Rick Perlstein and The Nation have some great stuff from Lee Atwater about politics and race and the GOP majority in the South.?? Another piece of evidence about the "Southern Strategy" implemented by Nixon.
Author Archives: russwalker
Poignant post-election pool report
From: Parsons, Christi [@latimes.com]
Sent: Wednesday, November 07, 2012 01:52 PM
To
Subject: Pool 2 (potus)
??
One of the people standing on the street corner in Kenwood, looking over the barricades toward the Obama house, is TyRon Turner, who traveled here from Inglewood, Calif., to attend the victory party.
First thing this morning, he said, he woke up and decided he wanted to applaud the president personally, if only as he passes by in a motorcade.
But as he stood on the sidewalk in a sweatshirt and blue knit cap, the small business owner said he couldn???t stop thinking about the challenges ahead.
The divisions in the country were so evident on television on election night, he said, as cameras panned the saddened faces of Romney supporters and the jubilant ones around him at McCormick Place.
The crowd shots at the Romney party were disproportionately white, he noticed, while the Obama party reflected the racial coalition that won the president???s reelection.
???We were all hugging each other, black and white,??? Turner said. ???I said to someone, ???Look at all the different races in this room.??? We were all together as Americans, as we should be. This is what America looks like.???
Obama could lead the country to a new conversation about the polarization, Turner said, but he can???t do it alone. Republican leaders have to be a part of it, too, he said.
???Both sides have to give up something,??? said Turner, a small business owner. ???We have to clear the slate. Start over.???
–Christi Parsons
Poignant post-election pool report
From: Parsons, Christi [@latimes.com]
Sent: Wednesday, November 07, 2012 01:52 PM
To
Subject: Pool 2 (potus)
??
One of the people standing on the street corner in Kenwood, looking over the barricades toward the Obama house, is TyRon Turner, who traveled here from Inglewood, Calif., to attend the victory party.
First thing this morning, he said, he woke up and decided he wanted to applaud the president personally, if only as he passes by in a motorcade.
But as he stood on the sidewalk in a sweatshirt and blue knit cap, the small business owner said he couldn???t stop thinking about the challenges ahead.
The divisions in the country were so evident on television on election night, he said, as cameras panned the saddened faces of Romney supporters and the jubilant ones around him at McCormick Place.
The crowd shots at the Romney party were disproportionately white, he noticed, while the Obama party reflected the racial coalition that won the president???s reelection.
???We were all hugging each other, black and white,??? Turner said. ???I said to someone, ???Look at all the different races in this room.??? We were all together as Americans, as we should be. This is what America looks like.???
Obama could lead the country to a new conversation about the polarization, Turner said, but he can???t do it alone. Republican leaders have to be a part of it, too, he said.
???Both sides have to give up something,??? said Turner, a small business owner. ???We have to clear the slate. Start over.???
–Christi Parsons
Another Nixon and Southern Strategy reference
From The Guardian:
The tension between the projection of a modern, inclusive, tolerant party and the reality of a sizeable racially intolerant element within its base pining for the restoration of white privilege is neither new nor accidental. Indeed, it in no small part explains the trajectory of the Republican party for almost the last??half century. In his diary, Richard Nixon's chief-of-staff, Bob Haldeman, described how his boss spelled out the racial contours of a new electoral game-plan to win southern and suburban whites over to the Republican party in the wake of the civil rights era. "You have to face the fact that the whole problem is really the blacks," Nixon told him. "The key is to devise a system that recognises that while not appearing to."
This could be the final hurrah for what became known as Nixon's southern strategy in what is shaping up to be the most racially polarised election ever. Black support for the Republican party literally cannot get any lower.
Kim’s awesome chickpea ‘crab cakes’
Kim was featured on KING 5’s weekly “Healthy Dish” segment this week. Video is below, recipe is here.
Help me ‘light the night’ for leukemia and lymphoma treatment and research
In June 2004 I was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma. At the time, I was scared to death. Lymphoma, after all, is cancer, and I'd never been sick with anything serious in my whole life.
But I was lucky. Hodgkins, it turns out, is highly treatable. And I had great health care coverage. Chemo and radiation beat the cancer, and I've been clean since 2005.
When I was first diagnosed, one of the first places I turned to for help was the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. LLS put me in touch with people who had been treated for Hodgkins, and sent me lots of materials about what to expect from treatment. If I had needed it, LLS would have covered my copays and even parking when I went to treatments.
LLS remains very important to me. I have supported them in the years since, impressed by LLS's commitment not just to research, but also to supporting patients, especially those who can't afford to pay for their own care.
On Sept. 29 I'll be walking with fellow lymphoma survivors, friends, families, supporters … to raise money for LLS.
