Sanders still lagging, dragging behind

Yes, it’s true. The presidential aspirations of Bernie Sanders had a good day Saturday – he managed to win caucuses or primaries in three states, picking up 55 more delegates to the Democratic National Convention.

SANDERS: Enough time for a victory?

By comparison, Hillary Clinton’s campaign only gained 20 more delegates. And when combined with the week before when Bernie picked up wins in Idaho and Utah, it gives him a streak.

MOMENTUM, IS THE word he’ll want to screech and scream to the world. He has it, she doesn’t. He is destined for the presidency, he’ll want us to think. I'm sure his response to the Progressive Turnout Project's Internet survey of whether he should withdraw from the race is to complain there's no "Hell, No!!!" option to pick from.

Yet the problem for Sanders, the senator from Vermont, is that his momentum may have come a tad too late.

It could wind up like the 2008 election cycle when Barack Obama’s presidential aspirations built up an early lead that Hillary was never able to fully close the gap on.

Only this time, the Democratic Party establishment has given Hillary the early lead, and Bernie is the guy who is merely dragging out the process without a real chance to win.

THE PROBLEM FOR Sanders is that all 50 states are not created equal. Some states matter more than others. And rightfully so, because they’re the ones that have significant numbers of people living within their boundaries.

Yes, it’s true that Bernie gained 55 more delegates on Saturday. Then again, when Illinois had its primary a couple of weeks ago, Hillary won 73 delegates in the Land of Lincoln alone.

Heck, even the other day when Bernie won in Utah and Idaho and gained 43 more delegates, Hillary won in Arizona and took 44 delegates for her own campaign.

Yes, I’m reducing all of this to cold, hard numbers. Because that ultimately is what the nominating conventions are all about – particularly when the campaign is down to two candidates (Martin O’Malley’s bid pops up on a few ballots, but he’s gaining nothing).

AS OF NOW, Hillary has 1,712 delegates committed to supporting her, short of the 2,383 needed at the nominating convention to be held in Philadelphia. While Bernie has only 1,004. He has to start running up overwhelming win streaks, including in places that have significant numbers of delegates to offer.

Or else he’s going to lose.

As for those young kids who think it’d be “cool” to have a Democratic Socialist as the party nominee instead of some old party hack like Hillary (a ridiculous image, to be sure, but the one many of them have of her), perhaps a math lesson is the best way to explain how their enthusiasm is not catching on with the rest of the country.

It’s all about the numbers. It’s why the Republican Party establishment that despises the very existence of Donald Trump on their ballot (but they love it when he gives money to their political candidates) is focusing its own attention on keeping Trump’s delegate count below the minimum required.

THEN THEY CAN engage in some hard-core politicking to pick a different presidential nominee.

As for whether it is fair that larger, urban states will wind up dominating the Democratic nominating process, I’d argue what else is new. The Dems are the urban-influenced political party of this nation.

Sanders’ ultimate problem is that many of the states where he is prevailing now are ones not only with few delegates but also ones where the Democratic Party organization is weak and not likely to back him come November.

Those same states likely will wind up in the Republican column come the general election. That is, unless they rebel against the idea of a “President Donald Trump” and wind up making their mark on the ballot next to the name of Hillary!

  -30-

Isaac moved convention rhetoric indoors. Is that really a political loss?

We have a new campaign “issue” – one just as trivial as 99 percent of the issues that usually come up during election cycles.

OBAMA: Won't be all wet

Some 50,000-plus people are going to be denied the chance to say “I was there!” when President Barack Obama gives his acceptance speech Thursday meant to officially kick off his active campaigning for a second term in the Oval Office.

THAT IS BECAUSE the heavy rainfall expected to hit Charlotte, N.C., (what is left of the storm that was once Hurricane Isaac and actually caused the first day of the Republican National Convention to be cancelled outright) caused the Obama for America people to decide that the president will give his speech indoors.

Meaning he won’t be speaking to a capacity crowd at the Bank of America stadium (and the 73,778 seats before which the NFL’s Carolina Panthers play). Instead, he’ll be speaking to a capacity crowd at the Time Warner Cable Arena – which is where the NBA’s Charlotte Bobcats play.

All 20,200 seats – that is. There are ways of cramming some more people into the arena. Seats can be set up on the floor where the basketball court usually exists.

But what it basically comes down to is about 50,000 fewer seats, which means that fewer people will be able to say they were in the building when Obama spoke.

NOT THAT I think it’s all that big of a deal.

Personally, had Obama persisted in giving his speech in the football bowl, probably 7/8ths of the people there would have seats either so far from the stage or at such crummy angles that they wouldn’t have been able to see anything anyway.

They’d be relying on multiple video screens that likely would have been erected. Which means they’d be watching the event on television. They might as well stay home and watch their pick of the many broadcast stations that are carrying convention coverage.

If anything, they’d probably learn more from those broadcasts than  they would by sitting in the stadium and watching the Obama-approved version of the event (all telegenic, but with little substance – just like all convention events, regardless of political party).

NOT THAT THE views will be any better at the Time Warner Cable Arena!

If anything, the experience of attending a presidential nominating convention is in partaking of the events surrounding the roster of speakers. The speeches themselves are little more than cheap talk.

So cheap at times that Mitt Romney last week got overshadowed by a Clint Eastwood appearance that still has people wondering, “What was he thinking?”

But back to Obama, who on Thursday will still give the same speech that the Republican operatives already are writing their venomous responses to – even before they’ve heard a word from the president. As far as I’m concerned, they were “all wet” even before the heavy rainfall.

