A historically significant political point, regardless of Harding's racial makeup, one thing is certain, even in the face of rising outspoken and virulent racism that had manifest, even legitimized itself in the national politics of the 1920's through groups like the Ku Klux Klan, as President, Harding brought the discussion of race to the table, even in what was then, perhaps the nation's most most segregated city.

Hillary and Bill Clinton have been literally shell-shocked as first term senator from Illinois Barack Obama has virtually sewn up the Democratic presidential nomination, no matter how much spinning Clinton's forces attempt to generate to argue with that result.

Hillary Clinton began with a big war chest and significant name edge on Obama, whose biggest national moment was his brilliant speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention.  

So how did this major turnabout occur?  Apart from Obama's oft-mentioned gifted speaking style, which gives him a fresh and vibrant dynamism reflective of John F. Kennedy circa 1960, the big factor was having the correct message for the time.

Obama's major support has come from a group much akin to Howard Dean's supporters in 2000, frustrated citizens, in Obama's case among younger voters in the under-30 range, who believe that the political system is broken and that we need a fresh beginning.

Let's face it - it's unfair, undemocratic and quite preposterous for the Democratic party to select a candidate for president without including voters from every state in the union. Now that it seems unlikely that either Florida or Michigan will have a revote for the presidential primary, the Democratic National Committee needs to move forward with a decision that empowers those states' voters without undermining DNC Rules and Bylaws and the state courts that have gotten involved in DNC's decision to strip those two states of their delegates.

It's likely that no matter what the DNC does at this point they won't please everyone, but since we're seeing an unprecedented response from Democratic voters this year the DNC needs to move forward quickly to ride the wave of public engagement this primary has already engendered.

The Clinton campaign wants desperately to woo primary voters – and swing superdelegates – with the argument that wherever she has led in the "big states" when she matched against Barack Obama she will surely carry the day in November in a faceoff against Republican John McCain. Her strategists cling to that hoped for scenario in states like CALIFORNIA, NY, FLORIDA, OHIO, PENNSYLVANIA, and so on.

But the numbers that came out since mid-March, though overshadowed by Obama confronting the controversy of his pastor, expose the Clinton big-state falsehood. Obama bests her against McCain . . .

. . . in the very biggest states.

The Clinton campaign wants desperately to woo primary voters – and swing superdelegates – with the argument that wherever she has led in the "big states" when she matched against Barack Obama she will surely carry the day in November in a faceoff against Republican John McCain. Her strategists cling to that hoped for scenario in states like CALIFORNIA, NY, FLORIDA, OHIO, PENNSYLVANIA, and so on.

But the numbers that came out since last weekend, though overshadowed by Obama confronting the controversy of his pastor, expose the Clinton big-state falsehood. Obama bests her against McCain . . .

  . . . in the very biggest states.

Those attempting to determine the Obama factor in the 2008 Democratic Party presidential sweepstakes have an easy road to travel.

It has puzzled some how Hillary Clinton, ordained by most of the mainstream media as being the winner before the initial competition in the form of the Iowa Caucuses occurred, based on numbers appears well on her way to being upset by Barack Obama, a recent Illinois state legislator who did not enter major national politics before being elected to the U.S. Senate just four short years ago.

Obama's meteoric rise is tied into amateurish blundering by a Clinton campaign that received such mainstream media boosting that important columnists and commentators interviewed sang Clinton's early debate performances and declared that she was winning them regularly and decisively.

A large legion of voters, many of them young and attuning themselves for the first time to the political process, refused to be conned into making a decision based on flimsy media propaganda.  For one thing, with enough candidates on stage to constitute a political "cattle call," how can any one candidate decisively win such joint appearance efforts?

Justin Soutar

(NOTE: This article currently appears as the cover story in the inaugural issue of U. S. Politics [April 2008].)

by Cody Lyon
History shows that Democrats gave up on the South after the successful Southern strategy by Republican candidates who first latched onto racism and later pedaled hot button right wing social topics that played well in the Bible Belt, while the truly immoral injustices of economic, health and educational equity continued to fester in many parts of the region.

