The South Carolina Primary

So, Little Newton Leroy spanked Willard in South Carolina.

Newt Gingrich is projected to be the winner of South Carolina.

It's not even close.

Newt - 41%
Willard - 26%
Santorum-18%
Newsletter Paul - 13%


Here's the thing....they might vote for the Mormon in the general when faced against the Kenyan Mooslim Soshulist in the White House, but, for now, the Holy Rollers aren't giving their votes to the Mormon.

Among those who take the religious identity of the candidates seriously, Romney was stomped by Gingrich and Santorum. Romney won only 22 percent of evangelicals.

22%!!!


According to exit polls, Mitt Romney lost voters of all income levels to Newt Gingrich except those making over $200,000 per year in CNN’s exit polling. Among these wealthiest voters, these early numbers show Romney winning 47% to Gingrich’s 31%.

hee hee hee


The GOP Clown Car continues.


found this tweet:

Seriously, cannot overstate the historic SC vote. Mitt the first establishment frontrunner to lose SC GOP primary EVER. As in "EVER.

Journal of Voter Suppression, 2012 -South Carolina Edition

How long will our elders have to CONTINUE TO PAY for living under Jim Crow?

From The State.com:

Many face fight to prove ID
No birth certificate, no photo ID, no registering to vote:A dilemma for tens of thousands born in ’40s, ’50s, ’60s
by DAWN HINSHAW - dhinshaw@thestate.com


Ruth Johnson remembers being sent to the pay phone in the middle of the night to call the midwife when her mother’s labor pains started.

“I called the midwife. She said she was coming. She never did show up,” Johnson said, thinking back to life as a 12-year-old in Barnwell County in the late 1950s.

Before long, Ruth’s mother sent her back to the pay phone at the Hilda grocery store. The second time, the midwife admitted she had no intention of coming to help with the birth. “She said, ‘Your mama, she owes me $25 for the last baby.’”

And so the baby was born in the family home, without a birth certificate — a common practice in the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s in rural South Carolina, but one that is causing problems now for an older generation required to have proof of identification.

Before the government began discouraging midwifery in the 1970s, a lot of women in rural South Carolina didn’t go to hospitals to have their babies, either because of the cost, discrimination or culture. Often, the births were unrecorded, whether a midwife was in attendance or not. In some cases, names were misspelled by illiterate midwives or recorded incompletely when parents couldn’t settle on a first name right away.

But having no birth certificate, or having one where the name conflicts with other legal documents, can cause problems today proving one’s identification — and getting the photo ID required to get a job, travel, go into public buildings and, in a recent and controversial change in South Carolina, register to vote.

In some cases, people who have never had a problem before must now go to family court to authenticate the names they have used all their lives.

Joseph Williams, a physician who sees mostly elderly patients in Sumter, guessed as many as 20 percent of his 3,000 to 4,000 regular patients have problems with identification. Some only know the year they were born.

“It’s extremely common for people who are over 50,” said Williams, who is 60. “Record-keeping was poor in our age group.”

And a birth certificate is considered the “seed document” for establishing one’s identity, making it more important to own — and protect — than in years past, said Adam Myrick, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Environmental Control, which oversees the state’s vital-records division.

No one knows how many South Carolinians don’t have a birth certificate. One indicator may be a tally by the S.C. Election Commission, which shows 178,175 voters do not own a photo ID, according to the latest available figures.

Earlier this year, the General Assembly passed a law requiring voters to show a photo ID — either a driver’s license, passport, military ID, new voter registration card or a state-issued ID.

But getting a state-issued ID requires a birth certificate.

For those who don’t have a birth certificate, the state’s vital-records division requires at least three documents from a list that includes marriage and school records, military and medical records, the birth certificates of siblings and children and voter registration documents.

But there’s a hitch.

The name must be identical on each document used as proof of identification: no nicknames, middle initials or other variations.

“The law is very specific: The name has to be the same,” said DHEC spokesman Thom Berry. “This is not a South Carolina issue; this is a national issue.”

