Obama Soars To New Heights For Blacks

Washington Post: Democrat Is Changing Perception That Presidency Is Out Of Reach For Black Candidates

(Washingtonpost.com) 
When exactly, though, is one ready to run for president?

In 1972, New York Rep. Shirley Chisholm became the first African American of stature to launch a presidential campaign. To some, her bid seemed more a statement of feminist politics than of racial politics. But its historical significance was recognized far and wide.

Richard Hatcher, then the mayor of Gary, Ind., recalls a tortured conversation with Chisholm the night before his city was to host the National Black Political Convention. The gathering would bring together thousands of black activists and officeholders from across the country to develop a black political agenda. Hatcher wanted Chisholm to come, but she was torn. The convention, she knew, would draw many militants and others who operated outside the mainstream of politics. Some, in fact, were determined to form an independent black political party. Chisholm worried that she might be rebuffed if she went, and that the rejection would hurt her candidacy.

"While Shirley had strong support in the black community, it wasn't overwhelming," said Hatcher, who added, "I remain convinced to this day that if she had come, it would have given her a tremendous lift."

Running under the slogan "Unbought and Unbossed," Chisholm arrived at the Democratic National Convention in Miami with 151 delegates pledged to her and was given a coveted speaking slot. That in itself was progress. Several black politicians recalled earlier conventions when they had no access to the backstage meeting areas where all the important deals were cut. Hatcher and others remember being reduced to passing notes into the trailers of the major candidates, hoping just to get an audience.

Meanwhile, in the Republican Party, Sen. Edward Brooke of Massachusetts had quietly begun thinking of himself as a future president. As the first African American to be popularly elected to the Senate, in 1966, he had quickly become a national star, called on to give speeches and appear at fundraisers across the country. According to Brooke, Michigan Gov. George Romney talked to him about a Romney-Brooke ticket in the early phases of the 1968 presidential race.

Romney's campaign imploded after the governor made some ill-advised remarks about being the victim of "brainwashing" regarding the Vietnam War. But the Romney overture got Brooke to pondering his own ambitions. "Why couldn't I be president of the United States? Is it too soon? How strong would the support of blacks be? Would I be acceptable to white voters in the South and Midwest as I assumed I would be for white voters in New York and the Northeast? I delved into it more than I have said," Brooke disclosed in an interview.

Like Obama, Brooke had just arrived in the Senate and was already wondering what more he could become. He had been an Army officer in World War II, attorney general in Massachusetts and "had gained a lot of confidence," as he put it, in navigating segregated environments. In Brooke's time, the prevailing wisdom was that the only imaginable path to the Oval Office for a black politician would be to somehow get picked as a running mate first. On a few occasions, notably when Richard Nixon was pondering replacements for Vice President Spiro Agnew, Brooke's name was floated. Soon Brooke began thinking grander possibilities. He even perused some national voting data his staff compiled.

"Had I been reelected in '78 and served another term," he says, "I would have thought about testing the waters."

Brooke, however, lost that year's Senate race to Democrat Paul Tsongas and never reentered politics.

The watershed moment in the evolution to Barack Obama was Jesse Jackson's decision to run for president in 1984. There had long been discussions among the nation's prominent black elected officials and civil rights figures that revolved around an essential question: How do we get beyond supporting the potential Democratic nominee to supporting one of our own? Hatcher, who was Jackson's national campaign chairman in 1984, recalls a pivotal meeting in 1983 at Chicago's O'Hare Airport.

Twenty to 25 elected officials and leaders of black organizations were there, Hatcher remembers, buoyed by Harold Washington's election as Chicago's first black mayor and driven by concern over Reagan administration policies. Still, virtually all of the best presidential prospects in the room, Hatcher says, had "a very elaborate explanation as to why they could not run or would not run." Some were worried about jeopardizing their standing with the eventual nominee; others were worried about their groups' nonprofit status. Jackson said he had urged Young, then mayor of Atlanta, to run, but he declined.

At some point, Hatcher recalls, "Jesse said, 'Well, if no one else is willing to run, I'll run.' That didn't sit very well with certain people there." It was true that Jackson had an ego that rubbed some the wrong way. But Hatcher says: "One of the things Jesse brought to the table was he had this network, these relationships with black preachers all over the country. When they learned he was running, many of them got their parishioners to contribute small amounts of money to the campaign. . . . Jesse Jackson also had something the more conventional candidates did not have, and that was the ability to get publicity, to get on the evening news, without paying for it."

