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Listening to America’s Black Middle Class

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Posted on Oct 11, 2007

By Bill Boyarsky

Sen. Barack Obama’s fundraising among middle-class blacks tells much about them—and about America.

This aspect of the presidential election hasn’t received much attention lately, as an anxious nation awaits the verdicts of two small and atypical states.

In Iowa, blacks comprise just 2.3 percent of the population.  In New Hampshire, it’s 1 percent. That’s compared to almost 13 percent for the entire country.  (Why can’t important primaries be governed by laws similar to those requiring juries to be at least somewhat representative?)

I got interested in the middle-class contributions while digging into the Obama campaign. 

A couple of longtime black politicians told me that the size of Obama contributions from their community was big.  “I’ve never seen so many African-Americans with a lot of money,” one of them said.  “I didn’t know there was that much wealth.”

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The phenomenon is occurring in prosperous black areas across the country.  A few months ago, USA Today surveyed political giving in nearly 600 ZIP codes that included a substantial number of African-American households with incomes above the black national median household income of $31,000 a year.  Obama received about 70 percent of the contributions.

I looked at an area I know, View Park and Windsor Hills in Los Angeles.  This is not the bleak black and Latino L.A. so beloved by filmmakers, television stations and newspapers which immerse themselves almost exclusively in black crime and other tragedies. Big, luxurious homes adorn this hillside several miles northwest of the poor neighborhoods in the South Los Angeles flatlands.  View Park and Windsor Hills are 88 percent black, with a median household income of $73,118, the U.S. Census reported, more than the Los Angeles County household total of $51,447. Almost 70 percent of the people living there are families.

The overwhelming number of contributions from there went to Obama, with Hillary Clinton receiving just two, according to the latest tabulation of The Center for Responsive Politics.  That’s not surprising.  Nor does it mean Hillary Clinton is friendless in the black community. African-American political commentator Earl Ofari Hutchinson wrote in the Huffington Post that Clinton “runs neck and neck with Obama in the race to net the overall votes of blacks. ... They are not naïve about Hillary.  They know that GOP hardliners are licking their chops at a Hillary candidacy ... yet she still seems a far better bet than Obama to beat back the assault.”

What is as interesting as the horse race is the nature of the Obama contributors.  Among them in Los Angeles’ View Park and Windsor Hills are a producer, a chief executive officer of a business consulting company, a nationwide bank senior vice president, lawyers and a restaurant owner.

California state Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas, who is campaigning for Obama, said the Illinois senator’s message resonates strongly with such people.  “His vision of hope and morality and basic centrist politics is grounded in a moral sensibility that is hard to argue with,” Ridley-Thomas said.

“It’s how he talks about personal responsibility,” said another Obama supporter, “how we raise our kids, being responsible for our actions.  It is a message people long for.”

That was evident last year when Obama spoke at the First African Methodist Episcopal Church, the city’s oldest black church and, with 19,000 members, a center of middle-class black L.A.  People who were there said he was repeatedly cheered as he delivered his message of hope and responsibility to a congregation marking the 15th anniversary of the Los Angeles riots.

First AME reaches deep into the black community with programs ranging from rehabilitating prison inmates to fostering business development. The church also does tutoring and college preparatory training.  Located at the northern edge of South-Central Los Angeles, it was in the middle of the 1992 fires and violence..

That’s where I spent the first night of the riots, watching members of the congregation join with neighboring Latino apartment dwellers in fighting fires with garden hoses.  Just down the street on West Adams Boulevard, young black men battled cops.  When I walked toward the fighting, two men from the church grabbed me, turned me around and said, “This is no time for journalistic heroics.”  Later on, I snuck back to observe the action.

As First AME and Obama see it, life should be an upward path, with young blacks turning from fighting cops on West Adams Boulevard in favor of the respectability and pious activism of First AME, rising from the poor, crime-heavy flatlands of South L.A. to more peaceful and prosperous neighborhoods in the city or the suburbs or to the affluence of Windsor Hills and View Park.

