"You know d@&^ well what you are capable of doing..." Michelle Obama TIME article

Some political thoughts in this election cycle -- TGP

Read the article: Link in the title above.

Is it me, or do I detect a "crab mentality" in our senior saints?

The Clinton's did a lot for us in the eight years he was in office. We had a balanced budget WITH a surplus. We all had money in our pockets. Unemployment was 3.1%, so if you couldn't get a job, something was wrong with you.

I admit: I didn't think this contest would get so vitriolic between DEMOCRATS. My strategy was to vote for Barack in the Texas primary. He'd probably come in second and get the nod for Vice President. I did the same for John Edwards back in 2004.

When Toni Morrison spoke of brother Bill as being our first "black president," I'm sure she meant it metaphorically and not necessarily literally (then, there is that nose and the swagger...).

Couple of things to remember:

1. George HW Bush brought up NAFTA and Ross Perot lampooned him (and it) as the "large sucking sound" on the American taxpayer.

2. Bill Clinton signed NAFTA into law and the "chickens have come home to roost" in the loss of manufacturing jobs and the middle class to cheaper jobs overseas, like China and Mexico. My job was affected: was yours?

3. Under Clinton/Gore draconian laws that incarcerated first-time drug offenders INCREASED the population of African Americans behind bars -- the so-called "war on drugs" is a "war on US!" Read the Thirteenth Amendment:

"Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."

4. Hillary voted for the Iraq war and appropriations bills to fund this international debacle.

5. Barack is inexperienced (so's W after 8 years of practice: he was a C student after all), and did buy property and accept contributions from a Chicago "slum lord." One of Hillary's contributors is indicted for fraud.

6. It's impossible, I think, to be a "closet Muslim": http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/muslim.asp. That Internet myth has been debunked.

7. We haven't had this chance since Colin (Colon) Powell PUNKED out, backed out of the '96 race, settled for/let himself get screwed into a cabinet position and positioned his legacy to be the one who lied knowingly to the UN before the Iraq war: http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1302834,00.html.

Don't get me wrong: we were living large in comparison to now. "When the country [financially] has a cold, black people have pneumonia."

However, I find it creepy that two families from the same university -- Yale -- control the White House for, if Hillary gets elected and re-elected, 24 - 28 total years!

Barack is around our age. He saw the things we've seen and to some extent we all experienced hip hop in its infancy -- The Fatback Band and the Sugar Hill Gang -- to it's current state in bearing no resemblance to the original intent. Since Powell, hell since 1776 this is our best shot.

Before Doug Williams, every expert from "Jimmy the Greek" and others explained WHY we couldn't quarterback an NFL team. Now, we've graduated to Michael Vick doing something STUPID with illegal dog fighting and it not smearing us as a people. (I don't feel smeared. He could have bought a racetrack for Greyhounds if he liked dogs so much, but I digress...)

No, he didn't grow up in "the 'hood." Michelle did. She describes herself as a working-class wife whose parents, though never going to college themselves got both of their children to Princeton.

I teach teens in our church ministry and they feel they somehow have to "explain" a black president to their friends. Excuse me: anybody "explaining" W to their conservative friends? Fiscally a disaster; socially inept, "erring on the side of life" (and committing many others), got a photo op for the Terry Schiavo bill, blocked stem cell research (that might HELP him someday), with a conservative 5/4 Supreme Court that hasn't stopped a single, lucrative abortion (makes more money than birthing) but shot their middle fingers at Enron employees and investors trying to recover their 401 (k). "Kenny Boy" got off light in comparison: dead men have no debts. His victims have the rest of their financially uncertain lives.

Yes, they'd have to explain a black president. Beyond NFL or NBA ambitions with odds of 1:50,000 of making it, the White House would suddenly be... a possibility. Obama, like Williams need not be the only one.

I feel our senior saints are reaching to what's comfortable and familiar. I don't argue with them. I listen and I've made up my mind on how I'm voting.

Those are my two cents. Hit me back if you have any thoughts. I'd like a dialogue, even if you don't agree.

I might, repeat MIGHT put it on my blog. I'll contact you before I do and post it "anonymous" per your request. TGP