But if you want to do well in Chicago politics. . .especially "Black" Chicago politics, Rev. Wright is the man to see. It wasn't unusual for Obama to approach him. It is extraordinary however to stay in the man's church for 20 years and also let him preside over his wedding.

He didn't need to do all of that for political purposes. Just a few photo-ops and attend the church a few times.

Here in Chicago, no one is trying to hear it. Especially members of that Church. In my discussions, folks here think if "Black" folk around the country feel Obama is a turncoat, they are out of their damn minds.

I was told repeatily that the whole Rev. Wright thing is a farce. They created it so that Obama could find a way to safely distance himself in the eyes of the "White" public.

since when from the beginning of time would an election not be based on someone 'similar'. why shoudl it be black people to move on? as if any other country would do differently. why do some black people put so much invincibility on themselves as if white people do not vote for their own interests. its worked for them so whats the problem?
not that him being black shoudl be the only reason, but im not naive enough to beleive that black people have not through out history made very rational descision that transend race and based on the content of the person's character. so if now they all throw that out the window to make history then hell.. so be it.

i dont think he coudl have handled wright any better, he would have probably hung himself. you cant sit in the mans church for 20yrs and then get exposed by fox and suddenly not know anything the man has been talking about.

funny how we say we hate whites and then justify doing something because they do it too. funny as hell...

i personally don't give a damn about history black, white, chinese or any...it does not pay the bills.

this is a critical time in history....obama better damn well be able to hit the ground running...

but this shyt about making history is bunk...and we should never again use Dr. King's I have a Dream speech...."the content of the character..."

It is unfortunate that the bigots on all sides who are usually the most vocal will have the say so on this. The next white candidate won't be looked at in the light of what bush did.

this will be a good measuring stick of the real race understanding. will the black race be blamed for obama one way or the other?

Alright Folks, time for us to drink more Kool-aid, Obama Kool-aid that is. VK ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Complete story here
Obama's Executive Sounding Board


African American business leaders behind Barack Obama.
by Roger O. Crockett

On Feb. 10, 2007, Senator Barack Obama launched his bid for the White House in Springfield, setting himself on a course that has become one for the history books. But Obama might not have made it even to the Old State Capitol Building that frigid day if not for a private meeting he had with friends and advisers in late 2002 as he was mulling a run for the U.S. Senate. In a South Side high-rise overlooking the lake, the junior state senator vetted his lofty political ambitions with a group of Chicago's African American business elite that included Frank M. Clark Jr., Valerie B. Jarrett, Quintin E. Primo III, James Reynolds Jr., and John W. Rogers Jr.

Truth be told, his executive sounding board was present chiefly to talk Obama out of entering the contest. The Chicago Democrat had already lost a race for the U.S. House of Representatives, his funds were low, and his public stature even lower. Another loss so early in his political career would be disastrous. But over bacon and eggs in Jarrett's condo in Kenwood, the group debated the pros and cons. In the end, they agreed with their ambitious friend: Obama should run, and they would all pitch in. Jarrett recalls Obama saying, "Part of what I am expecting you to do is broaden my reach far beyond the African American community."

They have done their part. Though much of Obama's success must be attributed to his considerable personal skills and appeal, no small amount of credit goes to a powerful troupe of black business leaders in Chicago. They have been Obama's key source of fund-raising—employees at Exelon's (EXC) ComEd, where Clark is chief executive, have already contributed more than $180,000. And this group has been his link to moneyed Chicagoans, such as Penny S. Pritzker and James S. Crown. But Obama is not their only cause. These black executives have a span of influence that spreads beyond Presidential politics to impoverished school kids aspiring to enter the nation's prestigious corporations.

Community Spirit
You might call these chief executives the Fab Five. Besides Clark, there's Jarrett of real estate management firm Habitat; Primo of Capri Capital Partners, a commercial real estate developer; Reynolds of Loop Capital Markets, an investment bank; and Rogers of mutual fund outfit Ariel Capital Management. Though each has his or her hands full running a business, they always make time to help each other and the larger black community. Their spirit of mutual support reflects a mix of Midwestern values and the African concept of Ujamaa, a Swahili word for "extended family" that embodies the value of sharing work and wealth through business relationships.

Chicago's altruistic black executives extend far beyond this quintet, of course. Little happens inside Chicago's black business community without the involvement of such others as Linda Johnson Rice, chief executive of Johnson Publishing, whose flagship is Ebony magazine; Obama buddy Martin H. Nesbitt, president of Parking Spot and chairman of the Chicago Housing Authority; Charles A. Tribbett III, managing director of executive search firm Russell Reynolds Associates; Anthony K. Anderson, Midwest managing partner of Ernst & Young; Samuel C. Scott III, CEO of Corn Products International (CPO); and Cheryle R. Jackson, CEO of the Chicago Urban League.

