Brooklyn Ron

Morning of the Magicians: Obama and Clinton Transcend Old Age Politics as They Come Full Circle

For die hard Obama supporters whose passions reached zeniths during the primary campaign pitting him against Hillary Clinton, this is a moment of transformation, much indeed like the very day of That One's election.

And nowhere is this more true than in places of New York State where the support of Barack Obama ran highest, notably, the great borough of Brooklyn.

Clinton's reported acceptance of the invitation to be Secretary of States, and Bill Clinton's willingness to make concessions in his portfolio to accommodate concerns of Obama advisers, is like a truce beyond truces.

It is the ultimate reaching of understanding between ego-driven players who have the interests of their country and their party as high on their list of interests as their own ambitions, which are demonstrably very high.

This development is a true breaking of the mold, the dawning of a new style of managing and politics that brings to mind the awakenings of forty years ago when the thoughtful were perusing books like The Morning of the Magicians and other works that blended old traditions with new ones, all the better to open the inner eyes and see the way ahead.

 

McCain on Hillary and Bill: They Really Support Me. A Joke. Sort of.

Super funny John McCain asks, Where's Bill? and suggests that some Democrats at the Alfred Smith dinner are really backing him.

"Even in this room full of proud Manhattan Democrats, I can't shake that feeling that some people here are pulling for me," McCain said at the Thursday dinner.

"I'm delighted to see you here tonight, Hillary."

Whoa. That laugh from Hillary Clinton must have overlaid a little discomfort.

As for Bill Clinton, whom McCain zinged for his tepid support of Obama -- suggesting that the ex President was actually backing him, McCain -- we don't know what the reaction was.

He wasn't at the dinner.

Here's Obama's spiel, which wasn't bad, though it seems McCain got more sustained laughter. Had a better writer, we suppose. Click this bottom image to hear Obama. [McCain's talk, of course, is the above image and can be heard by clicking it.]

Bill Clinton's First Punch at Obama? McCain Will Be Main Speaker at Big Clinton Event

Bill Clinton's Global Initiative is a money box and a gathering spot for the biggest names in world finance and politics.

And with the next meeting scheduled for next week in New York City, one might reasonably expect that this would be a good time for Clinton to make good on promises to help Barack Obama win the Presidency.

But as many suspected from Clinton's body language recently -- when the ex-President and Obama met in Harlem and answered reporters' questions -- Clinton may have been very well been crossing his fingers behind his back as he spoke.

Yes, he said, he would help Obama campaign, as soon as time allowed.

But now with the announcement by the Global Initiative that John McCain will be the main speaker at the Initiative's big event next week -- Sept. 23-26 -- it would seem plain that Clinton is slighting Obama and helping McCain.

McCain will give the main address in person and Obama will speak by satellite.

"Senator John McCain will deliver the opening remarks live at the 'Integrated Solutions: water, food and energy' plenary session," says a press release from the Global Initiative.

Glossing over the fact that McCain will be getting a big boost while Obama will be shunted off the the side, the Initiative tries to suggest that both candidates will be equally involved.

"Both United States presidential candidates will have a role in the Annual Meeting," the Initiative said.

All along, of course -- ever since the very heated primary race between Clinton's wife, New York Senator Hillary Clinton, and Obama -- there has been serious tension between Obama and the former President.

There have been allegations of race baiting and more.

Many believe also that the Clintons want Obama to lose so that Hillary Clinton will be able to run again in four years against the Republicans.

Some have maintained furthermore that the Clintons, especially Bill, simply dislike Obama and very much like McCain.

Complicated guy, that Bill, as many photos of him seem to reveal.

It would be so interesting to know if Congressman Charles Rangel, the black Harlem Congressman who backed HIllary Clinton in the race against Obama and has been very close to both Clintons, is reacting in a private way to this news about the Global Initiative and the (apparent) slighting of Obama.