THEIR TRASH TALK really doesn’t depend on what Obama says. Just his existence is what offends them to the point that they’re trying to get the rest of the nation worked up into the same sense of hatred they feel whenever the president is mentioned.

It’s just too bad (for them, at least) that the real mood of the nation is one of apathy. Obama’s biggest benefit that gives him a chance of winning re-election despite the economic mess that is our society these days is that most of us don’t hate the man.

Although it wouldn’t surprise me if we hear trash talk from the ideologues claiming that Obama is depriving some 50,000 people the chance to attend an event they were sort of promised a chance to see.

What with the way that the Obama camp has offered up chances to be at the Democratic convention to “ordinary” people who make the requisite financial contribution.

  -30-

EDITOR'S NOTE: I recall the 1996 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, held at the United Center, where officials made a big deal of restricting access to the Chicago Bulls locker room and Michael Jordan's locker. Since Jordan is now part-owner of the Charlotte NBA franchise, will similar restrictions be put on the owner's box from where he occasionally watches games?

Distractions, distractions!

Maybe it’s a sign from “God” that the presidential nominating conventions being held these days are ignorable.

More interesting than Mitt?

But it strikes me as ironic that the news cycles are offering us alternate stories that take away from the attention that the political parties would like us to be paying to their conventions that are meant to get the public all stirred up with excitement about the prospects of voting for either President Barack Obama or Republican challenger Mitt Romney.

FOR ROMNEY, HE had to compete with the coverage given to Hurricane Isaac – which might not have been as intense as the Hurricane Katrina that whacked New Orleans seven years ago.

But it did enough damage in New Orleans and Mississippi that the focus of the nation rightfully so wasn’t on the activity in Tampa, Fla.

Even if Clint Eastwood did his oddball rambling on behalf of the Romney campaign, real people were more interested in the way that people in the south were coping with the rains – which actually managed to work its way up to the Midwestern U.S. this past weekend to give us possibly the heaviest rainfall we’ve seen all summer.

It got so bad that Romney had to arrange his post-convention schedule to include an appearance in New Orleans on Friday, making it appear as though he was concerned about the damage and rehearsing for the day when he is president and has to prepare to issue a federal disaster declaration.

NOT THAT DEMOCRATIC Party partisans should be gloating at the loss of attention the Republicans suffered. Because they’re going to get hit with their own “hurricane” in the form of Drew Peterson.

Peterson, of course, is the suburban Chicago cop whose trial for murder of his third wife (wife four is still missing, as well) likely will wrap up this week.

PETERSON: Beats out Barack?



Peterson’s attorneys put on their defense last week, following just over two weeks of evidence (including all the hearsay testimony about what the dead and/or missing women would have said if they could be here with us) from the prosecution.

There won’t be any activity at the Will County courthouse on Monday. But Tuesday will be the day for closing arguments (State’s Attorney James Glasgow plans to make the final statement himself).

THEN, IT’S UP to the jury – the one that seems to like to dress alike. Perhaps that is a sign of unity.

I’d like to think that this case is straight-forward enough that deliberations could be over by Wednesday. Which would put it at the heart of the Democratic National Convention’s activity.

But why do I suspect that this jury will take a couple of full days? If that happens, we could very well have a verdict on Thursday – the day that Obama himself is supposed to speak at the convention, accept nomination for a second term as president, and deliver an “inspirational” speech that will make we, the American people, eager to vote for him again.

Unless, of course, the jury returns the verdict the same day.

IN WHICH CASE, dateline “JOLIET, Ill.” will supplant that of “CHARLOTTE, N.C.” as the top story of the news.

Barack Obama will get bumped off the front pages of newspapers, and the top spot of the websites affiliated with those publications, by a tawdry tale of a middle-aged cop with a thing for young girls.

Be honest! A Peterson verdict, whether “guilty” or “not guilty,” is going to draw more interest among many people than an Obama speech – no matter how eloquent it turns out to be.

Would Obama literally have to deviate his schedule to make an appearance in Joliet at the courthouse to offer his thoughts in order to force his face back into the public eye?

THAT MIGHT SAY more about we, the public, and our interests (or lack thereof).

Perhaps if it were a real “Act of God,” the almighty would give us enough of an intelligence jolt so we’d have a broader attention span.

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Low-key, almost mellow, were NATO Summit protesters, despite the end

If “the whole world (was) watching” Chicago on Sunday for evidence that our “brother’s bound and gagged, and they’ve chained him to a chair,” I can’t help but think they feeling rather disappointed right about now.

Sunday not likely to produce sequel



I’m sure some conservative ideologues will try to turn the end of the major protest march held Sunday against the NATO Summit into a “major catastrophe!,” what with the sight of some protesters being pushed by Chicago police when they tried to get a bit closer to the McCormick Place convention center than Cermak Road.

CONSIDERING THAT SOME of the protesters who at their peak created a mile-long line along State Street had already broken away to go home, and others stood by peacefully and complied with the police demand to move to the west (instead of further south), it’s hard to say that what occurred on Sunday was in any way unique or harsh or severe.

In fact, I think this is going to be an event that will be such a letdown for those individuals who wanted to believe that “history” would be made similar to the ’68 Democratic convention protests.

The ones that gave us the chant about the world watching us, and whose conspiracy trial a year later inspired Crosby, Stills & Nash to turn it into song.

Nobody is going to be writing songs about what happened Sunday!

PERSONALLY, I THINK too many Chicagoans viewed the day as some sort of trivial moment. Either that, or they viewed it as an inconvenience to their lives.

