Surprise — more race-baiting from the Clinton campaign!

This time, it’s from the candidate herself.

In attempts to make her case for the nomination (though her chances are currently slim), she wants to remind us that she is the candidate of white voters.

“I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on,” she said in an interview with USA TODAY. As evidence, Clinton cited an Associated Press article “that found how Sen. Obama’s support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me.”

“There’s a pattern emerging here,” she said.

Now, how is it that you have a much broader coalition when Obama has some of those same working-class white voters, some of those white women voters you tout, a solid majority of the black vote, a solid majority of the youth vote and more independent voters.

That, to me, is quite a broad base.

However, what Clinton is really doing is trying to remind white voters that Obama is the “black candidate” and insinuate that white America may not vote for a black guy.

Obviously, desperation is kicking in because, the kitchen sink strategy just went into overdrive.

Popularity: 4% [?]

San Diego State has suspended 6 fraternities on their campus because it appears that members were involved in a massive drug ring. The fraternities in question are Theta Chi,Lambda Chi Alpha, Phi Kappa Psi, Phi Kappa Theta, Sigma Alpha Epsilon and Sigma Alpha Mu.

This comes after the arrest of 96 people, 75 of whom were San Diego State students. The arrests were the culmination of a nearly year-long investigation, spurred by the overdose death of a 19-year-old sorority member at the school last year.

Police seized cocaine, ectasy and guns.

The irony is that one of the students that got busted was about to graduate with a Masters in Homeland Security and another was majoring in Criminal justice.

Popularity: 4% [?]

I only have about 30 seconds of video on this but, it shows Philadelphia police snatching 3 men out of a car and pummeling them.

The story says a half-dozen officers beat these men but, as you can tell from the video, there are WAY more than 6 officers beating and kicking these men.

One really has to wonder what the use of force policy is for Philadelphia police.

Popularity: 5% [?]

If you’re not a politics geek like me, you might not know the two players in this scene. Donna Brazile has a long, distinguished resume but, many know her as a long-time Democratic insider who has held such high positions as campaign manager for Al Gore’s 2000 presidential run and head of the DNC’s Voting Rights Institute. Lately, she’s be working as a political contributor for CNN.

Paul Begala, on the other hand, is one of those people who seems to see politics more as a business and a game so, he is always in spin mode. So, a few hours ago, he tried to put words in Ms. Brazile’s mouth by saying she was advocating that the Democratic party abandon white, working-class voters. Well, Ms. Brazile proceeded to remind him of her credentials in campaigning for the votes of working-class whites and checked him on his attempts to drive wedges between the constituencies that comprise the Democratic party.

Popularity: 6% [?]

As expected, Obama took North Carolina but, it was not as close as some in the Clinton camp had predicted.

However, the big story of the night is Indiana. After the Rev. Wright drama, the Clinton camp had been saying that Obama was the weaker candidate and unable to win in “states that mattered”. In looking at the early returns, I thought Clinton would coast to an easy victory in Indiana and that she would be able to push this argument further. I flipped back and forth between MSNBC and CNN and watched a high double-digit Clinton lead shrink to 8 points, then to 6 points, then to 4. As I sit here at 12:17am EDT, 92% of the Indiana vote is in and Clinton is only up by 2%.

So, there is another possibility for Indiana. There are some areas where Obama was expected to perform well that haven’t turned in their numbers yet. What this could mean is that an expected Clinton victory could turn out to be an Obama victory. Or, nearly as bad for Clinton, she squeaks out a win in an area that should have been a sure thing for her, casting serious doubts on her claims that Obama couldn’t win in states with predominately white, working-class voters.

So, I’m going to stay up a little while longer to see how this turns out. I feel that I might be witnessing the transition of Barack Obama from Democratic primary contender to Democratic presidential nominee.

UPDATE: At about 1:15am, CNN projected Hillary Clinton the winner in Indiana. It looks like it will be a 51%-49% victory for Clinton. However, even with this victory, her argument to the superdelegates has been weakened. She has said that the delegate count and popular vote should be what matters. Well, Obama has increased his delegate lead and moved his popular vote lead from over 500,000 to over 700,000. The next two weeks should be very telling.

Popularity: 5% [?]

So, as we go into what seems to be the umpteenth week of talking about Rev. Jeremiah Wright, I want to know why white preachers associated with other politicians aren’t receiving this same level of scrutiny.

For example, John McCain sought out and got the endorsement of John Hagee. Hagee runs a church with over 17,000 members and is a televangelist. However, Hagee also has some views that many would consider extreme. But — surprise — there is no call for McCain to reject and denounce Hagee.

I have added a couple of clips at the end. The first is where Hagee refers to the Catholic church as “the great whore”, a “false cult system” and quotes Hitler as a way of likening the actions of the Catholic church to some of Hitler’s atrocities.

The second clip shows Hagee hawking a book (”In Defense of Israel”) in which Hagee says that Jesus never saw himself as a Messiah. In other words, he is saying that Jesus never saw himself as the Christ, which I would say is pretty interesting for a Christian minister.

Rest assured, there’s much more on this guy out there and I intend to share it with you. As I understand it, he has made some very interesting statements about why Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and a “slave sale” fundraiser he held in 1996.

At any rate, here are the clips so you can see for yourselves.

Also, here’s a sort of rebuttal of Hagee’s book by a member of the same Christian United for Israel group as John Hagee:

Popularity: 6% [?]