Then again, Rangel is beset with a slew of charges stemming from New York Times stories about having too many rent controlled apartments and so on, and his energies are largely going toward his political survival now.

A shame, in many ways, but this is politics and it's rough out there.

[The Global Initiative invites the richest folks around to their event and at the end of it the attended pledge money to charities.]

Heck. Any presidential candidate would want to be associated with that in a big way.

(Here's the Initiative's web site.)

Is Biden Blowing It?

Joe Biden's comment saying Hillary Clinton might have been a better pick for Vice Presidential candidate is pretty bizarre.

But then again his performance from the very beginning has made some wonder whether his heart has really been in this partnership with Barack Obama.

After all, what about the possibility -- assuming Biden's bond with Hillary Clinton is as strong as he says -- that he's intentionally blowing as many baskets as he can in this game?

All the better to assure that Obama loses and that Clinton will be able to run for the Democratic nod again in 2010.

Hmmm. The stuff of novels and tele dramas?

Or not?

(Anyway. See the story about Biden's comment.)

In the Battlefield of Brooklyn, the Clinton-Obama War Left No Dead Bodies

For all the heat and noise of the recent Democratic primary, as Hillary called Barack weak and phony, and Barack's folks called Hillary cold and racist, there are no bodies visible on the ground now that the dust has cleared.

The most vulnerable person was supposed to be Congressman Ed (Edolphus) Towns [photo, right], who stood by Clinton through the bitter fight for the Democratic nomination, even as most of his district went for Obama.

It was thought that angry progressive Democrats would flock to the candidacy of young Kevin Powell [photo, left] as Powell seeks to unseat Towns, denouncing Towns as a political hack who has been in office too long.

But there does not really seem to be much steam in Powell's effort. It appears weak, unfocused and burdened by concerns having to do with Powell's allegedly volatile character.

One indication of these concerns is the letter written by the author of the The Real Fort Greene blog, who writes:

". . . Kevin Powell is inexperienced in public service and has a very questionable personal history…  This is going to be a tough decision.  I’m beginning to be of the opinion we may want to wait until there is a better alternative.  Towns is 74 and I can’t imagine he’ll be running again (although he says he’ll run again).  He should recognize it’s time to groom a real heir . . . "

(Read the blog.)

Like Towns, Congresswoman Yvette Clarke stuck by Clinton during the fight against Obama, as her congressional district went for Obama in the Feb. 4 New York primary. There have been notable expressions of disappointment with her for that and other reasons, but no candidate has opened emerged to take her on. (read previous post.)

And after the relatively peaceful closing of the Democratic National Convention, perhaps peace will reign in the valley of the Broken Land (Brooklyn, to you newcomers).

That is, until someone or something emerges. We, the watchers and announcers, await.

Brooklyn, the Most Pro Obama Place in Hillary Clinton's State, Awaits the Healing

Even those who were deeply offended by what they believed were race baiting tactics of Hillary and Bill Clinton during Hillary's campaign against Barack Obama would have to admit it.

Bill Clinton's speech on Wednesday night hit the ball out of the park.

Senator Clinton's speech the night before was powerful in its own right but the former President's address made one aware, once again, of the extraordinary intelligence and (let's admit it) superior education that lifted that man (and his many inner demons) to the heights of American politics.

They, the two Clintons, in their passion and rhetoric, left little room for doubting their commitment to the candidacy of Obama in the race against John McCain.

Don't get us wrong. There is doubt. We have written here, for instance, about Peggy Noonan who has virtually built a career (and a very successful one) at informing the world about the trickiness and narcisistic self-interest of Hillary Clinton.

There are those who believe that Hillary Clinton has her eyes on 2012 and would very much want to see Obama lose this race so that she can have a go at it again in that year. (Maureen Dowd of The New York Times has been in this category and has been expressing herself with wit and wisdom.)

