Russell Simmons for Obama
So Russell Simmons has put out a statement explaining his endorsement of Barack Obama for president.
It's not necessarily a natural choice for Simmons, given how involved he has become in New York State politics. He previously endorsed Andrew Cuomo for office and made numerous trips to Albany during George Pataki's governorship to reform the Rockefeller drug sentencing laws.
In his endorsement, Simmons writes, "I have great respect for the accomplishments of Senator Clinton and I have personally worked with Senator Clinton successfully on issues concerning education, prison reform and poverty."
But in the end, Simmons, who brought rap music from the predominantly black audience into middle class consciousness with groups like Run D.M.C., the Beastie Boys and solo artists like L.L. Cool J, says he’s supporting Obama because the Illinois senator “has and will continue to transcend race in America.”
Although Obama has a wide lead in the world of hip-hop endorsements, Hillary Clinton does have her supporters, including Darryl McDaniels, a.k.a. D.M.C. of Run D.M.C., and Timbaland.
Here is Russell Simmons' statement about Obama:
Today I am announcing my personal endorsement of Senator Barack Obama for President of the United States. During the last nine months, I have closely observed the presidential campaigns, analyzed the issues and platforms of the major candidates, and have had substantive discussions with Senator Clinton and Senator Obama. From the sidelines of the primaries and debates, I have been particularly inspired by the fact that Senator Obama has built an unprecedented, national movement comprised of people from all ethnic, racial, political, social and economic backgrounds.
In particular, the response to Obama by young voters across America continues to be monumental. Obama's leadership, passion and demand for a change resonates effectively with the aspirations of millions of people who want a better quality of life. This is truly a transcendent and historic moment in American politics and I am obligated not to remain on the sidelines.
Although I have great respect for the accomplishments of Senator Clinton and I have personally worked with Senator Clinton successfully on issues concerning education, prison reform and poverty, I am now compelled by my own personal conscience to publicly state, "I support and endorse Barack Obama for President."
As the Chairman of the non-partisan, nonprofit The Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, it is my personal opinion that Senator Obama's campaign for President has and will continue to transcend race in America and have a profound positive impact on the very issues I have been fighting for my whole life. Many of you know my work as Chairman of the non-partisan, nonprofit Hip-Hop Summit Action Network. Hip-Hop as a cultural phenomena is also about transformation and taking action to end poverty, war and ignorance. While I am endorsing Senator Obama as a private citizen, I am in complete solidarity with the transformative consciousness of the growing number artists and young people from the hip-hop generation that are overwhelmingly supporting Obama.
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Aww...another celebrity endorsement. Count me influenced. Idiots.
Thanks, Russell!!!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jennifer-nix/the-campaign-of-magical-t_b_8...
The Campaign of Magical Thinking: Jennifer Nix - HuffingtonPost.com - 3/2/08
[According to the Clinton campaign's magical thinking, it is justified to use any means necessary to tear down her opponent, including the blatant peddling of specious equivalencies and fear. I suppose it's too much to ask that they remember her husband's own words, back in 2004: "If one candidate is trying to scare you, and the other one is trying to make you think, if one candidate's appealing to your fears, and the other one's appealing to your hopes, you better vote for the person who wants you to think and hope." (Of course, that was Bill Clinton 1.0 talking.)
How will Hillary Clinton feel when she snaps out of this period of magical thinking and realizes that her last ditch moves were seen by many Americans as a tragic assault on a reinvigorated democratic process, which is involving a record number of voters across the nation, and as giving ammunition to the GOP machine for their attempts to tear apart the Democratic candidate? Will she also wake up some morning and realize just how tarnished the Clinton legacy has become?
If Clinton fails to win Ohio and Texas by large margins, there is only one honorable move. It's time to bring the magical thinking to an end.]
Jews Cold on Obama
Jewish voters in New York State — including Democrats — could support Republican John McCain in the November election if Barack Obama wins his party’s nomination, according to Fredric U. Dicker’s “Inside Albany” column in the New York Post.
Dov Hikind, a Democrat who backed Ronald Reagan in 1980 and 1984, is an assemblyman whose Brooklyn district includes the largest concentration of Hasidic Jews in the U.S.
He said many of his constituents oppose Obama for his “half-hearted” support of Israel and his membership in the church of Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., who has repeatedly praised anti-Semitic Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.
“There are a lot of Jews who are concerned about these issues, and they go way beyond Hasidic and Orthodox Jews, people I describe as conservative Reagan/Giuliani Democrats,” said Hikind, who has not yet endorsed a presidential candidate.
Jewish concerns about Obama have been widely reported among top New York Democrats, according to Dicker.
“There is anxiety, there is concern, on the part of a lot of important Jewish Democrats in New York,” one prominent Democratic activist told the Post.