Such as the woman who lives in a downtown condominium who was only on hand to watch the protest to keep the activists as far away from her property as was humanly possible. Not that they really got anywhere near it.

But she was convinced the hoards of vulgarians were about to dump all over her property.

Then, there was another woman who was appalled by the fact that so many police were on hand to follow the protesters and prevent any scuffles from breaking out.

“THERE ARE STREET fights every day. This is Chicago,” she said. “There should be one cop for every 50 feet,” instead of the police lined up at arm’s length from each other – creating a gauntlet, of sorts, that protesters had to walk through.

Then, there was the humorous moment I noticed along State Street near the Harold Washington Library, when a young man had his (admittedly) very sexy girlfriend stand on the sidewalk so he could take her picture.

This guy now has a photograph of his smiling (and scantily-clad) girlfriend, with thousands of protesters marching right behind her!

I suspect he definitely will be paying more attention to her body when he looks at that photograph in their future, and probably will think it an afterthought that “those people” behind her might have had some serious point they were trying to make.

JUST LIKE I suspect many Chicagoans will have their own thoughts of what was more important to them at the time. I really don’t sense that the activity taking place inside the McCormick Place has put a dent on the city’s mindset these days.

Outside of the people who gathered at Grant Park for a noon-hour rally and the march to the Near South Side, I suspect the millions of Chicago-area people were going out of their way to ignore the activity downtown.

That activity really was mellow. The gathering, except for the fact that more people were wearing “Che Guevara” t-shirts than at any other public event, was probably less-hostile and spirited than the group that convened at Wrigley Field on Sunday.

Particularly since that group has a smattering of Chicago Cubs fans who left all irritable on account of the fact that not only did they lose all three games of the weekend series to the White Sox, the Sout’ Side ballclub was able to regain their status as a .500 ballclub against their beloved Cubbies!

ALL OF THIS has me thinking we had some very serious overkill in recent days when it came to security measures. Although I’m sure there are those who will argue that the reason things were so peaceful was BECAUSE of all those cops hanging around.

PETERSEN: Number 45?



Then, there was the gag of the protest march that I wonder if anybody got. Who in Chicago comprehended the signs in the march that read, “Boise State Rules All,” and “Coach Pete for President.”

Although when one looks at the field of candidates these days (and yes, a couple of Ron Paul supporters were at Sunday’s protest march to try to tout his non-existent chances of winning), the idea of Broncos head football coach Chris Petersen as our nation’s chief executive is almost feasible.

Particularly if he could duplicate his annual “Beat Pete” scholarship run/walk around campus to a nationwide event.

  -30-

Booting Obama from the ballot?

It’s more about trying to make a political statement against Barack Obama than engaging in any concrete action. But there are those people who are trying to get the incumbent president removed from the ballot that Illinois voters will see in the March 20 primary election.

OBAMA: Booted from ballot?



The people supporting Rick Santorum’s presidential fantasies (which got a jolt from those misguided folks in Iowa) are engaging in their own efforts to kick all the other Republican presidential candidates off the Illinois ballot to try to clear a path for him.

BUT THE ACTIVIST types who are singling out Obama, while they may think they’re engaging in some serious effort, are really just into making a silly statement that shows just how out-of-touch they are with the political mainstream.

For the record, Obama is unopposed for the Democratic nomination for president on the Illinois ballot. So if, by some miracle, Obama’s name were to be removed, people picking a Democratic ballot would have no one to vote for when it comes to U.S. president.

But to the best of my knowledge, no one is trying to boot the slates of delegates to the Democratic National Convention who also will appear on the ballot. Which means Illinois would still send people to the convention to make official Obama’s bid for a second term as president.

I actually got a statement in my e-mail from one of the groups that filed a challenge to Obama. I’m not quoting any of it, or even identifying the group (I deleted it from my own e-mail box fairly quickly), because the tone of it was so irrational.

IT ACTUALLY DELVED into the electoral history of Obama and how he managed to win his first election to an Illinois state Senate seat unopposed. By booting then-state Sen. Alice Palmer off the ballot, they say Obama brought bad karma on himself – which now will be repaid by booting him off the ballot in his own home state.

PALMER: Famous for failure?

I can’t tell if this is a group of conservative ideologues engaging in their usual anti-Obama rhetoric, or black activists who still hold a grudge on behalf of Palmer (who herself was a Hillary Clinton backer for president in 2008 and also supported Danny Davis for mayor last year over Obama ally Rahm Emanuel).

It actually astounds me how many people do not really comprehend what happened to Palmer back in 1996. She thought about running for Congress, but soon came to the realization that she would suffer the same fate challenging Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., that Obama himself suffered in 2002.

So she put together a last-minute petition drive to seek re-election to her South Side state legislative post that Obama had already decided he wanted to run for because Palmer allegedly was vacating the post.

BECAUSE SHE HAD to do a rush job to get those petitions ready, they were sloppy. Sloppy enough that Obama was able to challenge her and get her kicked off the ballot. Except that Palmer backers seem to think there is a "gentlemen's agreement" to politics to leave her unchallenged, in that situation.

It resulted in her becoming the woman whose career as a legislator and an educator has become obscured by her political demise. Being booted from the ballot may wind up being the only reason anyone remembers her name – and even then only because of its association to Obama.

But when people start talking about bad karma and “payback,” I have to wonder how much they’re over-exaggerating the situation.

In short, I consider these challenges to the Obama ballot spot to be silly, if not outright vacuous, even though they claim the Obama nominating petitions were done so sloppily that they do not comply with state elections law.

