(Akiit.com) There are unknowns, of course, but there are also three big reasons he’ll win in November.

There are unknowns, of course.

The persona of John McCain is already in play and it would be wrong to underestimate him. The man is remarkable, surprising in his opposition to torture and Guantanamo, audacious when he challenged the economic policies of the two Bush administrations. And isn’t it said that Democrat John Kerry considered for a time asking this unconventional conservative to share the ticket with him?

Then there is also the American art of “junk politics,” especially as practiced by the Republicans, and its unpredictable, often devastating effects. When will the below-the-belt stuff begin? On what Internet site will the first photomontages appear of Barack Obama tricked up as a radical Islamist? How many other pastors à la Jeremiah Wright will we see paraded out by “527s,” groups on the fringes of the principal parties that are allowed, without bearing any moral or financial responsibility, to launch all kinds of slanderous campaigns?

Then there is another unknown, the American electoral system, which has a way of crushing any lyrical praise. Consider that the objective is to win enough states to be elected. Consider that in 48 of the 50 states there is no difference between winning by a whisker or by an overwhelming majority; in either case the winner is entitled to claim all the electors in that state. Add that the majority of these states tend to show historical preferences for one party or the other, making full-on campaigning useless. The logical conclusion has been that Obama’s campaign should concentrate on just 15, 18, maybe 20 swing states, where the idea is to shift a few thousand votes. And the conclusion to that conclusion has been that the focus would have to be on often microscopic local issues, a far cry from the media-magnified notion of a sweeping Obama-mania.
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(Akiit.com) Rev. Jesse Jackson’s comment, expressing his desire to castrate Senator Barack Obama, was very nutty.

But Jackson isn’t a nut. The manner in which he expressed himself reveals resentment, envy, and latent hatred towards Obama. Still, he echoes legitimate concerns.

Jackson’s right that some people may misread Obama’s criticism of Black males who don’t step to the plate and involve themselves in the rearing of their offspring as an invitation for open season against Black males. Bill Cosby was scorned by some people when he also said Black males needed to take more responsibility.

Certainly, there’re no shortage of ultra right-wingers and conservatives, especially in the Republican Party, who downplay the role of current and historical governmental neglect –such as focusing resources on the prison industrial complex instead of schools and jobs training; and somehow always being able to finance multi-billion dollar wars while cutting education budgets– in narrowing the opportunity choices available to Black males.

Often, these hostile elements make it appear as if it’s just a question of making the “right choices” in life. The racist ones even claim lack of Black male achievement is genetically predetermined. The debilitating cost to the community of the prison industrial complex can’t be underestimated.

It’s established fact that countless Black males are currently incarcerated for crimes for which White males wouldn’t receive long prison terms as Senator Jim Webb has noted. Some are even innocent.

A front-page article in today’s Wall Street Journal highlights some of the costs and gloomy prospects. The article features Sarah Coleman, who is taking care of three great grandchildren, ages one, three and five. She doesn’t know where the mother, her granddaughter is: the fathers of the children are incarcerated. Coleman barely has enough to eat, let alone care for the children.
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(Akiit.com) The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama has promised Americans a new kind of politics – “change we can believe in.” Who could’ve suspected that the change he was referring to was a reversion to the failed policies of 30 years ago?

In response to the rising price of gasoline, the senator responded, “I’ll make oil companies like Exxon pay a tax on their windfall profits, and we’ll use the money to help families pay for their skyrocketing energy costs and other bills.”

For my middle class money, the senator gave the wrong answer to the first economic question. Go to the back of the line; no gold star for you.

In 1980, President Jimmy Carter signed into law a windfall tax on big oil profits also hoping to use the money to subsidize the cost of rising energy prices.

The policy was a failure. The Congressional Research Service found that “the tax reduced domestic oil production by 3% to 6% and increased oil imports from OPEC by 8% to 16%.” And what of all that revenue that was to pour into government coffers in order to give relief to American consumers, (who oddly enough were now burdened by higher gas prices and shortages)? It turns out that the tax was expensive to impose and equally as expensive to collect. Tax revenue dripped in rather than raining down. When the tax was finally and mercifully repealed, the New York Times summed up the policy thusly: “…when Americans waited two hours in gasoline lines and Saudi princes summered in Monaco, it seems almost quaint now.”

It is remarkable how new liberals have convinced themselves that because their hearts are in the right place, the laws of economics (to say nothing of history) simply do not apply to them.

