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Monday, July 7, 2025

Meeting President Clinton and 1st look at 2012 election

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I got to meet my first former president in person last Friday as a group of Hoosiers gathered in Greencastle before President Bill Clinton addressed students and others at DePauw University.

Clinton was the warm, engaging man I’d read and heard about greeting me and others like we’d been old friends.

For about 20 minutes, Clinton discussed a wide range of world issues like China’s lack of usable farmland and their efforts to buy African farmland to feed China’s growing population.

Clinton’s grasp of world issues from agriculture to the demographics of Haiti reinforced not just Clinton’s intelligence and grasp of issues, but also those same qualities in President Barack Obama.

So that brings me to the Republican challengers for president, none of whom holds a candle to either the 44th or 42nd Presidents.

Our country and world face serious problems. But Republicans are moving heaven and earth to find the most uninspiring, radical, scary, dangerous, demagogic and inept candidates to run against President Obama.

Some are nonentities like Rick Santorum and Jon Huntsman. Others are loony like Ron Paul and the bizarre Michelle Bachmann. There’s Newt Gingrich, a candidate with some intelligence and knowledge of national issues, but with more baggage than all the airplanes at the airport.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry is the most inept presidential candidate in decades. Perry makes former President George W. Bush look like the brightest bulb in the bunch.

Local Democratic activist Ann DeLaney once called former Mayor Steve Goldsmith “ambition in a suit.” She could have been referring to Mitt Romney, the Republican front runner. Romney changes positions the way some women change their hair color or men change their socks. Romney is a plastic chameleon that’ll do or say anything to be president.

Then there’s Herman Cain.

I suppose our community should be happy an African-American is being taken seriously as a presidential candidate by the party of Lincoln and Strom Thurmond. But, unlike President Obama, whose intelligence inspires; Cain’s ineptness, stupidity and tendency to explain his ideas in empty-headed catch phrases and drivel threaten to set Black progress back decades.

If white Republicans think Cain is their savior, then our republic is truly doomed!

It’s emblematic of the deep seated racism and hatred some whites have for President Obama that they would seriously contemplate voting for incompetent, radical loons like Cain, Perry, Gingrich and Romney just because they’re not Obama.

Worse, other than Sarah Palin, the best and brightest in the Republican Party are sitting on the sidelines – Jeb Bush, Haley Barbour, Chris Christie and our own My Man Mitch Daniels.

Despite the weakness of the GOP field, this will be a bitter battle for the presidency as the right wing machine will literally stop at nothing to keep President Obama out of the White House for another term.

Here in Indiana, the stakes are large. Gov. Daniels can’t run again and his Lt. Gov. Becky Skillman took herself out of the race.

Rep. Mike Pence wants to be Daniels’ heir. But Pence makes Daniels look like a left of center liberal.

Pence is a nice man, but as rabid right wing as they come. An Indiana governed by Mike Pence would further derail African-American progress in this state.

One reason I feel that way is the fact the Pence for Governor Campaign has been invisible to our African-American community.

At this point in past governor campaigns, GOP newcomer governor candidates would have been visible in our Black community; would have met with Black opinion and community leaders to introduce themselves and learn about the issues.

Pence hasn’t. More ominous, there are no Blacks out in our community or the state talking Pence up. There were more Black Republicans talking up Mayor Greg Ballard than saying boo about Pence.

Then there’s the vicious Republican fight in the U.S. Senate race. Sen. Richard Lugar who’s represented Indiana since 1976 is in the political fight of his life. Tea Party members and the radical right have made Lugar and Utah’s Orrin Hatch their top targets.

State Treasurer Richard Mourdock, who wanted Chrysler to go broke putting thousands in Indiana out of work, is running against Lugar. Right wing groups plan to spend millions to destroy Lugar, or worse, force him to take extreme positions that will alienate moderate Hoosiers voters that have been overwhelmingly re-elected Lugar five times.

Rep. Joe Donnelly, the South Bend area congressman redistricted out of his seat, is the Democratic Senate candidate. If Mourdock beats Lugar, scores of moderates and independents could be attracted to Donnelly’s moderate views and appeal. If Lugar survives his brutal primary, he may be weakened enough that Donnelly has a strong shot at an upset.

So far, Donnelly has been more visible in our Black community than Sen. Evan Bayh was in his last year.

Rep. AndrĆ© Carson faces a tough 2012 re-election battle. First, the entire southern three townships of Marion County are now in his district; which gives a GOP opponent a firm starting base. More worrisome, some key Carson areas on the Northside have been moved out of his new district, reducing some of Carson’s victory cushion.

If, and this is a big if, Republicans choose a moderate Republican to go against Carson (are there any left anymore?) the race could be closer than some think.

Complicating Carson’s re-election race is a feeling among some Blacks that Carson hasn’t been forceful in standing up and speaking out on some local issues the way they perceived his beloved grandmother Julia Carson might have.

The race is Carson’s to win again, but he needs a maximum effort from our Black community to prevail.

For John Gregg and Joe Donnelly, they need big margins from Black voters to give them some momentum as they seek to recapture moderate and conservative Democrats the party lost in races in 2010 and some of the mayoral races (outside of Indianapolis) this year.

Finally, the new Democratic City-County Council majority broke a barrier in selecting Councilwoman Maggie Lewis as council president. She becomes the first woman to hold such a position. The challenge for Lewis and her colleagues is staying together and working positively for our city/county.

See ā€˜ya next week.

You can email comments to Amos Brown at acbrown@aol.com.

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