These execs have worked largely incognito to form the world's largest organized conference of black directors of publicly traded companies. They're also setting precedents with megaprojects in real estate. They're sponsoring schools and mentorship programs. They're behind the first minority-owned banks to manage major bond offerings by corporations. And they're creating the country's biggest funds dedicated to community investment. "I don't think anybody can just sit in a room and start a business or launch a major project on their own," says Rice. "You need people you can reach out to and share information with. We have no problem helping each other out."

Complete story here
Obama's Executive Sounding Board

I believe that Barack Obama has proven that a Black Person indeed have the chance to be President of the United States of America. Based on the record amount of Young Voters of all colors who are voting for Obama, one can make an "Educated Mathematical Extrapolation" that probably in the next 25 years or so, Black people might have better chances of winning seats in higher offices.

Watching MSNBC and based on the words of NBC Mathematical Guru "Chuck Todd" his arguement is that Barack Obama is loosing in States where the racial divide of the past is pronounced and white Folks still feel Black people are taking away Jobs and opportunities from them.. Based on the map of the US, Obama won white States in the West and North West where their was not a pronounced history of Racial segregation. Obama lost in places like Kentucky and West Virginia by a wide margin and those Apalachian Hillbillies are not yet willing to vote for any Black person. And I have been to many rural Areas of America hands down then many people who contributed to this thread, from the East all the way to the West and from the North all the way to the South VK has been through many of these places, so yeah I know what I am talking about here just in case some people here from the woodworks pop out of the bushes with the usual claims of I am from here and there and I know this and that. I say been there and done that and seen it all and I chose to live in big City America.

The rural areas of Iowa, South Dakota, North Dakota etc, etc is not the same as that in West Virginia and Kentucky and I have travelled through both. I have never been frightened in my life until I went to West Virginia and I vowed never to return. Several years ago I went to Webster City Iowa where I did not see a single Black person but I slept very well with out any fear and Fort Dodge Iowa where I visited a small African American Church. But Rural West Virginia was something else.

Although I am not an Obama supporter I say there are two kinds of people who think a black can not be elected president...

hateful whites who wish is were not so and hateful blacks who believe that the hateful whites can stop it from happening.

Every lie told to keep Slavery alive in the hearts of whites has been exposed. Yet some whites still have the fire buring in their hearts and believe what the slavers said about us being the reason that poor whites were not being treated any better.

And hateful blacks still feed the fires of these hateful whites by being just as noxious in their deportment.

The one feeds off the other and the innocent suffer long with their anger...

McCain reaches out to Black Americans
McCain interview with Essence Mag



John McCain’s presence is felt at every corner of the Hilton Hotel in New York City; he’s in town for an appearance on Saturday Night Live. Secret Service agents line the hotel’s hallway, and aides stick their heads into our hotel suite, counting down the minutes to the candidate’s arrival for his interview with ESSENCE, his first with an African-American publication.

When the 71-year-old Arizona senator, wearing khaki pants and a dark blazer, finally walks into the suite where we are to conduct our interview, he seems every bit the military man he is—rigid in his bearing, gracious, serious, respectful. He thanks ESSENCE for taking the time to talk to him and stops me when I begin to tell him about our 8 million readers.

“I know the magazine well,” he says.

This has been one of the best and also one of the toughest weeks on the campaign trail for the senator. He gained ground with a speech earlier in the week in which he laid out his plans for his first term as president of the United States. But there were a few bumps along the way. Just one day before our meeting, Senator Barack Obama, 46, had come out swinging against McCain. The fierce exchange between the two was sparked by President Bush, who, during a speech before the Israeli parliament, seemed to criticize Obama, without calling him by name, for indicating a willingness to meet with leaders of Iran. Bush called the approach “the false comfort of appeasement.” Obama, who seemed to relish the chance to take on the President, quickly pulled the presumptive Republican nominee into the argument, yoking him to Bush and his policies. It was a move pundits predicted could hurt McCain, given the President’s record-low approval rating.

Then, just before sitting down with ESSENCE, McCain receives the news that Massachusetts Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy, 76, has just been rushed to the hospital. Minutes into our interview, McCain’s top aide rushes into the room and places her cell phone to the candidate’s ear. McCain mouths an apology to me and begins talking into the phone.

