Wednesday, May 14, 2008

The Day After WV: Reading The Tea Leaves

Wassup, Y'all!

Lucky for Smooth Barack that the West Virginia Democratic Primary didn't come on the heels of the Pennsylvania primary as Sister Hillary surely would have used it as a huge lever to pry the nomination out of his hands with her 'hard working white Americans won't vote for him' argument. Fortunately that wasn't the case and Smooth-friendly states are on the horizon as is a magic delegate number which has shrunk to 146 (according to BarackObama.com today).

A look at the West Virginia exit polls should be enough to send chills down the spines of every southsider who feels good about Smooth's chances in the fall. 20% of northside voters said race was a factor in their vote. 68% of those voters said they'd be supporting Citizen McCain in the fall instead of Smooth. More encouraging was the fact that 51% of all West Virginia primary voters said they'd vote for Smooth although that percentage was the lowest of any other primary state so far. Plus - keep in mind that's also what voters are saying publicly. Also troubling to note is what's happening to Smooth's campaign operations under the radar by some folk with darker racial motivations...

Kevin Merida of the Washington Post penned an article picked up by MSNBC titled, 'Racism Alarms Obama Backers'. It profiled several stories by Obama 'foot soldiers' - campaign staffers who man field offices and/or call or go door to door soliciting votes for Smooth - during the recent primary run ups in Pennsylvania and Indiana. Those profiled confessed to being on the receiving end of overt racism in the form of 'name calling, vandalism and bomb threats'. In one case a volunteer on phone duty in PA reached a caller who confessed that he couldn't possibly vote for Obama and ended the call with 'Hang that darky from a tree!'. In another telling case of how the Obama camp actually doesn't want to make the campaign about race and division but about our common interests and unity, when a staffer wanted to send pictures that he had taken of a vandalized Obama field office - window smashed, American flag stolen, graffiti messaged sprayed like 'Hamas votes BHO' - the Obama campaign said 'no' - they didn't want to make a big deal out of it.

These type of things continue to go on daily. There was a reason that Smooth had to request Secret Service protect earlier than any other candidate. Yet, there's reason to hope that what's being painted by Sister Hillary and others as an insurmountable problem for Smooth is one that can be overcome due to a simple trade-off:

Option A
: Keep struggling under Republican policies.
Option B
: See if what the Democrats have to offer can offer relief.

Shortly, Smooth will be their only route to Option B and if you look at the special elections that have been occurring in strongly Republican districts - the most recent of which occurred last night in Mississippi - 'untouchable' congressional seats are going to Democrats - even when the candidates are tied to Smooth. It's looking like folk are hungry for Option B, even if it means a 'darky' is the means to get to it.

That insight coupled with the fact that there are also plenty of 'non hard working, middle and upper class white Americans' (at least according to Sister Hillary's demographic categores...) with open minds, would seem to bode well for a fall campaign against a Republican party that has clearly fallen out of favor with the voters (particularly Republican voters).

In the meantime, ol Ty can't get to Oregon fast enough.

Peace@Least,

Tyrone

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