Crazeee!

Obama in Somali garb looked ado-o-o-rable!
Evoked such warm feelings... seemed to me he looked like the Maharajah of Gwalior in the early stages of his dressing up or Raja Ravi Verma in the final stages :) !! Reminded me of saree wrapping styles and parents and grandparents who usually wore white fending off the hot tropical sun!

And then what do I learn? it was a smear attempt by the Clinton camp - via the Drudge Report with a photo "which to the unschooled eye could look like a Taliban outfit."!!!!

Wha-a-a-t? Taliban? !!

Hey, do all turbans look the same to you?

What about this one?
Or this?
or these?

or all of these?

I have news for you - at least 5.5 billion people of the world dress differently from you - so DEAL with it, policeman of the world!

Here in the US itself now 20% of the populace being foreign-born or first generation, either dress differently or have parents or immediate family that dress differently or have native garbs that are different from mainstream pantsuits and 3-pieces - so DEAL with it !

Hillary campaign now claims innocence - “Barack Obama's campaign wants to suggest that a photo of him wearing traditional Somali clothing is divisive, they should be ashamed. Hillary Clinton has worn the traditional clothing of countries she has visited and had those photos published widely."

Oh Puhleeeze!

The Yes we can song!

Moving!
www.yeswecansong.com

Went to the grocery store today (Giant) - and I guess the Clinton lobby had strong-armed them into running "Don't stop thinking about tomorrow"! A very subliminal Clinton ad there - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBKkwxCV5ls

Ad then I came home and listened to the Obama song! - he is so correct this election is not about black or white, not about gender, about rich or poor, but about the past vs. the future - listen to these two songs and tell me it isn't!

MLK-LBJ: suggested Obama response

Caught this post on one of the blogs:
"At the end of the day (using some of Clinton's words from the interview), being “able to get it through Congress” is something she’s been doing longer. The ability to inspire by the “power of dreams” is a worthy and necessary talent for all social justice leaders. When she spoke of the dream "becoming reality..”..she seems only to be saying she thinks she can do it better than Obama can." http://iddybudjournal.blogspot.com/2008/01/hillarys-mlk-jr-moment.html

Well, Obama should say that Hillary, then, should stay in the Senate since he will need experienced competent leaders there to pass things through in the Congress, when he is President.

An Obama Presidency?!

Over at Sepia Mutiny they discuss Obama as a brown candidate - http://www.sepiamutiny.com/sepia/archives/004943.html

No he's really not running a racial campaign, whether brown, black or blue - he actually has built upon Edwards' 2004 theme of the 2 Americas, except he uses the red states/blue states' ideological divide when he may mean the racial and economic ones too. The only time he actually referred to race in his campaign speeches was on the Selma anniversary (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7630250 )

I had steadfastly dismissed him as a creature of the celeb-obssessed, fad-chasing culture; even when hearing him speak I have felt he touched upon generalities and abstractions. And, yes, I am wary of someone selling hope - I remember Marketing 101 and the quote attributed to Charles Revlon "In the factories we make perfume, but in the stores we sell hope."! And I wonder what is the Obama factory really making? He seems too good to be true, and everything I've learnt from life, is that if its too good to be true, it can't be true.

I do think that if he's as good as he sounds, Obama as a member of a racial minority can do much more to shake up the power equilibrium in favor of the dispossessed classes than can Hillary as a woman. But I am so afraid that if Dems choose Obama as the nominee and Americans follow suit to make him Prez, it may be in exactly the same mind-frame that they selected Jimmy Carter so close after Watergate. And the Obama Presidency like Carter's will be awash in goodwill but will beseiged by the cunning, ugly, manipulative obstructionist minority in the Republican camp and the world at large. They would be wroth to see any good come out of the Dem Party...give them a long enough rope to hang themselves will be their mantra and they will see to it that he comes out looking like another naive peanut farmer. To this day they will not credit Carter adequately for the Camp David Peace Accord, they blame him for the Iran hostage crisis, and the economic problems of the 70's -

I agree with the Dailykos diarist RenaRF (http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/1/4/135059/1810/652/430574) things could get real ugly but not just on the way to the nomination - our candidates have been bruised one after the other, Kennedy, Carter, Clinton, Gore, Kerry, in so many ways in their path to the White House, their stays at the WH and/or with their post-WH history.

I am truly afraid to Hope.