Sen. Hillary Clinton, so far, is the only confirmed candidate for Tavis Smiley's event in NOLA

[journalist3072]

I was listening to Tavis Smiley give his twice weekly commentary on the Tom Joyner Morning Show today.

And he said that so far, Sen. Hillary Clinton is the only presidential candidate thus far, to confirm their appearance at his "Day of Service" event in New Orleans, Louisiana.

As you might be aware, Tavis Smiley is getting ready to hold his annual "State of the Black Union," and this year it will be in New Orleans, Louisiana.

He invited the four presidential candidates who are still standing: Clinton, Obama, McCain and Huckabee.

Last week, he mentioned that only one candidate has confirmed so far to appear. He said, however, that he still wanted to give the others time, before he started naming names. He said he realized how busy the candidates were, and being as though we had just come off of Super Tuesday, he wanted to give them time to confirm.

Well, this morning, he named names, and said that Sen. Clinton was so far the only candidate to confirm. And he said basically said he hoped the men would not make the mistake of disregarding this event.

For me, it just said a lot that Obama has yet to confirm. He has made a lot of his race in this campaign. And as the first viable African-American to run for President, he can't find the time to confirm his appearance in New Orleans, which of course is still trying to regain its footing after Hurricane Katrina. I don't think anyone needs to remind Obama (or perhaps we do) that it was African-Americans who were disproportionately affected by Hurricane Katrina.

After Tavis Smiley's commentary this morning, I once again asked myself: are we in the African-American community allowing ourselves to be sold a bill of goods by Obama? I don't support him, but there are, of course, a lot of people in my community who do support him, simply because we have the chance to elect one of our own as President.

This is exactly why I've been saying ad nauseum, that we in the African-American community have no time to be voting based off of emotion. We have issues to address in our community (such as the rebuilding of New Orleans post-Katrina).

And I don't hesitate to say that if Barack Obama, the African-American presidential candidate, can't find time to confirm his appearance for a Day of Service in New Orleans, we in the African-American community must ask ourselves: does he really deserve our vote?

Perhaps he will confirm. He may very well be there.

But it speaks volumes that the man who is telling African-American audiences: "I need you to grab Cousin Pookie to vote. I need you to get Ray-Ray to vote" has not yet confirmed for a Day of Service in New Orleans. He should have been the very first to confirm.

[MADem]

1. He isn't actually saying that Pookie and Ray Ray shit, is he?

:eyes:

[journalist3072]

3. Yes, he did. Go here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x4209279

[MADem]

6. Oh, dear.

He brought this fellah to that speech!

[sniffa]

2. Obama the reverse-racist

He gives black female journalists a bad name.

[journalist3072]

4. Who said anything about being a reverse racist? It's about accountability, in case you didn't know.

He's made no bones about the fact that he wants Black America to vote in lock-step for him, as evidenced by his comment to Tavis Smiley that "there's no doubt in my mind that if we consolidate the black vote" there would be a profound shift in the polls.

So it's only right to ask what are his plans for Black America.

[sniffa]

5. Like I said, he's a reverse racist, or maybe even a racist