I DON’T KNOW first-hand. I haven’t seen the nominating petitions for myself. And the Illinois State Board of Elections (which ultimately will have to rule on the challenges to Obama and the bulk of the GOP challengers) has yet to schedule hearings to resolve the matter.

Not that I honestly believe the state Elections Board will do much of anything about it. I expect they will find a way to dismiss the Obama challenge – which most likely will result in the same activists releasing another verbose statement about “hypocrisy” and political people sticking up for each other over the interests of everyday people.

Which, of course, is nonsense, because these people have their own ideological agenda to peddle. They are as far removed from everyday people as anyone can get.

So I’m not about to get all worked up and worry about whether Obama will somehow have his presidency undermined at this stage of the game.

BECAUSE THIS IS really going to show why political operatives dismiss this stage of the process as the “beauty contest,” and pay more attention to the delegate selection.

Barack Obama is going to be the Democratic Party’s nominee for U.S. president who will have to face a serious challenge from whichever ideologue the Republicans manage to nominate.

And all that will really be accomplished by these challenges is that the people who are making them will wind up making themselves look foolish in the process.

  -30-

How many people are playing “1968” in their minds? Will we ever live it down?

It almost felt like false advertising.

I’m talking of television coverage of these Occupy Wall Street/Chicago/Washington/wherever protests where one can clearly hear the participants chant, “The whole world is watching.”

One month, and counting


AS IN THE chant that was used by the anti-war activists who protested in Chicago back in 1968 – the year that Chicago police engaged in overkill (that’s why it ultimately got labeled a “police riot”) to try to maintain order in Grant Park.

The idea that anything that is happening these days is comparable to the chaos of our society in the summer that I was 3 years old is just an exaggeration; which is what makes the lengthier-than-usual incarceration for some protesters seem all-the-more like overkill. To compare these protests to the activities of the ‘60s seems way too much like people in desperate need of validation.

Perhaps they even think they’re being “60s-ish” by managing to get arrested. The most recent activities of these activists who want government to quit being so lovey-dovey with big business (as compared to Tea Party types, who think government is too hostile towards such interests) have resulted in arrests.

Just this weekend, Chicago police spent their late Saturday into early Sunday in Grant Park, taking into custody 130 people who camped out (which in and of itself was not the problem) and wouldn’t leave at curfew.

IN SHORT, THE park closed for the evening, and these people didn’t want to leave.

Activists are issuing statements saying they plan to continue such activities on weekends. Which means that every weekend, we’re going to get the sight of Chicago police hauling people off in the wagons so they can spend some time in a holding cell – all so that charges can be filed that likely will be dismissed in the future so that prosecutors can focus their attention on “real” crime.

Which makes the whole thing seem like a game. We’re playing “60s.” Will someone lose control and clobber someone just a bit too hard with that police club? Although it is nice to see evidence that not everybody is a Tea Party-type (which is what those people would have you believe).

Not everybody thinks '68 was cute

Don’t think that thought of this being a game hasn’t run through the minds of some, particularly when egged on by the same chants that echoed through Grant Park some 43 years ago while the unaware Democratic Party operatives nominated Hubert Humphrey to take a fall to Richard Nixon in the presidential election cycle that year.

JUST A COUPLE of weeks ago, I covered that big downtown protest march for one of the suburban daily newspapers – the march that had a few thousand people converge on the Art Institute of Chicago (and which resulted in only one person being arrested – for pushing a police officer).

While there, I ran into a former reporter-type colleague of mine who now works for one of the wire services, and who told me that her editors in New York were all hot and bothered for the Chicago version of the “Occupy (fill in the blank)” protests.

It is the history. Everybody was eager to see if the 21^st Century version of the Chicago police (on horseback, bicycle and foot) would snap and start swatting at people with their clubs.

Would we get current college kids getting their heads smashed in before getting hauled off to a holding cell and having the mug shots taken that will haunt them if any of them ever try running for public office sometime around the year 2030.

WOULD THEY GET beaten upon like their activist grandparents (while their Reagan-era children shrugged in disgust that “Junior” was turning out to be just like “Pop”)?

Of course, it didn’t happen. And it is unlikely to happen in Chicago, or anywhere else. While I can’t testify to every single “Occupy (fill in the blank)” protest, the activity I have seen has included these people with vest-clad “marshals” who are their own members.

Those “marshals” literally guide protesters through the activity, and inform them if they’re about to do something that could be construed as a criminal violation that could get themselves arrested. In short, these people are policing themselves to a large degree.

Even the Associated Press is describing the most recent arrests in Chicago as “noisy, but peaceful, defiance of police orders.” Not exactly the activity of 1968 – where you can still find aging “hawks” who will tell you the Chicago police were justified in their forceful behavior because the protesters were throwing bags of excrement at them.

AS FOR THE current protests, the worst thing I saw happen to a protester by police was one point where a mounted police officer’s horse literally felt the “call of nature” and urinated on the street – which also was covered in so much manure.

That urine dribbled down the street and right into a group of protesters sitting on the pavement – who suddenly realized just what that puddle developing around them truly was.

That’s a far cry from ’68. It’s actually almost amusing.

If the “whole world” truly is watching now, I can’t help but think they’re getting bored and are ready (63 percent of people surveyed by the Gallup Organization say they don’t comprehend what these protesters are about) to flip the channel.

  -30-

 

EXTRA: Will Obama be liked by locals when Dems meet in Charlotte in ’12?

It seems that the anticipated re-election effort for Barack Obama as president will operate out of Chicago, and will try to re-nominate him at a Democratic convention to be held in Charlotte, N.C.

