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The political talking heads were all there. All the Democratic candidates, You know all the names. Tavis (prime time) Smiley moderated while Dewayne Wickham, Michelle Martin and Ruben Navarrette asked questions. It was the first time a panel of journalist of color got a chance to asks questions of the candidates.
The questions were loosely based on Tavis Smiley’s book The Covenant With Black America. The outgoing Howard University President welcomed the crowd, while syndicated talk show host and party man, Tom Joyner introduced newly elected Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick. YES!
The first issue for discussion was Education and matters of race.
First up, the ever condescending Hillary Clinton who gave her bogus and insincere diatribe about today’s Extreme (Supreme) Court ruling, and her need to say “there is work to be done.”
AAPP - OK, as if Black America needed you to tell us this.
Next up, Joe (Obama is the first bright, clean and articulate man) Biden talks about what a great job he (himself) has done as a member of the Judiciary committee grilling Supreme Court Justice, John Roberts, and how it's the Roberts court that has turned the clock back. Hey and let's not forget Bill (I’m Latino-don’t get my last name twisted) Richardson who stressed, the next president needs to lead a dialogue on race. But provided nothing concrete other than the president needs to talk about race.
I was feeling John Edwards, who was one of the few "sincere" candidates at the forum. He at least admitted that there continues to be a dual public school system in America - one for the affluent, and ones for the poor.
Hello, Brown V. Education 2007.
Let’s not forget brother Barack Obama who received applause every time he smiled. Yes it was clearly an Obama crowd at this Forum. but maybe not Obama’s night.
Obama tried to say there should be mutual citizen and government action to get us where we are going as Nation regarding education.
OK, Obama sounds great, but, no strategy, no plan just smiles for the cameras. Oh yeah, there are other candidates like Dennis Kucinich who pointed out the need for universal kindergarten and day care. Hello!
What, you ask, "who is Mike Gravel," hey, this is the only guy who calls it the way it is, and talks about the real issues like the alleged War On Drugs, that caused the disproportionate number of black men and women to be behind bars.
Hey, what about the silver haired “certified” liberal, Chris Dodd. Dodd who has no chance of getting the nomination, sounded like he read the playbook from his look alike, Jack Kemp.
You get a sense of the discussion. Clinton with “It takes a village to raise a child..” which she stole. To clinton saying the village has failed its children. No Senator Clinton “America” destroyed its children. She makes me sick with that old school, “socioeconomically deprived” crap. But I have to wonder what type of drug Gov. Richardson and others were on when they responded to the HIV question.
Did you check out how Richardson continued to talk about “Needles.” Are black teenagers throughout America using needles to cause the high numbers of HIV? My understanding is it is un-protected sex. (education) not needles dude.
Hello this man is misinformed. Hey, Obama, was on point regarding HIV and homophobia issues in our community and the need for universal health care. Kucinich was on point regarding the need for sex education.Hello, Richardson, who ever your handlers are they did a bad job about coaching you about HIV and the black community. I like Chris Dodds approach regarding school-based clinics where children can get advice on sex education. But I’m not sure Chris Dodd is up on recent events. The Extreme Court has sent us back 50 plus years. We will be glad to have a toilet in the next 5 years. Here comes Hillary, If HIV/AIDS were the number one cause of death for white women a lot more would be done.
Hap hap, people are we!. The black women scream, yes, yes, she identifies with us! Yes, I’m voting for Hillary! YES, there is a God. Great one liner Hillary you got the black women vote. At least the one’s here who gave you the evenings only standing ovation. WHAT!
Oh, hell to the no, says Biden. You are not going to out do me Hillary!
Hey black guys, In my state I have gone into the black neighborhoods in Delaware talking to black men about wearing condoms. what! See Brotha’s I know whats going on in the hood. Biden even says, hey, I even got tested for HIV, hey, Barack Obama did too! Holy Shit! What the hell!
It went down hill from there.
That’s how it was for the rest of the night. Pointless.
Tavis Smiley attempted to have the Democrats come to the black community to have them address issues of importance to us. Unfortunately, the format sucked, and as usual the Democrats brought us a circus.
It was the Barnum and Bailey circus at it’s best. And black folks, lead on by aging black leaders watched the three ring circus and clapped, and watched, and clapped, and watched, and clapped.
We watched as Democrats gave us a dog and pony show, with an invisible dog and pony. I would have loved to enjoy the stupid pet tricks. No commitments just hollow words. The Covenant With Black America had no meaning at this forum. The little meaning available was Tavis Smiley (new school) and a bunch of old school black political opinion makers and civil rights icons having the opportunity to shake hands with a number of Democratic candidatess. WOW! If there is truly any meaning in that!
Hey, but guess what, we have a Latino and a African American running for the presidency of the United States. A clueless and confused group of people who proved last night, they have no idea how to truly address America’s issues that are Black, white, and gray.
The bottom line was, for me, the forum was truly just another Barnum and Bailey - Democratic Circus, with the best financed clowns money can buy. I only wish they had graduated from clown school and rehearsed their skit, so this African American Political Pundit could have at least enjoyed the show.
