Mandates

This is a letter to the editor of theWashington Examiner that didn't make the cut. It is in response to the columnist Gregory Kane's latest sottise about Barack Obama:

Re: "Don't call it a mandate", November 11th. Not surprisingly, Gregory Kane dismisses any notion that President Obama has a mandate to do anything in his second term. He writes, "Obama . . . won just 26 states and the District of Columbia. His margins were smaller in 45 of them than they were in 2008. And Obama didn't just lose 24 states. In 20 of them, he got creamed, losing to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney by 10 percentage points or more. That's a victory, but does not indicate a 'mandate.'" Kane is reminded that George W. Bush, who defeated John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election with 62,028,285 popular votes (50.7 percent) and 286 electoral votes to 59,140,591 popular votes (48.3 percent) and 251 electoral votes, famously claimed a mandate for a host of plans, including Social Security reform, simplification of the tax code, curbing lawsuits, and fighting the war on terror: "I earned the capital, political capital, and now I intend to spend it." Mr. Bush pressed the point even further, noting "When you win, there is a . . . feeling that the people have spoken and embraced your point of view. And that is what I intend to tell Congress, that I made it clear what I intend to do." President Obama, whose margin of victory over Mitt Romney are greater than that of President Bush - 62,613,406 popular votes (51 percent) to 59,140,591 popular votes (48 percent) and 332 electoral votes to 206 electoral votes, is entitled to make a similar claim.

If Barack Obama loses this election, the consensus will be that he blew it with that lackluster effort in the first presidential debate.

Emanuel Steward 1944 - 2012

Emanuel Steward, legendary boxing trainer and analyst, died apparently from complications following surgery.

Out of His Element

Christopher Caldwell's analysis of what ails Mitt Romney the presidential candidate is as sound as anything I've read.

Stay Todd

When I first heard Rep. Todd Akin's idiotic remarks about rape, I didn't think too much of it because after all the Republican party, especially in recent years, has routinely uttered outrageously stupid things about a variety of subjects. That Akin made his observations in the midst of the 2012 presidential campaign apparently compelled the Republican party establishment to call upon the congressman to abandon his campaign for the U.S. Senate seat in Missouri for fear of further alienating women. But frankly I hope Aiken resists all efforts to drive him from the race and stay the course through November, when hopefully he and his party go down to a crushing defeat.

Al Freeman, Jr. 1934-2012

Al Freeman, Jr., actor and Howard University professor, is dead at 78.

Sherman Hemsley 1938-2012

Sherman Hemsley, who portrayed the irrepressible George Jefferson on the seventies situation comedy The Jeffersons, has died.

Penn State Removes Paterno Statue

Penn State's removal of the Joe Paterno statue was all but certain once the Freeh Report revealed that the saintly head coach had attempted to conceal the Sandusky scandal since 1998.

The Silly Season

The outrage of some United States politicians, among them Senate Majority leader Harry Reid, over the temerity of the U.S. Olympic Committee's decision to outfit American athletes with uniforms made in the Peoples Republic of China, depending on one's perspective, either raises or lowers the bar on the silliness often associated with the governing class. That designer Ralph Lauren turned to the Chinese to manufacture the goods indicates the reality of living in a global economy rather than notions of patriotism and nationalism.

Bieber Mania

Justin Bieber, the soi-disant Canadian pop sensation, reportedly has sold out his U. S. tour within one hour; thus, concretely confirming H. L. Mencken's observation, "No one ever when broke in underestimating the taste of the American public."

Marion Barry Stumbles, Again

In the course of mending relations with Asian Americans after offending Koreans and Filipinos, the erstwhile Mayor for Life and city councilman Marion Barry managed to offend yet another ethnic group by using the epithet "Polack" in reference to Polish Americans, thus placing him in league with the fictional Archie Bunker who promiscuously used the term when referring to his son-in-law. Even the most ardent Barry supporter would have to admit that the man has become a laughingstock.

Hal Jackson 1915 - 2012

The legendary broadcaster Hal Jackson has died.

Donna Summer 1948 - 2012

Disco Queen Donna Summer has died. She was 63 years old.

Chuck Brown 1936 - 2012

Chuck Brown, the Godfather of Go-Go, has died.