But the upward path is becoming more difficult.  In 2005 the Urban Institute found that “despite some progress during the 1990s, the share of African-Americans joining the middle class in the U.S. has stagnated over the past 20-30 years.” 

The stagnation coincides with roadblocks on the upward path—reduced funding for public elementary and secondary schools and public universities and ending affirmative action in higher education.

Removal of roadblocks is the goal shared by First AME members and middle-class blacks around the country.  They are, as Obama supporter Ridley-Thomas put it, “politically and economically progressive” but “on moral issues, more conservative.”

Obama’s effort to translate support into a historic presidential victory will be difficult.  Hillary Clinton is strong, and her husband, Bill, is popular among blacks. White Iowa is important to Obama’s hopes.  If Clinton wins, she’s in great shape.  If either John Edwards or Obama wins, the ever-fickle media will conclude she’s doomed.

But, win or lose, Obama and his supporters are showing America a black political landscape seldom visited by journalists. Why, wondered Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson, an African-American,  “do editors, reporters, columnists and television producers keep only two phone numbers on speed dial for use whenever any news breaks concerning a black person?”

Those are, of course, the numbers of the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.  Black America today is much more complex, a mixture of rich, middle class and poor, a subtlety often missed in the sound bites of Jackson, Sharpton and their counterparts around the country.


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By cyrena, October 16, 2007 at 2:32 pm #

#107461 by Paracelsus

•  Why are you trying to type me? Would it help you to know that Ghouliani’s father is a made member of the mob?

I’m not trying to ‘type’ you or anyone else. In your case however, you’ve ‘typed’ yourself. And no, it doesn’t help for YOU to tell me that Guiliani’s father is made member of the mob, since I don’t care about his father. His father isn’t attempting to run for office, and it’s enough to know that he himself is a mobster.

•    I don’t consult advisors to see if I sound like this or like that.

Maybe you should.

•    Perhaps you could go to wearechange.org to see some of my inspiration.

I think I’ll pass.

•    I don’t pause to consider if this statement or that makes me sound conservative or liberal.
Here again, perhaps you should. I should also add that you don’t sound conservative or liberal. (at least not to me.). You sound like a Clarence Thomas wanna-be that didn’t get the same ‘opportunities’ to hook up with one or more of the same Cabal. And surely if Obama or any of the others walked up to you and offered you a paying job to work in their campaigns, you’d be on it like a flash. So, conservative, liberal, I never even mentioned, because it doesn’t really matter. I read hypocrisy with a huge bucket of bitter resentment at your own personal failings.  Maybe your ‘lot’ in life hasn’t been so good. Then again, it’s really NOT – about YOU.

•  The big picture is that I see a control grid being fashioned that is syncretic, and involves generational execution of the Great Work.
The control grid was fashioned long ago; maybe before you came to live here. So, I don’t think you see a ‘big picture’ at all. You may ‘see’ a lot of things, but nothing useful to anyone here. You offer NO solutions. Instead, you just proselytize about the Great Evil, as if you had to tell anyone that’s watched it in action, and been victimized by it for centuries.

So that about sums it up. You’re an agitator and a racist. (internalized racism would be the term in your case, though it’s clear you pretty much hate everybody, and it’s not about black, white or brown, but more about anybody who has fared better than you.) Like I said before, a Clarence Thomas wanna-be, without the black robe and the ‘connection’ to the mob in power.

It’s all well and good to stir people into action to come about a collective effort to change the system. Stirring up hate is counterproductive, and that’s the way you come across.
So, now we know. You’ve served your purpose as a temporary distraction, for anyone who might have been willing to engage in some useful discourse.
Fortunately, it’s been a short one, and now the rest of us can get on to doing something other than playing audience to a raving lunatic.

