Posted on 02/13/2008 2:11:23 AM PST by neverdem
WASHINGTON — It was November 2006 when Senator Barack Obama first gathered friends and advisers at a Washington law firm to brainstorm about what it would take for him to win the presidency.
Those who attended the meeting said the mix of excitement and trepidation at times felt asphyxiating, as the group weighed the challenges of such a long shot. Would Mr. Obama be able to raise enough money? What kind of toll would a campaign take on him and...
--snip--
Aides said Mr. Obama’s campaign was unaware of the magnitude of the tensions brewing in Jena, La., over charges of attempted murder that had been filed against six youths involved in a schoolyard fight until plans for a march, organized by Mr. Sharpton, began to appear in the news media.
Mr. Obama was the first presidential candidate to respond to Mr. Sharpton’s call to denounce what was going on in Jena, saying the cases against the students were not a matter of black versus white, but a matter of right versus wrong. He then called Mr. Sharpton to explain that he had important votes in the Senate, and that he would not attend the march because he did not want to politicize the issue.
“We agreed on inside-outside roles,” Mr. Sharpton said, referring to himself and Mr. Obama, echoing a famous conversation between President Lyndon B. Johnson and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “I would continue my work agitating the system from the outside, and he would do what he could to make changes from the inside.”
By the fall, however, while Mr. Obama’s campaign was still trailing Mrs. Clinton among white voters in Iowa, the loss of the endorsement by Mr. Lewis, the Georgia representative, made clear that he faced troubles among black voters as well...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
already posted
It is a myth that Lightnin’ wants to keep race out of things!
Very early in his Presidential bid, possibly the day he announced, this exchange took place between Lightnin’ and a reporter. The quotes may not be exact, but the gist is there.
Reporter; Senator, do you think there are people who will vote against you on ideological grounds?
Obama; Yes....Republicans.
Reporter; Do you thinmk there are people who will vote against you on racial grounds,
Obama; Yes...that would be those same people.
How do you brainstorm when you do not have much of a brain?
Sorry, pal, you ARE the Racial divide. You carry a deck of race cards in your breast pocket.
Show me where, please?
“Sorry, pal, you ARE the Racial divide. You carry a deck of race cards in your breast pocket.”
McCain better be ready to play a lot of 52 pickup during the debates.
BTTT!
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