Mr. Berry is indeed correct - this is a NATIONAL issue.

Because, our Black Elders who lived under Jim Crow, and this kind of lack of record keeping, live all over the country, and I wonder how many live in these states where these Voter ID laws have been enacted.

And now, in their twilight years, the people who actually FOUGHT, and got their asses beat to get the right to vote, can now see that right taken away because of these VOTER SUPPRESSION VOTER ID LAWS.

IF you have elders with this situation, you need to sit them down, and help them get their papers together. It's more than just voting, though voting rights are important. This could mess with their Social Security and other things.

Gov. Mark Sanford Abandons State for Mistress

So after all the lying and misleading with phony stories about hiking in the Appalachian Mountains, Mark Sanford has been forced to publicly admit his affair.
"Mr. Religious"...and "Mr. I'm not going to provide my citizens with stimulus money to keep food on their tables" has been creeping on his wife.

If he wants to creep around on his wife...that's fine. But what leaves me scratching my head is the fact that he practically abandoned his State in order to do his creeping around. He abandoned his responsibilities as Governor. Apparently this wasn't the only time he has done so.

How could he leave the State as Governor and not fully inform the Lt. Governor and the leadership in his legislature? This is especially shocking in this post Sept. 11th World we live in. It's ironic because these Republicans, especially Republican Governors, are always invoking 9/11 and touting their leadership responsibilities.

I should have known Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow were on to something when they kept sniffing around on this. You don't have to be a bloodhound to pick up on the odor of Bull----.

He's resigned as the chairman of the Republican Governors Assoc. .... hopefully he'll resign as Governor next. It's enough that he tried to starve his own people. It's also enough that he's a religious hypocrite. But now he has abandoned his State and his responsibilities as Governor.



From Rikyrah:
You tell your wife 5 MONTHS AGO, and you're still messing around?

HELL NO.

If MY husband steps to me with ' I'm having an affair'

the next sentence better be
a) it's over with HER and I want to work things out with YOU

or

b) I believe OUR marriage is over, because I want to be with HER.

The ' I dunno, and I'll hump her for a few more months while I make up my mind' is NOT an option.


He only ' confessed' BECAUSE HE WAS CAUGHT!

Follow the money...how many other ' trips' did he take like this...and how many were on the public's dime?

10 Days And Counting - The 14 Speeches of the Obama Campaign: #10, Michelle Obama - See the possibilities

November 20, 2007: Another Michelle Obama fantastic speech in Orangeburg, South Carolina. She is magnificent here.

Obama wins South Carolina

Barack Obama wins South Carolina.

With 96% of the precincts:

Obama - 55% 281,413
Clinton -27% 134,781
Edwards- 18% 90, 500

In 2004, the ENTIRE Democratic turnout in the primaries was 290,000.

Look at Obama's total.

The breakdown of the numbers.

Obama Clinton Edwards
Black Males 82 15 3
Black Females 79 19 2
White Males 27 29 43
White Females 22 44 34


Blacks 80 18 2
Whites 24 38 38

Age
18-24 66 25 9
25-29 70 21 10
30-39 62 23 15
40-49 61 25 14
50-64 51 26 22
65 and over 32 40 27



Rest of exit poll is HERE




Shallow point - I like Michelle's Suit. ..LOL

The Media's Three-Fifth's Compromise

This will be cross-posted over at BlogHer.com, and I would like to thank BlogHer.com for the invitation to post there.

I was wondering about what subject to write about, and I got my inspiration from reading some of the so-called Progressive blogs.

What upset me was the dismissiveness towards the South Carolina Primary.

A prevailing attitude comprised of, if Barack Obama wins South Carolina:
1. He only won because he's Black
2. It doesn't REALLY count as a win because of the sizeable Black population in South Carolina.


I'd like to concentrate on those two points.

