The Endorsement Game - Hillary, Obama and Black Voters in South Carolina

Here is a great post by Dayo Olopade on the Endorsement Game that Hillary Clinton has been playing in South Carolina. She is a master at pitting black against black in order to divide a conquer. Check out Dayo Olopade take on the Endorsement Game. Do you agree with him or do you have another view?

The Endorsement Game

by Dayo Olopade

Source: The New Republic

Why so many prominent African Americans in South Carolina support Hillary--and why it probably won't matter.

Hillary Clinton's strategy in South Carolina has always been clear: stockpile as many endorsements from prominent African Americans as possible. She's done impressively. By November 27th, when she stood on stage with over 60 of the state's most powerful ministers--people like Reverend J.W. Sanders of Bethel Baptist Church in Gaffney, and Reverend Charles Jackson, Jr., of the mammoth Cornerstone Baptist Church in Spartanburg--it was clear that she had become the candidate of South Carolina's black establishment. In a state where African Americans are projected to comprise at least half of the Democratic primary turnout, the event was a powerful display. Speakers echoed Clinton talking points flawlessly: "We need to look for a leader that is ready to lead right now," said Timothy Brown, a Baptist pastor in Spartanburg, adding, with a dagger twist, "We don't need to be filling our heads with hopes and dreams."

Rhetoric like that, in the newly racialized 2008 race, has set the tone for next week's primary and helped force a confrontation between party and identity politics in the state. Hillary Clinton has won over an impressive band of African American community leaders in South Carolina, many of whom have been Clinton loyalists since Bill dominated the black vote here in 1992 and 1996. In addition to the corps of ministers, the Clinton team locked up the support of almost 100 black elected officials, including the state's former black caucus chair, David J. Mack, and influential state senators Darrell Jackson and Robert Ford, who were both instrumental in helping John Edwards win 37 percent of the black vote four years ago. Barack Obama, on the other hand, has run a more grassroots campaign for black votes. This is partly out of necessity--no doubt he would have appreciated Hillary's endorsements. But Obama's team has always put more stock in a bottom-up electoral strategy. And it seems to be working. Three months ago, Clinton was beating Obama among blacks by a 22-point margin. According to a Rasmussen poll released Thursday, Obama is now 44 points ahead of Clinton among black voters. Black voters in South Carolina have consistently boosted black candidates--see Jesse Jackson's primary victories in 1984 and 1988, and Al Sharpton's third-place finish in 2004; Obama's candidacy may have history, if not hierarchy, on its side. More HERE

Politics, Race, Church and Faith Merge in Atlanta

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, reports that Southern Baptist leaders will be noticeably absent from a historic convention of Baptists this month in Atlanta aimed at reversing decades of racial and theological divisions and driving new socially conscious ministries.

Up to 20,000 white, African-American and Latino Baptists representing more than 20 million church members will gather in Atlanta in two weeks for what Baptists watchers are calling an historic event.

The broad coalition could also serve as a counterweight to the politically and theologically conservative Southern Baptist Convention, with about 17 million members.

The president of the Southern Baptist Convention denounced the Atlanta meeting, whose public face is former President Jimmy Carter. Carter critically and publicly left the denomination in 2000.

The very people who have played up the dissensions are the ones calling the meeting, the Rev. Frank Page said in a statement last year, and he questioned what he believes is the liberal slant of the speakers, who include ministers, politicians and people involved in social ministries. Baptists ought to concentrate on saving souls, Page said.

Carter, in a phone interview, denied the meeting was political.

He said he helped organize the meeting to show the world that Christians of every political, racial and national persuasion can worship and work together to address social needs.

The meeting Jan. 30 to Feb. 1 will feature preaching and speeches by Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and former President Bill Clinton, who stood by Carter last year in calling for the meeting. Former Vice President Al Gore will speak on the environment, and well-known workers in social issues will present workshops.

The meeting immediately follows another significant gathering, of four large black Baptist denominations. They have suffered their own divisions but are coming back together. Many delegates will attend both.

"[The meeting] is precedent setting," said Yvonne Drayton, the spokeswoman for the National Baptist Convention, USA, whose membership is estimated at more than 5 million. Its the largest African-American Baptist denomination in the U.S.