Jackson's first campaign, often viewed as largely symbolic, exceeded expectations -- he won five Democratic primaries and caucuses -- and set the stage for a more ambitious campaign in 1988. On his second attempt, Jackson won 13 primaries and caucuses, doubled his total votes to 7 million and took 29 percent of the total primary vote. He finished a strong runner-up to Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis, who reeled in campaign contributions at four times the rate of Jackson.

In assessing the climate for Obama's candidacy, Jackson says: "We have not changed, African Americans. White America is changing, in many ways. There is, in a real sense today, a new generation of possibilities."

A retrospective session on Jackson's '88 campaign was recently held in Wisconsin, where the candidate had drawn some of his largest crowds in a state with a black population of only 4 percent. Steve Cobble, Jackson's '88 delegate coordinator, hopes that a series of such forums can be held throughout the country.

Jackson announced early his unsolicited support for Obama, but says he has not been asked to campaign for the Illinois senator in Iowa, New Hampshire or South Carolina. "He has a circle of allies, [David] Axelrod and that group. I have not been part of that circle. . . . But I have maintained a good relationship with him."

Obama was a recent graduate of Columbia University when Jackson launched his first campaign, and once told Jackson that he was inspired watching him on television debating Walter Mondale and Gary Hart. Now, Obama is trying to carve out a legacy of his own.

With a week to go before the Iowa caucuses, Illinois State Senate President Emil Jones Jr., one of Obama's political godfathers, is reminded of a story. It is from September 2004, when Obama was campaigning for the Senate in an overwhelmingly white, rural part of the state. Several thousand had gathered to see the Democratic nominee. After Obama spoke, an 84-year-old white woman approached Jones. "I hope I live long enough," she said, according to Jones, who is black. "This man is going to be president, and I want to vote for him."

It was Jones's first glimpse of Obama's broad appeal, and he didn't share the anecdote with the candidate. But he wondered: Might it actually happen?

"It was really amazing," Jones says, adding: "What happens is folks try to pigeonhole you, and he would never let folks pigeonhole him."

[eddie1515]

JERSupporter, first Senator Obama and Oprah do not attend the same Church. Since you got your first point wrong. I''ll take it that the rest of your post is garbage also. But I''m sure truth does not concern you or your friends.

[erasmus6]

logicanada

Thanks for answering my question.

[logicanada]

erasmus6...
there is speculation that JFK was murdered by the military industrial complex because he was starting to wind down the Vietnam war and bringing troops home.
His stance on human rights, unionized workers and Cuba also contributed.
Some have linked Bush sr to his death.(youtube BUSH KILLED JFK) and watch a convincing documentary.
I fear Obama has the same thing coming if he starts pulling troops from the Mideast. There is too much invested and too much to profit from for Obama to be accepted by the Military industry.

[logicanada]

Hillary4sout
I envision you to be like that misguided juvenile on youtube crying about Brittany Spears.''LEAVE BRITTANY ALONE...LEAVE BRITTANY ALONE!!.''
Hillary is just another selfish, aspiring southern woman who married well.
Get over her.

[erasmus6]

Could someone answer this question? Why was President Kennedy assasinated? I don''t live in the U.S., but I heard that it was because he was for the black people. Now if that is the case, you have to give Obama credit for running. I don''t think he will make a good president but it takes some guts to put yourself in that position. You might think the U.S. has come a long ways since Kennedy, but really it hasn''t. There is still a lot of RACISTS living in the good old U.S.A.

[jersupporter]

Obama is black? That''s right he''s a Muslim. No he belongs to Trinity United Church of Christ. Here is a link for the church Obama and his pal Oprah attend. Click on the link below.
http://www.tucc.org/about.htm

Some things the church stands for are as follows.
1. A congregation with a non-negotiable COMMITMENT TO AFRICA
2.We are a congregation which is Unashamedly Black.
3.We are an African people, and remain "true to our native land," the mother continent, the cradle of civilization.

Excuse me but, if they are committed to Africa how can they be true to America? How can someone from this church be our president? The congregation is "Unashamedly Black"? Please note the emphasis on the words with capital letters in the middle of a statement.

Can one imagine a white person belonging to such an organization and the words racism not being yelled from the roof tops? Obama for president? I think not.
Pass this on to your friends if this concerns you.

[hwy71so]

Okay, is he campaigning to be the a National leader or a Civil Rights leader?