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By Paracelsus, October 16, 2007 at 12:29 pm #

#107369 by cyrena

Why are you trying to type me? Would it help you to know that Ghouliani’s father is a made member of the mob? I don’t consult advisors to see if I sound like this or like that. Perhaps you could go to wearechange.org to see some of my inspiration. I don’t pause to consider if this statement or that makes me sound conservative or liberal. The big picture is that I see a control grid being fashioned that is syncretic, and involves generational execution of the Great Work.

Report this

By cyrena, October 15, 2007 at 11:29 pm #

Part 1 of 2 reply to #107188 by Paracelsus on 10/15 at 7:15 am

•  “I did not expect you to smear me with the Neocon label. I don’t know why you would support a candidate like Obama who has not committed himself to quiting the Iraq war. My argument has been that the front runners are all connected with elite organizations who care not a wit for the American people. Let myself be clear by saying that since the death of Kennedy we have been electing presidents who have turned out to be criminals. Criminals all.”
Paracelsus: Oddly enough, your earlier comments regarding Barack Obama don’t mention his failure to commit to ‘quitting the Iraq war” and/or ending the US military occupation of that country. I know that –I- have stated that myself, since it became a turning point for me, when he failed to do that, seemingly standing with the other 2 ‘media designated forerunners’ in what I considered to be a very ‘bad judgment’ political maneuvering, attempting to possibly play both ends against the middle on this question. Other journalists and posters have mentioned the same. Jimmy Carter repeated it again a few days ago. I’ve yet to find any comments from YOU, that addressed this, so you’re response to Leefeller would appear disingenuous.
Rather, the only statements your comments are regarding Sen. Obama are those I’ve re-posted below.

•  #107060 by Paracelsus on 10/14 at 2:29 pm
“It is likely Obama’s father had Mau Mau sympathies or connections, or he would not have been welcomed into the murderous inner circle of rapists, murderers, and arsonists. I believe Obama’s secret shame at his family history of rape, murder and arson is what actualizes him.

And, quite frankly, this is where you lost all credibility with me, since I agree entirely with Leefeller, that it reeks of the ‘swiftboating’ tactic utilized against John Kerry, by the neoconners. Now, I’m not going to suggest that you are a part of THOSE, neoconners, but by this post, (and the others about royalty and elite, and the indirect connection that puts Obama in the same category as the “nobles”) you’ve convinced me that you ARE indeed a ‘conner’ of some variety. Possibly an even more lunatic version of the standard ones.
I suggest that because the above reference to Barak Obama is pure bullshit and smear. It’s no more ‘sophisticated’ or ‘believable’ that the stupid spam that I get through the mail, claiming that Obama only ‘recently’ became a Christian, (not that it would matter to many of us, but it obviously does the radical right Christian crazies) and that he attended a Madrasa in Indonesia, and that if he was elected to the office, he would install Shar’ia Law. ALL of that is pure bullshit, and very transparent to anyone with even 10 minutes worth of investigation into his actual biography. This stuff that you’ve posited, is no different.

HOWEVER, it would appear that you aren’t even paying attention to what you post, since just a slightly closer examination of the thread, (and if you had cross-referenced it appropriately) would have indicated that you were responding to this poster:

#106492 by bbf on 10/12 at 5:53 am.
In fact, it is he/she (bbf) who claims the Mau Mau ‘connections’ and ‘secret family shame’, and he/she is EQUALLY wrong. (more bullshit). Then YOU, Paraclesus, respond with this:

•  “Perhaps it is the very lineage of ruthlessness, that makes him so beloved by his backers. Our elite looks to bloodlines in humans as much as they would in excellent horse flesh. Blood will tell is the oldest of chestnuts.”

THEN, when Leefeller (#107170 )CALLS you on it, (what you’ve just repeated from bbf)

•  Trying very hard one can always dig a little deeper, conjecture and opinion such as this, are refreshing memories of swifboating. “ Our investigation to date”? Seems you are trying very hard to find something.
YOU respond (#107188 by Paracelsus on 10/15 at 7:15 am) with THIS…

•  I did not expect you to smear me with the Neocon label.