"This is the first time the black Baptists and the white Baptists and everyone else have gotten together for a meeting like this," she said. More HERE

Obama takes off the gloves against Hillary and Bill Clinton

AAPP: Finally Barack Obama is taking off the gloves. He is not going to sit there like so many other black Democrats and let the Clintons treat him like a second class American citizens. It's time for him to fight for what he wants. They have decided to marginalize his presidency quest as the black man against a white woman, he should stay on message, but also bring out his own back-up, Michelle Obama.




Politico reports, " Sen. Barack Obama launched Sunday what his top aides described as a more aggressive bid to challenge “unbelievable falsehoods” pressed last week in Nevada by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and former President Bill Clinton."






Politico notes, With Obama’s new strategy, the Democratic nomination fight took on a new contour: It’s Obama versus two Clintons, not just one. And the line of attack emerging from his second consecutive primary loss appears to be this: The Clintons are a couple whose words cannot always be trusted.

“You know the former president, who I think all of us have a lot of regard for, has taken his advocacy on behalf of his wife to a level that I think is pretty troubling,” Obama told ABC’s “Good Morning America” in an interview taped Sunday and set to air Monday. “He continues to make statements that are not supported by the facts — whether it's about my record of opposition to the war in Iraq or our approach to organizing in Las Vegas. This has become a habit, and one of the things that we're gonna have to do is to directly confront Bill Clinton when he's making statements that are not factually accurate.”

More HERE

Also read the following post:

Nevada Results; Robocalls; Blacks and Latinos

For Sale "America" all of it!

America seems to be on the verge of the worst economic times since the great depression.

Corporate executives are now selling America to the highest bidder! With no one watching the store.

As reported by the Arizona Republic and The New York Times "Corporate America is up for grabs these days, and foreign buyers are bringing their checkbooks."

From red-tag markdowns to white sales to blue-light specials, public companies across the U.S. are being gobbled up at an accelerating pace, driven by currency factors and foreigners' need to put money from their trade surpluses to work.

Last year, foreigners paid $294 billion for 615 American public companies, according to Standard & Poor's Capitial IQ research service. That's up from 283 deals worth just under $59 billion in 2004 More.

There is more. As reported by the New York Times Last May, a Saudi Arabian conglomerate bought a Massachusetts plastics maker. In November, a French company established a new factory in Adrian, Mich., adding 189 automotive jobs to an area accustomed to layoffs. In December, a British company bought a New Jersey maker of cough syrup.

For much of the world, the United States is now on sale at discount prices. With credit tight, unemployment growing and worries mounting about a potential recession, American business and government leaders are courting foreign money to keep the economy growing. Foreign investors are buying aggressively, taking advantage of American duress and a weak dollar to snap up what many see as bargains, while making inroads to the world’s largest market.

Last year, foreign investors poured a record $414 billion into securing stakes in American companies, factories and other properties through private deals and purchases of publicly traded stock, according to Thomson Financial, a research firm. That was up 90 percent from the previous year and more than double the average for the last decade. It amounted to more than one-fourth of all announced deals for the year, Thomson said.

During the first two weeks of this year, foreign businesses agreed to invest another $22.6 billion for stakes in American companies — more than half the value of all announced deals. If a recession now unfolds and the dollar drops further, the pace could accelerate, economists say.

The surge of foreign money has injected fresh tension into a running debate about America’s place in the global economy. It has supplied state governors with a new development strategy — attracting foreign money. And it has reinvigorated sometimes jingoistic worries about foreigners securing control of America’s fortunes, a narrative last heard in the 1980s as Americans bought up Hondas and Rockefeller Center landed in Japanese hands.

With a growing share of investment coming from so-called sovereign wealth funds — vast pools of money controlled by governments from China to the Middle East — lawmakers and regulators are calling for greater scrutiny to ensure that foreign countries do not gain influence over the financial system or military-related technology. On the presidential campaign trail, the Democratic candidates have begun to focus on these foreign funds, calling for international rules that would make them more transparent.

Debate is swirling in Washington about the best way to stimulate a flagging economy. Despite divided opinion about the merits, foreign investment may be preventing deeper troubles by infusing hard-luck companies with cash and keeping some in business.

The most conspicuous beneficiaries are Wall Street banks like Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley, which have sold stakes to government-controlled funds in Asia and the Middle East to compensate for calamitous losses on mortgage markets. Beneath the headlines, a more profound shift is under way: Foreign entities last year captured stakes in American companies in businesses as diverse as real estate, steel-making, energy and baby food. More HERE

AAPP: The Gun Toting Liberal is right, Washington Is Literally Selling America To Foreign Nations, Piece By Piece.