July 6, 2007

Each year, it seems, the Grand American Puppet Show is getting longer, and the assortment of characters more diverse and talented. This time the curtain was lifted in the middle of 2006, more than two years before the Grand American Puppet Choice Day--er, excuse me, Election Day. The first two characters to appear on stage were New York Senator Hillary Clinton, representing the Democratic Party, and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, representing the Republican Party.  

Cody Lyon
It has become increasingly disturbing to watch a complacent media participate in the "what a feeling" drumbeat of the Obama campaign.  Indeed, it is a powerful message of change, unity coupled with hope filled packed houses led by a media darling rock star of politics.  But, what might be in order is more reality checking where purveyors of news may need to do some digging despite the danger that it may upset the flow of "smarmy and misleading" rhetoric flowing down this very popular river.

by Cody Lyon The Obama camp has yet to be fully vetted by the majority of the press that seems almost shy about interrupting what many have called a movement. Those that have done their homework and posed legitimate questions about policy, relationships and other issues have often been met with arrogant, evasive and dismissive shrugs and a fiercely protective network of supporters who shoot down critiques of the anointed beacon of change.

The topic below was originally posted February 14th, on my blog the Intrepid Liberal Journal and crossposted today at The Wild Wild Left, Independent Bloggers Alliance, The Peace Tree and Worldwide Sawdust.

American politics typically reflects our cultural ethos of the moment. Just consider these questions:

1. Has our culture promoted community or celebrated greed?

2. Is our foreign policy based upon cooperation with the community of nations or the imperatives of empire?

3. Can individuals live in dignity regardless of their profession, economic class, ethnicity, gender, religion and sexual orientation or is gentrified wealth valued above character?

The topic below was originally posted in my blog, the Intrepid Liberal Journal, as well as the Wild Wild Left, the Peace Tree, Independent Bloggers Alliance and Worldwide Sawdust.

Since returning from work today my inbox has been flooded with people either venting about Edwards dropping out, praising his campaign or wondering what if anything I have to say. Viscerally, I'm despondent about his leaving. Even if Edwards wasn't likely to prevail he set the pace on the issues debate. Edwards was far ahead of candidates in both parties on healthcare, poverty, the plight of the working poor, the phony global war on terror and global warming.

John Edwards is a champion of progressive values. Only a progressive mandate can facilitate the massive modernization our infrastructure needs, implement an exponential upgrade of public education to ensure the future, nurture a commitment to research and development for cleaner energy, reorient the economy so it values work over gentrified wealth, empower unions so wage earners will have more leverage, reform a justice system that supports a prison industrial complex by disproportionately incarcerating young black men and challenge America's empire culture so we're no longer at odds with the civilized world.

January 30, 2008

By RB Scott
Boston, Massachusetts

Note:  RB Scott, a former staff writer and editor at Time, Life, People and Sports Illustrated, reports frequently on national politics.

As  the barrow pit alongside the campaign expressway collects more roadkill  (Chris Dodd, Bill Richardson, Joe Biden, Dennis Kucinich, Fred Thompson, Duncan Hunter, Tom Tancredo, Sam Brownback, Jim Gilmore, and Tommy Thompson; and last night Rudy Giuliani and John Edwards while Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul ran into heavy oncoming traffic), the grinding primary election process seems as determined to set a few new precedents as it is to extrude a very predictable result: another election and inauguration of the least objectionable.  

It's amazing how a presidential candidate coming from 20-30 points behind in all the polls, being up against two of the most popular figures in our nation's history, can end up getting within the margin of error or even beat those two historical figures, in a primary or caucus; but he's done it.  Barack Obama not only won in South Carolina, he won by a wide margin, something like 27 points.  He won in large part because of getting 81% of the black votes (male and female), but he also got a health three way share of the white men/women, all age voters.  In other words, he slaughtered Bill and Hillary Clinton in their (own) territory.