Yet I can’t help but think that, while Charlotte likely will be courteous to Obama when the convention takes place, I suspect he will be only the second-most popular Chicago transplant in their city.

AFTER ALL, MICHAEL Jordan now lives in Charlotte (or at least owns a luxury condominium there) and is a part-owner of the Charlotte Bobcats of the National Basketball Association.

Maybe if Jordan shows up at the convention (definitely a long-shot) and stands alongside Obama for a few seconds, Charlotte might get excited at the prospect of what will happen in their midst next summer.

That city (in fact, that state) has never held a presidential nominating convention, and some political observers are quick to point out that North Carolina has “right to work” laws – whose intent is to mess with organized labor and unions in their ability to organize employees to look out for their worker rights and conditions.

It’s not exactly a place that sympathetic to Democrats. Obama himself barely won the state’s Electoral College votes in 2008, and he was the first Democrat to win North Carolina in a presidential election since Jimmy Carter back in ’76.

BUT IT DOES make sense in terms of trying to stir up the emotions and excitement level of the African-American population in the southern states, which is usually the bulk of the Democratic Party that exists in ol’ Dixie.

Getting those voters to turn out in force will be a significant part of any re-election strategy, since various polls taken in the past couple of years show that the African-American voter bloc is the one segment of our society that remains as excited today about Obama as president as they did back in ’08.

Although perhaps Michelle Obama isn’t exaggerating too much in an e-mail the campaign sent out on her behalf to various supporters, where she cited her first trip as first lady being one to Fort Bragg. She said, “Charlotte is a city marked by its southern charm, warm hospitality and an ‘up by the bootstraps’ mentality that has propelled the city forward as one of the fastest-growing in the South.”

So that is where Democrats from across the nation will be converging come the week of Labor Day in 2012, which is when the Democratic National Convention will be held.

IT’S A SHAME that the convention is being held then, because it significantly reduces the chances of enjoying the one other Chicago/Charlotte sports connection – the White Sox have their top-level minor league affiliate there.

But by Labor Day, the Charlotte Knights’ season next year is likely to be complete. Hopefully, that’s not any kind of metaphor for the Obama Administration itself.

  -30-

Best buddies!?! Who's kidding whom?

Am I the only one who, upon seeing Gov. Rod Blagojevich and Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, embrace Wednesday in Denver, remembered that moment from “The Godfather, Part II” set in Havana in the early seconds of New Year’s Day 1959?

You remember the scene; Michael Corleone embracing brother Fredo while whispering into his ear, “I know it was you, You broke my heart,” setting the stage for Michael eventually to have Fredo killed.

How long will it be until the two Statehouse officials break whatever truce they have that caused them to tolerate being in each others’ presence for even a couple of minutes?

-30-
EDITOR’S NOTE: Call it respect for copyright, but if one wants to see photographs of the two Illinois politicos in their embrace (http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=230526), they will have to check it out here.

How ugly can “America” be?

Three men are in federal custody in Denver, as officials say they suspect the trio was hatching a plot to try to shoot presidential hopeful Barack Obama while he gave his acceptance speech Thursday at the Democratic National Convention.

Now it is true that these three particular individuals (who currently only face unlawful use of weapons-type charges) were probably not a serious threat.

LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT officials say that while they had rifles and scopes for long-distance shooting, there was so much about their “plot” that was unplanned that it was highly unlikely they would have been able to get their act together in time to do anything harmful to Obama.

But the fact that white supremacists (the three in custody are being judged that largely because of the specific tattoos, including swastikas, they have on their bodies) would even concoct such a scheme is telling.

The ugly underside of “The American Way of Life” is exposed. And while I will admit that not everybody who has a problem with Obama because of his biracial background is prepared to try to kill him, perhaps it is time we quit trying to ignore the fact that race is an issue in this presidential campaign in a way it never has been in the past.

Reading through the often incoherent (and almost always anonymous) ramblings of the white supremacist movement creates a picture of pathetic men desperately eager to take up their firearms and use them on black people. These people want a racial war, and are looking for an excuse to claim they were attacked.

INSOFAR AS OBAMA is concerned, there are the generic rants that he needs to be killed, or pleas that someone should do it. Of course, these anonymous people make an effort to stop themselves before saying they would commit such an act.

Even those white supremacists who are able to accept the fact that Obama could win the general election see violence breaking out. The presence of a President Obama would infuriate them to the point of taking action.

Since so much of this is anonymous, it is easy to give credit to one of the few ramblings where the author had the nerve to put his name on his thoughts. That would be David Duke, the one-time Klansman-turned-Louisiana politico-turned activist on behalf of his race.

“Obama will be a clear signal for millions of our people,” Duke wrote earlier this summer on his personal website. “Obama is a visual aid for white Americans who just don’t get it yet that we have lost control of our country, and unless we get it back we are heading for complete annihilation as a people.”

NOW I’M NOT claiming that people who support Republican opponent John McCain are racist or white supremacist or any kind of “ist.” In fact, I would guess that the real racists have just as many problems with McCain as they do any other candidate.

Duke, in the same essay, says Obama is “not appreciably different” in his views than either Hillary R. Clinton or McCain, and, “no worse for us than any of the white sell-outs” who have been elected to political office in the past.

That also is why it did not surprise me to learn that the estranged wife of one of the Denver Trio claimed her husband was ‘apolitical” and probably didn’t even know the Democrats were gathering in Denver for their nominating convention.

He probably did have no interest in conventional electoral politics that comprise the real “American Way” of life. These would-be racists who are willing to use the imagery of the Nazi era in Germany are fascists as opposed to the concept of Democracy as anyone on this planet.

