I had to take my car to the dealership for the usual yearly maintenance today and this morning I heard the Roland S. Martin show and the topic was whether or not preachers and pastors should be political and if so, how much.  So, when I got back in the car after picking up the car this afternoon, the radio was still on and I heard the dulcet Arkansas tones of former President William J. Clinton. 

Naturally, I knew that this was “Keepin’ It Real” with your host Rev. Al Sharpton, or should I say Sha’pton.

Despite the various pronunciations of his name, I have much respect for Sharpton and the work that he has done with the National Action Network–2007 was definitely a banner year for him.  However, it appears that in this race that he has stopped short of endorsing Hill’ry for president, and I’m quite interested to know why has he?  Does he know the level of alienation he may receive from some, even those who are city chairmans for the N.A.N.?  Be that as it may, my particular issue I had with him today was his guest and just how today’s program was handled.

It was quite interesting to hear callers call in and ask our 42nd president what was Hil’ry’s stance on various position and what would Hil’ry do if she was elected to office.  Well, duh, just ask Hil’ry!  But I guess, her husband is just as good as her; because since the New Hamps— primaries apparently, there are four top runners for the Democratic nomination: John Edwards, Barack Obama, Hill’ry Clinton and Bill Clinton.  It appears to me and the UNN that in fact the Clinton’s are tag-teaming Obama and his campaign.  But, last I checked, Hill’ry’s name is the only one that is on the ballot, and not her husband.

At this point in the race, the fallout concerning race is palpable in the African American community.  Even though polls have historically been erroneous (one need only look at the Iowa caucuses and the N.H. primary), it appears that the African American community was only looking for one reason to vote for Barack Obama, one that perhaps Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson had failed, for whatever reason(s), to accomplish: simply to be electable.  Perhaps the African American community was sick and tired of endorsing symbolic candidates, but really wanting to endorse one who could win.  As Hill’ry cried after she saw her sweeping victory crumble following her 3rd place loss to Obama and Edwards, the black community realized that Obama had a chance, and poll numbers have changed as much as 40 percentage points according to some sources in favor of Obama over Clinton.

The palpability of the fallout had a name today and its name was Bill Clinton.

The Cliff Kelley Show, here in Chicago is the talk show following The Al Sharpton Show at 3PM, and the first caller of the show launched into an invective against Al Sharpton about how could Sharpton allow for Bill to speak on behalf of Hill’ry and how insulting it is to his listeners to insult their intelligence do such.  He was on such a roll, he continued to talk about how much of a stepin’ fetchit Andrew Young and Rep. John Lewis were for their anti-Obama comments (I personally wished he had laid Bob Johnson out for his Uncle Tom comments as well).

Some black people want Hill’ry, who has less elected legislative experience than Obama, simply because “da Clintons been good tuh-rus,” but meanwhile, the Clintons have been treating the black community like he did Monica Lewinsky: using us whenever it was politically advantageous–and he’s good at it, so we keep coming back for more.  Lest we forget the welfare to work program which had marginal benefits for some, but devastating impacts for others–or even NAFTA which has had devastating impact on this current jobless economy, but you see no one talks about that.  Even today, one of the latter callers asked what was Hill’ry’s position (visibly I’m rolling my eyes as I write this) on the North American Union (I might get an FBI file for just typing that) as it relates to the immigration and jobs for people who are born citizens here in the U.S. to which the words North American Union DID NOT come from his mouth and he simply dealt with the issue of immigration.

Even as I write this and the 5 o’clock news has just wrapped up here in Chicago, it was a big enough news story that it had its own special segment.  So to those, who feel that we must repay the Clinton’s with our vote because they have been “good tuh-rus” then, they need only watch who’s really playing the race card, and who’s pandering to who.

Keep it uppity, JLL