The mayor in the crossfire

Too bad he can't focus on the killings that are going on in his city at a pace faster than in Baghdad, bad schools, and, no jobs for young black men, too busy trying to be the best "black" mayor behind the losing candidate, victim of not getting what she felt was her's and her's alone, HRC for the White House. And, just how do these churls get voted into office and never get anything accomplished???

I think the fact that Mayor Nutter has addressed the issue of hiring for city employment young black men with felony convictions outweighs this. Let's not drag him through the mud for his choice of presidential candidates. His response to the question of white politicians support for Obama and not Hillary says it all. Neither she or her husband are liked by the majority of the nearly all white male senate. Even though I don't think it is a wise choice I do respect his decision. I am an Obama supporter but I do not think he deserves a rubber stamp endorsement from the black community.

He is wasting his time behind a losing canidate--he must owe her a favor.

There is an enlightening article by William Kristol in the New York Times that sort of puts Obama in perspective. It is entitled "The Mask Slips." http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/14/opinion/14kristol.html?m&ex=1208318400&en=ad468064a7c2fda0&ei=5087

amen mr. nutter!!! only hc fans are not allowed to make a political choice as obama fans are allowed only hc fans are slandered as race traitors unlike whites who love obama this is all racist, sexist, and unfair!!! racism is not a relic, despite the hoopla over hope in nov, mccain will be president simply because too few blacks were able to see beyond nov and comprehend how republikkkans have played obama... the only winners in this fiasco are racist voters who will wild at the polls in nov and remind us all that indeed we do still live in amerikkka shame!!! ab aliciabanks.blogspot.com

1. aliciastanks, you're trying too hard. 2. it's a poor article angled with an agenda to paint. how does it start? "He's a young,..." The guy is 50 years old for heaven's sake. The writer uses this characterization for their predetermined painting they want you to see, NOT a middle aged guy, a "young" guy, they are shaping your mind with the objective of you swallowing their vision.....which you did AliciaStanks, hook, line, and sinker.

I concur with brucito, we all have the right to choose who we believe will be best president. I'm an Obama supporter all the way. With respect to Alicia Banks comments, it is true that racism, personal and institutional, still exists. However I believe that a Senator Obama candidacy will prevail in the General Election. In my little congressional district alone the amount of people that showed up for the Obama delegate selection caucus was phenomenal. One old time democrat stated that she hadn't seen this much enthusiatic participation by the electorate since 1972! Does that tell you something! Some people drove 50 miles to participate! And we shuttled folks back and forth. We, OBAMA folks are organized and will win in NOVEMBER. YES WE CAN, SI SE PUEDE OBAMA '08 p.s.the Clinton delegate selection caucus was attended by one quarter of the electorate.

Alicia, child, we get it, you will only vote for Clinton, as is your choice, but, the black male bashing is OLD, well, except those who support the worst, never to be elected even if she manages to steal the nomination candidate left in the democratic race, Hillary Clinton. Try and be more positive and share with us what makes her so worthy of your nonstop praise, but, please, stop the black male bashing, we aren't all that bad, even to women who don't like men as you don't. Nutter, perfect name, another clueless black politician, who the tag teaming, race baiting Clinton's must have given money or promised a job to. The time is ripe for a female canidate, too bad they came up with the one who can never win a general election.

anonymous: I caught that "young" comment too. I just hope someone refers to me as "young" when I'm 50 years old! LOL! Amazing how a Black man at 50 is somehow described as young, whereas, I couldn't imagine a 50 year old White politician being described as young. 50 year old White politicians are "experienced", "seasoned" and have "gravitas". This is an example of the unconcious racism that seeps into the mainstream media. Like when Blacks get crap home loans, they are "subprime", but when Whites default on these same loans they are described as "exotic" loans and "creative financing". The author probably thought he or she was being complimentary when he or she was actually devaluing the stature of this Mayor. Howver, Mayor Nutter doesn't need this author to devalue his stature. He did that on his own by endorsing Hillary Clinton!

anonymous: your ebonics are impressive! even moreso than your brazen cowardice as even you are so ashamed of your own moronic posts that you must hide behind your "anonymity" both your cowardace and illiteracy are far more amusing than your pathetic prose... fyi what "stInks" is your rabid blindness, as you are unable to see that nutter is a BM whom i praised herein as i always praise all BM who are worthy of praise, like those who can see that jm will slay obama in nov hillary was the one to beat as she has beaten republikkkans for decades... in spite of your incessant personal attacks and gross obsessions with obama, my refusal to worship him as you do have NOTHING to do with how i admire droves of real bm like nutter only obama's zombies equate a vote for him as a rejection of an enire race and gender _____ dre: what is OLD, is your refusal to ever address a single valid point i make about hc... your denial will never protect you in nov... fyi alicia banks OUTLOOK aliciabanks.blogspot.com ELOQUENT FURY www.geocities.com/ambwww

Hands off the good Mayor! I like OBama, but leave the mayor alone. cmoney: you are on point about the black age. we just never seem to age. even more so black gay age. whether it's physically or at a subconscious level am not so sure anymore. am by far more educated and sometimes older than my peers, but am always the young refreshing air in the midst of tired recentful married folk with myriad of family burdens. or is this my imagination?