THESE ARE THE people whose only interest in politics and government is staging (in their wildest fantasies) some sort of armed coup de tat that allows them to impose themselves as Leader of the Universe, with their first order being the extermination of people unlike themselves.

It sounds like the plot of a half-wit video game. It would be laughable, if it weren’t so real.

There is an ugly streak that exists in this country. Now if it were just a matter of some pathetic twits wanting to live their lives in a cave isolated from the rest of us, it would be no problem. Permitting that IS the “American Way.”

It is when those people become a risk to the public safety that they must be dealt with as criminals. So I’m not particularly interested in hearing people claim that the three men in federal custody who were caught with riflescopes in Denver are being persecuted for their beliefs.

ALTHOUGH AFTER READING many racist rants off the Internet, I suspect the Denver Trio will not be regarded as martyrs for “the cause” as much as they will be subjected to derision from the supremacists for failing so badly to hatch a plot against Obama.

There was one part of Duke’s commentary that I think needs serious response.

He wrote that he believes Obama’s presence as a legitimate presidential candidate will cause white people to start thinking more blatantly about racial issues when they vote. “The minorities have long had this consciousness,” Duke wrote. “They have been voting in blocs for decades. Now, it is our turn.”

I don’t buy it, largely because of the example I have seen in Chicago where our local politics turned ugly and focused heavily on race (remember Council Wars?)

YET NO AFRICAN-American public official since Harold Washington has had to endure the blatantly hostile attitudes of white Chicago, largely because we got to see firsthand that a “black mayor” was not a radical concept that would drive the city into bankruptcy. It also helps that a lot of white people think back to the things they said and did back then, and now wonder how they could have been so ridiculous.

It was an embarrassing era that many in the Second City would not want to repeat.

I have wondered to myself if a President Obama is a sign that the nation is going to go through the same experience in the upcoming decade. Will Obama get such a hostile reaction from Congressional opponents that people will look back on the Bill Clinton years by comparison as an era of bipartisan cooperation?

Will we later look back and realize how ridiculous it all is?

IF SO, THEN maybe there is a benefit, although I will feel sorry for Obama himself, since it would mean subjecting himself to an ordeal unlike anything ever experienced before.

I must confess, however, to seeing one semi-humorous element concerning the Denver Trio – their timing.

They were arrested on Monday, the same day that potential first lady Michelle Obama spoke about her husband to the Democratic National Convention in what was perceived by some pundits as an attempt to revise the strident public image they were eager to give her.

Having to be reminded of the racial attitudes of the past on the same day she spoke was yet more anecdotal evidence that Michelle was not being absurd when she said earlier this year during a campaign event in Wisconsin that the positive response her husband’s campaign received made her “proud” for the first time in her adult life to be an American.

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EDITOR’S NOTES: These two commentaries provide a sampler of some of the types of hostile rhetoric (http://www.splcenter.org/blog/2008/06/11/president-obama-many-white-supremacists-are-celebrating/) that exists on the Internet from white supremacists concerning Barack Obama. Following the links and digging deeper will take you into a (http://fitnessfortheoccasion.wordpress.com/2008/02/22/obama-the-white-supremacist-backlash/) world that will (at the very least) give you an intense headache.

Three men are in federal custody, even though the wife of one insists her (http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/obama/1126388,fbi082608.article) estranged husband was “apolitical.”

Chicago political influence will be on display throughout Dem show in Denver

(NOT IN) DENVER – The Democratic Party chose Denver to be the site of their presidential nominating convention this year in large part to try to show a growing influence in western states that many people think of as Republican strongholds.

Yet the lineup of speakers for the Democratic National Convention, particularly those who will speak Monday night, makes me feel like the show I’ll be missing is a political rally similar to many I have seen before – in Chicago.

ALL WE’D NEED is the “Picasso” statue in the background, and we might as well be able to have the convention speakers at the Daley Center plaza.

Now as it turns out, potential first lady Michelle Obama (a life-long South Sider) will be the primary speaker today, although Obama’s sister, Maya, and brother-in-law, Craig Robinson, will also get a bit of attention – letting us know why their brother/brother-in-law ought to get to live at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, N.W., for at least four years.

Yet others who will put on a show will include Illinois SEIU President Tom Balanoff, Jerry Kellman who originally hired Obama to be a community organizer when he first came to Chicago in the mid-1980s, and Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., D-Ill., (yet not his father, longtime civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson).

Then, there is the gathering of Chicago politicos who do their bidding at the Statehouse in Springfield, but will be gathering in Denver on Monday. They include Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, state Comptroller Dan Hynes (who lost to Obama in the 2004 primary for U.S. Senate), Chicago city Clerk (and former state Senate colleague of Obama) Miguel del Valle, and Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulis (who would not have a political career had Obama not taken an interest in his one-time student at the University of Chicago).

THE IDEA IS that the first night of the convention is supposed to consist of a list of speakers who knew Barack, “way back when…” Our Chicago politicos are supposed to let the nation know who Obama really is.

It is meant to combat all the ridiculous rhetoric that will come from Republican loyalists in coming months that Obama is nothing more than a political hack from Chicago.

Trust me when I write that if Obama really were nothing more than a “Chicago machine” type, then he never would have aspired to become president, or probably not even to serve in the U.S. Senate.

He would have been content to serve in the Illinois Senate for a few decades, and perhaps would be one of the people under consideration in coming months for the role of state Senate president – now that current leader Emil Jones Jr., D-Chicago, is retiring.

