Tag: barack obama

By now, those who have been following my columns on these here blogs are already aware that I swim against the current a lot; so this prediction will be no surprise to many. Over the years I have made some gutsy calls on many levels; my success rate is high (but not perfect/lol). I am predicting that Barack Obama will win the Iowa caucuses on January 3rd, next year. I also predict that it won’t even be close.

Look, before you read too much into my prediction, let me be clear: I am not predicting (as yet) that he will be the presidential nominee for the democrats in 2008; neither am I predicting at this time that he will win the New Hampshire primary a few days after Iowa. All I am saying is that he will handily become the Iowa caucus choice. And yes, I do hope that he wins the democrat’s nomination on his way to the winning the presidency; but in terms of thinking: that’s more wishful than cerebral.

Whenever I write on these blogs, and my topic elicits scores of vitriolic drivel in the comments-section, from people whose IQs seem to be in single-digits; my mind travels back to the days of the first messengers. Back in the day when kings, queens, princes and princesses might have been relevant (I have some doubt as to whether they ever were), the first messengers were runners to and from the war front. They were also the first news reporters of sort. Whenever the kingdom went to war, a call went out for teenage orphans to fill the bill of riding to and from the front, reporting on the status of the war. If the update was good and /or positive, then the messenger was feted on returning to the castle. He would be given a sumptuous banquet, bedded down in some lavish and elegant castle chamber, given his choice of courtesans, and sometimes even gold, silver, jewelry and other perquisites as a bonus. If there was bad news from the warfront; beheading the messenger, or imprisoning him in some dungeon were normal rewards; hence the term “killing the messenger”.

Earlier in the presidential campaign of Barack Obama, his people believed that New York was a write-off; they felt that Hilary Rodham-Clinton was a lock to win most if not all the convention delegates coming out of New York. To the shrewd political analyst this observation probably made a lot of sense, but sometimes politics defy common sense, and at other times common sense defies conventional political thinking. What is shaping in Brooklyn is a case in point.

As soon as Barack Obama officially announced his presidential pursuit last winter, a group of young idealists came together shortly after to form an organization called: “Brooklyn for Barack Obama”. Almost immediately they hit the street; registering voters, recruiting volunteers, staging rallies, canvassing, politicking, visibly dealing with issues, spreading the Obama message and pushing their candidate. Despite the knowledge that Obama’s national campaign was reluctant to invest in a New York challenge, these young political neophytes, have been undeterred in their objective to deliver Brooklyn’s democrats to the Obama delegate count.

Almost six months ago, when I started this three part series on the reasons why I felt that Barack (Barry) Hussein Obama should run for the US presidency, many people didn’t feel me; those two columns didn’t generate the usual responses that my writings on New York’s political cesspool generally do. Plus, after all: this enigma (Obama), calling himself a Negro (black-man), had no chance of winning; right?

Truth be told, it appears to me that most of the people here on Room Eight (along with most of the readers), really want me to focus my writings on Brooklyn’s political gossip, spiced with a lil history of my personal involvement in some of the in-fighting. It’s what draws many of them to Room Eight (www.r8ny.com); it’s what makes me the most read (and most commented on) blogger of this particular colony of political writers. It’s what makes this blog so popular in Brooklyn especially (and in some other parts of the city too). Political gossip and credible innuendo is sexy; it’s like a catfight (for men). So; a lot of people will probably hate this particular column for various reasons; I must admit that the hate will be somewhat understandable given the true nature of this country; which despite all its great attributes: is still very racist.

After writing the first part of this story, I got a little bit of flack from a few of my USA-born black friends who thought that I was being hard on them. I am not in any mood for apologies; as I said before, I write it as I see it, then I duck. If you haven’t read the first part of this column, then I suggest you do so before going forward; that way you won’t have to look like inane in the comment section, like some folks did in my last column yesterday. Thank God for the “anonymous” label; really.

After part one was put up on my blog, Senator Joe Biden (a rather intelligent individual, I must say) went to “stupid place”, and in so doing destroyed his miniscule presidential possibilities/aspirations, by trying in a roundabout way to hit out at Barrack Hussein Obama’s exciting presidential candidacy. Claiming to be complimentary, Biden said that Obama was “clean and articulate” for a black man, and demonstrated why I have said for so long on these blogs, that white boys are in heavy and serious denial about their racist predisposition towards blacks; especially toward black males. It’s not just the insensitivity of his statement that jumps up and bites you, but it’s also the mode of unconsciousness in which he operated.

To all my many fans in blogland, let me caution you to fasten your seatbelts on this one. Expect a few picket-signs and also few demonstrators, circling outside the Room8 headquarters, after this one goes up. But you know me: I call it as I see it, then I duck. So I am putting Gur and Ben on notice here: I am going to need a bullet–proof vest soon.

Before I even start this column let me do some prefacing. By now, most of you must know that I was born on the Caribbean island of Trinidad (Republic of Trinidad and Tobago). I have lived in the USA (only New York City) for the past thirty-three and a half years. Eleven years ago I became a naturalized US citizen. One of the first things I did was register to vote; you see, even though I have been politically-active all my life, I had never ever voted in an election before, in either New York or Trinidad. Since then, I have voted in three presidential election cycles, and I haven’t missed an election date bar one; and that was because I had to travel to Trinidad to bury my dad in November of 2005.