1. He only won because he's Black

This is condescending to the nth degree. For this to be the case, then that would mean that Obama would have been leading in South Carolina from the moment he announced in February 2007. And, the truth of the matter is, the race in South Carolina, according to the polls, only has had Obama in the lead beginning THIS MONTH- January 2008.

In November 2007, Hillary Clinton had a ten-point advantage; December 2007, Clinton and Obama were tied. So, from February 2007 until December 2007, Barack Obama was trailing Hillary Clinton in South Carolina. So, what happened in December 2007? Did everyone Black in South Carolina JUST discover that Obama was Black and said , ' I'ze gots to vote for the Black guy!'

Or, could it be, as with Iowa, and New Hampshire, and Nevada, Senator Obama began from Ground Zero - little national name recognition and no organization. And, as with those other states, he began to build an organization in South Carolina, from the ground up, and through visiting and through campaign events, he began to become better known and present himself as a viable candidate for President.

You mean, Obama, gasp, actually campaigned for the Black vote in South Carolina?

Indeed, he did.

He said, from the beginning, that he would campaign for Black votes as he would any other group. And, he has done that.

What has he been up against?

Well, a Black Establishment in South Carolina full of Uncle Ruckus'. Uncle Ruckus, for those who don't know, is the self-hating,loathesome Sambo on The Boondocks. He's the type of Negro to which Harriet Tubman was referring when she said: " I freed thousands, and would have freed thousands more - if they only knew they were slaves."
Prime example of this is State Senator Robert Ford, who, back in February 2007, said the following about Obama's run for the Presidency:

Ford says he likes Obama, but thinks his candidacy would hurt Democrats. Ford says every Democrat on the ticket would lose with Obama as the presidential candidate because he is black.

"Then everybody else on the ballot is doomed. Every Democratic candidate running on that ticket would lose because he's black and he's at the top of the ticket. We'd lose the House, the Senate and the governors and everything. I'm a gambling man. I love Obama. But I'm not going to kill myself."

Lawd, Lawd, Lawd....The Black Man will DOOM US!

Sigh.

He still hadn't changed his mind after Iowa, in case you're wondering.

Obama was facing a very skeptical Black electorate, who just didn't believe that a Black man could actually be elected President. After all, this is America, and a recent CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll asked if the country is ready for a Black president, 72 percent of Whites answered yes; only 61 percent of Blacks answered yes.

So, Obama faced a skeptical electorate; he was an unknown quantity, running against the most formidable Democratic Machine in a quarter century. All they knew about him was that he was a Senator from Illinois. And, what they did hear of him - Kenyan father, White mother, grew up outside of mainland USA - none of that translates well South of the Mason Dixon. Obama had work to do, and he did it. He did the grassroots organizing that helped him in the other first four states; he did the grunt work that a candidate starting with nothing does, and it helped him build himself in South Carolina. In this endeavor, Michelle Obama was Senator Obama's best campaign weapon, and she did a great job for him.

The tide began to turn Obama's way in South Carolina with the Oprah/Obama tour. Blacks were still hesitant. They were still on the fence. They were still skeptical that this was remotely possible. The coverage of the Iowa leg of the Oprah/Obama tour was very important. For Blacks to be able to SEE the response to Obama in that context. He could make 1,000 campaign commercials, and it wouldn't have matched that Iowa leg of the tour. When they arrived in South Carolina, to a stadium with a healthy percentage African-American audience, wondering, ' Could it be?' That was the question. While the demographics of Oprah's audience skew White, Oprah Winfrey is RESPECTED by Black women. Respected for all that she went through and still found a way, out of no way, as a visibly Black woman with Black features, to be quantified as an unmitigated American Success Story. And, along the way, Oprah never forgot that ' To Whom Much Is Given, Much Is Expected', as her philanthropic efforts show.

Oprah basically told that audience that NOW is the time, and that this was the moment to believe. That don't listen to those who would tell you that Obama had to ' wait his turn'. That they KNEW what that meant; that, never in the history of THIS country, had ' Black' and ' the right time', ever been used together in a sentence.

