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General Clark's Southern Strategy, my thoughts

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Myra Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-31-03 06:37 AM
Original message
General Clark's Southern Strategy, my thoughts
Suppressing the black vote *is* how Pugs traditionally
steal elections. E-voting is merely their latest method of fraud.

GOP campaign strategist Ed Rollins flat out bragged about
giving "walking-around money" to black ministers to help
suppress the black vote in NJ "Gov" Whitman's narrow "victory."

"We went into black churches," he said, "and we basically said to ministers who had endorsed Florio ... 'Don't get up on the Sunday pulpit ... and say, "It's your moral obligation that you go on Tuesday to vote for Jim Florio." ... How much have they paid you ... ? Well, we'll match it; go home, sit and watch television,' and I think to a certain extent we suppressed their vote."
http://www.ariannaonline.com/columns/files/080796.html

We all saw what happened in Florida, and Greg Palast has documented it well.
It's how pugs steal elections. It's how they stole the 2000 presidential election.

And now we finally finally have a candidate, the first one, willing
to mention the GOP elephant in the corner, chewing on chads.
Well that's great. I'm thrilled at General Clark's actions and sincerity and
passion and consistency in spreading the message.

But I can't say that about any of the "traditional Dems" (of which
Dean is clearly one). He's very vulnerable on this point, what with
Vermont's demographic. Hell, he went to Harlem yet couldn't seem to
find many blacks for their photo-op; that was one for the scrapbook.
They've since got John Conyers endorsement, which is huge.

But, given that the Dem party has long taken the African American
demographic for granted, is Conyers' endorsement enough?
Especially since Al Gore can only be a liability in this context.
He never even spoke out about the blatant disenfranchisement of black
voters used to steal *his* election.

He looked right into the camera when he gave up three years ago,
and said he'd heard our voices and wouldn't forget. I took that as a vow.
I took that to mean he'd heard all of us who's votes were ignored.
And that included thousands of African Americans, in fact they were the core of
the Pug strategy. Yet Gore never did hear our voices, else he'd have
spoken out when it mattered. It might have mattered a few months ago.
But now when I look at Gore I see a man who was squeamish about the
unsightly prospect of righteously outraged blacks taking to the streets of Florida to
protest the mugging their community had just suffered. He told them to stand down.
To sit down. To shut up.

I see a man who broke his vow, turned his back on his African American voters,
and by doing so turned his back on all voters.

But what's past is past; and Gore is the past.

Today we finally have a candidate brave enough to speak out
about the targeting of African American voters.

"Forty years after four black girls were killed in a church bombing..., Gen. Wesley K. Clark visited the same church on Monday and said African-Americans were still in danger of having their votes go uncounted and their voices unheard.
...
He said that if he became the Democratic presidential nominee he would appoint a legal team to monitor the 2004 elections to ensure that problems reported in the contested 2000 election in Florida would not be repeated.

"If anyone is intimidated or turned away from the polls illegally, we will push to prosecute the perpetrators to the full extent of the law," he said.

General Clark, who is retired from the Army, cited complaints that black voters had been
disenfranchised in Florida through rejected ballots or by being turned away at the polls."

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/30/politics/campaigns/30CLAR.html

General Clark heard our voices and didn't forget.
Same vow; different man.
That's why he's in the South when the others are in the North.

He skipped Iowa, he left NH at a critical time, but I finally
understand Clark's Southern strategy. And the beauty of it.
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Justice Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-31-03 07:38 AM
Response to Original message
1. Charlie Rangel and Andrew Young

Two great endorsements for Clark.

Thanks for a great post.
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jogi1969 Donating Member (139 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Dec-31-03 08:04 AM
Response to Original message
2. damn smart move
Gen. Clark only has to post in the top 3 in NH,
that and with that barnstorming of the south
will put the Genernal is a great position to
take the nomination.
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