Clinton wins Nevada popular vote, Obama wins more Nevada Delegates

Yes, Hillary Clinton won the Nevada popular vote as reported by the Las Vegas Sun. But she failed to win more delegates than Obama.

But hey, as one reader of the Las Vegas Sun noted, "Congratulations Clintons, you've turned brown against black, union against union."

As reported By Las Vegas Sun Staff following an intense campaign that included contested polling sites, negative ads and opposition from the Culinary Union, Hillary Clinton emerged victorious today in what proved to be a raucous — and in some cases confusing — Nevada Democratic caucus.

“I guess this is how the West was won,” the New York senator told hundreds of cheering supporters who gathered at Planet Hollywood to celebrate her win.

Noting some of the divisions in the party during the campaign, Clinton said, “we will all be united in November.”

Clinton’s win over Barack Obama in Nevada gives her much-needed momentum going into next Saturday’s South Carolina Democratic primary, where Obama was seen as having an advantage because of that state’s large African-American population. More HERE

Hopefully African American from south carolina won't be following this preacher ignorant message of black self hatred

Blacks, The Black Church, Black Preachers, and Hillary Clinton

Hillary and Bill Clinton seem to have an interesting hold on old school "Negro" preachers who are willing to sell their souls, and the souls of their church members in the name of support the woman over the black man. The Devil is in the details of his sermon. Take a look at this video below. This is self hating Negro preacher is out of his mind.

H/T Over Analyze It for the link.

Blacks, America, Obama and Ronald Reagan

I'm not sure if you caught Sen. Barack Obama comments to the Reno Gazette-Journal editorial board regarding of all people Ronald Reagan. Check out what is said:

I don't want to present myself as some sort of singular figure. I think part of what's different are the times...I think Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory of America in a way that Richard Nixon did not and in a way that Bill Clinton did not. He put us on a fundamentally different path because the country was ready for it.

I'm taking a second and third look at Obama. Does Obama remember what Ronald Reagan did to black America? Candidly, I'm feeling anyone who will kiss up to Republicans and use the name of Ronald Reagan, may not be the change agent America needs.

What did you think about Obama saying "Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory of America in a way that Richard Nixon did not and in a way that Bill Clinton did not." Maybe Barack Obama should have read the late Steve Gillard's post on Ronald Reagan, when he wrote, "Reagan depicted blacks as "welfare queens" leeching off the society, when in reality, white women are the largest recipients of AFDC. Reagan used race like a club to hammer minorities and pander to the racist right."

Steve Gillard also noted, "We need to ask what hath Reagan wrought. His economic policies crippled this country, preventing the kind of long term structural changes which are still needed. How long will American businesses have to foot the bill for health insurance? How long will unequal funding for schools exist? How long will the right of women to control their bodies be subject to restrictions? This is the real, domestic legacy of Ronald Reagan. His breaking of the PATCO strike began the road to anti-Union policies across business. Once, businesses wanted labor peace, after Reagan, strike breaking was permitted, hell encouraged.

Reagan began the road of crippling America's ability to care for Americans. Now we have this failed trickle down economic policy pushed by yet another President. One that leaves Americans in record debt and record bankruptcies. Instead of tax rates which fairly distribute the burden of funding America, the rich have been encouraged to avoid their fair share. Ronald Reagan began the bankrupting of America and the creation of a super wealthy CEO class, one where their great grandchildren will never have to work, an aristocracy of trustifarians. Under Reagan hypocracy and selfishness became the rule of the road. Not just in public life, where his staff routinely lied, eventually leading to Iran-Contra.

But if Reagan started to ruin America, his foreign policy left the dead around like fallen leaves. His foreign policy was a disater by any standard. Dead nuns in El Salvador, murdered school teachers in Nicaragua, the tortured in Argentina, the seizure of Grenade, the failed intervention in Lebanon, the aerial assasination attempt on Khaddafi, which led to the bombing of Pam Am flight 103. Reagan's policies left a trail of failure and disaster at every turn.