Black South Carolina decided to believe; decided to ' go for it' on the night of January 3rd - when, in the middle of 90+% White Iowa, Barack Obama was declared the winner of the Iowa Caucus.

Some have derided Black South Carolinians for waiting for others to decide before making their own choice. I choose to believe that it IS a political sophistication and maturation on their part. After all, we've been through the symbolic runs for The Presidency: Shirley Chisholm in 1972, Jesse Jackson in 1984 & 1988. If this was about supporting ' The Black Candidate', when why didn't Al Sharpton and Carol Moseley Braun do better? Because, Black folk had ' been there and done that', and if they were going to invest in it, they wanted a candidate with a serious chance. They knew that any Black candidate couldn't be elected without White support, and they needed to see if Obama would actually get support in states where the Black electorate is negligible. Iowa and New Hampshire answered that question.

So, it took from February 2007 until January 2008, for Barack Obama to become a clear choice in South Carolina. It took that time for Black South Carolinians to accept that Barack Obama WAS a serious candidate, and all that means. That, they had to accept this 'New' type of Black leadership as not only valid, but viable. To become comfortable with the pretext that Barack Obama COULD NOT be ' The Black Candidate Running for President' a majority of the time, but that he had to be 'The Candidate Running for President Who Happens To Be Black', and make peace with that.

February 2007 - January 2008: That doesn't scream obvious; that doesn't scream overnight sensation; that screams that the Black South Carolinian Population was deliberate about their decision making in terms of the Democratic Primary and should be respected as such. If those voters were such sheep, then wouldn't they be following in lockstep with the Black Establishment in South Carolina that, for the most part, has declared themselves for Hillary Clinton?

Which brings me to the second point - An Obama victory in South Carolina doesn't REALLY count as a win because of the sizeable Black population in South Carolina.

So, let me get this straight - Hillary Clinton wins White women in New Hampshire, and it's this great victory, but if Barack Obama wins South Carolina, after ten months of campaigning, because of sizeable Black support, it doesn't REALLY count?

What is this - are we back to being Three-Fifths once again?

The Black vote doesn't count as much as the White vote?

I'm going to say this as obviously as I can:

YOU DO NOT WANT TO GO DOWN THIS ROAD.

You simply don't.

There is this underlying condescension that has been creeping into the "Progressive" blogs that, ' oh, well , THEY - meaning Blacks- have nowhere else to go. So, the Clintons and their proxies, who are actually race-baiting, but we'll say that they aren't, and tell those Blacks who are informing us as to what they see that it's in their IMAGINATION - well, they'll shut up, go SIT IN THEIR PLACE and turn up in November like they're SUPPOSED TO. '

That's not a bet you want to take.

Black folk don't have to vote for McCain or any GOPer. They can just STAY HOME in several critical states, and the GOP wins. Thinking that you can scare folk with the GOP Bogeyman after you've been disrespecting Black folk, is both offensive and disrespectful.


James Brown said it:
We'd rather die on our feet
Than be livin' on our knees


I am part of the Hip-Hop generation, and those of us who are Post Civil-Rights have learned our lessons well. We learned to hear the Dogwhistle of Racial Politics; our parents taught us that for SURVIVAL, but what they afforded us that they didn't have, was the option of getting off of our knees.

Corporate Pimp Bob Johnson Now a Spokesman for Civil Rights?

Bob Johnson, a man who made a fortune perpetuating negative images of Blacks and destroying Black Culture in this Country, is now positioning himself as a spokesperson for Civil Rights and proclaims to know what is best for Black voters. It wasn't that long ago that Johnson was a minion for the Bush administration. Now he is supporting Hillary Clinton.