But the New York delegation of Democrats, who must have been painfully stung by the polarization of the heated Hillary versus Barack primary race -- especially in Brooklyn where the districts of Congressmembers Yvette Clarke and Ed Towns went for Obama, even as Clarke and Towns stuck with Hillary -- are happy now that peace reigns on the surface.

That was a stroke of genius Wednesday, the way Hillary Clinton stopped the voting that pitted her against Obama, halting the tally as the country waited breathlessly to see how her New York State was going to vote, and then asking for a consensus backing of Barack.

This is indeed a critical juncture in what has been one of the most interesting, if also bitter, primary races in recent memory.

[The accompanying photo here -- of Sen. Hillary Clinton and [Brooklyn born] Gov. David Paterson -- is from the online New York Observer. See their article on The Morning After.]

Deval Patrick, Gov. of Mass. and DNC Highlighter, Has Proud Brooklyn Roots

Deval Patrick -- first black governor of Massachusetts, third black governor in U.S. history -- was also representing Brooklyn when he gave his impassioned address to the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday night.

"If you want the change our country yearns for, if you want leadership that inspires us to bring the best that we have and the best that we are to a renewed American cause . . . then let’s join hands and go to work to elect Barack Obama the next President of the United States!" Patrick exhorted to thunderous applause as he ended his speech.

Patrick has been a singular presence in the campaign of Barack Obama from the very beginning. It was even suggested along the way that the Obama campaign engaged in some fraternal borrowing of themes from Patrick's own run for governor two years ago. (read)

But Patrick's special meaning to us in Brooklyn is that he is from this place, and he has shown a son's affection for it. By marriage and otherwise, his roots are very much here.

Gov. Patrick is married to Diane Bemus Patrick, who was born in Brooklyn and is a grandchild of Bertram L. Baker, who in 1948 became the very first black person elected to public office in Brooklyn (he was a State Assemblyman representing Bedford-Stuyvesant and served for twenty two years).

Patrick, throughout his political career, has expressed his tender and grateful feelings for grandfather Bert Baker, who died in 1985 but was present when Deval and Diane were married in 1984, and whose photo has appeared on Diane and Deval's websites over the years.

Diane and Deval lived in Brooklyn through the mid 1980s, and their older daughter Sarah was born here. Younger daughter Katherine was featured in the introduction of Gov. Patrick's Tuesday night address. (find the full text here.)

[Let me say also, in the interest of full disclosure, that Diane is a first cousin of BrooklynRon, who is also a grandchild of the late Bertram L. Baker. Click here to read about a recent honor bestowed posthumously on Bertram Baker by the Caribbean nation of St. Kitts and Nevis, where Bert Baker was born and from which he emigrated almost a century ago.)

Brooklynites don't like to boast, but we also want to point out here that two out of the three black governors is U.S. history have Brooklyn roots. One, of course, is Deval. The other is Gov. David Paterson of New York, who was born in Brooklyn.

Doug Wilder of Virginia, the first black governor, does not have this distinguished background, despite his fine character and talents, but let's not go there.

[Journalists and others, we included, use a shorthand in saying there have been three black governors in U.S. history; but it should be pointed out that for 36 days in 1872-72, P.B.S. Pinchback, an African-American, served as acting governor of Louisiana while the sitting governor was being impeached. That's why the phrase, "in post Reconstruction America," is sometimes used in referring to Deval, Doug Wilder and David Paterson, as it excludes Pinchback. Hey, it's all about keeping it simple.)

You all, especially readers here, may have noted that Brooklyn is doing pretty well during this DNC gathering. It was pointed out in a previous BrooklynRon post that the whole Convention was planned and is being executed by a Brooklynite, Leah Daughtry. (read)

On Tuesday afternoon, Gov. Paterson of Brooklyn gave a brief address. (read it here.)

Brooklynite Leah Daughtry is Running the Whole Show at the Democratic National Convention

She was raised in Brooklyn and is proud to be a daughter of this great place.

She's a Pentecostal minister and graduate of Dartmouth College.