How to explain funding the deeply corrupt Contras? Former Somocista generals who funded their war by the drug trade? Who murdered the innoncent. Or the war in Guatemala and the genocide of the indian population. Or the war in El Salvador, where American nuns, among many others, were raped and murdered. A government so callous that it murdered an archbishop in his church. Reagan's foreign policy left a trail of death and fear wherever it touched." More HERE

Maybe Barack Obama should read more about Ronald Reagan, and stop kissing up to Ronald Reagan supporters. They probably won' be voting for Obama anyway. But that is just my opinion, what's yours?

Race Matters? Whites Over 65 Not Voting For Obama...Yet

AAPP: Well it appears that white older voters over 65 are still stuck in the past.

As reported by CBS News, Now that Democrats have voted or caucused in three states in three different parts of the country, it appears there is one crucial voting bloc that will not support Barack Obama: older Americans.

Analysis: Obama's Age Gap: Is It Race?

Obama was able to overcome a consistent age gap in Iowa because of an unusually high turnout by young voters who supported him overwhelmingly. And he may be able to carry South Carolina, where roughly half the Democratic primary voters are expected to be African-American.

But Obama’s weak performance so far among older voters substantially increases the odds against him scoring big victories in the slew of states voting on February 5th, "Super Duper Tuesday."

Hillary Clinton has dominated among voters of a “certain age.”

In Iowa, Clinton grabbed 45 percent of the 65 and up while Obama took just 18 percent. In New Hampshire, she won 48 percent to 32 percent. Among voters 60 and older in Nevada, Clinton mopped up with a stunning 60 percent to Obama’s 31 percent.

Nationally, Clinton led Obama 44 percent to 18 percent among voters over 65 in a CBS New/The New York Times poll taken January 9-12.

This could be Hillary Clinton’s secret recipe for success. That’s because older Americans turn out to vote.

Voters over 65 were a solid 22 percent of the Democratic primary electorate in Iowa.

But in Nevada, a dazzling 36 percent of the primary voters were over 60. Turnout for the caucuses was huge. Nearly a third of the state’s registered Democrats participated. All Democrats, even the over-65 crowd, are unusually motivated this year - not just the young voters Obama has energized. More HERE

AAPP: I guess my earlier remarks: Are Southern Whites Resisting Obama? Is It because of his Race? Black Man V White Woman, Can Obama Really Fight Back?

Obama Leads Hillary among black voters - 59 percent to 31 percent

(CNN) Reports Sen. Hillary Clinton has lost a large amount of support among African-Americans, with a majority of black Democrats now supporting Sen. Barack Obama, according to a new poll out Friday.

Barack Obama leads Hillary Clinton among black voters 59 percent to 31 percent

In a national survey by CNN/Opinion Research Corp., 59 percent of black Democrats backed Obama, an Illinois Democrat, for their party's presidential nomination, with 31 percent supporting Clinton, the senator from New York.

The 28 point lead for Obama is a major reversal from October, when Clinton held a 24 point lead among black Democrats.

"There's been a huge shift among African-American Democrats from Clinton to Obama. African-American Democrats used to be reluctant to support Obama because they didn't think a black man could be elected. Then Obama won Iowa and nearly won New Hampshire. Now they believe," said Bill Schneider, CNN senior political analyst.

"Obama's lead over Clinton among black men is more than 50 points, and among black women, once a Clinton stronghold, Obama has an 11 point advantage," said CNN polling director Keating Holland.

It also appears the recent bickering between Clinton and Obama and their campaigns over race has hurt both candidates. Clinton has the support of 42 percent of all registered Democrats in the new survey, down seven points from last week's CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll. Obama has the backing of 33 percent of those questioned, down three percentage points in a week.

The beneficiary appears to be former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, who jumped 5 points, to 17 percent. More HERE

Are Southern Whites Resisting Obama? Is It because of his Race? Black Man V White Woman, Can Obama Really Fight Back?

With black support shifting toward Obama and black voters in Georgia joining voting rolls at three times the pace of whites is Obama now facing white resistance In South?

The Huffington Post reports, Donna Brazile, who ran the 2000 Gore campaign, said "my sense is that it [white southern support for Obama] is independents, college students, high income, highly educated and urban whites who often back strong Black reform candidates. More HERE

Now we learn Hillary Clinton has narrowly won the Democratic Nevada Caucus.

In the case of the south do you think Obama may have a hard time getting white support because Obama is Black? Do you think southerners will vote for John Edwards vs Voting for a black or a women Presidential candidate? Do you think he is taking a risk when he is attacked to fight back, against a woman? Can he fight back against Hillary's attacks? Particularly when Hillary feels she is "entitled to the Presidency," and Obama needs to wait his turn. I guess she would like to say, "First a woman, then a black. Not a black and then a women, Senator Obama."