“This is John McCain—just heard the news,’’ he tells the person on the line. “I would just like to relay to Senator Kennedy my thoughts, prayers and my love are all with him. If there is ever any moment whenever it would be appropriate, I would like to speak to him. I just hope you relay that to him and to the family. Thanks for taking my call. I know you are very busy right now.” Then he hands the cell phone back to his aide, apologizing to me for the interruption. “Ted had a stroke,” he explains. [ The condition was initially thought to be a stroke but was later described as a seizure.] “That was his chief of staff. Ted is one of my dear friends. We are very close—very close, personal friends.”

Despite his challenging week and the fact that he knows this interview will focus on issues of importance to voters who seem to be strongly behind Obama, McCain is ready to talk about his plan to address African-American concerns and to discuss how race factors into the election, and why he doesn’t believe Obama is ready to be president.

Here are excerpts from our exclusive interview:

ESSENCE: Senator, I read and watched your May 15 speech. It seemed very optimistic. You envisioned many things: ending the war by 2013, improving public education, improving health care. But I am curious whether you have plans as president to improve some of the dire problems in the African-American community. In Washington, D.C., our nation’s capital, there is a serious AIDS crisis. Unemployment among African-American men is especially high, and there is an education gap that persists between Black and White children, despite class. What would a McCain administration do to help solve these problems?

McCain: First of all, my general overall mission is to continue to erase barriers that are based on race, wherever policies are needed, and, of course, to improve everyone’s opportunity. [Here he pauses to talk to Ted Kennedy’s chief of staff.] To answer your question and to be more specific, I believe education is clearly the remaining barrier, whether it is preschool or Head Start or elementary or K–12. We have an unacceptable situation in America today where lower-income people do not have the same access to the quality education that higher-income people have. We tried busing, but that didn’t work. So now we have to bring in new programs, which will improve education standards and choice and work with teachers…. But we also have to act at the federal level, update the No Child Left Behind Act. The No Child Left Behind Act was a good beginning, in my view. Those who want to scrap it completely—I respectfully disagree. But now we have learned the lessons of the first five or six or seven years of putting No Child Left Behind into practice. So let’s fix it, because it’s clear we have a two-tiered system of education in America.

ESSENCE: This will be a priority?

McCain: Absolutely.

ESSENCE: Republican Newt Gingrich said the Republicans should not ignore the African-American and Latino community, but this election year Republican candidates Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani didn’t bother to address the Black community. As the Republican nominee, how will you reach out to the Black community, not only in this election, but afterward?

McCain: Go to places and venues that would allow me to continue a dialogue with the African-American community. I will go to the NAACP convention.

ESSENCE: You will?

McCain: Oh, yeah. I don’t know any reason why not. I went to Selma and stood at the Edmund Pettus Bridge and talked about the need to include “forgotten Americans.” I will never as long as I live forget the beautiful women of Gees Bend, Alabama, with the quilts. They were singing spirituals. On the first occasion I could find in the White House I would have them sing again. It was so moving. There was a woman there who was 91 years old. Can you imagine the environment she lived in when she was 21? And yet, this woman was full of hope, compassion and forgiveness. But does that mean in my campaign I am going to get a majority of the African-American vote? Probably not. But what it does mean, what I’ve committed to, is assuring and promising all Americans whether they vote for me or not, I am going to be their president. Americans are sick and tired of partisanship and divisions along party lines that cause gridlock and frustration and lack of addressing the issues that confront America.

ESSENCE: If you were our next president, what would your cabinet look like? Would you consider African-Americans and Latinos at top positions?

McCain: Absolutely. Also I would include Democrats because we have to ask the best of America to serve our country at these difficult times.

ESSENCE: I talked to Condoleezza Rice last year. She said she definitely would not run for president.

McCain: [Laughs] I am happy about that.

ESSENCE: Some in your party believe she would be a great vice-president for you. Is that a consideration?

McCain: I think Condi Rice should be a consideration for any job, including president of the United States, because she is a true American in every respect.

ESSENCE: But for your vice-president?

McCain: If we talk about people we consider, we get into a very slippery slope.

ESSENCE: So you have not decided?

McCain: No

ESSENCE: Would you consider Colin Powell?

McCain: Another great American. We have been dear friends from for many years.

ESSENCE: There is an unwritten rule in American politics that you don’t criticize other American leaders on foreign soil, correct?

[McCain nods.]

ESSENCE: This week while in Israel, President Bush seemed to paint Democrats, particularly Obama, as appeasers in the face of terrorist threats. Do you agree the rule had been broken?

