Jack & Jill Politics

So finally, Mrs. Clinton has decided to admit publicly on Friday what many of us realized some months ago, according to the Caucus blog. That she ain’t gonna be president at least in this go-round and she needs to throw her support behind the nominee, Barack Obama. It’s over.

Part of me is still in a state of deep disappointment over her campaign’s desperate race-baiting “kitchen sink” strategy. JJPers assembled over 50 examples of Clinton attacking Obama below the belt on our wiki. Go ‘head y’all.

Another part of me is stunned almost to disbelief that Barack Obama is actually going on to the general election. I’m not old but still, I’m not sure that I really thought that I’d live to see a man of African descent have a real and good shot at leading our nation. Wow. I feel like I can finally exhale and prepare to go full bore to win the White House. Barack Obama has knocked me off my feet with his gracious acceptance of victory in the primaries. The audacity of hope, indeed. How ’bout y’all?

A few observations:

1) there’s been a lot of talk about Obama’s successful delegate strategy. There’s been little talk at all of the influence of the internet and social media on this primary. Without small donors, many of them from the internet, Obama would have no chance to beat the Clinton campaign given her sizable war chest coming out of the gate. Without the internet, Obama would have been sorely pressed to raise rapid and huge amounts of money to equal the name recognition of Hillary Clinton. Chris Bowers at OpenLeft has the numbers.

Money: Obama’s entire monetary advantage over Hillary Clinton came from small donors who gave $200 or less to his campaign. His $57M+ advantage over Clinton in this area of fundraising accounts for all of Obama’s financial advantage during the nomination campaign. Outside of the $200 or smaller donors, Clinton’s $10M transfer from her Senate campaign and $11.4M loan from personal funds draw her even with Obama in overall fundraising. As such, the extra money Obama had for paid media and staff came entirely from his small donor corps.

2) As Eric Copage writes over at HuffPo in his piece “Is Black America Strong Enough for an Obama Presidency?” — the “one-drop rule” of America remains in effect. Obama – half-white – is still described as a black candidate. Eric also wonders if there will be a backlash against African-Americans from some whites who feel we’ve already gotten too many breaks and believes this may impede forceful effort from Obama to address issues important to African-Americans.

If Sen. Obama is elected president, mainstream America will likely say, “You black people have your Miss Americas. You have your black Super Bowl coach. You even have your Academy Award winners. And now, finally, you have your black president. What more do you want!?”

I hope not, but we’ll see. And we’ll be watching.

3) Don’t you EVER underestimate the mighty, magical, mysterious power of Oprah. Not ever. She’s willing now to invest a bit of her social capital to promote her own interests for what she believes to be social good. Part of me always blamed her a little for allowing George Bush to kiss her during the 2000 election season and saying nothing while he duped America into an unnecessary, deadly and costly war. She’s redeemed herself and I’m proud of her.