An old school brother who gives his thoughts, opinions and insights on political and social issues of the day.
He shares this blog platform with others interested in candid, honest reciprocal conversation about political and social issues impacting our diverse American communities.
He cut's to the chase with short, intense or stimulating opinion and comments. He leans to the left and right for balance - calling it the way he sees it. He is a former Democrat, turned Republican, now an Independent "swing voter;" who is politically biased, pretending to be neutral.
African American Political Pundit was recently selected as a Credentialed Blogger for the 2008 Democratic National Convention.
NOTICE: This blog represents the authors' personal political views, observations and opinions. This blog and the blogtalkradio program, African American political Slugfest, does not represent the views of the authors' employers, contractors or agencies.
African American Political Pundit's Favorite Quote:
History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.
- MLK
African American Political Pundit is a 2008 DNC credentialed blogger and will be broadcasting and blogging live at the 2008 Democratic National Convention
African American Political Pundit A new type of "Citizen Journalist," an old school brother, who gives his thoughts, opinions and insights on political and social issues of the day. He shares this blog platform with others interested in candid, honest reciprocal conversation about political and social issues impacting our diverse American communities
It was a moment in time this AAPP will never forget. I was there when Barack Obama accepted the Democratic nomination for the presidency last night. He was able to accept the nomination because he ran a awesome and some say, brilliant campaign - I agree. The thing about his campaign is that he provided an opportunity for Americans of all walks of life to join his campaign online and was able to harness the energy and the donations of average American citizens into a grassroots effort of volunteers that strategically beat all comers, including Hillary Clinton.
Now back to the acceptance speech, Barack provided a crowd of over 80,000 with specific policies while kicking it up a bit on John McCain. It has been Forty-five years to the day since Martin Luther King spoke of his dream.
He acknowledged that there may be challenges to some voters who would wonder about voting when he said, "I realize that I am not the likeliest candidate for this office. I don't fit the typical pedigree, and I haven't spent my career in the halls of Washington," he said. "But I stand before you tonight because all across America something is stirring. What the naysayers don't understand is that this election has never been about me, it's about you."
Now that is what I'm talking about! To this AAPP America may have an opportunity to move forward with making part of Martin Luther King's dream a reality. Barack Obama provided another occassion for America in general and black America in particular to be proud of a black man who used his oratorical skills to draw a line in the sand against the Republican screwballs and a bitter uncontrolled John McCain. "If you don't have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from," he said of his rival. "You make big elections about small things."
Barack finally talked about issues of poverty and dispair while noting, "America, we cannot turn back, not with so much work to be done, not with so many children to educate and so many veterans to care for, not with an economy to fix and cities to rebuild and farms to save, not with so many families to protect and so many lives to mend."
Now that the Democratic National Convention is over there is no doubt that Barack's efforts to actually reside in the White House for the next 4-8 years will be a challenging one. I will talk about those challenges in future post. Stay tuned, I will be provide some videos on the sites and sounds of the convention.
Obama hit a 46-minute acceptance speech touchdown! He answered many of the questions Americans have been asking regarding his plans for the future. Register and listen to my utterz to hear more of my observations and opinions. This blog will be updated later today.
OK folks I've watched more political addresses/speeches than one can imagine. Looking backwards, I may have given Hillary just a bit more credit than her words deserved.
But that is OK. She deserves credit as a women taking on the male Democratic machine to make it to the point of gaining millions of votes during the primaries, even without major black voter support. Bill Clinton was on point, however as my black blogger friend Black Achievement noted on my BlogtalkRadio program, Bill Clinton dogged Barack saying he was not qualified. Now all of a sudden he is qualified says Bill, yes that politics, but his words, may not have great credability, and may be used against Barack by the Republicans, through a side by side review of what Bill Clinton said then, and now.
But have to tell you, I'm surprised that the Democrats have generally failed to address the big Republican failures over the past 8 years. Bill Clinton highlighted them just a bit, but generally the speeches have been flat. Excluding, Dennis Kucinich, Bill Clinton, Hillary and Michelle Obama's who had wonderful speeches and hit ever major points they all need to make. Michelle Obamas surprise visit at the CBC event hit the issues hard regarding black voters and black voter turn out.