Duncan Hunter 2008

[kansas1946]

Well, if Barack Obama is the first black president of the US, there couldn''t be a better representive for that honor, as far as I am concerned. One thing has always bothered me though. If his father is black and his mother is white, why is he black? It is kind of like Tiger Woods. If his father was black and his mother is Korean, why isn''t he Korean? I just think Barack is an outstanding, intellegent, presidential, American, which is a big improvement over what has occupied the Whitehouse lately.

[denn034]

Is Colin Powell swiss cheese?

[cmp271]

John Edwards is going to win the nomination. Obama for all his charisma is better than Clinton. This country will never put in a black for President. If Obama won, this country would go down the tubes from all the race riots, and further and worse discrimination against whites by blacks. With a "brother" in the white house this country would be worse than it racially is now. When the blacks get over the civil war and slavery-including their non owed reparations-stop calling themselves hyphenated African Americans from a continent where they could not be cared less about(after all they mostly were captured from opposing tribes and sold off by other black Africans), and stop wanting free hand outs and standard of living off other Americans, then and only then would a black have a chance at running this country. Blacks would expect Obama to further their own bigoted agenda. Jackson and Sharpton would be unstoppable as they push their hatred of whites.

I give Obama a lot of credit for running. I am sorry he is half white, and black. He would be what we need, if the blacks would stop their bad behavior;

Ho Ho Ho!!!
Happy Christmas!!

[jshmks]

I''d vote for Ron Paul even if he was black.

[luvcomments]

HILLARY4SOUT

Thanks for your display of hatred and ignorance - and this is the type that wants That Woman to win? Brilliant !! And...think again...in no way is she "your lady" or anyone else''s. She''s strictly for her own self.

[hillary4sout]

BETTER HILLARY THAN A LIEING BIGOT LIKE OBAMA AN HIS RACEST WIFE OK NO BIGOTS IN THE WHITEHOUSE WHITE OR BLACK ..... IF YOU ARE A OBAMA SUPPORT TODAY BE 4 I LOL @ YOU FOR YOUR SUPPPORT OF HIM .. READ WHAT HIS WIFE SAID ABOUT WHITE FOLKS IN THE HALKEYE STATE LOL YOU ARE SO FUNNY FOR YOUR SUPPORT OF HIM, OK I GOT TO TELL YALL THEN, SHE SAID " IF WE LIVED OUT HERE WE (HER AN OBAMA) WOULD NEED A GUN" LOL WHY A GUN YOU WHITE FOLKS GONNA GET HIM OR SOMETHING LOL YOU ARE SO FUNNY OK NOW STOP THE FEAR OF REAL CHANGE AN GET BEHIND HILLARY YOU SEE THAT ALL CHANGE IS NOT GOOD CHANGE NOW IS IT, DONT CRY OK WE LOVE YOU STILL JUST GET BEHIND HILLARY LIKE MOST DEMS ACROSS THE COUNTRY THAT SUPPORT OUR NEXT PRESIDENT OK WE ARE NOT MAD WE JUST WAS WAITING ON YOU ALL TO SEE THE FAKENESS IN THE OBAMAS OK NOW SAY IT AN WELCOME THE NEXT PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED SATATES HILLARY CLINTON 08
HRC RULES !!!!!!

[hillary4sout]

HILLARY WILL WIND HANDS DOWN THAT FAKE WILL NOT ENTER THE WHITEHOUSE EVER NOT AS VICE BETTER HOPE HE CAN GET HIS SEAT BACK HE IS ALREADY NOT LIKED IN HIS HOME STATE AN TALK ABOUT BIGOTS HIS WIFE IS AFRAID OF WHITE FOLK SHE SAID IT IN A RECENT INTERVIEW IN THE HALKEYE STATE SAID SHE WOULD HAVE TO HAVE A GUN IF SHE LIVED THERE. YOU SEE WHAT A DIVEDER HE IS HE AN HIS TALK SHOW HOST THEY ARE RICH AN THINK THAT MONEY NO MATTER WHAT COLOR CAN BUY THE WHITE HOUSE BUT COME DOWN SOUTH WE WILL SHOW YOU HOW BLACK PEPOLE REALLY FEEL ABOUT THIS AFRICAN THAT CALLS HIMSELF BLACK. WE WILL NEVER EMBRACE THIS FOOL. HILLARY ALL THE WAY .. HILLARY O8 TO ALL YALL HATEIN ON MY LADY LET ME TELL YOU WHAT WE DO IN THE SOUTH WE JUST " SHAKE YOU HATERS OFF" HILLARY 08 GOD BLESS HILLARY

[mike71067]

Headline: "Obama Soars To New Heights For Blacks"

That fake-*** "influential black leader" accent is finally paying off.