Well, Democrats, you just might have done it.

You find yourself on the precipice of losing your black supporters during this year’s election cycle. If you do, you will have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

McClatchy News Service has run a story about black voters and their possibility of staying home if they feel Obama is cheated out of the nomination. I can’t lie — I know I can’t stand McCain but, with Hillary Clinton trying to be Republican-light, I ain’t feelin’ her too tough, either.

Though they get the views of,primarily, voters in Indiana, I hear people from all over the country expressing similar disdain for the way things are going down in this election. Some might call it bitter or sour grapes but, when black people have so greatly supported a party for so long, to get slighted will turn a lot of folks off.

We also see how the so-called big tent of the Democrats really doesn’t have room for opinionated black people so, this is also leaving many to wonder where we really stand with them.

Democrats, the race is your to lose. If Clinton gets the nod, it better be because she flat-out won and not because of political gaming on the part of the party. Otherwise, you might have to kiss the black vote goodbye.

Popularity: 8% [?]

I’m not willing to play “YouTube gotcha” with this one so, I’ll let people decide what Hillary Clinton meant on this one. Is she saying, “God bless us — we’re rich and I want to preserve that for us rich folks” or is she saying “God has blessed rich people and we need to use our wealth to help”?

I’ll let the reader decide.

Popularity: 8% [?]

If you do a search for “Obama” on this site, you’ll that I have had a lot of good things to say about Barack Obama but, I’ve also levied some criticisms against him, as well.

Over a year ago, I raised a question in a post titled “Obama: Who are you?”, where I pondered what type of person he was when he dis-invited his then-pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, from delivering the invocation when Obama announced is candidacy for President.

You see, for me, it was not particularly about religion or the church. My questions were best summed up in this part of my post:

So, upon word from his handlers, Obama has begun distancing himself from the person he calls his spiritual advisor.

In regards to this, I have heard some discuss how, if he wants to be President, Obama needs to do this. However, I know a lot of black folks with whom this won’t sit well. For one, many in the churchgoing crowd will ask what type of man turns his back on his pastor for political reasons? For those not in this group, some will ask, “if he is willing to compromise on this, what else is negotiable?”

When snippets of a couple of Rev. Wright’s sermons were released, Obama showed me that he could distance himself from some of Rev. Wrights comments (which, in context, I couldn’t really find issue with) without throwing Rev. Wright under the bus. I respected that.

Fast-forward a few weeks and Rev. Wright is doing speaking engagements and Barack Obama is campaigning. Rev. Wright continues to speak his mind and, the press being the press, focuses on tabloid issues versus any real issues affecting Americans. So, all yesterday, I hear pundits, both white and black, talking about how terrible it is that Wright is speaking, that he should go off quietly and that, if he won’t, Obama should publicly repudiate Wright.

(As an aside — isn’t it funny that white politicians can have associations with some highly-controversial figures and not be held accountable for their statements/actions? But, I digress.)

Well, Obama folded and publicly repudiated Jeremiah Wright.

The video of this should be up soon on this link but, here’s a passage that I found kind of disturbing:

“People want some help in stabilizing their lives, and securing a better future for themselves and their children. And that’s what we should be talking about,” Obama said. “The fact that Rev. Wright would think that somehow it was approriate to command the stage for three or four consecutive days in the midst of this major debate is something that not only makes me angry but also saddens me.”

Maybe I just gleaned something different from it but, very little has been said about any policy matters for months, now, and Rev. Wright was far from the only “distraction”. Rev. Wright just chose a time to speak that the Obama campaign found politically inopportune. Obama seemed to be saying that Wright is speaking at a time that was bad for his campaign. Next, I expect Obama to announce a complete break from his church in order to attend a church that the white establishment would approve of him going.

Barack Obama might say he is saddened by his pastor but, I think something else is saddening him — he just finished becoming the politician that he told us he wouldn’t. For his sake, I hope he wins the Presidency because, otherwise, he will have abandoned his principles for nothing.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Here’s some fun news for a Monday.

I happened to be browsing the news and, yet again, oil prices are about to hit a record high. It appears that a weekend workers’ strike at a refinery in the UK and military unrest in Nigeria could see prices reach $120 per barrel. So, if you’re like me and already paying over $3.50 per gallon, you can expect to pay a few more cents at the pump this week.

But, wait, it gets better.

OPEC President Chakib Khelil is saying that he sees oil prices reaching as has as $200 per barrel. Now, get this — he is saying that it is not due to a lack of supply. Instead, Khelil says, it is due to the weakening of the dollar.

As you know, the value of currency is not static. Because it is a commodity, it is subject to rise or fall in value based on the same rules of supply and demand as any other commodity. But, to go a little deeper, it’s value is also determined by what’s backing it. Up until the early 70’s, we had the gold standard, which meant that we had some collateral backing up all the paper money we were printing. Now, we have the standard called the “full faith and credit” standard. In other words, it’s like America saying, “trust me…I’m good for it!”

Usually, this would work but, George W. Bush was never our president before. Now, to avoid having rich people pay a fair share of taxes but, still be able to “afford” a costly war, we borrow money.

Just to relate this to an average person, say you keep getting more and more credit cards, then maxing them out. You might even pay them all them minimum on time but, your credit rating will eventually take a hit because of the potential liability you become to those who hold your debt.

So, very soon, we could be fondly reminiscing of the time when gas “only” cost $3/gallon.

Popularity: 9% [?]