Illinois Biracial Senator Declares, "It's On!"
Kid gloves. Very soft gloves made from the skin of a kid, that is, a baby goat. Or in this case, a brother trying to make history by taking up residency at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. That would be none other than Senator Barack Obama, who declared yesterday that Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton needs to taken to the woodshed and essentially given a beatdown.
No matter how much folks try to dismiss his destiny, there is mounting alarm among some circles that his lack of assertiveness has allowed her to dominate the presidential race. One aide even recently jumped ship and is now on Team Hillary. Obama’s vow to go on the offensive comes just over two months before the first votes are cast for the Democratic nomination, and after a long period in which his aides, donors and other supporters have battled — and in some cases shared — the perception that he has not exhibited the
aggressiveness demanded by presidential politics.
In many Black circles, however, this is not a complicated issue. History must reflect that when a competent, qualified man of African ancestry with stellar credentials sought to become the most powerful person on the planet, the question will be, "Did you vote for him?" While recent accounts about Harlem, New York residents are a little disconserting, this school of thought transcends class and party affiliation. That said, it may well be time for Obama's campaign to change course. In fact, he has said as much. "Now is the time!" the audacious senator asserted. While he said that he was not out to "kneecap the front-runner, because I don't think that's what the country is looking for," he said Hillary Clinton was deliberately obscuring her positions for political gain and was less likely than he was to win back the White House for Democrats. Asked if Mrs. Clinton had been fully truthful with voters about what she would do as president, Mr. Obama replied, “No.”
“I don’t think people know what her agenda exactly is,” Mr. Obama continued, citing Social Security, Iraq and Iran as issues on which she had not been fully forthcoming. “Now it’s been very deft politically,” he said. “But one of the things that I firmly believe is that we’ve got to be clear with the American people right now about the important choices that we’re going to need to make in order to get a mandate for change, not to try to obfuscate and avoid being a target in the general election.”
In the interview, Obama acknowledged that he had held back, maintaining it was a calculated decision to introduce himself in early voting states before engaging opponents. At times, he said, he has taken lines out of speeches prepared by his campaign that he felt were “stretching the truth.” A test of just how far Obama is willing to go should come on Tuesday night, when Democrats meet for a nationally televised debate in Philly. The interview came amid signs Obama's looking for a fresh start for his campaign after nine months in which his aides said they were startled by the effectiveness of Clinton’s campaign, and worried that her support just may make her presidential aspirations, inevitable indeed!