Man I caught Al Sharpton today at the African-American Caucus. He killed. He should have gotten a good speaking slot. He was totally on message too--basically told the crowd to not allow themselves to be divided. At one point he addressed Barack's "blackness" and said something like. "The tell us he's too black. Then they tell he's too white. But it doens't matter because too us, he's alrigh." He was really good and was able to put "black issues" in an "American issues" context.
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sharpton = black grievance
black grievance = obama loss
sharpton is a great speaker but too confrontational for the obama brand. he has surprised me with is self control this campaign season--jesse sure couldn't.
only white men from the south or minnesota or cleveland can be progressive/confrontational. everyone knows this.
I cannot imagine for the life of me why Al Sharpton would not be given a prominent speaking slot at this convention! Gee, why not make him the keynote speaker.
Ta-Nehisi & Steve:
How soon you forget. Do you not remember Tawana Brawley? And Republicans will not hesitate to remind people of it. Has Sharpton changed his ways? I don't know. But the whole Brawley episode was very, very ugly and Sharpton was in the middle of it.
The whole 'kick the crap out of Iraq 'cuz we're mad about 9/11' episode has been very, very ugly but I don't see the GOP guy changing his ways. Perspective, dude. Gettin' in the papers doesn't make it matter.
It'll be a pity if nobody (other than OB) who can make a speech gives a speech at the Dems convention.
Wait... isn't he in the running to be the official speaker for white people? Oh, that was Jeff.
I like alot of what Al says these days. I think its the perm that throws me off. How can you be an advocate for change while still sporting a perm? That went out with Cooley High.
"That went out with Cooley High."
Its makin' a comeback...mark my words...when the Mothership lands in Chocolate City...
It is always funny when snark you believed was obvious ends up flying right over someone's head. Wait, Joe Klein's conscience, are you trying to tell me Al Sharpton is a controversial black man or something?
You should have heard him today. It was like he was on some "uniter not a divider" shit. He spent like 10 minutes stressing that it wasn't about black or white.
Is there video of Sharpton's speech anywhere on the tubes?
"only white men from the south or minnesota or cleveland can be progressive/confrontational. everyone knows this."
In response to Kucinich: they had him speak so early that you had to have the day off and be watching CSPAN to catch it, and his line about Bush administration officials going to jail in a perfect world was cut out by Obama's people. Race definitely has something to do with it, but with the Ayers-Wright problem issue/s, I can see where the Obama campaign would be pretty scared about letting anyone considered at all on the fringe to have a major speaking slot. And let's be fair, giving Al Sharpton a Kucinichesque spot would have been a slap in the face, considering his stature, and the spin would have been that Obama is both weak and a slave to radical interests.
TNC, do you think that the "uniter not a divider" thing might actually signal something of a moderation on Sharpton's part? Might it be that he is reevaluating some of his long-held beliefs? Or that if he doesn't moderate, his still great stature might disappear with Obama being elected? I mean, who ever thought that we would be here, with a young black man facing off against an old white war veteran for the presidency and having a serious chance?
Steve:
Do you remember what happened in the Tawana Brawley case? How he tried to ruin lives? That's not controversial, it is evil. I still haven't heard that Sharpton apologized for that whole episode.
It’s become pretty clear that Tawana Brawley lied, but it’s not at all apparent that Rev. Sharpton knew that she was lying. She lied because she was mortally afraid of her stepfather, a fact that her supporters could not have known. They came to her defense because her story evoked a still unredressed American crime wave: centuries of rape of black women by white men, including the Founding Fathers.
Holy fuck, the point of my comment was that everyone on Earth understands why Sharpton is not front and center at this convention, it's the most obvious thing ever. Was my saying, "Hey, you missed the snark," seriously not enough of a clue to help you find the snark?
Steve,
I get the snark. I always get the snark.
But have you ever heard of Tawana Brawley????????
I don't have a 20-sided die, so I can only roll my eyes.
I don't think putting Sharpton on would have been a good idea, but I have to relay an anecdote about my mother who lived in a residential facility for old folks - very nice place, by the way - in Springfield MO during the 2004 election. She was very liberal but most of the folks there weren't. But she said that quite a few of the oldsters really enjoyed listening to Al Sharpton because he harked back to an older school of politics with full-blown rhetoric. I'm not sure that means they agreed with his message but he had an old-school appeal. (This reminds me of my friend's dad who passed away recently who was very conservative and up in his 80s who only watched FOX News and the booty videos on BET. America is a great country !)