Showing posts with label barack obama. Show all posts
Showing posts with label barack obama. Show all posts

Friday, February 29, 2008

Desperate Times ...

So, I think the fact that Barack Obama's name sounds very much like Iraq Osama is a dead horse that's been beaten mercilessly. As is the case with his middle name, Hussein, which completes his entire name as a sort trifecta of taboo Middle East/Muslim/terrorist sounding words. It amazes me that this is still an issue being discussed. Even Jon Stewart got in on the act while hosting the Academy Awards, joking about the Presidential candidate's name. He referenced back to a fictional candidate in the 1944 election, Gaydolph Titler, who "had good ideas", but suffered because of his name. That was pretty hilarious.

Still, as I said, the joke is getting old. No doubt, though, the Clinton camp if not perpetuating this name calling, is certainly loving it. And whether this sort of smear campaign is working or not, sadly enough, there may be people out there that will not vote for Barack simply because of the sound of his name, among other things.

Clearly, the Democratic White House race has detoured into name-calling and accusations of "fear-mongering". As if the Obama name thing wasn't enough, Monday, Hillary Clinton scrambled to save her teetering campaign from annihilation by allegedly leaking a photo of Barack dressed in traditional Somali dress during a trip to Africa in 2006. The average person, when viewing this photo, makes an immediate connection to the Muslim faith, and some might draw a direct line to people like Osama bin Laden, who dresses in a similar fashion. Obama has already been dogged by false rumors that he is Muslim. If it really matters, he is actually of the Christian faith.

Obama's campaign manager, David Plouffe, Monday accused Camp Clinton of stooping to a new low in an increasingly desperate attempt to keep her campaign upright by circulating the photo.

Naturally, Hillary's people denied doing such a thing. What's next? Maybe Hillary and company will claim Obama is a member of Al-Qaeda and his campaign for president is the group's attempt to insert a terrorist into the White House. If that's the case, who will his first political appointee be, Osama bin Laden as Secretary of Defense? Somehow, I don't think the Senate will approve.

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Super Super Tuesday

I have been privileged to begin this brand new blog in a time when sports and politics are clashing with great vigor. Yesterday, I made my way to New York's Financial District to partake in the Giant's Super Bowl parade. There are few words to describe the scene occurring in Manhattan on that day. Some come to mind though: mayhem, chaos, bedlam, pandemonium. Above all else, however, the parade was breathtaking, a truly amazing experience. Hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions, of people lined Broadway and surrounding streets and avenues to cheer for the new NFL champions.

Unfortunately for the likes of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, the parade happened to fall on Super Tuesday. I first realized how this would affect the day's media coverage and the overall reception of the nationwide primaries as I entered the train station early in the morning and saw several Clinton supporters equipped with campaign pins, signs, and flyers attempting to engage potential voters as they walked by. These poor people fell to the wayside as droves of fans dressed from head to toe in Giants gear roared passed them, paying them no mind, and occasionally shouting at them, "G-Men!!!" and "Go Giants!!!"

My friends and I decided to establish our position at City Hall, normally a venue for politics and an area filled with business types and politicians. On this day, however, the entire area was mobbed with Giants fans. Scattered in between the masses of parade goers were several of these working men and women, pushing and shoving their way forward, screaming they had to get to work.


After surviving the parade, I returned home and put on the television and was not at all shocked to see the event in Manhattan was the leading story and gained a considerable amount of news coverage. It goes without saying that the actual parade was telecast on all the major networks.


On a day typically dedicated to politics, my TV screen displayed Michael Strahan's rousing speech in front of City Hall, followed by his hilarious words at Giants Stadium later in the day mocking Howard Dean from a few years ago. At least Strahan tried to bring some essence of Super Tuesday back into the conversation.

For this one time, politics, at least in the Tri-State area, took a back seat to Eli Manning and the Super Bowl XLII champion New York Giants.