Johnson's recent comments about Barack Obama's drug use was a clear attempt to demonize the candidate and to scare voters. This is part of what has turned out to be a pattern from the Clinton camp. It is true that the media has been hyping the Clinton/Obama mess for ratings purposes (the whole reason why these candidates were even made frontrunners by the media in the first place was because of the ratings potential) but the Johnson comments really seemed to be over the top. And it appeared to be an attempt by Clinton to sanitize the remarks and blunt any possible criticism by having the comments made by another Black person, instead of having the guts to say it herself.

Bob Johnson's latest hustle is telling Black folks how hard the Clintons have worked for so-called "Black issues", which is a bunch of nonsense. The Clintons have become this mythical couple in the "Black Community" mostly because of folks like Bob Johnson inflating their record. The hyperbole has gotten so bad in the years since Bill Clinton left office that some have called Clinton the first Black President.

But do Blacks really know about the history of the Clinton's or are they simply going by what the TV pundits have been saying? I believe the latter is the case. What exactly have the Clintons specifically done for Black Americans? If you pose that question to Black folks, most would not be able to recall two things that the Clintons have come up with to help the so-called "Black Community". That's because the Clintons record does not live up to the hype.

Just because Slick Willy loved to visit Black Churches and schmooze with Black ministers and celebs, does not make him a champion for Black Causes. But I guess all of the hype sounds good to certain ears in the "Black Community".

Bob Johnson partying with thug rapper Ludacris at the entertainers 30th Birthday bash
Take a look at the work of street thug Ludacris, enabled by Bob Johnsons BET. Warning: The Following Videos Are Not Safe For Work (or any other setting for that matter). This is generally the kind of garbage that Bob Johnson peddled to Blacks, & Black youth in particular, when he owned the network. It's still being pumped into Black households to this day. What a nice legacy of uplifting Black Americans. Video One, Video Two, Video Three.

In their attempt to be gain the so-called "Black vote" the Clintons have been reaching out to all of the wrong people. Last week, Bill Clinton ran to Rev. Al Sharpton (that guy who White Americans see as the "go to" man for all Black issues and who represents all Black people) in an attempt to clean up remarks from an earlier spat. Now they drag in Bob Johnson. They already have their hooks in the CBC (Congressional Black Circus) and those from the group who represent the traditional Civil Rights Industrial Complex. The Problem is.... none of these high profile figures represent the whole, or even a significant part of so-called "Black America". They don't represent the needs and concerns of real people on the ground in South Carolina, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Detroit, St. Louis, Dallas, Houston, Baltimore, Memphis, Philly, Cleveland, Oakland, Miami, or any other place in the Country with a high concentration of African Americans in communities that are devastated.

Every week I am seeing a new clown on mainstream media who claims to be my representative. When will mainstream media, and phony politicians, stop playing this Rent-A-Negro game? When will they realize that Blacks in this Country are not part of a monolith? Blacks are more diverse than ever, socially, economically, and politically. If the Clintons are so comfortable with Black people, then why do they feel the need to use other people to speak to Blacks on their behalf? Why not speak directly to voters? What are they afraid of? Stop going out and renting people, or using other Blacks as some sort of filter to speak through....or as a source for validation.

See Post from Democratic Underground

A Personal Account of Oprah/Obama in South Carolina

I yield the floor to sagereader of Think On These Things, who was there in South Carolina this weekend.



Barack Obama and Oprah Winfrey In South Carolina: Random Thoughts and News Clippings

Pre-Rally

The state troopers were seriously out on the highway the morning of the rally. Is there usually a SC state trooper every mile going into Columbia early on Sunday morning?

“God has smiled on me…” is what I was thinking but “This is the day that the Lord has made” was the phrase that came to Obama’s mind as he started his speech. It was December 9, at least 70 degrees, and the sun was beaming down on people as they tried to find shade while waiting in line. It felt like it was July. Simply coincidence? The Clean Coal people had enthusiastic hands grabbing for their fliers as people waited in line, but that was more a matter of people needing a piece of paper to keep the sun out of their eyes than anything else.

Ummm…Why was there someone walking around the line with a Ron Paul sign? I’m not inclined to think that Obama’s support will easily go to Ron Paul.