Report this

By cyrena, October 15, 2007 at 11:25 pm #

Part II of II reply to #107188 by Paracelsus on 10/15 at 7:15 am

So, you act all injured and put out when he questions you about something you’ve just copied from somebody else. Then, you get back to your real agenda of slamming/slimming Obama, and end with this:
•  “Please do some research before casting aspersions upon my character.”

Along with a BS promise to provide better “sources” after Leefeller has made the appropriately civil apologies. (for your alleged character assassination):

#107328 by Paracelsus on 10/15 at 4:14 pm

•  “It’s alright. I know from what I had read that Bush and Kerry share similar noble blood lines. These nobles have no hesitancy in killing large numbers of people. I’ll look into providing more sources.”

So now, you’ve gone from plagiarizing a false claim from an earlier post by bbf (maybe you two are a tag team of disinformation?) regarding Obama, to a royal/noble blood line connection between Bush and Kerry. How far did you have to stretch to come up with THAT? And, to manage to slide Obama in the connection as well? Any idea how totally ignorant this all sounds, and particularly to anyone who has actually READ and done some research?

WTF? Are you on dope, or just stupid? Or, are you just a gadfly with nothing better to do, than smear people for no reason, and just get tripped up in your own lies and disinformation?

I say you’re pretty disgusting. And, if memory serves me, you’ve claimed – in the past, to be of South African descent, and your buddy, from whom you got the original lie, claims to be black as well. So, what’s up with this? Both of you can surely maintain your ‘blackness’ and vote for Dennis Kucinich if you prefer him, (which is what I’ve since decided to do) but you could have, (NO – you SHOULD have) avoided all of the smearing of Barack Obama. It’s such a typically sneaky and deceptive, underhanded way to go about anything. And yes, it is very typical of the neoconning tactics. They can never win ‘honestly’ at anything, or by presenting their own strengths, (since they have none), and so the ‘tactic’ is to slam/smear/attack the other person(s). This is of course exactly what you’ve done, in all of your comments, flinging from some raving ‘blood line’ nonsense, to the CFR, (yeah, we all know it’s a right wing think tank…so what’s your point?)to all the rest of the crap. Like.. “every president since JFK has been a criminal. Yeah, MOST of them have been, though I would name a notable exception in Jimmy Carter. And Bill Clinton may or may not have known the inevitable catastrophe to come from NAFTA. But, he didn’t start the whole thing. That destruction was already in progress.
So, I would suggest that it is YOU who needs to do some additional research, and try to keep your lies on the same track. Because, Leefeller is right, all of this is conjecture on your part, and that’s putting it very nicely. (obviously far more diplomatically than I would, at least after reading all of this crazy stuff.)

I expect this from the Thugs in DC now. I expect it from the entire regime that has guided the repuglicans for 4 decades. It’s the only thing they know. But it’s extra obscene coming from black people who present themselves as intellectuals at best, or concerned citizens at least.

So, I’m going to reaffirm Leefellers original complaint, but not as nicely. I suspect that you’re simply full of shit, and that you aren’t doing anybody any favors with all of these lies.

Your FULL hand is showing, and all of your cards are losers.

I sure hope you don’t play poker for a living. If so, you would be among the homeless, hanging out at a public library for computer access.

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By Douglas Chalmers, October 15, 2007 at 8:34 pm #

#107328 by Paracelsus on 10/15 at 4:14 pm: “...I know from what I had read that Bush and Kerry share similar noble blood lines. These nobles have no hesitancy in killing large numbers of people….”

Sad but true - its the old politics of the art of war but played as a cover for their incompetences. The agin, you might search under “Cro-Magnon man” as in ‘Washington man’, duh….. he’s obviously a throwback to some previous life form (don’t forget to add ‘London man’/Blair and ‘Canberra man’/Australia’s Neocon Howard etc etc!

