Like my blogmate, Patrick Eadburn, I have not been a fan of Barak Obama. But, speaking not as John McCain supporter or a Republican, tonight, June 3, 2008 is moment in American history. Whatever one thinks of the Senator from Illinois, he has broken a barrier that did not ever seem possible. Tonight we saw a major party claim an African American as its presumptive presidential nominee. Mind you, as I heard on the radio tonight, it was only 1964 when the Democrats were dealing with Fanny Lou Hamer...

I’ve started looking for a new car and I’ve decided to pick the Toyota Prius. No, I’m not trading in my SUV; I am getting it for a few reasons. First, my partner Daniel purchased a Smart Four Two so, we need a car that can haul stuff efficiently and my current high-mileage Jetta Turbo Diesel ain’t cutting it. The Prius has good cargo and passenger room (another deficit on the Jetta) and good gas mileage to boot. Having a fuel-efficient car appeals to my green sensibilities...

Now that a few days has passed over the uproar of President Bush’s remarks where he implicitly slammed Barak Obama on negotiating with some of America’s less than savory neighbors, I think it’s time for me to weigh in. Michael Tomansky of the Guardian has a good piece up on how Obama has been able to blunt criticism from the Republicans on foreign policy. The gist is that Obama is going to present a very different vision of American foreign policy that is centered on diplomacy...

Several years ago, I took part in a workshop after church. The members of the congregation were gathered and watch a video about race and American society. We were then asked to talk about our experience with race. Now, I was the only African American in the room and most of the people there were in their 60s and 70s. Most talked about how they had good relations with Blacks and had many friendships. However, one person who was middle aged, said that things for African Americans and other persons...

I need to start this post off by saying that it will not even appear to be biased. I favor John McCain and will probably vote for him come fall. I say this, because I want to respond to Jill Miller Zimon’s post where she interviews Cliff Schecter on his book on John McCain. There has been a familiar theme about how McCain has become a tool of the far right and is not the same man that he was in 2000. While I do agree he has made some changes that I have not liked, I think that some of...

CNN reports that President Bush is the least popular president in modern history. A liberal acquaintance is gleeful believing that this proves the president is the worst ever. My belief is that while the President won’t be in my top ten, I think one might want to allow the historians to determine this and not the fleeting opinions of moment. That said, this President won’t be remembered favorably by most Americans. President Bush’s unfavorability has had major consequences for...

In response to Pete Abel’s post this morning concerning Senator Obama, I wrote the following response: While I wouldn’t say it as brash as RickMoran did, I have to agree somewhat with his statements. It does seem a bit elitist to say that Obama is being brought down by “simple-minded” folks. For one thing, it’s too early to say his campaign is toast. Politics can change and he still could turn this whole Wright affair around. Also, you seem to be implying when you...

Michael Crowley of the New Republic, has a good article about Senator Obama and his Iraq policy. You will want to read the whole thing, but in short he says that while Obama is talking about getting out of Iraq, it might be more likely to see a reduced presence in Iraq. I think that no matter who gets into the Oval Office in 2009, Iraq is not going to be easy to deal with and will probably go against what the bases of the political parties want. There has been a lot of talk that either Hillary...

Just a couple of interesting articles: John B. Judis thinks that Obama’s “new-politics” is looking more like the old McGovern coalition and that might spell trouble in November. Salon’s Walter Shapiro has an article that Obama is having trouble closing the deal with Democrats. On the Republican side. You’d think John McCain would be doing rather well with Hillary and Obama fighting each other. You’d think wrong. Jonathan Cohn thinks Democrats need to chill about...

Alan Stewart Carl reminded me of something: upscale voters vote against their economic interests all the time, but for some reason Democrats don’t seem to get out of whack about that.

I have always had a scene from the 1992 movie Sneakers in my brain. In the scene, Robert Redford has been captured by his former friend and fellow computer hacker, played by Ben Kingsley. Kingsley has a plan that will wreak havoc on the financial system. At some point Ben Kingsley’s character notes that while the reality might be different, the general public would see the perception of catastrophe as reality and continue the work that he started and end up destroying the financial system. Perception...

There has been much weeping and gnashing of teeth among so-called conservatives because the selection of John McCain as the GOP nominee. Many have said that he isn’t a true conservative (never mind that his American Conservative Union score says otherwise). Jonathan Rauch writes in the Atlantic that the problem isn’t that the Arizona Senator isn’t conservative enough, it’s that his “conservative” detractors aren’t really conservatives. Using McCain’s...

