This is significant.
Representative John Lewis, an iconic figure from the Civil Rights era and one of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s most prominent black supporters, said Thursday night that he planned to cast his vote as a superdelegate for Senator Barack Obama in hopes of preventing a fight at the Democratic convention.
“In recent days, there is a sense of movement and a sense of spirit,” said Mr. Lewis, a Georgia Democrat who endorsed Mrs. Clinton last fall. “Something is happening in America and people are prepared and ready to make that great leap.”
Who is John Lewis?
John Lewis was an influential SNCC leader and is recognized by most as one of the important leaders of the civil rights movement as a whole.
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In 1961, Lewis joined SNCC in the Freedom Rides. Riders traveled the South challenging segregation at interstate bus terminals. Lewis and others received death threats and were severely beaten by angry mobs.
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In 1963, Lewis helped plan and took part in the March on Washington. At the age of 23, he was a keynote speaker at the historic event. In 1965, he led 525 marchers across the Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. State troopers attacked the marchers in a violent incident that later became known as “Bloody Sunday.”
This is great news indeed. Thank you for sharing!!
Hmm..
Maybe as soon as Hillary takes Texas and Ohio and Pennsylvania and pulls ahead of Obama again he will consider switching back?
Gotta look out for No. 1, son.
Like many people, I was a political neophyte before the 2000 elections. I never liked Rush Limbaugh or right wing extremism. I didn’t really know much about Bush or Al Gore. All I knew was the more and more I saw Bush, the more I began to despise him. Something about him raised an alarm in me. Red lights were going off everywhere in my mind about him.
Well, the same thing is happening again, except this time its happening every time I see Obama giving his sermons. To put it bluntly, when I look at Obama, I’m seeing a photo negative of Bush. King sized ego; arrogance; superiority complex; thinks he’s the “Chosen One”. Masses of people literally going out of their minds worshipping at his feet. What Bush is to right wing extremism, Obama is to left wing extremism.
I’ve now gone from BDS to ODS.
Just about everywhere I’ve posted my negative feelings about Obama on the Intertubes, I’ve been branded a racist by his adoring fans (I’m mixed race so I guess I hate myself).
So out of respect for Oliver this is the last time I’m going to comment on Obama here, since he has every right to be excited about his choice for President and I don’t want to turn the comments of this blog into a flame war. I’m only posting this so some can understand a little better what those of us with ODS are feeling.
Well, I can’t speak to your feelings, OxyCon. But one point in Obama’s favor is that he’s not responsible for the deaths of a million Iraqis, so he’s got a ways to go before he’s a perfect photo negative — you gotta give him credit for that at least.
My feelings about Sen. Obama are pretty clear, but I think it’s just weird to compare either of the Democratic candidates to George Bush. I feel like the problem that some have is the emotional response Obama is provoking. We haven’t had this on the Democratic side in a long time. Generally speaking the support of people like Al Gore, John Kerry, and Howard Dean has been based on positions and more logical things. Even though Dems are the ones accused of falling in love with a candidate, it has been the Republicans who have done so – Reagan and Bush. The one they didn’t fall in love with they were glad to dump quickly – Bush Sr.
Speaking for myself, I’ve had it up to here with compromising, not fully falling for our leaders. What I get from Sen. Obama is an overwhelming sense of pride for a fellow black man as well as an almost giddy excitement of what America acts like if he becomes president. The distance on issues between him and Sen. Clinton is miniscule, and as I’ve said a million times I like her a lot. But he has the gift of inspiration she doesn’t have. When I think of the things I want to see in a president in my lifetime, the figure my future kids can aspire to be without it being a theoretical thing, it’s this guy.
So is emotion guiding a lot of this? You bet. Shold it? For once, yeah. Barack Obama is not to blame for so many people being excited by his run, and as a politician he’d be an idiot not to capitalize on it. The last time I felt anything like this I was too young to appreciate it – the candidate was Bill Clinton.
As I discussed with a friend who is an Obama fan but not nearly as much as me – if he win, everything changes right away.
(By the way, don’t be afraid to post here if you’re not an Obama fan. I’m not about creating an echo chamber. What I don’t like are baseless attacks on Democrats by Republicans, MSM, or fellow Democrats. This applies whether the person is Clinton, Obama, Edwards, etc. All the Dems are family.)
Gore is going to kick both their butts, just as soon as he gets in the race. Pretty soon now.
King sized ego; arrogance; superiority complex; thinks he’s the “Chosen One”. Masses of people literally going out of their minds worshipping at his feet. What Bush is to right wing extremism, Obama is to left wing extremism.
I don’t understand this perception at all. I appreciate the skepticism and discomfort that comes with the excitement Obama generates–although I think the use of the word “worship” is dismissive and blatantly false for the vast majority of his supporters–but don’t see how you feel he’s spoken about himself as the “Chosen One.” I’ve heard no such pronouncements from him about how God wants him to be president, have heard no statements talking about the foregone conclusion that is his nomination (”inevitability” was HRC’s gambit), have not heard him go on about how “I am great” as much as he goes on about how “you, America, are great.”
I know that phrase gets thrown about and characterized as an empty platitude. The people who do so are cynics, who assume that hope is meaningless without action, but many of us who support Obama understand that hope is a tool that makes action possible.
George W. Bush has been famously described as the man “born on third base thinking he hit a triple.” I get no sense from Obama’s career arc that he has any such notions. Obama landed on third base by running out a single, sliding headfirst into second, and then advancing on an fielding error.
I think, respectfully, that you confuse confidence with arrogance in this case.
Yeah, I don’t get that either. One man’s arrogance is another man’s confidence.
Obama’s got cojones, and he ain’t afraid to stand up and use ‘em.
I don’t see a Superiority complex (like we’ve seen with Bush) so much as I see someone who ACTUALLY has faith in America and what it should be.
Funny how you don’t say the same thing about Sen. Clinton, because the same things could be said.
Yeah, I got a man-crush on Obama, so what?
Ummm…It’s beginning to look like the reports were premature. Check out Josh Marshall for more details.
For a while I was concerned too that I was liking Obama for the wrong reasons, being charmed in the same way many were by Bush and Reagan. Thats why I bother to read up on the man’s stance on important issues, and where there are significant differences (quite a few important places, it turns out) I’m completely with Obama. Ending the Drug War, Supporting Net Neutrality, even just showing up to vote against Telco Immunity this week when Hilary wouldn’t come to vote either way. I’ll vote for either in November of course, but the difference would be ‘having’ to vote for Hilary, and ‘wanting’ to vote Obama.
Side note, Re: Bush’s “Confidence” – aroung August 2000 I was having dinner with my dad in a Jerry’s Sub Shop about Bush’s general image at the time, and I had made a comment about him having, and I’m quoting from muddled memory here, “The Swagger of a Frat-tard who knows you were too drunk last night to press the Rape charges this morning.” To which he responded that I was misinterpreting his “confidence and amiability” and how important it was that people “would like to have a beer with him” and other variations on that meme.
“Dad, ignoring the fact that he’s a teetotaler, how many wealthy evangelicals do you even know, much less would like to have a beer with?”
“Well okay I mean I wouldn’t actually want to have a beer with him, but the point is that I… y’know, would like to want… to have a beer…”
Wish I had a photo of his face staring at his cheesesteak as he tried to work that shit out.
From what I read of Marshall, it seems like the interpretations are premature, not the facts on their face. Lewis endorses Hillary, but is following the lead of his Georgia constituents, who went overwhelmingly for Obama.
I’ll vote for either in November of course, but the difference would be ‘having’ to vote for Hilary, and ‘wanting’ to vote Obama.
Once again, Rex nails it.