But Hikind said last week’s controversy over Obama’s visit to Kenya, where he was photographed in Somali garb, would have no impact on Jewish voters.
So, what's Barack Obama supposed to do to satisfy this crowd? Change his name??? This is a new day in America. No more litmus tests. If they want to vote for McCain, they can also accept the CONSEQUENCES of such a vote. The current backlash is a direct result of the NEO-CON warmongering we ALL reject. We have 79 million boomer AMERICANS marching into third age with children/grandchildren facing a diminished quality of life, bridges falling down, the dollar at an all-time low, schools falling apart. NO 100 YEARS WAR! Martin Peretz has endorsed Barack Obama. Next!
www.huffingtonpost.com
Posted March 2, 2008 | 12:45 AM (EST)
Buzz up!
Now it's official: page one of the New York Times reported on Saturday that the Jews have a problem with Obama.
Buzz up!on Yahoo!The Times story, by Neela Banerjee (is that a Jewish name?), did not exactly say there was a "problem." It said there was a "challenge" for Obama: "navigating" the "treacherous paths" that lead to "winning the trust" of Jewish voters. That task, the Times reported, is "all the more difficult" because of the "tenuous relations" between blacks and Jews.
Not until paragraph nineteen, deep inside the paper on page A12, did readers learn that the Jewish vote is "hardly monolithic."
And nowhere in the piece did readers learn that Hillary Clinton was thought to have the Jewish vote sewed up before the primary season began -- partly because Obama was an unknown quantity to the official Jewish organizations that define whether politicians are sufficiently pro-Israel.
Nevertheless in February Obama surprised many pundits by winning a significant proportion of the vote in what some called "the Jewish primary" -- the day New York, California, Connecticut and Massachusetts all voted (others called it "Super Tuesday"). Obama split the Jewish vote in California with Clinton, even though she won the state, 55-45. Obama won the Jewish vote in Connecticut, 61 to 38. He won the Jewish vote in Massachusetts, 52-48, even though he lost the state 56-41.
In New York, Clinton took the Jewish vote 2-1. But that's her home state.
According to the Jewish weekly The Forward, on Super Tuesday "Jewish voters were not more likely to back Clinton than Democratic voters were as a whole, except in New York."
Obama's position on Israel -- the litmus test for the conservative Jewish establishment -- is the mainstream Democratic Party position. His website says that "a clear and strong commitment to the security of Israel... will always be my starting point" in dealing with the Middle East. Obama supported Israel's disastrous war in Lebanon in 2006. Congressman Robert Wexler of Florida says "Obama has been an ironclad supporter of the US-Israel relationship."
So what exactly is the problem? According to the Times, "some critics" have "expressed concerns" that Obama's repeated statements of support for Israel "are not heartfelt."
Number one among those critics, according to the Times, is somebody named Ed Lasky, who writes for a website called AmericanThinker.com.
The Times failed to note that Obama's supporters include Martin Peretz, longtime editor-in-chief of The New Republic, whose obsession with Israel is legendary. He recently published a remarkable piece in that magazine headlined "Can Friends of Israel--and Jews--Trust Obama? In a word, Yes."
Of course there are lots of other reasons why Jews support Obama. Jews have been the religious group most opposed to the war in Iraq. Jews are overwhelmingly liberal Democrats. The American Jewish Committee poll last November asked American Jews to pick their most important campaign issue. 23% named the economy and jobs, followed by health care (19%), the war in Iraq (16%), and then terrorism and national security (14%).
At the bottom of the list: support for Israel, at 6%.
That wasn't in the New York Times, either.
Hillary: Obama Not Muslim...Obama Muslim smear
Hillary: Obama Not Muslim "As Far As I Know"
Huffington Post | March 3, 2008 10:03 AM
Buzz up!on Yahoo!Via Ben Smith, Hillary gives a less than adamant answer to a question about Obama's religion on 60 Minutes. Hillary claims, "I take him on the basis of what he says. And, you know, there isn't any reason to doubt that." It's an issue where even an accidental slip this can do damage.
AMERICA IS A COUNTRY THAT HAD SO MUCH POTENTIAL FOR GOOD.BUT ENTER MONEY AND POWER WHICH ARE THE TWO DRIVING FORCES IN WASHINGTON,WHICH CORRUPT,THEREFORE IT HAS NO LEADERS,IT HAS FOLLOWERS.RICH CONNECTED FOLLOWERS WHO ARE NOT CAPABLE OF LEADING THIS COUNTRY ANYWHERE BUT FURTHER DOWN THE ROAD TO DISASTER.THE WHOLE WORLD IS REELING UNDER LACK OF LEADERSHIP AND LACK OF TRUTH.BUT AS PILATE ASKED CHRIST..WHAT IS TRUTH? MANKIND STILL DOESN'T KNOW TRUTH WHEN HE SEES IT.THE MEDIA IS THERE TO TELL YOU WHAT TO THINK,HOW TO THINK AND MOST CERTAINLY, NOT TO THINK AT ALL.