Tavis, maybe next time, with the Republican event you’ll ask the Universal Soul Circus to come to town. We can at least get a laugh when the bigoted Republican Circus comes to Baltimore.
Candidly, I can’t wait to see who they put in the front seats of that circus! Colin (WMD) Powell, or Clarence (you blacks stay in your poor schools) Thomas?
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13 comments:
Don't you think that the problem is THERE ARE TOO MANY CANDIDATES?
I have to ask...what forum would bring about 'productive' discussion with THIS many candidates?
I don't think it's possible.
There should have been a maximum - 4 folks.
4 people, 90 minutes- doable
90 seconds per original answer, 45 seconds for followup in case the questioner wanted it.
Until they cut the number of people on that stage, we aren't going to have meaningful discussions.
Rikyrah, I agree with you. One of the problems was truly the format. The format of having all the candidates answer all the questions for 1 or 30 seconds was not productive. It was a sound bite forum. And the candidates had awful sound bites.
A lot of time was eaten up with the introductions and bringing Tom Joyner and others out. I did however love the kids that washed cars to get to the event. That's what I'm talking about. Youth capacity-building.
All we needed was the Howard U. President saying welcome. Nothing more except the intro by Tavis. All that introduction of the candidates and pictures, waisted time.
I agreee it should have been 4 people one day and 4 people the next. But hey, PBS and Tavis are smarter than this.
I guess they didn't do a dry run to see how it would work. I guess no one cared its only black folks.
I'm with you, there should have been a maximum - 4 folks. As you said, 4 people, 90 minutes- doable.
90 seconds per original answer, 45 seconds for followup in case the questioner wanted it. Sounds great!
As you said, until they cut the number of people on that stage, we aren't going to have meaningful discussions.
Who's fault is that? Don't you think black folks deserved better?
I do salute Tavis for the attempt, but he should have known better. No matter what great face black folks try to place on the event. it stunk.
As you pointed out, there was no meaningful discussion.
The sound bites are getting old. That is one of the reasons we have a 30-40% turn out in politics, a 25% approval rating for congress, and why black folks don't vote in large numbers. We need change on how candidates are introduced in our communities.
@rikyrah - unless your problem is too many bad candidates, do you honestly think fewer bad candidates will make a difference? It shouldn't take intelligent grown folks a whole lot of time or practice to say something of substance. Just call it what it is. the American political system at work. Gravel calls it like he sees it every time, no need to spin anything for anybody, because he knows he aint got a snowflake's chance in hell of being seriously considered as a presidential candidate. the rest of them keep it cool and composed, don't want to say anything that might offend anybody, want to make sure the people who I'm talking to right now appreciate what I'm saying, but I may need to say something different to the people I'm talking to tomorrow, so I'll just just be as vague and noncommittal as possible. That way nobody can ever say that I actually had a position on anything and I can pretend to agree with whatever position will get e where I want to be.
That's what you are going to get for a pResident, no matter which party they come from, no matter whether they are white or black, male or female. The only faint hope you have left is that maybe, just maybe, if Barak wins he might turn his back on the corporate money that currently controls the government. Faint hope indeed because if he tried, they would simply have him killed. He better pick somebody they would like even less as a V.P., but of course he can't do that and still get elected.
@AAPP, I am so glad I didn't change my plans to make time for the sorry spectacle you have just described.
Questions:
1) Prior to Bush getting into office and also the money "Squandered on the Iraq War" why was there not a gusher of money sent into Black America and America in general on Education, Universal Health Care, etc? If the Iraq war is pinned as the cause of these other priorities being shorted....then clearly PRIOR TO the Iraq War all was golden for the Black Democrat, right?
2) If John Edwards is going to reverse the Bush Tax Cuts as a means for paying for Universal Health Care.......what was the state of health care coverage PRIOR TO the evil Bush Tax Cuts for the Rich?
3) Since "if the HIV rates for Black women were as high in White women as they are in Blacks we would have seen a greater response from the GOVERNMENT"........what does Hillary Clinton believe the RESPONSIBILITY is of the Black woman/man absent the government to insure that they are not exposed to HIV via body fluid?
4) Since Barack Obama said that he would not be on the stage were it not for Brown V. Board and since Integration is critical for us to have a progressive society.....what does he think of the fact that throughout the period of government sponsored school integration programs BLACK FOLKS departed their neighborhood schools and went into White ones. White people who were assigned to Black schools for the sake of integration, however often DEPARTED THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM rather than go to the Black school which they thought was INFERIOR due to the prevailing culture in the school. Thus aren't people IMPLICITLY promoting the notion that the culture in the White schools are SUPERIOR for Academic progress and thus Black kids should be exposed to it while the Black schools that they depart from should be allowed to continue as they are?
Lastly - being that upwards of 85% of Blacks are Democrats and majority Black electoral districts are no doubt 98%+ Democraticly controlled........what notions of "We have thus far failed to GOVERN YOUR COMMUNITY EFFECTIVELY in the 40 years that we have had control of it" was heard last night?
