As the primary season draws to a close it has become increasingly apparent that Hillary Clinton has run her campaign with the same contempt for intelligence, decency and democracy that George Bush has run the country. Her campaign has been sustained by cynicism, divisiveness and fear-mongering.
We all saw it. Indeed, that was the whole point. In the United States, the networks stopped regular programming so we had little choice. The White House wanted to make sure we caught the full dramatic impact of the US president landing on the USS Abraham Lincoln in a navy jet.
It is one of the enduring paradoxes of American racism that those black Americans most likely to exercise their full rights as citizens — to vote, to stand, to speak out — are the most likely to be branded as unpatriotic.
The race is tightening. Barack Obama stemmed his decline over comments of his pastor with a landmark speech on race, sparking a national conversation. But the US doesn’t need another national conversation on race — it already has too many and most of them are asinine. It needs a dialogue that could lead to a better conversation. Obama’s speech contributed to that.
The National Civil Rights Museum sits in what was the Lorraine Motel, just beyond the shadows of Memphis’s skyscrapers and the garish neon glow of Beale Street — the main drag made famous by the likes of BB King and James Baldwin. The first words of the first exhibit state: ”Protest against injustice is deeply rooted in the African-American experience.”
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/ 25 January 2008
Chinese terrorists are streaming across the border. Barack Obama is a violent socialist. Mexico has been launching military attacks against the United States. God has endorsed Mike Huckabee. Spend a week with Republicans in South Carolina and you will hear the most incredible things. That a small minority in any group might say crazy things is not surprising, writes Gary Younge.
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/ 19 November 2007
As the first serious female president on American television, Mackenzie Allen (played by Geena Davis) faced two tough choices in her first episode of the 2005 series Commander in Chief: what to wear and who to invade. As she drove to Congress to make her first address, her youngest daughter spilled grapejuice on her blouse. Using her assistant’s scarf to cover up the stain, she could then move on to the next challenge.
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/ 18 October 2007
On April 27 1968 the vice-president, Hubert Humphrey, announced his presidential candidacy. It was a particularly troubled moment in the United States’s recent history. Just three weeks after Martin Luther King’s assassination, the cities were still scarred by riots while the country as a whole was deeply divided over the Vietnam war.
Dave Hancock talks about his .38mm Smith & Wesson as though it were 800 of Dolce & Gabbana. ”It’s light, easy and comfortable to carry,” he says, easing the snub-nose pistol out of his pocket and gazing at it nostalgically. Hancock, who works at the Bob Moates Sports Store in Midlothian, Virginia, loves guns.
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/ 11 February 2007
”When he started, it was definitely a long shot,” says a friend. ”He’s got this funny name. He’s black. It wasn’t even clear at that stage if he would even get the African-American vote.” And now? On Saturday, Barack Obama announced his candidacy for president of the United States.