Please consider making a gift of any size. No amount is too small…
- A donation of $30 provides patients and their loved ones with FREE booklets that contain up-to-date information on their disease and help them make informed decisions about their treatment options.
- A donation of $50 makes possible a Family Support group with a trained facilitator where comfort can be found and experiences can be shared among patients and family members.
- A donation of $100 helps supply laboratory researchers with supplies and materials critical to carrying out their search for cures.
- A donation of $1,000 makes possible one- on-one conversations with health care specialists who provide patients with information about their disease, treatment options, and helps prepare them with questions for their health care team.
Please make a donation to support my participation in the Light The Night Walk and help save lives. Be sure to check my Web site frequently to see my progress, and thanks for your support!??
Donate here: http://pages.lightthenight.org/wa/SeattleL12/RWalker
With Ryan as the pick, does it all come down to Ohio and Penn?
This is based on nothing more than my gut, which is more often wrong than right.
I have no idea who wins Iowa, but I don't think it matters. It could come down to this question: Can Obama win Ohio or Pennsylvania? (Map is courtesy 270towin.com.)Belltown blight
A sad shock on the walk from work to the bus stop this evening when I saw that development had claimed a group of scraggly fruit trees on the edge of Belltown.
The trees bordered the large lot that sits between 5th and 6th avenues and Battery and Bell streets. It was a paid parking lot for most the time I’ve walked past, but the lot closed a few months back. A pile of rusty steel girders on the lot’s northwest edge hinted that development had halted with the recession; now the banks must have come through with the dough for construction. Anyway, the trees — bitter cherry, or perhaps some species of plum — had not been cared for in years, so they looked rough on the outside. But they were healthy, and had the most spectacular flowers this spring. For a few weeks they brightened my mornings and evenings. I’m glad I snapped a few photos of their last blooms. There are two remaining trees on the Battery Street side of the lot, but I can’t imagine they’ll be left alone. But I hope they get a reprieve.UPDATE, Wednesday a.m.: The last two trees were gone by the time I walked by on my way to work this morning…
Updated Electoral Map prediction
If Obama winds up winning, June will certainly be remembered as the nadir of his campaign.
But a Romney win is already being baked into the narrative. The press is already shrugging off Obama, and the public is being reminded daily that the economy still sucks. Here’s my prediction (via 270towin.com).Colin Powell talks sense on gay marriage … and more
I don’t agree with everything he says, but this interview is worth the watch. It certainly changed my views about Powell a bit …
On whether he plans to endorse President Obama again this year:
I’m just a private citizen. I’m under no obligation to make an endorsement just because I’m on a book tour. So, as I have always said in every election, I like to watch the candidates, but not only the candidates, I want to see what policies they’re liable to implement, what the platform’s going to be. I want to see what the whole ticket’s going to look like. So I will wike my time as a citizen to decide what I’m going to do and who I’m going to vote for. On what he hoped Obama would do in office: I wish he had closed Guantanamo. Once he asked congress if he could close Guantanamo, they jus tstopped it because they had to provide funding. I think he could have done it without going to congress. … Guantanamo has been a problem for us for all these years. … Frankly, I would have like to see the unemployment rate go down much more. I think it has to go down much more by the electio nor he may be in difficulty … he has to focus on the economy and get the jobless rate down because that’s what the American people expect. On Romney’s comments a few months ago about Russia being America’s top rival: I think he needs to think through these issues a little more thoroughly before he makes statements like that. I know Mr. Romney. I’ve known him for many, many years, and I think he’s a very excellent individual. I’m sure he means the best for America. On whether Romney’s religion will affect the election, given Mormonism’s historical treatment of blacks: No, I don’t think so. The man stands on his own. he is a man of faith. His faith is somewhere different than the faith of other Americans, but I don’t see why his Mormonism should be in the least bit a problem for him.…
The fact of the matter is, I know Mitt very well. I know what his views are with respect to African Americans, other minorities, and I think he is a person who believes in diversity and there is no discrimination in his body, in his soul. On gay marriage: In my view, right now, it’s a state issue. And different parts of the country have very, very different views. But my own personal view is that, after thinking about it a great deal and watching the progress we have made over the years — I know so many gay and lesbian friends who have committed relationships, who have children and who have been together for 40 and 50 years — and I don’t know why the legal basis of that relationship should not be consummated with a marriage. It has nothing to do with religion. If a church or some other group or some denomination chooses not to provide a sacrament for that or solemnize it in a religious ceremony, that’s their choice. But to deny that opportunity for a legal relationship with two people under the laws of the state or the laws of the country, I think is no longer appropriate and gay marriage should be accepted. Now, each state is going to have to work their way through this, and I think if you come back a generation from now, you will find that this has moved greatly and that most states will have adopted it. If you look at the attitudes of the American people, increasingly, the numbers are moving in the direction of acceptance of gay marriage.
.editor 