Hip-hop mogul and Phat Farm CEO Russell Simmons has publicly released a statement announcing his endorsement for Senator Barack Obama, saying that he was inspired by the diversity among supporters of the senator from Illinois.
“Today I am announcing my personal endorsement of Senator Barack Obama for President of the United States,” announced entertainment mogul Russell Simmons Sunday. “From the sidelines of the primaries and debates, I have been particularly inspired by the fact that Sen. Obama has built an unprecedented, national movement comprised of people from all ethnic, racial, political, social and economic backgrounds. Although I have great respect for the accomplishments of Sen. Clinton and I have personally worked with Sen. Clinton successfully on issues concerning education, prison reform and poverty, I am now compelled by my own personal conscience to publicly state, ‘I support and endorse Barack Obama for President.’
As the Chairman of the non-partisan, nonprofit The Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, it is my personal opinion that Sen. Obama’s campaign for President has and will continue to transcend race in America and have a profound positive impact on the very issues I have been fighting for my whole life. Many of you know my work as Chairman of the non-partisan, nonprofit Hip-Hop Summit Action Network. Hip-Hop as a cultural phenomena is also about transformation and taking action to end poverty, war and ignorance. While I am endorsing Senator Obama as a private citizen, I am in complete solidarity with the transformative consciousness of the growing number artists and young people from the hip-hop generation that are overwhelmingly supporting Obama.”
If you are a registered voter and live in either Texas, Ohio, Vermont, or Rhode Island, make sure you exercise your rights as a citizen and participate in your state’s primary or caucus tomorrow. Out of the 2,025 delegate votes needed, Barack Obama is currently sitting pretty with 1,202 votes, while Hillary Clinton only has 1,042.
Senator Barack Obama got a major boost Tuesday with victories in the Democratic presidential primaries in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia. Obama remains in a tight race with Senator Hillary Clinton, but the Illinois senator is favored to add to his delegate lead in next Tuesday’s contests in Wisconsin and Hawaii. VOA National correspondent Jim Malone reports from Washington. Experts were struck by the margins of the Obama victories on Tuesday, especially in Virginia and Maryland where he won 64 percent and 62 percent of the vote respectively. Obama benefited from strong support from African-Americans and a burning desire for change among many voters like this man in the nation’s capital.
“I just want to see change in the world and I think this primary can bring about change, specifically on Iraq and health care,” he said. Obama has now won eight contests in a row against Clinton and hopes to build unstoppable momentum with victories in next Tuesday’s primary in Wisconsin and a Democratic caucus in Hawaii. “It is about whether we are looking backwards or whether we are marching forward,” said Obama. “And when I am the Democratic nominee for president, that will be the choice we have in November.”
WASHINGTON (CNN) — Many voters in Saturday’s Republican contests showed they’re not yet ready to support Sen. John McCain as their party’s nominee while Sen. Barack Obama cut into Sen. Hillary Clinton’s lead in the race for Democratic delegates. Obama claimed victory in Louisiana, Nebraska and Washington on Saturday, as well as in the Virgin Islands. “The stakes are too high and the challenges are too great to play the same old Washington game with the same old Washington players and expect a different result,” Obama told a hugely supportive crowd of Democrats at the Jefferson-Jackson dinner in Richmond, Virginia. “People want to turn the page. They want to write a new chapter in American history.”
Clinton has 1,100 delegates and Obama has 1,039, according to CNN calculations. Obama leads in pledged delegates — 908 to 877 — but Clinton’s superdelegates — 223 to 131 — give her the overall lead. “If I’m your nominee, you will never have to worry that I will be knocked out of the ring, because I do have strength and experience to lead this country, and I am ready to go toe-to-toe with Sen. McCain whenever and wherever he desires,” Clinton said Saturday. [ READ MORE » ]
Here are Oprah Winfrey’s comments about why she is voting for Obama in the face of criticisms from women and charges she is only voting for him because he is Black.
Results are still being finalized, so I won’t be able to post a full rundown of percentages and what-not until tomorrow, but according to a post on Barack Obama’s blog via his official website, the Illinois Senator has been named the winner of Super Tuesday by his campaign manager David Plouffe.
By winning a majority of delegates and a majority of the states, Barack Obama won an important Super Tuesday victory over Senator Clinton in the closest thing we have to a national primary. From Colorado and Utah in the west to Georgia and Alabama in the south to Senator Clinton’s backyard in Connecticut, Obama showed that he can win the support of Americans of every race, gender, and political party in every region of the country. That’s why he’s on track to win Democratic nomination, and that’s why he’s the best candidate to defeat John McCain in November.
UPDATE: The results have been finalized, and although Barack did win the most states, he DID NOT win the most delegates from Super Tuesday, which contradicts this post. But it was pretty close, as Hillary only beat him by 9 delegate votes. As far as the overall race goes, Sen. Hillary Clinton currently has 823 delegate votes, while Sen. Barack Obama only has 741 delegate votes.