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By Paracelsus, October 15, 2007 at 8:14 pm #

It’s alright. I know from what I had read that Bush and Kerry share similar noble blood lines. These nobles have no hesitancy in killing large numbers of people. I’ll look into providing more sources.

Report this

By Leefeller, October 15, 2007 at 7:48 pm #

Paracelsus,

You last post makes sense and I agree with your idea changes need to happen.

My point was your previous post was very much conjecture, when you say I believe, if you know that would have been different citing a source would have supported your comment.

Casting aspersions upon your character was and is not my intent, it was your comment I was uncomfortable with.

Report this

By Paracelsus, October 15, 2007 at 11:15 am #

I did not expect you to smear me with the Neocon label. I don’t know why you would support a candidate like Obama who has not committed himself to quiting the Iraq war. My argument has been that the front runners are all connected with elite organizations who care not a wit for the American people. Let myself be clear by saying that since the death of Kennedy we have been electing presidents who have turned out to be criminals. Criminals all. They have had connections to such people as David Rockefeller, the CFR, the Trilateral Commission and the Bilderberg Group. My position is for the dismantling of the national security state, the Patriot Act, the quitting of the Middle East, and the Warner Military Commissions Act. I found the backgrounds of most of the candidates to be horrifying. Please do some research before casting aspersions upon my character.

Report this

By Leefeller, October 15, 2007 at 9:46 am #

Paracelsus

Obama, is not my choice, but your comments below seem neoconish or even Hillary kind. 


“I believe Obama’s secret shame at his family history of rape, murder and arson is what actualizes him. Our research is not yet complete. We are seeking to examine British colonial records. Our investigation to date has drawn on information on three continents.”

Trying very hard one can always dig a little deeper, conjecture and opinion such as this, are refreshing memories of swifboating. ” Our investigation to date”? Seems you are trying very hard to find something. 

Forget the issues, lets find out about his daddy, very uncomfortable comments, smacking of bigotry.  Being so clean really annoyed someone.

Report this

By Paracelsus, October 14, 2007 at 6:29 pm #

“It is likely Obama’s father had Mau Mau sympathies or connections, or he would not have been welcomed into the murderous inner circle of rapists, murderers, and arsonists. I believe Obama’s secret shame at his family history of rape, murder and arson is what actualizes him. Our research is not yet complete. We are seeking to examine British colonial records. Our investigation to date has drawn on information on three continents.”

Perhaps it is the very lineage of ruthlessness, that makes him so beloved by his backers. Our elite looks to bloodlines in humans as much as they would in excellent horse flesh. Blood will tell is the oldest of chestnuts.

Report this

By Paracelsus, October 14, 2007 at 6:23 pm #

“There’s a lot of white leaders who think they are better than their white constituents.”

Perhaps it’s a eugenics issue. Eugenics has never really disappeared. How can it when you have royalty like Prince Philip who wishes he could reincarnate as a virus to kill off most of humanity?

Report this

By Paracelsus, October 14, 2007 at 6:18 pm #

Wasn’t it Mort Sahl who said that Obama was Frankesteinian creation of white men in labs coats who wanted to create their own idea of the perfect black man. “We can make him stronger, faster, and more electable.”

Report this

By cyrena, October 14, 2007 at 5:19 pm #

Leefeller writes:

...“People need to be heard, we need a presidient who is for the people, not just the money folks, Obama may be that person?”...

I was sure HOPING and even -praying- that Obama just might be that person. (I also had fears that he could become corrupted, and lose the independence of thought that he began with).

He dashed all of my hopes, when he appeared at the New Hampshire debates, and mouthed the same corporate political side-step about getting us the hell out of Iraq. He couldn’t commit to ending that illegal occupation, even by 2013.

If he couldn’t do that, he’s lost his independance. and is now controlled by the same neoconners that have put us in this plunge.

I hope he changes his tune, but I don’t see it happening. My worst fears have been realized.