The conventional wisdom has been that Obama would be able to beat John McCain in November and that many independents and moderates would break for Obama. Many Republicans and centrists has been stirred by Obama’s healing rhetoric which is a breath of fresh air to many of us that are tired of eight years of partisan actions. Many Democrats like Obama more than Senator Hillary Clinton, who is viewed as too cynical. Many people think that Obama will beat John McCain to become the first African...

One of the things that I’ve started noticing is that some Democrats are starting a meme that states that John McCain, the presumptive GOP nominee, is a racist. John Henke, guest blogging over at Megan McArdle’s blog notes that two Democratic bloggers are starting the line that McCain is playing from a racist playbook. Of course, then there is this last paragraph in today’s Washington Post: Later this spring, McCain will embark on a two-week tour of places where, his advisers...

Just when you think this election season can’t get any stranger, well, it does. Two news publications are floating the idea of former Vice President, former 2000 Presidential candidate, and Nobel Prize winner, Al Gore could become the compromise Democratic nominee. Joe Klein explains why this doesn’t seem so outlandish: Let’s say the elders of the Democratic Party decide, when the primaries end, that neither Obama nor Clinton is viable. Let’s also assume—and this may be...

Around 1977 or so, my dad and I started going to this barbershop on Detroit Street in my hometown of Flint, Michigan. It was called Eddie and Earl’s Barbershop and it was your typical African American barbershop, if such a thing exists. Black men from all walks of life would come to this shop to get their hair cut, especially for church on Sunday. While I was waiting my turn and reading copies of Jet and Ebony magazines, I remember seeing a poster that caught my attention. It read: BLACK...

Well, considering that I am an African American pastor, I should say something about the whole affair concerning the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ, Barack Obama’s church. I have to state, in the interest of full disclosure, that I am an ordained pastor in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and also have standing in the United Church of Christ, the denomination that Rev. Wright and Trinity belong to. Now, that I’ve got that out of the way,...

John McCain, the maverick Senator who was left for dead a few months ago, is now the Republican nominee. So, now comes the hard part for McCain: trying to keep moderates and independents attracted to him and not bug the hard right too much. There is a temptation among those of us who are moderates to say that it’s time for the conservatives to “sit down and shut up.” Their candidate did not win, John McCain did, and they aren’t going to vote for the Dems anyway. Indeed,...

A few bloggers and other media folk have noticed that this presidential campaign seems to strangely follow the last two seasons of NBC’s The West Wing, where a fictional presidential campaign took place. According to Slate, the similarities of the character Matt Santos, an idealistic Latino congressman from Texas and Senator Barack Obama is not by accident. Check out this video from Slate to learn more. I feel the need to go to a store and buy those last two seasons.

It’s been nearly seven months since the bridge collapse here in Minnesota. Right or wrong, it has become a symbol of our crumbling transportation infastructure. For several years, transportation has been a burning issue. We were slow to light rail transit, and our freeways, built when the Twin Cities was a much smaller metro area, are full. Governor Tim Pawlenty (a potential VP candidate for John McCain), has taken a strong “no new taxes” pledge to the delight of hard core conservatives....

Emily Yoffee has an article up about the personalities of Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain. If you’ve ever done Myers-Briggs, you will understand it. For the record, my personality type is INTJ.

Barack Obama fascinates me. He can give speeches like no one else in a long time. As I’ve said before, he reminds me of many a black preacher I heard growing up. He’s a black man that seems to appeal beyond African Americans to persons from various walks of life and states that have low concentrations of African Americans. But he also troubles me. Not in some sinister way, but in the way Centrist, including a few Republicans are falling in love with him. He seems to be picking up...

You want to know why moderate Republicans are dying? It’s not because conservatives have run them out (which they have). It’s because we lack stamina. We lack backbone. We are more interested in our own wants and needs than in looking at the bigger picture. We see politics more as enterainment instead of hard work. The far right got to where they are because they had passion. They had a vision for the country and saw the GOP as the vehicle to get them there. They weren’t just...

As I was coming home tonight, I listened to some of John McCain’s victory speech after winning today’s Potomac Primaries. I found the speech interesting, because it seems to offer a window into John McCain’s philosophy and character. I could be totally wrong, but he seems to offer a more decent and civil conservatism that is far different from the stuff we are used to hearing. He does go after the Democrats, but he seems to express what is wrong with their ideas instead of saying...

Howard Fineman has an excellent piece on the folly that was Mitt Romney’s campaign. The thing is, if he had run as the fiscal conservative, social moderate that he did in the past, he might have been a contender. I certainly would have considered him. But his willingness to throw gays under the bus in order to get the GOP nomination made him untouchable for me and probably for many other moderates who might have liked his managerial experience. But he gave up trying to woo moderates and...