Mitt Romney, Blacks and his scary history

Oh Hell No! Not another bigot coming in first for the Republicans. Is this going to be George Bush part 3? CBS News projects former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney will be the winner of the Nevada Republican caucuses More HERE. Romney who has no problems using the expression ``tar baby" -- a phrase many African Americans consider a racial epithet -- More HERE

Mitt Romney has continued to lie as he refuses repudiate Mormon racism. Also check out his comments of the great experiment of America, and how it took America a while to figure out racial hatred. The folks at Jack and Jill Politics have been following Mitt and Mormons, Romney and Race for some time. So have the many other black political bloggers and their readers.

Even Black Republicans are concerned about Mitt Romney. As reported by the National Black Chamber of Commerce, Very recently, well known Black Republican J.C. Watts publicly complained that the Romney presidential campaign was absolutely void of Blacks, Hispanics or any other ethnicity other than white. It was lily white and this needed to be corrected proclaimed the former Black congressman from Oklahoma. When approached about J.C.’s comments on CNN News, Mitt Romney retorted, “What’s the charge? Is there something wrong with that?” He then explained that he hired only the best workers and if that means an all white staff – so be it. More HERE

Maybe Mitt and his team should read more about black folks within his faith, and maybe hire some black members o his own faith. But then again, as he said, 'if that means an all white staff - so be it."

All Blacks and Arabs look alike


Expect some more, Osam — uh — Barack Obama type comments from Mitt Romney in the near future. You see, Mitt Romney can't tell the difference between Osama and Obama.

Is Obama a straight talker?

Check out this article about Obama is Slate; Is Obama as much of a straight talker as he claims?

By John Dickerson

Barack Obama has a great new act needling Hillary Clinton over her double-speak. He says that at the last debate when the candidates were asked to name their greatest weakness, he answered honestly (he's no good at paperwork), but Clinton and Edwards gave fake answers. Pretending to talk about their weaknesses, they actually talked about their strengths. If he'd known it was a game, said Obama at a rally in Las Vegas, he would have given the same kind of answer: "Well, ya know, I like to help old ladies across the street. Sometimes they don't want to be helped. It's terrible." (Or perhaps he could have answered that his weakness is that he answers questions too honestly.) More HERE

The Confederacy, Mike Huckabee, Ron Paul, Hillary and Bill Clinton - Old Southern Racial Politics

AAPP says: Hillary and Bill Clinton's offensive remarks regarding Barack Obama has caused this pundit and many other political bloggers to take a closer look at other Presidential candidates views on color arousal or better known as race issues. International civil and human rights activist, and internet activist Francis L. Holland has uncovered an article regarding Ron Paul and what I would term, Ron Paul's racist and bigoted thoughts regarding black People.

Ron Paul is not the only candidate harboring racial hatred, Thomas B. Edsall, political editor of the Huffington Post and Joseph Pulitzer II and Edith Pulitzer Moore Professor at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.(H/T Agent X for the link) has also uncovered some ugly truths about former Gov. Mike Huckabee. First let's take a look at some of Presidential Candidate Ron Paul's thoughts about you know what:

Race

"A Special Issue on Racial Terrorism" analyzes the Los Angeles riots of 1992: "Order was only restored in L.A. when it came time for the blacks to pick up their welfare checks three days after rioting began. ... What if the checks had never arrived? No doubt the blacks would have fully privatized the welfare state through continued looting. But they were paid off and the violence subsided."

Source: The New Republic

The November 1990 issue of the Political Report had kind words for David Duke.

Source: The New Republic

This newsletter describes Martin Luther King Jr. as "a world-class adulterer" who "seduced underage girls and boys" and "replaced the evil of forced segregation with the evil of forced integration."

Source: The New Republic

There is more

Paul reported on gang crime in Los Angeles and commented, “If you have ever been robbed by a black teen-aged male, you know how unbelievably fleet-footed they can be.”

“Given the inefficiencies of what D.C. laughingly calls the 'criminal justice system,’ I think we can safely assume that 95 percent of the black males in that city are semi-criminal or entirely criminal,” Paul said.