Report this

By Leefeller, October 14, 2007 at 11:31 am #

Hopefully under the new phase,  no more Mr. nice guy Obama address’s real problems and doesn’t do the insidious typical newspeek. We shall see!

Addressing Candidates sleeping with special interests would be a nice start.  Free enterprise has been overshadowed by monopoly mentality thanks to the neoconservative agenda, WTO, NAFTA the direction of eliminating our borders. 

People need to be heard, we need a presidient who is for the people, not just the money folks, Obama may be that person?

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By cyrena, October 14, 2007 at 6:23 am #

#106882 by Nancy

Thanks Nancy. I hope they ‘get it’. I do. wink

Report this

By Nancy, October 13, 2007 at 9:32 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

What do they expect when it has become very clear that rich, white rascists here in America is making war on black people with mexican people? Do you expect this will go on forever? Free Trade has done nothing but make the poor poorer, and the rich crooks better leverage and reach to commit crimes against human rights, as well as Morals. Theres a lot of white leaders who think they are better than their white constituents. We can’t call that a race issue but I do give the example to caution against voting for someone simply based on their color. Doesn’t mean they will work for their people and be faithful to them. As I have well learned. The rich see no color when they see another rich person, but they do when they look at the poor…

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By Douglas Chalmers, October 12, 2007 at 2:43 pm #

“I looked at an area I know, View Park and Windsor Hills in Los Angeles…”

Never mind “households”, middle-income or otherwise. How many people sleep out on the streets every night in Los Angeles (black, white or whatever)???

“A shelter is a place to stay for the night…. But a shelter is not the answer. Shelters are not going to solve the problem.”

Report this

By Paracelsus, October 12, 2007 at 1:43 pm #

@ #106544


http://static.scribd.com/docs/jt46hpldum1yf.swf?INITIAL_VIEW=width

Leefeller, if you will read “Building a North American Community” by the CFR, you will see a plan to have the totally free flow of capital and people of all three countries. You will see the plans for setting up an infrastructure fund by Canada and the United States for the benefit of Mexico. You will see plans for merging the militaries of Canada, the United States, and Mexico. You will see proposals for a common defense perimeter involving Mexico, the United States and Canada. You will see plans for pooling our intelligence assets and policing with all three nations. Mexico can’t even guard its own pipelines from insurrection. They have no, NO civil liberties for their citizens. I have as much regard for the Mexican governemnt as I would a syphilic whore. Read the document, please!! It’s right on the link. Research the front runners of both parties. You will find that they all have connections to the Bilderberger group, the CFR, and the Trilateral Commission. Why do you think the DLC and the RNC hacks love illegal alien amnesty? It is preparation for the loss of the United States gov’t and Constitution. These people are traitors.

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By Leefeller, October 12, 2007 at 1:11 pm #

Paracelsus,

Please expand your comment, it was not clear, especially the free trade comment.

Report this

By Paracelsus, October 12, 2007 at 12:48 pm #

His wife is a member of the CFR, an organization dedicated to middle class killing free trade treaties. Why do you repose such hope in such a puppet?

Report this

By bbf, October 12, 2007 at 9:53 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

I still feel some discomfort when I remember reading the information posted at the Andy Martin site.  Martin started out by saying “If he lies about his mother and father…...” The information in Obama’s book that Martin disputes is as follows:

“Fiction: Obama stated in his Convention speech: ‘My father ... grew up herding goats.’ The ‘goat herder’ claim has been repeated endlessly. It is a lie. Fact: Obama’s grandfather, Hussein Onyango Obama was a prominent and wealthy farmer. His son, Obama’s father, was a child of privilege, not privation. He was an outstanding student, not a herdsman.