The media are also out in full effect with their satellite trucks facing the beaming sun. One perky reporter goes around interviewing people about whether they are there more for Oprah or for Obama. I’m annoyed that the reporters already have their framing of the event before it even begins and that they can’t ask a more important question than that.

The line wrapped and wrapped and wrapped and wrapped and we stood and stood and stood. Some people had the right idea and stopped at Bojangles to eat while they waited. Every few meters, we are asked by volunteers if we have signed our supporter card and have it checked. We must have it signed and ready to turn in when we enter. Another person comes by, “Anyone need to register to vote? It’s very easy. If you’re not going to be in town that day you can do absentee.” Two smiling younger kids come by, “Anyone want to donate their canned goods for hope?” I feel ashamed that I forgot to bring my cans.

Yep. Folk probably didn’t go to church today. We actually see some church buses there at the stadium, so maybe they had church there. This is an historic event…who could miss it?

As we finally walk into the stadium, campaign volunteers are handing out another sheet of paper with some golf pencils. Everyone grabs for one, not knowing what it’s about. I think most people were probably thinking it was for a raffle or giveaway. Hey, when Oprah’s involved you never know what bountiful gifts you might be eligible to receive.

A rock band plays as we enter…Pretty good. Not sure if they’re locals or not. They try to get people excited but I think most people are just glad to sit down. We’re conserving our energy for Obama and Oprah.

Two high school marching bands are there (HBCU style)…Very cute. I’m thankful that their dance moves were not as “provocative”as my high school marching band’s moves were. We were down on the ground. Lord have mercy. No wonder they got us a new tamer band director…we had no business doing that stuff at that age. But I digress. These kids were good and they danced their age.

Arrested Development

Arrested Development is up next. I forgot they had other hits besides Tennessee. They started off with Mr. Wendel…

Here, have a dollar, in fact no brother, man here have two. Two dollars means a snack to me, but it means a big deal to you…

A 70+ year old man on stage with them who they claim is “the oldest man in hip-hop” starts dancin’ and gets lowwww… I think most people are thinking that they wish they could be that agile when they get over 70 years old…or even right now. Ishi (sp?) then proceeds to dance her butt off. You go girl.
Then came those Calgon-like sultry words we had been waiting to hear…

Take me hoooooo-o-ome… Take me hoooo-ooo-oome…. Hooomme. Take meee to another plaaaaace. Won’t you help me? Won’t you help me? Won’t you help me under-stand your plannnnnnnn?

Y’all know that was the jam. I’m amazed that they have probably sang this song a million times and can still sing it with so much feeling as if it were brand new.
Then Speech took us back with one of our icons…

Old pirates, yes, they rob I;
Sold I to the merchant ships,

…
These songs of freedom? -
cause all I ever have:
Redemption songs;
Redemption songs.

Man, I love that song. I’m reminded of the genius of Bob Marley and the redemption song we need to sing right now to get our country out of the mess it’s in.

But then another Arrested Development hit comes on—I had completely forgotten about this one!

“Iiiiiiii am everyday people…”

In the midst of all this the audience stirs as people start whispering that they saw Gayle King walk out into the crowd–”You see! She’s over there in the cream color! Do you see her?” “Oh okay! I see her now.”


The Rally Gets Rolling
Obama campaign volunteers come out and ask people to text the SC campaign to receive updates and so that three of them can randomly be selected to sit right down front at the rally. They also come out and help the crowd break the record for largest phonebank ever as people are asked to call the four numbers on the piece of paper they handed out and read the phonebanking script to inquire about who they are supporting in the SC primary. We’re supposed to use the golf pencils to fill out responses and then turn them in to the volunteers walking through the aisles. The Guinness Book of World Records guy comes out on stage and certifies the record. The previous phonebank record had been 15,000. Today’s was a little over 36,000. What is clear is that the Obama campaign is disciplined and organized and making sure they sign up voters and get contact info so they can get out the vote. This is good because if they’re not going to get out the vote, all of this is for naught.


