Can Obama win Skin Game Over Hillary

9.19.07  A lot of black columnists and talk radio hosts have analyzed, scrutinized, and prophesied about Senator Barack Obama. Few of them really understand him and they get paid to do nothing else but understand the brother. Ghetto-type resentments and hatin’ kicks in and spills saliva and coffee over their journalism degrees at the mere mention of the name. I guess you can’t fight Father Nature-whom is an absentee father hanging out on Genesee Street.

I’m not claiming I was with him on this from day one; hell I started out intending to support Hillary. But as time went on, Obama seemed to grow from novice to apprentice to journeyman but fortunately never a contractor (like Hillary). An apprentice can be dazzling and impressive outwardly, but part of what makes an apprentice transform into a journeyman is his being open to learn.

Recently the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education (JBHE) ran an essay by Theodore Cross titled “Barack Obama is the Superior Choice for African American Voters” (http://www.jbhe.com/obamaprint.html ) that turns out to be one of the best comparative takes on Hillary vs. Obama and makes a great argument for blacks on why we should vote for him. First he points out our long romance with Hillary: “National polls show that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are drawing about equal shares of the black vote… Hillary Clinton is the inherited winner of solid numbers of black voters because of the tremendous popularity of her husband among African Americans.” Cross acknowledges the former First Lady’s own appeal to black voters, the number of top black professionals and advisors on her team starting with campaign legal counsel Cheryl Mills. And then he unmasks Hillary, challenging some of her winning scores with blacks and having some seeming touchdowns called back: “she makes regular appearances at black churches… Last spring Hillary Clinton won glowing praise from the black press when she joined dozens of America’s most famous black leaders in singing ‘We shall overcome.’” The message was clear, blacks “don’t feel no ways tired” of Hil.

During the June debate at Howard University when she made that slamming comment that the country would be more concerned about HIV/AIDS if the numbers affected by the disease were overwhelmingly white, Cross examined when back in 8/06 “Clinton was the only one of 20 senators of the Republican-controlled Senate Health, Education and Labor Committee to vote to gut a plan that would have redirected more AIDS funds to heavily black communities in the South.” Make no mistake about it, this race is about the black voters because of their pivotal position in the ’08 Primary and he or she whom addresses the black issues should go the nod.

Cross even has a chart of inequality and a page of Obama’s “campaign position paper,” and state-by-state black demographics. Though Hillary is evading specific race issues, she remains a tough opponent because she makes so many blacks feel important (women in particular) It's not that I left Hillary, she left me. I was never one to back candidates that played it too cautious and her distance on black issues will grow the more she sings with black leaders in church. This is a skins game she was trained to play ever since Bill was in office, but you have the power to decide.