primary with the overwhelming support of African Americans, who made up roughly 55 percent of all voters.

For months, the mainstream media asked whether Obama was "black enough?" With 80 percent of the black vote, Obama has flipped the script: Is Obama too black to appeal to white voters whose support he will need to avoid being washed away in the Super Tuesday tsunami?

I spent part of Election Day at the Greenview Park polling place, a predominantly black precinct in Columbia. There, I met Albert Reid, a medical doctor and longtime civic leader. Dr. Reid said that he voted for Hillary Clinton because "she gives us facts and solutions for a troubled world."

By contrast, Obama “talks about hope and inspires our admiration for change. He is a feel good vote.” Dr. Reid added:

Blacks are voting for pride. Obama can talk. He can inspire. But the bottom line is: Is he electable nationwide?

Clearly, Dr. Reid was a minority voice. Obama won the "black primary" hands down. Blacks turned out in record numbers. One voter told me:

In order for a change, that's what you have to do. Voting is the beginning stage. Voters are tired of the same old, same old. Obama tried to reach out and that's what you need. America is in bad shape.

I chatted with Obama supporters who traveled from across the country to volunteer in his campaign. They included New York City Councilwoman Helen D. Foster, who was the first New York elected official to endorse Obama. Councilwoman Foster said:

This election is the most important election of my lifetime. It is important to vote based on beliefs and conscience, and not because someone is pressuring you.

A brother from Houston told me he supported Obama because he is "qualified and black." He traveled to South Carolina because this is a "crucial" state.

Now about the "white primary." Pre-election polls projected Obama would win 10 percent of the white vote, but he actually received 24 percent. Still, 76 percent of white Democrats voted against him.

My airport driver, Roger, believes whites voted for Clinton "before they would put an African American in the White House." He said they are the same "die-hards" who think the Confederate flag represents Southern heritage. "That flag is a constant reminder of how a vast majority of them feel."

Meanwhile, Bill Clinton is downplaying Obama's victory:

Jesse Jackson won South Carolina twice in 1984 and 1988. And he ran a good campaign. Senator Obama's run a good campaign here, he's run a good campaign everywhere.

In eight days, we will know whether Obama made history or history merely repeated itself.

South Carolina in Black and White

I’m in Columbia for the first-in-the-South Democratic presidential primary. As I walked around the Statehouse grounds, I stumbled upon the African American History Monument designed by Ed Dwight.

The monument’s twelve panels trace the “African American experience from the auction block, to slave labor, to the civil war, to emancipation, to the reconstruction, and to the emergence of African Americans as astronauts, judges, business persons and political leaders.”

Racial pride soon turned to anger. I looked up and the Confederate battle flag was in my face. The monument and the hate symbol are only a few yards apart. In fact, the monument was part of the compromise to keep the Confederate flag on the Statehouse grounds. But the compromise was a hollow victory.

The Confederate flag was first placed atop the Statehouse in 1962. It stayed there until 2000, when all hell broke loose. Nearly 50,000 marched and demanded the rebel flag be removed from the Statehouse dome and the two legislative chambers. The legislature reached an agreement to remove it and place it directly behind a Confederate soldiers monument.

So, the Confederate flag now flies from a flagpole and is unavoidable from a main thoroughfare. Illuminated by spotlights at night, this symbol of racial oppression is more visible than the American flag.

While Barack Obama is expected to win the primary with the overwhelming support of black voters, polls show there is a racial divide. South Carolina’s leading newspaper, The State, reports:

White voters see the primary from the opposite direction: 40 percent support Edwards, 36 percent back Clinton, 10 percent are behind Obama and 14 percent are undecided.

Truth is, the Palmetto State’s ugly racial past “is not dead. In fact, it’s not even past.”

GOP Fall Preview

As the charges and countercharges from Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama fly back and forth, you need a scorecard to keep up.

Meanwhile, the Republican National Committee is gearing up to score points against the likely Democratic nominee. The RNC sent an “urgent appeal” to its “top supporters” (why am I on the list?) for donations to “Stop Clinton/Obama Now.”

The GOP ask:

We must close the gap with the Democrats if we are to have the resources available to elect a new Republican President and Congress. Please help the RNC raise the funds we need to counter the Democrats by making a secure online contribution to close the fundraising gap.

While Obama gives a good speech about “change we can believe in,” Republicans see Clinton and Obama as flip sides of the same coin. In the Fall general election, Republicans will beat up on [fill in the blank]. Their line of attack will focus on [fill in the blank] and his/her supposed plan to:

• Implement massive tax increases that punish hard-working American families in order to pay for new government bureaucracies.
• Give government instead of patients and doctors more power and control over health care.
• Retreat from the War on Terror and cut off funding for our men and women in uniform.

Politics ain't a trial court. There are no rules of evidence. As Obama is learning, “statements that are not factually accurate” are admissible and will be used against you.

Obama's Audacious Praise of Reagan

I did not know Ronald Reagan, but Sen. Barack Obama is no Reagan. If Obama were, he would not have the support of African Americans. Truth is, black voters were not “feeling” Reagan.

In his two presidential campaigns, Reagan received ten percent of the black vote. By contrast, Richard Nixon garnered 18 percent black support in 1968. The reason: Nixon was a “transformational political leader” for many black Americans, particularly black entrepreneurs.

Indeed, Nixon was known as the “father of black capitalism.” Nixon’s political appointees included Arthur Fletcher, the “father of affirmative action,” who drafted the Philadelphia Plan.

Other bloggers have already counted the ways in which Reagan changed the “trajectory” of black folks -- for the worse.

Still, Obama was right about Reagan “challenging conventional wisdom.” Before Reagan, no one had the bright idea to reclassify ketchup as a vegetable to save money while at the same time pushing tax cuts for the rich.

While Obama wants to lay claim to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s mantle, leaders in “the party of ideas” tried to lay waste to King’s legacy. Reagan opposed the King holiday until he was shamed into signing the bill.

Sure, Reagan “was able to get Democrats to vote against their economic interests to form a majority to push through their agenda.” But he did it in tried and true GOP fashion: race-baiting. It bears repeating that Reagan launched his 1980 presidential campaign in Philadelphia, Miss., where three civil rights workers were killed.

I happened to be in DC during the paroxysm of grief and overwrought media coverage in the wake of Reagan’s death.

I walked around the National Mall as preparations were underway for the state funeral. People waited for hours to get a glimpse of the motorcade carrying Reagan’s body to the U.S. Capitol, where he lied in state in the Capitol Rotunda. While there were thousands of mourners lining the route, you could count the number of black folks.

One is not supposed to speak ill of the dead, but Reaganism is one of the reasons a “black Republican” remains an oxymoron.