The last time I saw him up close and personal, he was nattily dressed in a full suit, calm, cool and collected sitting on a corner of the Plainfield High School basketball coach’s desk. Saturday I saw him up close and personal again. Standing outside in the Hoosier sunshine, calm and cool without suit coat, his white dress shirt open at the collar, sleeves rolled up a bit.
Three days earlier he’d sat down with the bad boy of TV commentators, Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly. Minutes earlier he’d sat down with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.
Now he sat down with me in my second interview face to face with living history — Barack Obama.
The week had been rough for Obama. John McCain, powered by enthusiasm from the religious right for the unqualified Gov. Sarah Palin, had turned the presidential race into one that is sometimes too close to call.
But Obama was pumped by continuing bad economic news. Highest overall unemployment in five years. Highest Black unemployment in three years with more than half million more Blacks unemployed this year than last.
Obama spoke before 1,000 Hoosiers packed into the 4-H display barn at the Wabash Valley Fairgrounds in Terre Haute. Terre Haute and the Wabash Valley is a blue collar, Democratic-oriented part of Indiana where the Bayhs (Birch and Evan) came from. In the primary, the Wabash Valley went for Hillary Clinton 59 percent to 41 percent, so it made sense for an Obama appearance there.
Understand clearly, Indiana is a battleground state in this election and is critical to Obama winning the presidency. Deputy National Campaign Manager Steve Hildebrand told Indiana media last week that if Obama wins all the states John Kerry won four years ago, plus Iowa, they’re just 11 electoral votes short. And guess which state has those 11 votes? Indiana.
In his remarks, Obama continued the blistering attacks on John McCain that he began during his acceptance speech, criticizing McCain’s claims that he’s for change. Said Obama of McCain’s change claims, “They must think you’re stupid.”
Obama also blasted the GOP’s new golden girl Sarah Palin’s flip flopping and misstatements saying “Words mean something; you can’t just make stuff up.”
Obama also stressed the importance of his supporters making sure they’re registered and volunteering to make calls and home visits. And emphasized that this election is “a defining moment” where America must make choices to move forward or be a country where we’re “the first generation in a very long time that doesn’t pass on a country that’s more unified and more prosperous than the one that we inherited from our parents and grandparents.”
Obama’s strong Indiana presence, 31 offices, thousands of volunteers canvassing voters daily, is one reason the presidential contest in Indiana is too close to call.
In the first non-campaign funded poll of the election in Indiana shows McCain and Obama virtually tied. The Howey-Gauge Poll reported McCain 45 percent, Obama 43 percent, undecided 11 percent, with a margin of error of 4.1 percent.
Eight percent of the poll’s 600 respondents were Black, a slight undersampling of Black voting strength. Not surprisingly, Blacks overwhelmingly support Obama 96 percent to 2 percent and Hillary Clinton voters are supporting Obama by a strong margin.
While the poll says Obama/McCain will be a barnburner, the governor’s race is threatening to become an embarrassment for Democratic candidate Jill Long Thompson.
She’s running far behind Gov. Mitch Daniels, who has 53 percent to Long Thompson’s 35 percent, with 3 percent for Libertarian Andrew Horning and 9 percent undecided.
But the poll shows that one of Long Thompson’s biggest weaknesses is among Black voters as only 51 percent say they’d vote for her if the election was now. Daniels would get support of 27 percent of Blacks while a huge 22 percent of Blacks are still undecided, eight weeks from Election Day.
In an election where African-Americans are “fired up and ready to go” for Barack Obama, for Long Thompson to be supported by barely half of Black voters will be fatal to her campaign, if not corrected.
In May, just 48.6 percent of voters in Black-majority precincts in Indianapolis/Marion County, the state’s largest bloc of Black voters, voted for Long Thompson. During the primary Long Thompson didn’t advertise to Black voters. She still hasn’t despite Mitch Daniels’ campaign advertising to Blacks since March.
It doesn’t help that Long Thompson’s TV ads don’t feature any Black faces or voices. That’s not a good decision for a campaign that must have the enthusiastic support of Black voters to have a fighting chance to win.
Long Thompson appeared at Obama’s Terre Haute rally. The first time she’s been at an Obama rally all year. Her campaign needs to cling to Barack Obama and hope he has coattails.
It’s appropriate the presidential campaign begins its final sprint the week the NFL begins its march to the Super Bowl. This year marks the 56th federal presidential election since our republic was founded. In a sense Barack Obama is now in the political Super Bowl of his life — Super Bowl LVI — with the prize not a Tiffany trophy, but the United States.
And that’s what strikes me the two times I’ve been privileged to sit in person with Barack Obama. As well as watching him at four campaign appearances.
The calmness, sense of purpose and mission, firmness, yet coolness and resolve.
He’s the Tony Dungy of American politics. Tony won a football Super Bowl with coolness, calm and determination. Barack Obama can win his political Super Bowl LVI Nov. 4th. With our community’s help.
What I’m hearing in the streets
The Indiana Republican Party should be ashamed of themselves for sending a lily-white delegation to their national convention. The entire convention had the fewest (36) African-American delegates in decades.
The excuse from Indiana Republicans? Party Chairman Murray Clark said they “couldn’t find” Black Republicans who wanted to be delegates. That included high profile Black Republicans like Marion County Republican Party Secretary Avecheeno Reeves, City-County Council Vice President Kent Smith, party stalwart Issac Randolph, or Chad Miller.
If you’ve not heard of Miller, he’s one of just two African-American Republican candidates on local ballots this year, running in House District 94 in Wayne and Pike townships. Judge Cynthia Ayres is the other Black GOP candidate.
They always talk a good game about diversity and inclusion, but when it came to their convention delegation, Indiana Republicans showed their true colors.
See ‘ya next week.
Amos Brown’s opinions are not necessarily those of the Indianapolis Recorder Newspaper. You can contact him at (317) 221-0915 or by e-mail at ACBROWN@AOL.COM.
