Uncle Barack's Cabin?

Everyone's favorite narcissist and quadrennial candidate for complaining about not being paid the proper respect, Ralph Nader, has opined on Barack Obama's speaking style, and wants him to black it up:

Whether that will make any difference, I don't know. I haven't heard him have a strong crackdown on economic exploitation in the ghettos. Payday loans, predatory lending, asbestos, lead. What's keeping him from doing that? Is it because he wants to talk white? He doesn't want to appear like Jesse Jackson? We'll see all that play out in the next few months and if he gets elected afterwards."

Well, my brother from another mother, lets break it down. Black people make up around 13% of the American population. In order to win an election (something you never had any intention of doing), you generally have to get around 50% of the American voters to cast a ballot for you. You don't do that by walking down a street with a bullhorn complaining about asbestos or payday loans.

Now, Obama has been talking about poverty and urban issues, here is a copy of his latest speech on the issues in which he talked about urban poverty; but if we are going to have the first Black president, they have to represent all people. That includes Blacks, but also Latinos, Whites, Asians and all colors in between.

It is understandable why people like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton focus so much on race, because that is the issue of their lives. But for a kid who grew up with a white mom, white grandparents, on an Island with mostly white and Asian people...its going to be a bit harder for him to focus solely on that issue.

But thankfully, Ralph Nader is there to be the voice of the voiceless, the champion of equality, the curmudgeonly old man who values purity and righteousness above all else...and who'll probably get beat by Cynthia McKinney.