But I must say I have serious questions to why the Democrats didn't say very much about Katrina and what the Republicans did to the poor. We remember how blacks and other Americans were left in a position to die. Why did the Democrats fail to address in a significant way, the war in Iraq? Why did the Democrats not have a real "central message" at this Democratic National Convention? Why did the Democrats not attack the Republicans and the Republican party for the loss of millions of homes, and billions of dollars in home equity losses to average Americans through forclosures? I'm still wondering? I get the feeling that the Democrats have gone soft of the Republicans like they did in John Kerry Campaign and the Dukakis campaign.
I hope that Joe Biden will follow the good advise he received years ago and bloody some noses. Maybe some Republican political noses before it is too late.
On another note, OK, I went over to the Youtube's 2008 Convention channel here at the Pepsi Center. Youtube gathers people to nominate Barack Obama as their candidate for President. My nomination (below) of Barack Obama may not get the same play (views) as Charles Barkley, but I still nominated the Barack Obama.
What happen to the lighting? Am I that dark? Maybe because I am :-)
Adrianne George and I interview Jim Dean, Executive Director of Democracy For America and Brother of Howard Dean, Chairman of the Democratic National Convention talk about the Democracy for America organization.
The Democratic National Convention Committee (DNCC) issued the following statement today on New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson’s speaking role during Thursday night’s Convention program at INVESCO Field at Mile High: "Giving even more Democrats and supporters an opportunity to hear from Governor Bill Richardson, his speech has been moved from this evening to a featured speaking slot tomorrow at Mile High. Because of such an enthusiastic audience response, the long-running schedule led the Democratic Convention to ask the governor if he would speak tomorrow and he graciously agreed. He will be speaking to 75,000 people and a nationally televised audience," said Democratic National Convention Committee spokeswoman Jenni Engebretsen.
Rumor is that Hillary Clinton met with her delegates in a ballroom and released them to vote for Barack Obama. Many in the crowd yelled and screamed "Hell No!" I had the opportunity to meet with many of the Hillary supporters. At this time Barack may have a challenge gaining their vote.
Here is a link to former president Bill Clinton address tonight. From the roar of the crowd he did the job. He went father than his wife regarding his support of Barack and the reasons why. He said the Barack Obama should be president because he “is ready to lead America and restore American leadership in the world.” check out this link to Bill Clinton's speech.
I'm here at the Democratic National Convention (DNC). The air is electric and now just a few minutes ago Barack Obama has been nominated by acclamation as the first African American nominated in American History for the Presidency of the United States. Hillary Clinton placed a motion to have Barack Obama be nominated by acclamation and it was seconded by the delegates in the convention hall. A great way to rebuild the Democratic party. Great job Hillary Clinton! More to come...
Update: I attended the Congressional Black Caucus event at the Denver Convention Center. Surprise guest Michelle Obama. Video coming shortly.
Like Michelle Obama the night before, Hillary worked hard to heal the hearts and minds of her supporters and her Democratic distractors.
As you know this AAPP was no fan of Hillary after she, her husband and her surrogates began play a color aroused and bigoted campaign strategy. Some call it the "Race Card."
In her speech last night at the Democratic National Convention, Hillary was on point. She said the right things the same way Michelle Obama was able to say the right things the night before. But I must say Hillary's speech was something even more special, she went beyond saying "the right things" to speaking her heart.
At the beginning of the speech Hillary Clinton gave a somewhat disappointing words of support to Barack Obama when she stated “Barack Obama is my candidate,” ... “And he must be our president.” She expanded on her reasons for supporting Barack later in her speech.
It appears from her speech that Hillary has now faced reality and understands that her notion that she had an "entitlement to the presidency' is over. She now seems to understand that Barack Obama is the nominee of the Democratic Party and there is no more reason for her to believe that Barack stole the prmaries from her. Or for that matter that she could actually steal the election from him at the DNC.
This AAPP believes that "Hillary Clinton hit a home run with her speech last night." She began the process of healing the Democratic Party and her own name. Now it will be time for Bill Clinton to do the same tonight. There is no question that Bill Clinton will do the same, and more. His name in history requires him to regain the respect of the Democrats who are at this convention and will be listening and or reading on Radio, TV, Newspapers, and internet. He was always been a master of the spoken word, until he worked too hard to get his wife elected... or did he? oops did I say that.