Well Alicia, with each passing day, HRC sounds more and more republican than anything else, and, while, I don't care for her on any level, had, she not injected race into the mix, I would have heard whatever it is she is saying. After all, she was smarter than that husband of hers, but, now, no way could I ever vote for her since, I have no time nor patience in anyone who stoops to race baiting, even in politics, which we all know is down and dirty. And, as Margaret Cho said in an interview: "I'm a woman and a person of color. No matter how I vote someone will tell me I'm either a traitor to my gender, or a traitor to my race." So, we all have to vote for whom we feel is best for the job, and, for me that's Obama. And. life will go on, no matter who wins, since, none of them really has a clue about what real Americans want or need.

How about this man throwing Jeramiah Wright Jr under the bus just for statements he made that have been repeatedly distorted by the media. Does he not know that his father, Rev. Jeramiah A Wright Sr, was the pastor for many years of the Grace Baptist Church of Germantown, right there in his City of "Brotherly Love". His mother was the assistant principal of the Philadelphia High School for Girls. How dare this mayor bring more disrespect to the son of two people who served Philadelphia for many years and were well respected and admired. The fact that he wants to support HRC is his choice, whether we think dumb or not ... but he should keep his mouth shut on any remarks on Rev Wright. Know the facts before you open your mouth!I bet the reporter who asked the mayor if he would have left Trinity church had not done his/her research!

dre: ditto! i love m cho and many men...fyi on that we agree 100% read about many men i adore in many tributes to them at my site: ELOQUENT FURY www.geocities.com/ambwww peace ab

you people on the HRC side of the fence need to get a life, she and she alone injected race in to this campaign with the help of her cheating (wanna be black) husband with the black vote to tote. If we knew then what we knew now about, they would not had the black vote.

BLACK MAYOR OF PHILADELPHIA CONTINUES TO SCAPEGOAT THE MEDIA What is it about The Clintons that has everyone around them engaging in VAST RIGHT WING tactics of blaming the media for everything that ails you. Now even previously popular, Black-elected officials are getting in on the act. What obviously ails His Honor, Michael Nutter of Philadelphia is a combination of circumstances the first of which is that he is Black(honestly, that used to annoy me a little too when I was a little boy, but I got over it), and he is the Mayor of a major urban city with many Black residents, and he finds himself backing a candidate that most of those Black residents don't trust as far as they can throw her. Now what does the media have to do with that? Yes, many Black people are calling for their Black-elected officials to vote for Obama. But I don't see or hear MSNBC or any mainstream newspaper reporters or columnists calling for that. These Black Clinton surrogates just have a purely political problem that really is not Clinton's fault or Barack's fault or even due to any real fault of their own in many ways. Well, maybe they could have made better decisions. The Clintons didn't help their situation by racializing the contest in SC, and again demonizing the Black Church by saying she would have not stayed in the Congregation. Black people know Rev Wright is not Hitler and if she's your candidate, you need to be advising her to behave differently, start distancing yourself, or hire a headhunter because you'll soon be voted out. Again, nothing so far that the media has done to cause or even exacerbate any of that. And really, shouldn’t this Brother start looking at the glass a little more half-filled. You’ve been Black long enough to know that nobody wants to hear your whining especially if you’re doing well. So cheer up, you're blessed with still being Mayor of Philadelphia at a time when there is a white woman and a half-white, half-African Harvard Law Review President both running for president. Your problem is that you chose to endorse very early before the choice really revealed itself. So stop whining, and do what Black people have always done with the worse cut of the meat, the baseball jobs after the league lost all its players to service in WWII, or any other job or foodstuff that has been discarded by the mainstream: turn that lemon into lemonade and try to turn it to your advantage....maybe you can present this as your Sista Souljah moment to the majority of white, Italian and other ethnic voters in Philly and demonstrate how post-racial you actually are by standing down the calls from Black voters to switch your allegiance. Now you may say that this is what you’re actually trying to do; but if so, I would argue that you should focus less on the media as the bogeyman and isolate a few high-profile Black critics or Obama-supporters who have been particularly vocal or harsh. For in truth, your quarrel is not with the media which can only amplify or dampen this rising Black chorus of Superdelegate accountability from Black elected officials, it is really with the Black activists and others who may be actually leading these mini- micro-choruses throughout the community. Only by challenging these Black community leaders that are organizing their neighbors to hold their Black-elected officials accountable can you get any Sista Souljah love from the other ethnic voting blocks in Philadelphia. But alas, since it appears that you and other Clintonistas will persist in media-bashing to generate empathy/sympathy; please tell me, just what would you have the media do to relieve you in your drama? Is it possible that some of these Black Superdelegates yelling the loudest are just a little envious of Mr. Obama? Could they be lobbying the media like the other PGA golfers do against Tiger Woods. I would hate to think there is that level of Black-on-Black HATE in our political discourse. However, I wouldn't be surprised because both Barack and Tiger are just better at what they do than their current opponents. Ending on a positive note, maybe one way to relieve Mr. Nutter's suffering is for him to scale back a little to just consider yourself an endorser, instead of a surrogate. I see where even GOV Corzine of NJ has recently shown his own independent brand of SUPERDELEGATE BUYER'S REMORSE from a decision made when Hillary seemed like the only show in town. If Corzine can announce publicly his standard (popular vote supremacy) for moving to Obama, then maybe you should have a well-publicized exit strategy as well. Black or not, smart pols like Corzine know he must himself remain acceptable to the Obama DEMS after this primary ends for his own political survival as well. Even your own GOV, who played the race card in his own way by broadbanding his view that some percentage of PA residents weren't ready to vote for a Black man, even he has hedged himself proclaiming that he would enthusiastically support either as DEM nominee particularly an Clinton/Obama or Obama/Clinton ticket: "...Either one!!!" Rendell asserted. If experienced guys like this can prepare us for their eventual switch to Obama, without pressure from Black people or the media, shouldn't that give you permission to forgive yourself for rushing to judgement in endorsing Hillary before IOWA? Maybe you should have been a better politician and held back a little, Bruh? I'm sure Barack will still have you whenever you come back home .... (I know that "home" reference ruffles your sensibilities, I just don't know if it offends because you ascribe to a different home, multiple, multi-demographic homes, or none at all). And who knows, you may even get to use Barack's email list in the future with all those new suburban-Philly households on it as some other Obama endorsers have been able to do. All in all, I'd much rather get email from you than Sen. Tim Johnson from S.D. Yes, you can my Brother.....YES YOU CAN!!!