Where as in national politics if the electorate is not happy with the elected official they often go the other way (ie: Republic to Democrat). In the Black community if Philadelphia is any reference - when the Black community agreed that "the city is headed in the wrong direction and needs change" they dispense of one Democratic progressive (Street) and vote in another Progressive (Nutter - Mayor Elect). Might the fact that the politician and the ideology that he represents does not feel the threat to make EFFECTIVE change let he and his party be purged from office be the reason that these Democrats on stage knew that they can talk as they did an no one would ask the the "next logical questions" that I have identified above? Some of you must enjoy being pandered to.
AAPP: Thanks for the smiles and the laughs. I've been pretty pissed since the forum, mad at everyone involved. But you just helped me release some of that bad feeling. Wonderful review of the night! You are right on point.
I am so glad that I didn't take my hard earned money and fly to D.C. I'm glad that I was sitting in my livingroom and not in that awful event.
Thanks for making me laugh about this. Because frankly, I was quite disturbed after watching the forum.
Angie
www.nuvisionforanuday.blogspot.com
"The only faint hope you have left is that maybe, just maybe, if Barak wins he might turn his back on the corporate money that currently controls the government."
Dream on...
Though we still gotta vote for Barack...
"...All we needed was the Howard U. President saying welcome. Nothing more except the intro by Tavis. All that introduction of the candidates and pictures, wasted time..."
Co-sign!
A lot of capacity building opportunities got blinded by and wasted on "errbody and they Momma's" personal agendas.
I, too, would have liked seeing more of an effort to ENGAGE minority youth in the political process. For starters, more young people should have been in attendance. Next time, a young person should be invited to ask a question AND get a chance to participate as guest bloggers/journalists.
Instead of engaging young people, the event became a social scene for the "Our Kind of People"/CBC Party Weekend" set.
I'm not going to ride Tavis too hard because I support the spirit of the event and I appreciate the tremendous work it took putting it all together.
Let's just hope he takes some of these constructive criticisms into consideration for the next event.
@rikyrah - unless your problem is too many bad candidates, do you honestly think fewer bad candidates will make a difference?
I honestly think having fewer bad candidates would make a difference.
I like Michel Martin. WOuld have preferred Bev Smith or Jill Nelson, but I'll take Michel Martin.
I absolutely loved Mr. Wickham being there.
Saw no need for the Hispanic to be there; you certainly won't see anyone else ' of color' during the Univision debate, so why couldn't it have been 3 BLACK journalists?
IF there had only been 4 candidates, then they journalists could have been able to do followup on their questions.
I, too, don't blame Tavis. Maybe the only thing I blame him for is having it so early. If he had had this in, say, Late September or October, he could have justifiably WEEDED OUT the lower rung of candidates - something he couldn't do now.
As it is, as with the other debates, we're STUCK with the entire group, which makes it unworkable.
I was cool with Mr. Navarette's presence.
In fact, I thought his tax policy question was interesting and very appropriate.
:-)
Rikyrah, I'm with you rgarding the participation of the Latino journalist. I put all my little money onit that Univision would not have included us.
Univision has a hip hop station here in Houston. But they run it and they're the ones on the air. They support their own. We need to start supporting our own.
I know we might sound racist, but whatever...
We had an opportunity for 3 black journalists to participate in this. But because we are always trying to include others, when they certainly wouldn't have thought to include us, there were only 2 black journalists on the stage. (frown)
Excellent Post as usual from the AAPP himself.
I have been out of pocket over the last day or two dealing with one of those mini-crisis that poor folk have to deal with from time to time (something that none of these candidates would have a clue about). I might be tied up for the next couple of days trying to take care of some serious issues.
Luckily the bloggers and commenters here are awesome...and I no longer have to work as hard on this site. Thank you Rikyrah, Sonya (we might have to check to see if she is alive and o.k.), and AAPP.
AAPP basically covered it pretty damn well, lol. I just saw the debate and realized that it was an uneventful event, lol. It didn't quite live up to its hype.
I don't have much to add to what AAPP and others have already mentioned.
I will post the vid.... and add a brief comment.
I agree with Rikyrah... the field is quite large and that means less time for each to respond.
But on the other hand, this would be a totally different debate if Kucinich and Gravel (but esp. Kucinich) were not doing their duty :). Lie Watch or Lie Patrol is a very important duty.... especially for a political system where only elites can win elections....and where money buys your way into the system.
But they also could have done away with that long-winded intro... all that Black Hollywood Bull---- I can't stand it!!! They wasted 10 precious minutes.
The Howard Pres... could have made it quick.. a quick hello/thank you and move on. Joyner could have been left out all together... The Howard Pres. could have introd Smiley and they could have gotten on with it in 3-5 minutes..Tops!. Instead...they took damn near 13 minutes. It was like a Black funeral. And the way that these Democrats are performing...and with the way that Democratic strategy is shaping up... it may very well mean a Black funeral down the road (figuratively speaking)... because it may end up resulting in a Republican winning the White House in 2008. This is especially likely if Hillary Clinton gets the nomination.
Wow, we are all pretty much in general consensus regarding our brotha Tavis' first Presidential forum.Tavis surely has a bit of work to do. As you said Denise, "Let's just hope he takes some of these constructive criticisms into consideration for the next event."
Thanks for the comments everyone.
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