Let us see and hear what happens tonight with the Bill Clinton speech. Will he hit out of the ball park home run like Hillary, or will he hit a grand slam? In the past I could not think of Bill Clinton being off point with major speeches. But that was the past, he is a new Bill Clinton, let's see if his old talents will come back tonight.
If you want to hear my thoughts in words. Check out my radio program, African American Political Slugfest on Blogtalk radio as I discussed with some great listerners and callers my views on Hillary Clinton speech.
It has taken me just a bit longer time to blog, (as I'm sure you have noticed). It was a wild and wonderful 1st day and evening at the DNC. I had the opportunity to meet plenty of people from across the nation and around the world.
I had the opportunity to meet Oliver Willis for the first time, I also had the opportunity to meet for my first time, Cheryl Contee aka Jill Tubman, of Jack and Jill Politics. I also had the pleasure of meeting Gina a great blogger at What About Our Daughters.
I spent the whole day and evening with my wife and Adrianne at the Big Tent and then at the DNC Convention. The activites were amazing. Adrianne and I had the opportunity to be interviewed on BBC Radio at the DNC convention. Here is a link to my interview HERE.
Source BBC Radio:
2325GMT: Blogger LN Rock of africanamericanpoliticalpundit.com predicts the blogosphere will have a "significant" role in deciding the election in November. "It tells the story when you have 120 bloggers coming to the convention," he says. "Millions of people listen, watch and hear what the bloggers say. There is a disenchantment with the traditional media." He spares the BBC his criticism, saying we are "creative media." Cheers, LN.
Arrived in Denver late last night, now going to the Big Tent and DNC to obtain blogger credentials. Will meet up with Adrainne from the blog Black Women In Europe. Both of us are scheduled to be live on the BBC today at 5:00PM at the Convention Center. Will be at the big tent most of the day. my 19 year old daughter, Felicia will start blogging tomorrow. I'm sorry that she could not make it here, but it is best that her recovery not be hampered through long distance traveling. I will have a link to her blog here tomorrow.
I'm really excited about tonight's keynote speech from Mr Obama's wife, Michelle. Stay tuned for updates throughout the day.
Yes, finally I'm on my way. I will be joining a hundred or so bloggers, including seven + African-American bloggers at the 2008 Democratic National Convention.
Yes, Seven African-American bloggers representing varying views of the “Afrosphere” are gearing up for what promises to be an experience of a lifetime. But we are not traveling to Colorado with an entourage of producers or company vehicles filled with expensive equipment.
We are armed with only our laptops, Blackberrys and other electronic gadgets (I have a iphone courtesy of onecast.com) that can fit inside a single carry-on, 7+ African American bloggers are preparing to become the first group of black independent “credentialed journalist” bloggers to cover a major political party’s national convention.
While Black writers and reporters from Newsweek, CNN, or even minority media powerhouses such as Ebony or Black Entertainment Television will be present, what makes Pamela Spaulding, Baratunde Thurston, Oliver Willis, Gina McCauley, Liza Sabater, Shawn P. Williams, adrianne George and me different is we represent a new breed of “black media” that will be attending the 2008 Democratic National Convention August 25-28.
Visit their blogs links located on the right side. Don't forget to visit myco-bloggers blog at: Black Women in Europe.
Hat Tip: Chatterboxpublicity.com, BAAS Media Group, Marco Hansell and Ben Aubin
"Barack has chosen Senator Joe Biden to be our VP nominee."
CNN broke the news, taking the wind out of Barack Obama's sail. Sen. Barack Obama has selected Delaware Sen. Joe Biden as his running mate, according to a text message the campaign sent to supporters early Saturday. Both men are expected to appear at a rally later today in Springfield, Illinois. More HERE and HERE.
CNN and others say Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, brings years of experience that could help counter GOP arguments that an Obama administration would be inexperienced on foreign policy.
AAPP: At this point I'm torn by the decision to select Joe Biden to be the VP Nominee. I can remember liking and enjoying Joe Biden. I liked his in your face approach, telling it like it is. Well, that was until 2006, when he um, (told it like he thinks it is) and said, “You cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent.” Ouch!