Michael Nutter is interviewed tonight on the Tavis Smiley show, broadcasted on PBS stations. I find Nutter to be exceptionally articulate and exceptionally intelligent. Nutter is clearly working for the benefit of the citizens of his city. Nutter explains his support of Clinton is not related to Obama supporting another mayoral candidate and he explains his support of Clinton is not based on personality, popularity nor friendship. Nutter explains his support of Clinton is based solely upon issues. He continues to state, between Obama and Clinton, his belief is Clinton has a better understanding of the issues challenging the people of his city. Nutter believes Clinton affords the best chance of effecting positive changes for his people. Nutter made a choice between Obama and Clinton based upon which presents the greatest chance at benefit for his city and its people. I am impressed with Michael Nutter. Obama and Clinton are beginning their debate. Are you watching, listening and taking notes? Okpulot Taha Choctaw Nation

I honestly do feel sorry for Mayor Nutter of Philadelphia. Although not one thing has surfaced that he has done wrong as far geverning the city itself this is proving to be an issue that everyone who can extort a future political payoff is going to do so. Local community actvist (white,black,latin and asian)in Philly are going to benefit handsomely now from grants to be given out if they support him after this endorsement fiasco of HRC. Whether they (the activist)are pro HRC or pro Obama this is just a political reality. His administration has only been in office a little more than 100 days and is basically untested. Don't think for one minute that the same fate is not awaiting Obama. Do not be fooled by your supporters present loyalty. The main thing to remember is that getting your candidate in office is the nbr one goal. After winning office now comes the time to start loosing it because of political debts owed to those who threw their support behing you. If you think I am lying just ask Jessie Jackson how to go about reminding politicians what they owe you after you arranged support for them. There are many reasons why you almost now have to äsk "Jessie who" because of his past B/S to list. No one wants to get within spitting distance of him. During the Jenna 6 mess not even Al Sharpton looked comfortable standing next to him. I am an Obama supporter and I am also braced for a VERY HARSH BACKLASH WHEN IT COMES TIME TO REPAY SUCH DEBTS TO HIS BLACK SUPPORTERS. HE HAS TO BE PRESIDENT TO AN ENTIRE COUNTRY, NOT JUST TO BLACK PEOPLE. HE HAS TO SHOW THE WORLD, NOT JUST BLACK AMERICA, THAT HE HAS GOOD SOUND JUDGEMENT. Mayor Nutter has a very large population of black people who are next to impossible to employ because of past criminal history. He has supported city employment for them. He has to deal with failing schools, broken homes and social problems up the yang yang. His job is not easy. And now along comes this. Mayor Sheila Dixon of Baltimore, who supported Obama, has a situation where more than 60% of all black men in Baltimore have criminal records and a massive drug problem in the city still persists. There are teachers in the Baltimore school district who do not have basic sentence structuring themselves teaching poorer kids.I admire both of them for their courage to support who they think was the best choice. Unfortunatley for both their choice is going to be their undoing.