Paul also wrote that although “we are constantly told that it is evil to be afraid of black men, it is hardly irrational. Black men commit murders, rapes, robberies, muggings and burglaries all out of proportion to their numbers.”

Now regarding Gov. Mike Huckabee and his campaign to bring the confederate flag into the Presidential campaign. As Posted by Thomas B. Edsall at the Huffington Post

H/T AlterNet and Agent X for the Link

Columbia, S. Car. -- The populist campaign of Mike Huckabee, seeking to mobilize an insurgency of white evangelicals against the Republican establishment, took an abrupt turn today after the former Arkansas governor directly appealed to voters on the issue of race, summoning his fellow candidates to stop calling for the removal of the Confederate flag from government offices.

"You don't like people from outside the state coming in and telling you what to do with your flag. ... If somebody came to Arkansas and told us what to do with our flag, we'd tell them what to do with the pole. That's what we'd do," he declared to applause at a campaign rally in Myrtle Beach Thursday.

Source: Huffington Post

AAPP: It's really a disgrace that we have to learn that politicians like the Clinton's, Ron Paul and Huckabee have all of these racial demons within them. Ron Paul '90s newsletters rants against blacks and gays are well documented. As reported by CNN, there's 20 years, give or take, worth of newsletters there. Paul said the editor of publications "is responsible for daily activities." But he also cited "transition" and "changes" and said that some people were hired to write stories "but I didn't know their names."

AAPP: Whatever Ron Paul! we get it. "Ron Paul Don't Like Black People."

Gov. Huckabee, you will never get this Pundit's vote. I don't vote for Confederate flag waving ex Gov's of Arkansas. But then again, maybe I did. I voted for Bill Clinton twice. Maybe that is the difference between you and Bill Clinton, he's a closet confederate flag waver, you just come out and say what your about. But hey, My vote may not count anyway. It seems that Republicans and Democrats know how to steal elections.

Black Caucus is divided over Obama - They misread the tea leaves

Congressional Black Caucus

Politico.com has a great post on how the Black Caucus is divided over Obama. The author of the post, Josephine Hearn, notes "More than a third of the black members of Congress are backing Hillary Rodham Clinton or John Edwards in the presidential primary, a stance that puts them at odds with many of their African-American constituents, who, recent polls show, are beginning to shift to Obama’s camp."

She also notes in the article that, Rep. William Lacy Clay (D-Mo.), another Obama backer, said some African-Americans in Congress had miscalculated the presidential race.

“Some of our colleagues misread the tea leaves of politics and thought it was a slam-dunk for Hillary, and it’s not,” he said.

AAPP:
it's interesting that everyone sees the the Congressional Black Caucus misread the tea leaves. It's too bad they didnot hold open meeting with their constituents to get their support on who should get the congressional districts support. It also too bad that these political misfits didnot get commitments for their districts, instead of their own families. But that is just my opinion.

Check out the post the Black Caucus divided over Obama, HERE.
The article is a must read!

Fred Thompson's could care less about AIDS in Africa

The Washington Post has a great article OP ED piece on Fred Thompson. I love it when WaPo calls politicians out. Now we learn that Fred Thompson would be willing to help every other country in the world, but Africa. Check out the Op Ed in which Michael Gerson reports;

At a campaign stop attended by a CBS reporter in Lady's Island, S.C., Thompson was asked if he, "as a Christian, as a conservative," supported President Bush's global AIDS initiative. "Christ didn't tell us to go to the government and pass a bill to get some of these social problems dealt with. He told us to do it," Thompson responded. "The government has its role, but we need to keep firmly in mind the role of the government, and the role of us as individuals and as Christians on the other."

Thompson went on: "I'm not going to go around the state and the country with regards to a serious problem and say that I'm going to prioritize that. With people dying of cancer, and heart disease, and children dying of leukemia still, I got to tell you -- we've got a lot of problems here. . . . " Indeed, there are a lot of problems here -- mainly of Thompson's own making.

AAPP: Fred Thompson is scary, I agree with WaPo writer By Michael Gerson when questioned:

"What of the more than 1.4 million men, women and children who have received treatment with the help of Bush's AIDS initiative? According to Thompson, they are not a priority. The 800,000 HIV-positive pregnant women who have gotten treatment to prevent transmission to their children? Not a priority. The care of nearly 3 million orphans? Not a priority." More HERE

AAPP: I guess there will be some black Republicans who will be voting for Fred Thompson. Will you?