Then comes Michelle Obama…. Woooo! Whoever is her stylist and all that is doing a bang up job. She is really representing. If we are going to have our first African American First Lady, we better do it with style and grace. It’s clear that Michelle Obama is going to lead the charge. She gives an empowered speech that’s short but potent and then…

out comes Oprah!!! Woooo!!!! The crowd goes wild! Everyone whispers about how she looks just like she does on TV!

I expected Oprah to endorse Obama, but I didn’t really know she would endorse Obama. She really nailed some of the major criticisms of his candidacy including people who say he should wait. She says, “None of us are God. We don’t know what the future holds.” We need to act when we are pressured to do so and that time is now. She nails the criticism of Obama’s experience. She discusses how mothers know that it is not how much time you spend with your child but the quality of time you spend with them. She links this to saying the audience shouldn’t let people fool them into thinking that experience learning the ways of Washington is superior to the wisdom learned working on the ground with people outside of Washington…

She reminds us that if she had listened to people who said she needed to wait or needed more experience before doing things, she wouldn’t be sitting on that stage right now. Heads nod as her words resonate deeply with many of us who know Oprah’s amazing story. Images of a young Oprah fresh out of Tennessee State University taking on a news job a little before her time flash through my mind. Memories of her standing with a microphone and an afro and her many battle stories of people telling her she was too this and too that to do what she has done have already been etched into my brain from years of watching her show. We all know that Oprah is telling the truth about her story. She is telling the truth about Obama’s story. To deny that she’s telling the truth would be to deny the possibilities for our own lives. We should not wait.

She tells SC that on January 26, it is their moment. She gets the mike off its stand and gets into talk show mode walking around the stage saying that it will be SC’s moment. This is Mama Oprah’s time…exhorting her children to “vote Dr. King’s dream.”

Oprah is in our homes every day advising us on our finances, relationships, interior decorating, fashion, etc. However, I have never seen this side of Oprah. She could have been a “neutral” endorser, but she wasn’t. She put her foot all up in the criticism of Obama–experience, needing to “wait his turn,” and more–and made all those excuses null and void.

You can watch clips from her speech online so I won’t recount the whole thing. She ends though with the refrain from The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, “Are you the one?” Such a powerful refrain because it takes our vote for President and imbues it with a spiritual and almost divine meaning that it wouldn’t otherwise have. Not “Who are you going to vote for?” but “Are you the one?” With that she tells the crowd that she believes Obama is the one and out he comes…The audience screams!

Watch the full 20-minute speech from Oprah here.

Contrary to Ben Smith at Politico and Mark Halperin at The Page, Barack Obama’s speech did not “silence the crowd.” After one of Obama’s initial lines about “In November 2008, George Bush will no longer be on the ballot” the audience went wild for at least a minute until Obama had to quiet them down. From then on we were hanging on to his every word. In fact, it occurred to me that Barack Obama is much better at giving speeches than even Oprah. Her speech was good and she’s the queen at daytime talk show moderation, but Obama is truly an amazing orator in front of a crowd. He told the “Barack, I’m a Republican” joke that I’ve heard him say over hundred times and I and the crowd still laughed. There is no way that he had turned the crowd off in any way shape or form.

In fact, there were a few fired up random people standing up and screaming “I love you Barack!” while he was trying to make a deep point and people looked quickly as if to say, “Shhh…we’re trying to hear what he’s saying.” If there was any quiet moment it was because people were listening intently.

Obama gave the speech he gave at the Jefferson Jackson Dinner…A powerful speech. I love it.

Parting Thoughts

Some people are confused about turnout. There were about 36,000 folk there.
The Hillary campaign is truly aware of the power of this event. On the black gospel station that most of the black folk were probably listening to on the way home from the rally, the Hillary campaign was running radio spots featuring Maya Angelou. Angelou echoed the Clinton campaign’s “strength and experience to lead” argument and emphasized that Clinton is a woman. I don’t think the content and timing of those ads were coincidental.