REPUBLICAN POLITICAL HACKS are more truthful when they try to attack Obama as a creation of the overly intellectual University of Chicago faculty and as a product of the activist spirit that has long dominated Obama’s home neighborhood of Hyde Park.

Anybody who seriously knows their Chicago politics understands how far Hyde Park (with its pseudo-integrated population) stands outside the mentality that dominates Chicago City Hall.

The late political science academic Milton Rakove’s classic book about “the Machine” was entitled “We Don’t Want Nobody Nobody Sent” because that was the reaction he got from Machine types when he tried to volunteer to work on city political campaigns, and they learned he was a U of C student (Go Maroons!).

It is a complete contradiction of terms to claim Obama is a Chicago political hack AND some sort of radical. Anyone who tries to serve up that political talk is showing their ignorance.

BUT WE OUGHT to give them one bit of credit – at least they are openly trying to turn this campaign into a form of class warfare, a sleazy tactic on their part, but at least they’re not pretending to be respectable.

It would be nice if the slew of Chicago speakers (and they are all Chicago, nobody from the suburbs or rural areas that technically comprise about three-quarters of the population of Obama’s adopted home state of Illinois) on Monday can help the nation understand this concept.

Because I don’t know how many more times I will be able to tolerate hearing the Republican rhetoric about the “radical, liberal Chicago machine” politico.

Other people with local ties who will get speaking slots (and some public attention) during the rest of the week include Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., on Tuesday, and Mayor Richard M. Daley on Wednesday.

ALSO ON WEDNESDAY, Democrats will include a tribute to the U.S. military and to veterans, to be presented in part by Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs Director Tammy Duckworth.

She stands to get some attention locally because she is quite possibly the only political person at the nominating convention who has any loyalties to Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Our state’s governor did not get any type of speaking slot at the Obama pep rally, er, uh, presidential nominating convention, even though he could easily have been slipped into the slew of governors who will speak Tuesday night.

Duckworth is the Iraq War veteran who lost a leg in combat, and later went on to run an unsuccessful bid for a congressional seat from the Chicago western suburbs. Her state agency post was her consolation prize.

BUT SHE COULD get a bigger boost if Obama prevails on Election Day – Duckworth is one of the people whom Blagojevich reportedly is considering to replace Barack in the U.S. Senate.

Who’s to say that the big story from Illinois at the Democratic convention won’t be the introduction to the nation of Duckworth as a national political figure (similar to how the ’04 convention’s big local story was the conception of the phenomenon now known as Obama-mania?)

Technically, for those of us looking for Chicago angles to this week’s political activity in Denver, there are two other speakers worth noting.

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick grew up on the South Side and has become an Obama friend (even giving Barack permission to use some of his political rhetoric on the presidential campaign trail).

THEN, LET’S NOT forget about the “Lady from New York.” Sen. Hillary R. Clinton, D-N.Y., is a native of suburban Park Ridge who grew up in the Chicago area, until she went off to college out east, and fell in love with an Arkansas boy who some of you may have heard of.

Perhaps all the Chicago influence will give her a twinge of affection for her home town, inspiring her to get her band of loyalists to come on board the Obama bandwagon in hopes of getting a Democrat in the White House for the first time since the early days of January, 2001.


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EDITOR’S NOTES: The Democratic National Convention will try to offer a unified vision of party faithful (http://www.demconvention.com/schedule/) to bolster the chances Hawaiian-turned-Chicagoan Barack Obama can become U.S. president.

Vice presidential nominee Joe Biden is not a stranger (http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2008/08/bidens_illinois_and_daley_ties.html) to Chicago political types, who will be a dominant presence all this week (http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/news/politics/denver-dnc/) in Denver.

I must confess, it never occurred to me to try to hit up you wonderful people who take the time (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/24/fashion/24blog.html?ref=politics) to read my commentaries and analysis to send me money so I could travel to Denver and St. Paul, Minn., to watch the political pep rallies up close. I won’t be at either convention.

Obama turns Vice President choice into a political game for geeky tech people

You have to give Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama a bit of credit. He has turned the selection for a vice presidential running mate into something that the technologically savvy younger generation will think of as a major event.

By insisting on making his announcement via a simultaneous transmission informing everybody who cares of his choice, he has come up with a way of appealing to people who view their computers and other gadgets as an essential part of life.

BY GETTING PEOPLE to constantly think of the Obama campaign every time they check their e-mail or text messages, he has stimulated interest in his campaign from a group of people who otherwise might not have cared in the slightest who Barack wants to succeed him – in the event of his untimely demise while in office.

He has turned the announcement of a vice president into a historic event – instead of the routine announcement that every presidential hopeful makes in the days just prior to his respective political party’s nominating convention.

How ridiculous has this become?

I gave over my e-mail address (the same one included in the right-hand column of this weblog) to the Obama Campaign earlier this week. I was curious to see how detailed their message would be, and if they would really give it up to anybody who asked.

SINCE THEN, I have received e-mails from the Obama people every day. I must admit to feeling a moment of anticipation whenever I noticed a message from “Obama for America” (or one time, from “Jon Carson, Barack Obama”).

Is this it? Do we finally know whether Evan Bayh (the Indiana politico whose father is a legendary D.C. politico) gets to be the equivalent of 1992 Al Gore (the Tennessee politico whose father was a legendary D.C. politico) to Obama’s 1992 Bill Clinton (the public policy geek whose experience came outside of the District of Columbia). Ah, who's kidding whom; that was never anything more than a ridiculous Hoosier fantasy.