McCain: No, I don’t. He didn’t mention his name.

ESSENCE: Well, we knew whom he was talking about.

McCain: I am not totally convinced of that. Look, Neville Chamberlain was an appeaser, and there have been others who have appeased throughout the history of this world… For Israel, I think their most tragic memory was that of Neville Chamberlain…

ESSENCE: But he was willing to give [a chunk of Czechoslovakia away to Hitler].

McCain: …an appeasement that led to the first holocaust and near extermination of an entire ethnic group, people who happen to be Jewish…. My vow is to never have a second holocaust.

ESSENCE: Do you believe Senator Obama and the Democrats are appeasers?

McCain: No, but I think we have very different…. No…absolutely not. But I do believe when Senator Obama wants to sit down across from the president of Iran who is dedicated to the extinction of the state of Israel and whose country is providing weapons that are killing young Americans in Iraq, that is bent on acquisition of nuclear weapons, then I would not sit down and have unconditional talks with him. I think Senator Obama is not experienced, otherwise he would not make that judgment.

ESSENCE: Senator Obama did say he would want to debate with you about that, and it definitely seems you are ready to have that debate.

McCain: Absolutely. And President Roosevelt didn’t sit across the table from Hitler and President Reagan didn’t sit across from the Ayatollah Khomeini and President Kennedy didn’t sit across the table from Fidel Castro. The president of Iran two days ago called Israel a stinking corpse. What are you going to talk about when you sit across from him? I don’t believe Senator Obama has the experience and judgment. That is what will be the debate in this campaign.

Interview Cont.

ESSENCE: The media outlets are talking about the interview you had with a Sky News reporter who said that at one point you said we have to deal with Hamas leaders. How is that different from what Obama said?

McCain: It’s well established that was a total false allegation. In our statement I said that Hamas’ behavior will determine our relations. I made it very clear that they have to renounce their intentions to destroy the state of Israel.

ESSENCE: The issue of race has been creeping into the election, especially between the Democratic candidates. And some believe Republicans will use race against Obama. How will you relay to your party that this election should be issue-driven, or do you think race should be part of the discussion?

McCain: First I would like to say I respect Senator Obama enormously, and the effect he has had on Americans, including young Americans and the level of enthusiasm he inspires. The differences we have are simply differences in political philosophy. Already I have strongly objected to and condemned some messages that have been put out against Senator Obama’s character or have any overtones that are not appropriate for the United States of America.

ESSENCE: You mean racial overtones?

McCain: Well, I condemned the spot done connecting him to Rev. Wright, but I have not yet seen anything racist. I think the American people want what they are going to get from me and Senator Obama: a spirited, respectful and tough difference of views and principles and philosophies. I have never been involved in any campaign in which I’ve done or said things that I have viewed as dishonorable or inappropriate. I have not always run a perfect campaign, don’t get me wrong, but I know Senator Obama well enough to know that we are going to get it from his campaign. And by the way, it’s going to be tough. We aren’t going to toast marshmallows. But it is going to be fair with clear lines drawn between us. It’s not going to be personal attacks. We are not going to be impugning anyone’s character or patriotism.

ESSENCE: Whenever I’m interviewing someone, I ask regular people if there is one thing they would like to ask the person I’m questioning?

McCain: Good!

ESSENCE: So I asked my neighbor Julio Rosa, who is African-American and Latino. I thought he was going to say something about Black men or Latino men, but he said “Ask McCain how can he help us with the gas prices?” He said it’s almost 4 dollars. How do we go to work? That was really a concern for him.

McCain: Energy independence. We have to become independent of foreign oil. We have to marshal the innovation and talents of America to take on one of the greatest challenges of our time. We got to become independent of the Saudis. That means we are going to have to come up with these clean, cold technologies: nuclear, wind, solar, hybrid cars.

ESSENCE: But what about tomorrow or next week?

McCain: Look, the only thing I wanted to do—and I was criticized heavily for it—is give a break from gas tax: 18.5 cents out of every gallon that Julio buys is in the form of tax. I just wanted to give him a little relief for the summer.

ESSENCE: But many people said that wasn’t going to work, especially Senator Obama and many economists.

McCain: Look, there is a woman I know who works in maintenance. She drives 40 or 50 miles to work, and she drives an older car. The rich people live in Georgetown; they can walk to work. Gas taxes are regressive on lower-income people. Why not give them a little relief? Some economists were saying, “Oh no, this is the end of Western civilization!” But my thinking was, Maybe they can buy some school supplies for their children