Just wanted to thank sagereader for that personal account

2 Middle Eastern Men Found With Explosives Material in South Carolina

The pair was arrested after a routine traffic stop near a South Carolina Naval Base.

But the Feds were quick to play down the story.... immediately saying that there was no link to terrorism (before they have conducted a thorough investigation). If a link is found of course... it would be another strike against the idiotic foreign policy of the Bush Administration. I keep shouting about these open borders and lax Visa policies...especially regarding Student Visas. When will the political leadership actually do the things necessary to help secure the country???? Having 150,000 troops fighting a war overseas is not going to protect us here at home. You could have a million troops fighting overseas... that won't do a damn thing to stop terrorists from walking into this country on a Visa or European passport and doing us harm. Unfortunately too many Americans have bought into that propaganda - the "we are fighting them over there, so that we won't have to fight them over here" nonsense).

This also shows how local authorities are on their own when it comes to dealing with the terror threat. There has been a disconnect between the Feds at Homeland Security and local law enforcement & the private sector, ever since 9/11.

The Feds' message to the nation: There is nothing to this... you can all go back to sleep. I am noticing that this is becoming the automatic standard response from Washington D.C.

But let's hope that the Feds are right.... and there is no link to terrorism. Hopefully these guys were just at the wrong place at the wrong time.
_________________________

The story according to the local authorities:

GOOSE CREEK, SC — Pipe bombs were found Saturday in the trunk of a car being driven by two Florida college students, according to court documents.

Now the men will have to post a combined $800,000 in bond to get out of jail, a circuit judge decided this afternoon.

Youseff Megahed, 21, and Ahmed Mohamed, 24, have been charged with possession of an incendiary device, Berkeley County Sheriff Wayne DeWitt announced today. If convicted of the charges, the men could face between 2 to 15 years in prison.

Mohamed’s bond was set at $500,000 while Megahed’s was set at $300,000.

Berkeley County Sheriff Wayne DeWitt said the men were pulled over Saturday night on U.S. Highway 176 while driving more than 60 mph in a 45-mph zone. When an officer approached the car, he saw one of them men fold a laptop computer, which the officer believed was suspicious, DeWitt said.

The officer asked them if he could search the car, which the men agreed to. When he asked if there was anything in the car he should know about, the men said there were fireworks in the trunk.

At a 1:30 p.m. news conference today in Tampa, a spokesman for the University of South Florida where the men attend said Megahed is an undergraduate student and Mohamed is a civil engineering graduate student, the Tampa Tribune is reporting.

Mohamed is originally from Kuwait and completed his undergrad education in Cairo, according to the Tampa newspaper. He has been at USF since January and was registered for six hours during summer session, the spokesman told the paper.

Megahed, originally from Egpyt, has been enrolled at USF since 2004 and had not declared a major. He was registered for three hours this fall, according to the newspaper.

An Islamic community leader from Tampa, Fla., who’s been in touch with the families of the two detained college students, told The Post and Courier that Megahed and Mohamed are not troublemakers and that they a were simply on a weekend trip to North Carolina.

Ahmed Bedier, executive director of the Tampa chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a civil rights organization for Muslims, said family members have told him they think the materials were leftover fireworks Megahed kept in his trunk since July 4.

“Both of them are really naïve kids,” Bedier said.

He said Megahed is a permanent legal resident of the United States and Mohamed was the passenger. Mohamed’s legal status is not known.

“There’s a lot of unanswered questions,” Bedier said.

A terrorism task force, meanwhile is reviewing the evidence, said FBI spokesman Richard Kolko.

“At this point, it is too early in the investigation to say there is any link to terrorism,” Kolko said.

News that explosives were found Saturday shocked residents in Goose Creek, home to the Naval Weapons Station, which houses the U.S. Naval Consolidated Brig, a military prison where enemy combatants have been held.

(Source)