“Fiction: Obama was given an ‘African’ name. Fact: Obama is a Muslim who has concealed his religion. I am a strong supporter of the Muslim community, and I believe Muslims have been scapegoated. Obama has a great opportunity to be forthright. Instead, he has treated his Muslim heritage as a dark secret. His grandfather was named ‘Hussein.’ That is an Arabic-Muslim, not African, name. Hussein was a devout Muslim and named his son, Barack Senior, ‘Baraka.’ Baraka is an Arabic word meaning ‘blessed.’ Baraka comes out of the Koran and Arabic, not Africa.

“Barack Senior was also a devoted Muslim, and also chose a Muslim name for his son, our own Barack Obama, Junior. Again, his name was an Arabic and Koranic.

Obama has spent a lifetime running from his family heritage and religious heritage. Would his father have given his son a Koranic name if the father was not a devout Muslim? Obama’s stepfather was also a Muslim. Obama will be the first Muslim-heritage senator; he should be proud of that fact. There is nothing to be ashamed of in any of the three great Abrahamic religions.

“Fiction: Obama Senior was a harmless student ‘immigrant’ who came to the United States only to study. Fact: Obama was part of one of the most corrupt and violent organizations in Africa: the Kenyatta regime. Obama’s father ran back to Kenya soon after the British left. It is likely Obama’s father had Mau Mau sympathies or connections, or he would not have been welcomed into the murderous inner circle of rapists, murderers, and arsonists. I believe Obama’s secret shame at his family history of rape, murder and arson is what actualizes him. Our research is not yet complete. We are seeking to examine British colonial records. Our investigation to date has drawn on information on three continents.

“And what about Obama’s beloved Kenyan brothers and sisters? None of his family was invited to Boston to share his prominence. Are his relatives being kept in the closet? Where are they? More secrecy, more prevarication.

######

Anyway, I am Black and Middle Class, and I support Dennis Kucinich.

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By mary, October 12, 2007 at 9:05 am #

Sen Obama would be a welcome change in the Oval Office eventhough I also wished he would take a firm position on removing troops immediately.  Let’s not overlook this man’s ability to assess the situation and do the right thing for the country.  I’m still hoping for an Edwards/Obama ticket.  That should give us at least 16years to “fix” things…...

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By cyrena, October 11, 2007 at 11:21 pm #

BRAVO!! Mr. Boyarsky..

This is the community of my family, (myself)!! (View Park, Windsor Hills, First AME). Thanks for paying attention.

All that you say of course, is true. Obama is of course a favorite in the area, (for all of the reasons you’ve indicated). And, he was a favorite of mine as well….UNTIL…that New Hampshire primary, when he joined with the other front runners of his party, to hem and haw a political middle space, which prevented him from committing to ending the atrocities of the war on Iraq and the rest of the middle east.

He could not, or would not say…that he would have us out of Iraq before the end of his first term…2013. Because of THAT - and THAT ALONE, he’s just lost a whole lot of ground, even within this community that has so highly supported him for the past year or more. (even I gave him money, and I’m not nearly as ‘well off’ as the rest of the community).

But now, in just that one very bad political decision, (refusal to commit, even if he was lying) he’s lost a whole bunch of support…over to Kucinich, as a result. (Those who supported Hillary will probably not change, so Barack is the loser here).

He’s still got time to change his tune, but no candidate can ignore ANY part of a population that is highly ‘in tune’ to what the dangers of perpetual war will bring them and the effects it will continue to have on our younger generations.

It doesn’t take a ‘middle class’ black family or person to connect the dots…$2billion a week or month spent on war, is the reason there’s no opportunities for better schools, better health care, better infrastructure, and all of the rest. We can in fact do the math quite well.

So for now, Obama has become a major disappointment, which is unfortunate, since we still like all of his attention to our issues/interests. Thing is, how is he going to really pay that much attention to those issues, if he can’t commit to ending the war that is - at least in the average person’s view, the number one dynamic that prevents any focus on the very concerns that we have?

He still has a chance to change his tune. So, we’ll see. He doesn’t have a whole lot of time though, so he might just want to ‘listen up’.

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