Of course, all I felt was a dash of disappointment as those e-mails of recent days turned out to be little more than promotional announcements for the Obama campaign operations.

No, I’m not interested in turning the Democratic Convention in Denver into the equivalent of the Super Bowl by hosting a “Convention Watch Party,” as was suggested in one of those pre-announcement e-mails. Nor am I going to give the Obama Campaign any personal information about myself so they could send me more detailed information about themselves via e-mail.

I’M STARTING TO get the sense that even after I receive the announcement e-mail, I’m going to continue to get messages from Campaign Obama, letting me know his every promotional stunt.

Does this mean the big e-mail announcement was little more than an excuse for the Obama people to build an e-mail list so they can bury us with politically oriented spam? And this is worse, because they actually got us to ask for it.

It is because of that factor that I do not feel all that sorry for the Obama people, who in recent days have been the subject of an attempt at a scam. Somebody (or perhaps more than one somebody) is sending out fraudulent e-mail and text messages that appear to the untrained eye to be THE announcement.

Of course, these fakes claim that people such as Hillary R. Clinton or John Kerry are Obama’s choice for V-P, as though someone wants to inspire a repeat of the Chicago Sun-Times gaffe from 1980, when the newspaper in its early editions had a story claiming GOP presidential hopeful Ronald Reagan would turn to former President Gerald Ford to be his running mate.

BUT THE FACT that someone went to the trouble to stage such gag messages (personally, I think they’re more half-wit than humorous) is just evidence that Obama’s tactic succeeded in gaining the public’s attention.

Who would think it funny to try to pass a fake message about Republican John McCain’s choice of running mate? For that matter, who (outside of Mitt Romney) really cares who McCain picks for his running mate?

Obama has managed to stage this whole affair in such a way that HIS choice for VP is BIG NEWS!, while McCain’s choice will be little more than an afterthought – someone whom only political geeks with a special interest in the Republican Party will pay any attention to.

It also will result that the eyes of the nation (and the parts of the world not obsessed with the conflict between Russia and Georgia) will be on Springfield, Ill., on Saturday, when Obama and his running mate make their first joint appearance together, kicking off several days worth of activity that will lead to Denver and the Democratic National Convention.

IT WILL INCREASE the amount of activity at the Old State Capitol building, with thousands of people to be crammed into the courtyard that separates the building that Abraham Lincoln knew as the Illinois Statehouse from his downtown Springfield law office. It will result in a logjam of people who are asked to gather at noon for an event that (maybe) will start around 2 p.m.

I wonder how many people actually used their Internet access to properly RSVP their intent to attend the Saturday rally, as was requested by the Obama campaign in one of the e-mail messages they sent me after I gave them the Chicago Argus e-mail address.

But I also couldn’t help but notice that the message telling me the procedure I would have to follow if I wanted to attend the Springfield rally also provided a convenient link to click on, if I could not attend the rally, but wanted to send a financial contribution to Obama for America.

When it comes to campaign stunts, the ones that help raise money are the ones that are of the highest political priority.

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EDITOR’S NOTES: The nation likely will get its first look at the Obama/______ team (http://www.sj-r.com/news/x996441285/RSVPs-encouraged-for-Obama-appearance-Saturday) on Saturday in Springfield, Ill.

Gee, what a shock (sarcasm intended). The GOP’s attempt to bind Antoin Rezko’s activities to Barack Obama (http://www.newsweek.com/id/154782) results in factually inaccurate television campaign ads.

If Obama really made the decision about vice president, then the past few days of waiting for an e-mail (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbIlbkZtisk) have truly been an exercise in Barack toying with the emotions of his supporters.

Back to the (Spring)Patch!

Barack Obama hopes to return to the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Ill., for a Saturday campaign rally. Photograph provided by state of Illinois.

I have heard some people of the Illinois Democratic Party persuasion claim that if Abraham Lincoln were alive today, he’d be a Democrat.

I don’t know if I believe that. But I’m starting to wonder if Barack Obama does.

OBAMA IS GETTING his schedule ready for a series of public events during the upcoming week that are meant to lead him directly to the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

One of those events is a rally outside the Old State Capitol in Springfield, which is the building that Lincoln knew as the Illinois Statehouse (the current building dates back to 1877).

Some people want to believe that Obama is going to use the site where he began actively campaigning for president to announce his choice for a vice presidential running mate. I’m not sure I believe that, but it wouldn’t surprise me if Illinois got its first look at the Obama/__________ ticket in Springfield on Saturday.

What makes it strange is that Springfield likes to think of itself as the quintessential Republican city. Since it can literally claim that Lincoln walked/slept/worked/ate here, it finds political people of the Democratic persuasion to be a strange breed.

YET NOW IT is a Democrat (and one from Chicago, at that) who is giving the Illinois capital city its moments of national glory.

And Saturday will likely be the last chance anybody in this state will have to actually see Obama prior to his late August trip to Denver – after which the campaign season kicks into high gear (as if it hasn’t been intense enough already).

For what it’s worth about Lincoln, I can’t help but think he would be disgusted with the “state’s rights” attitude that has taken over the Republican Party in recent years. But I’m not convinced he’d have looked to the Democrats as an alternative.

Lincoln in his lifetime was the man who gave up on the Whig Party to have a hand in creating the GOP. Who’s to say that if he were alive today, he wouldn’t have felt the need to create a third political party to take on the existing party hacks.

AND MAYBE, JUST maybe, that would have made him feel comfortable with Obama’s talk during this campaign season of government reform.

Although I’m sure he would have been the first to crack down on Barack if his actions fell short of his words.

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