Or how about when he said of Obama, “the first mainstream African American [candidate] who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.” I guess he never me articulate or clean black folks? Ouch! or how about the fact that Joe Biden supported the 2002 resolution that authorized the war in Iraq—a resolution that Obama opposed. Ouch! Read more about Joe Bidens' Slips of the Tongue HERE And lets not forget that Joe Biden feels that it was right to kill a foriegn leader when in 2002, he said that America had “no choice but to eliminate” Saddam Hussein. Ouch! Is this the type of leader we need in the White House? Well, it's not that bad, no one, including blogger Red State Impressions should slit the wrist on this decision. it's not that bad.
I guess anyone of the possible VP choses would be better than Dick Cheney, including Joe Biden. Let's see if this team becomes the John F. Kennedy/Lyndon B. Johnson ticket of our time.
The elder statesman (Biden/Johnson) with a "color aroused" streak, and a visionary leader (Obama/Kennedy) who has a new hope and dream for America's future. Lets hope that biden can stop that "color aroused" streak like Lyndon Johnson - but that is up to him.
TV One will offer live, nightly primetime coverage of the Democratic convention in Denver Monday, August 25 – Thursday, August 28 from 8-11 PM ET, followed by TV One Live: DNC After Party, a smart, irreverent and engaging hour that includes a uniquely African American cultural perspective on the events of the day. The After Party show from 11 PM – midnight (which will repeat from midnight to 1 AM) will range from commentary by a diverse group of outspoken panelists, to coverage of the day’s social, cultural and political events, to stories from the convention floor – and from the bus stops and diners around Denver. (Note: If events warrant, TV One’s coverage could begin earlier and end later).
The primetime Democratic convention coverage, which will offer a straightforward look at events as they unfold on the convention floor, will be co-hosted by award-winning industry veterans Joe Madison, XM Satellite and WOL-AM radio talk show host, and Arthur Fennell, host and managing editor of “Art Fennell Reports” on CN8, The Comcast Network. The convention coverage will also feature interviews with members of the Congressional Black Caucus and other key leaders and speakers throughout the week.
TV One Live: DNC After Party will be anchored by veteran television and radio news reporter and anchor Jacque Reid, who now serves as news correspondent on the Tom Joyner Morning Show, and co-hosted by well-known commentators, the husband and wife team of Rev. Marcia and Michael Eric Dyson.
Note: AAPP plans to be at the TV One event. Dont' forget to Check out this special TV One broadcast and check out my blog to get the answers to political questions others may be afraid to ask. Here on African American Political Pundit.com
My condolences go out to the family and friends of Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, D-Ohio who died this week. yes I know i'm late in covering this, but I would rather be late than be like those sinful people at FOX News who reported her dead before she even passed away.
Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, 58, a five-term Ohio Democrat, died yesterday evening after suffering a burst aneurysm in an "inaccessible part of her brain," the Cleveland Clinic said.
As reported by Newsday and BloombergTubbs Jones was elected to Congress in 1998 after serving as a prosecutor and Cleveland municipal court judge. Her district covers parts of Cleveland and its suburbs.
She was appointed to lead the House Ethics committee by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who said she was "tough and smart" and would "provide steadfast and active leadership in a nonpartisan and judicious way, holding members to the highest ethical standard." Tubbs Jones also served on the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee and the Congressional Black Caucus.
The daughter of an airport skycap, she earned a law degree from Case Western Reserve University. She was first elected to the House in 1998 and hadn't faced serious opposition since, according to the Almanac of American Politics. More HERE
AAPP: Not only did the Congresswoman die, she became a victim. First Ms. Jones suffered a brain aneurysm that triggered a hemorrhage while she was driving in Cleveland. She was found in her car on Tuesday night. Doctors placed her on life support and there she was in the hospital, then here is where she became the victim of FOX News, CNN, The New York Times and many other major news outlets who erroneously reported that she died Wednesday afternoon – hours before she actually was declared dead. Why are black woman and black men always the victim even on the death bed? If it bleeds it leads?
Black bloggers at the Democratic National Convention
While Black writers and reporters from Newsweek, CNN, or even minority media powerhouses such as Ebony or Black Entertainment Television will be present, what makes Pamela Spaulding, Baratunde Thurston, Oliver Willis, Gina McCauley, L.N. Rock, Liza Sabater and Shawn P. Williams different is they represent a new breed of âblack mediaâ that will be attending the 2008 Democratic National Convention August 25-28.