And, oh yes, Leah Daughtry is the chief executive of the Democratic National Convention, the person who's been charged with planning and running the whole show this week.

No serious biography of Rev. Daughtry can be offered without mentioning that she is also the daughter of another Reverend Daughtry, the Rev. Herbert Daughtry, who over the past thirty years has made history in Brooklyn, leading demonstrations and boycotts against police brutality and advocating (militantly, as the mainstream media used to say) for the economic advancement of African-Americans.

The father is pastor of the half-century-old House of the Lord Pentecostal Church, located near the developing and very controversial Atlantic Yards Projects, which many activists oppose but which Rev. Herbert Daughtry supports.

Democratic National Committee chair Howard Dean, in naming Leah Daughtry the CEO of the Democratic Party last year, realized that the party had to make inroads with evangelicals. Leah Daughtry, in addition to making visits to her father's church in Brooklyn, preaches at her own House of the Lord church in Washington, D.C.

This week in Colorado, as she navigates through waters that many would consider treacherous, Leah Daughtry shows the calmness of spirit that gives credence to her professions of deep faith. She is trying to make the Democratic Convention a true open tent, one that has room for those of all faiths, one that is a kind of reflection of the place she comes from, Brooklyn, a place where Christians, Jews, Muslims and others worship in large numbers. The interfaith gathering at the opening of the Convention was a reflection of that effort.

Leah Daughtry is a person of extraordinary character, one that evidences a faithfulness to her family, to the place she has come from and to a political philosophy of doing that which feels right and which advances the common good.

She once was on the staff of Brooklyn Congressman Ed (Edolphus Towns), but she has traveled a long distance in recent years, and she has moved along with a full consciousness and with a proud profession of her religious, genealogical and, yes, geographical roots.

Hillary: Remember How McCain Offended Chelsea! Be as Tough on Him as You Were on Obama

When Hillary Clinton some weeks ago used the word "spirited" to describe her battles with Barack Obama, she acknowledged she was understating it.

The political fight with Obama was mean and nasty.

But now, as the Democratic National Convention gets underway and Hillary, and her husband Bill and daughter Chelsea are scheduled to be main speakers, it's time to go for the jugular against the real opponent.

In a sense, this is a test of the Clintons' parental instincts and their loyalty to their party.

Sure, any parent would want to forget what John McCain said about Chelsea a decade ago. It could have psychologically destroyed an emotionally weak teenager. (It was also, by the way, enormously offensive to then Attorney General Janet Reno.)

Here's what McCain said back then (1998) to a group of Republican donors:

"Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? Because Janet Reno is her father."

Well, the Republic donors paid John McCain back then. Maybe now it's time for the Clintons to make McCain pay.

Rangel Relegated to Sidelines at Democratic Convention

It seems Harlem Congressman Charles Rangel [photo] is being snubbed by organizers of this week's Democratic National Convention in Denver.

It is said that Rangel very much wanted to be on the podium with the party's big names, but those in power apparently decided the Congressman wasn't needed.

The main problem, of course, is that Rangel was one of Senator Hillary Clinton's staunchest supporters during the campaign for the Democratic nomination, a campaign in which Hillary and her husband Bill were involved in heated back-and-forth accusations with Obama, including charges of race baiting.

Many blacks are resentful that Rangel and other Harlem politicians chose to stay with Hillary Clinton, even when it became clear that Obama was on course to become the nation's first serious African-American candidate for the presidency.

On the other hand, there are those who think Obama should have allowed Rangel to have a prominent role at the upcoming Convention, even out of self interest, given that Rangel is chair of the very powerful House Ways and Means Committee.

But Rangel has been weakened somewhat, at least superficially, by recent New York Times reports that he had several rent-controlled apartments at the Lenox Terrace apartment complex, at a time when many of his constituents are struggling to find affordable housing.

A miffed Rangel may not remain in Denver for the full four days of the Convention.

(Read story.)