Who cares what Russell thinks? What he knows about politics could be written on a pinhead. Review his trip to Albany a year or two ago where he thought that he had miraculously -- in one day -- worked out a "deal" to reform the Rockefeller drug laws. Hahaha. Boy was he surprised to learn that he'd had a nice photo op...and that's all. Idiot. Stick to music, dude.
Obama is in trouble with this Rizo sp? real estate deal. I imagine it was naivete on his part, but with Farrakan and his church pastor, how can he get through this minefield? He's made it this far, will he fall apart, or will he turn out to be who we hope he is? Most of all I need to respect him. It's been a long time since I felt respect for the man in the office. I respect the office and think the occupant must best be worthy of the task. It is our job as voters to choose the most worthy.
The Clintons live in the biggest GLASS HOUSE in America. They had Arkansas (when Bill was Governor) and DC/NYC (during their White House years) LEGAL FUNDS for the scandals. Rush Limbaugh said today that Republicans WANT Hillary...so she can "bloody" Barack Obama. Republicans want to run against Hillary, who is not enrolling new voters for herself...but can only win marginally by TEARING THE PARTY AND MR. OBAMA APART, while he and even Mr. McCain have tried to take the high road. The Clintons have inserted NEGATIVITY because that is the only way they win -- and not even, as the last 11 States have demonstrated. OH, we need you to think VERY CAREFULLY. We cannot help you if you do not help yourselves by voting w/conscience and toward the light. We CANNOT live through more divisiveness w/the problems the Nation has. Whatever her "experience" -- Hillary is a toxic and negative personna. Help us TURN THE PAGE to fundamentally change the politics of the Bush/Clinton/Bush eras. You will need the Nation -- as well as a new President -- to help the economy in OH. Ditto, Katrina victims. If you keep voting for Bushes or Clintons, we cannot solve your problems or our own.
renatam says: "OH, we need you to think VERY CAREFULLY. We cannot help you if you do not help yourselves by voting w/conscience and toward the light."
I have thought VERY carefully about the election. And I'm positive that Hillary is better equipped to handle the job of president.
Spare us the dramatics and the messianic overtones, renatam. Obama is just a man...and a flawed and inexperienced one at that. He will one day be president...but not in 2008.
Hillary is better prepared for the presidency, but Obama gives us hope.
renatam
Faith gives you hope, and for the president of the US you'd be better served with who is better prepared and I'd put my faith toward Hillary over Obama for that position.
I did not make the following post. This is someone else using the same name -- or Hillary funsters. They do this routinely, since it is Rovian and all they CAN do. I have NEVER said or written that Hillary Clinton is better prepared for the Presidency...and never will. Thank you.
renatam (not verified) says:
Hillary is better prepared for the presidency, but Obama gives us hope.
I have to retract what I said before, I'm really just out of my mind and have no idea what I'm dribbling on about but I do know that I really do support Bush and all I've said before is just to hurt the Democrats which I hate.
The question that some need to ask themselves if Hillary Cilnton had given such a half hearted answer as to whether she is in support of Israel would they be worried or would they just give her the benefit of the doubt. Im amazed at how people can justify things its almost as if they want this man to down on his hands and knees and swear on everything that he is a 110% behind Israel. Do they ask other candidates to do that. Then they say Oh its nothing to do with race.
Obama is someone who wants to be fair to all groups. When you are trying to be fair to all groups you can't be 110% on one group side you have to take every sitatuion as it comes. Obama is someone who is not guided by emotions. He is guided by reason. Its unfortunate that people can't think things through without resorting to emotions. He has given no indication that he is not Pro Israel but apparently his response seem half-hearted. I guess its too much to give him the benefit of the doubt. You watch him in the debates he is even tempered its who he is. Its rare that you even see him get angry. What is he suppose to do shout it with Joy then they say he is fake.
They are Jews who have come out in support of him. Obama said he is the president of the future. Its becoming clear to me that we are NOT ready for such a Presdient. Perhaps one day in the future we will be.
Carol
Who cares what he thinks? Why is this newsworthy?
Obama is a great man. I am his fans. I support him
We are doomed people, don't you understand??? Stop taking this year so lightly. Thank God I got my dual citizenship in the Dutch Antilles; I can escape when the country collapses.
How can I contact Russell-Simmons via email and/or postal etc.
PETER ORGIAS