The Distraction

Much is being made of the convict who managed to finish second to President Obama, garnering slightly more than 40 percent of the vote in the West Virginia presidential primary. Some characterize it as an embarrassment to the White House; I say it speaks volumes about the intelligence of numbnuts who apparently constitute a sizable share of that state's electorate.

Uh-oh

It hasn't gotten a lot of play but Rick Santorum, the theocrat, religious zealot, and would be leader of angry white men everywhere, has a problem with black people. During the Iowa caucuses, he felt compelled to remind his white audience that their tax dollars were supporting black folks on the public dole. Here he all but calls President Obama a nigger.

The Party is Over

This blowhard's ill-fated campaign for the Republican presidential nomination is in such dire straits that he has dismissed half the paid staff and taken to selling photographs of himself for $50 a pop.

A Reminder

The shooting death of Trayvon Martin is a reminder that in this post-racial period, supposedly ushered in by the triumphal election of Barack Obama in 2008, that to be an African American male remains a status fraught with danger, irrespective of the steps one takes to avoid such danger.

Kay Davis 1920 - 2012

Kay Davis, a vocalist in the Duke Ellington Orchestra from 1944 to 1950, has died. She was renown for her wordless vocals. Ellington, in his memoir Music Is My Mistress, said of Davis:

Kay Davis was an honor student of Northwestern University, where she studied opera and majored in music. She had perfect pitch, could sight-read, and had all the gifts, so we decided to use her voice as an instrument. This was in addition to her interpretations of regular songs with words, and it proved very successful on several numbers. I shall never forget her first Carnegie Hall appearance in January 1946. Subtitled "A Blue Fog You Can Almost See Through," "Transbluency" was a last minute kind of composition, and the two featured musicians (Jimmy Hamilton on clarinet and Lawrence Brown on trombone) had to have music stands at the mike, because it had been completed too late for them to memorize. So we put Kay's part on a music stand at the mike, just like those of the musicians, and the performance was a smash.

Dick Anthony Williams 1934 - 2012

Actor and theater producer Dick Anthony Williams has died.

Whitney Houston 1963 - 2012

Rest in peace, Whitney.

Gisele Stands By Her Man

Gisele Bundchen makes the case that spouses of professional athletes should be seen rather than heard. Here she defends husband Tom Brady from the unsolicited observations of rabid New York Giants fans by scapegoating Patriot receivers for failing to catch balls thrown their way.

The Gronk

New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski should not be permitted on a dance floor, whether it follows a victory or a defeat.

Poor Mitt

According to the Republican presidential candidate Willard Mitt Romney, the very poor are doing well in this struggling economy and therefore are not a high priority for him:

"I’m not concerned about the very poor; we have a safety net there. If it needs repair, I’ll fix it. I’m not concerned about the very rich, they’re doing just fine. I’m concerned about the very heart of the America, the 90 percent, 95 percent of Americans who right now are struggling, and I’ll continue to take that message across the nation.”

Don Cornelius 1936 - 2012

Yesterday Los Angeles policemen summoned to a residence found Soul Train creator Don Cornelius suffering from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He died en route to the hospital.

Cornelius was a pioneer in the television industry in presenting images of black folks that before had gone unnoticed and unacknowledged in mainstream media.

In his passing, I wish him love, peace and soul.

Curtis Mayfield Still Resonates

In 2012 the message is as relevant as ever.

Obama Channeling Al Green

Etta James 1938 - 2012

The indomitable Etta James, who had battling serious health problems in recent years, has died.

King's Letter

Martin Luther King's Dream speech gets a lot of attention and rightly so, but his Letter from Birmingham Jail is also a remarkable expression of the nature of the struggle that he led:

We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God given rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward gaining political independence, but we still creep at horse and buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter. Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, "Wait." But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six year old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five year old son who is asking: "Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?"; when you take a cross county drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading "white" and "colored"; when your first name becomes "nigger," your middle name becomes "boy" (however old you are) and your last name becomes "John," and your wife and mother are never given the respected title "Mrs."; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of "nobodiness"--then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience. You express a great deal of anxiety over our willingness to break laws. This is certainly a legitimate concern. Since we so diligently urge people to obey the Supreme Court's decision of 1954 outlawing segregation in the public schools, at first glance it may seem rather paradoxical for us consciously to break laws. One may well ask: "How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?" The answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that "an unjust law is no law at all."

Ali at 70

Muhammad Ali celebrates his 70th birthday today. Happy birthday, champ.