The senator’s answer does, however, reveal something about the basic tenets of new liberalism to whit: wealth is bad and always ill gotten – that is all wealth that is not their wealth. Further, they are committed to the redistribution of wealth over and above the stated goals of providing relief for the common man.

Obama, for instance, sniffs that lifting the ban on off shore drilling “is not something that’s going to give consumers short-term relief, and it is not a long-term solution to our problems.” If we can’t drill for oil and we can’t build nuclear energy plants, how can we achieve the independence from foreign oil that every president since Jimmy Carter has promised and failed to deliver? Of course, none of those other men promised to calm the seas and heal the world so perhaps Obama is up to a job the others were not.
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(Akiit.com) I still don’t know whether to howl with laughter or shake my head in disgust at the crude and silly race baiting antics of the National Black Republican Association. It recently announced that it’s launching a series of radio ads on presumptive Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama. The ads recite these tired and worked over slanders: a rap at Obama’s alleged ties with former Weather Underground bomber Bill Ayers, his relationship with his former pastor Jeremiah Wright, and convicted financier Tony Rezko.

Before going any further, there are many politically astute, principled black Republicans who would never dare stoop to personal and gutter dredging attacks on Obama, or any other Democratic candidate. They are probably aghast at the Association’s mud slinging attacks too. Also, Obama is hardly immune from legitimate political criticism, particularly for his recent black flip, and rightward shift on the FISA bill, the Iraq War withdrawal, refusal to accept public financing, and support of the death penalty. That kind of criticism is legitimate. Cheap shot personal and racial attacks aren’t.

Still, there are several interesting, ironic and pitiable things about the Association’s hit ads on Obama. One is that they fly in the face of what Obama rival John McCain and the Republican National Committee have publicly pledged, and that’s to run a clean campaign against Obama. That means confining criticism of Obama solely to his stance on the issues. McCain and the RNC so far have not violated their pledge to play fair. But then again, they don’t have much choice. Even the slightest hint of a race card play would bring a loud shout of foul and would likely backfire. Even those whites, and there are many as evidenced by surveys and exit polls, who say they will not vote for an African-American solely based on color would cringe in shame at a naked racial pander by the GOP. A racial attack wouldn’t work for another reason. Obama and the Democrats are on guard against it. They have sternly put the GOP on notice that such an attack will be swiftly and vigorously denounced as dirty political pool.

The irony is that blacks, even black Republicans, would choose to make race an issue with Obama. One would expect that such an attack would likely come from a far out ultra conservative, or race baiting fringe political group. But it didn’t. So that raises these questions. Who paid for the ads? Is the Association fronting for some shadowy well-funded Republican hit group? And what does the group hope to gain from a hit below the belt attack that could blow up in their face?
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(Akiit.com) Barack Obama has been ordained by God” to be our next president. Or so read the email from a friend of mine.

Of course, he is not alone in this opinion. Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-IL) is on record as suggesting that this Obama victory “is so extraordinary that another chapter could be added to the Bible to chronicle its significance.”

I remain unconvinced that the senator’s clinching the Democratic nomination is on a par with, say, parting the Red Sea or rising from the dead.(Obama’s promise in his victory speech that his administration will, “heal the planet” and calm the oceans notwithstanding.)I am, however, excited by the historical moment.

Our nation is standing on the precipice of history looking over into a brave new world; poised to take a historic leap and it does indeed seem as if the hand of providence is pulling the heavenly strings. I am at this very moment scanning the heavens for omens either good or bad: falling stars, birds flying backwards anything that may shed some light on the great mystery.

I am old enough to recall an America where the “N-word” was used more frequently by White folks than Black, Protests and race riots were staples of the nightly news and a Black family moving into a White neighborhood was a remarkable event. (I was the first Black student to attend my elementary school.)

My stories, of course, pale in comparison to those told by my parents who would recall the days when federal buildings were segregated. Black employees of our government were forced to use separate bathrooms, back entrances and lunch rooms to say nothing of being excluded from the halls of power. The doors to opportunity remained closed. Jim Crow was the rule and Black people were expected to “know their place.” It was a time when the Democratic Party was the home of White Citizen’s Councils and the Klan. Men like George “segregation forever” Wallace carried the banner for the Democratic Party.

Those days seem to belong to another time when in fact it was not all that long ago. It is a testament to the greatness not only of the American people, but of the central idea of our American founding that we have reached this milestone in so brief a time. There is no question that our journey has been grueling, painful and bloody, but as the historical clock goes it has been relatively short.
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