But just to clarify, BARACK OBAMA DID NOT WIN SUPER TUESDAY!
According to CNN, Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are only separated by less than 1% when it comes to the votes cast on Super Tuesday.
NEW YORK (CNN) — Just how sharply are Democrats divided between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton? Of all the votes cast on Super Tuesday for the two candidates nationwide, they are only separated by 0.4 of a percentage point. By midday Wednesday, 14,645,638 votes were reported cast for either Obama or Clinton on Tuesday. Clinton had won 7,350,238 of those votes (50.2 percent) while Obama captured 7,295,400 votes (49.8 percent).
Most precincts had reported 100 percent of their votes by Wednesday, though some districts had yet to complete their count. Many of those votes are in in New Mexico, where CNN has yet to declare a winner, and in California, where a sizeable number of absentee votes have yet to be tallied.
The race is getting tighter and tighter with results from “Super Tuesday” still flowing in. So far, Sen. Barack Obama has taken the following states: Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, and Utah, bringing his total win (for Super Tuesday) to 10. And Sen. Hillary Clinton has won the following states: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Massachusetts, New York, Oklahoma, and Tennessee, bringing her Super Tuesday total win to only 7. But results are still coming in, and technically, Hillary Clinton is still winning (overall in the race), since she has the most delegate votes. So far she has 825 del. votes, while Barack only has 732. Only time will tell who’ll have the most delegate votes after every state who participated in Super Tuesday reports 100%.
All of the polls are closed, and the results are swarming in with over 20 states reporting results from “Super Tuesday!” So far, Baracka Obama has won Georgia, Illinois, and Alabama, while Hillary Clinton has taken Massachusetts, New York, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Tennessee. These are just the definite wins. Polls are just now closing on the west coast, so throughout the evening/morning, I’ll be posting results as they come in. CNN should keep you covered ’til then…
Sorry I couldn’t get this up sooner. My internet connection has been acting up all weekend…
Not even two weeks ago, if you were to take a poll in South Carolina asking voters in the Democratic party who they would be voting for in the January 26th 2008 primary, HIllary Clinton probably would’ve had slightly more votes than Barack Obama. Over the past two weeks, that has dramatically changed! I don’t know if it was the comments regarding Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., or Bob Johnson showing us that he’s a living, breathing Uncle Ruckus, but something changed the black vote in South Carolina! Over 70% of the African American vote went to Barack Obama! And when it came to the entire state of SC, Senator Obama had well over 50% of the vote! I actually took part in this primary and casted my vote, so the results actually mean something to me. If you haven’t done so already, I’m not asking, I’M TELLING YOU to register to vote! You can’t participate in the primaries, but you’ll definitely be able to participate in the general election this November.
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Senator Barack Obama won a commanding victory over Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in the South Carolina Democratic primary on Saturday, drawing a wide majority of black support and one-quarter of white voters in a contest that sets the stage for a multistate fight for the party’s presidential nomination. In a bitter campaign here infused with discussions of race, Mr. Obama’s convincing victory puts him on equal footing with Mrs. Clinton — with two wins each in early-voting states — and gives him fresh momentum as the contest plunges into a nationwide battle over the next 10 days.
Former Senator John Edwards, a native of South Carolina who was trying to revive his candidacy, came in third place but vowed to keep his campaign alive, despite failing to win a single state so far. With 99 percent of the electoral precincts reporting, Mr. Obama had 55 percent of the vote, Mrs. Clinton had 27 percent, and Mr. Edwards had 18 percent. [ CLICK HERE FOR MORE! ]
If you haven’t been keeping up with the results of the Democratic primaries, check out the results thus-far after the cut! CONTINUE READING
Martin Luther King Jr. Day is a United States holiday marking the birthdate of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., observed on the third Monday of January each year, around the time of King’s birthday, January 15. It is one of four United States federal holidays to commemorate an individual person. King was the chief spokesman of the nonviolent civil rights movement, which successfully protested racial discrimination in federal and state law. He was assassinated in 1968. The campaign for a federal holiday in King’s honor began soon after his assassination. Ronald Reagan signed the holiday into law in 1983, and it was first observed in 1986. At first, some states resisted observing the holiday as such, giving it alternative names or combining it with other holidays. It was officially observed in all 50 states for the first time in 2000. [SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA]
As we reflect on the life and accomplishments of Dr. King, take a minute or two to view his most famous speech, the “I Have a Dream” speech, which can be found under the cut. Happy King Day! You can also find photos of the Democratic candidates participating in a march to the state capitol building in Columbia, South Carolina. CONTINUE READING
Bloomberg is reporting that our boy Barack Obama has a 90% chance of taking the win in the New Hampshire Democratic primary on Tuesday.
Odds that the 46-year-old Illinois senator will prevail in tomorrow’s vote jumped after he won last week’s Iowa Democratic caucuses, while wagers on New York Senator Hillary Clinton, the third-placed finisher in Iowa, tumbled. Online traders say Clinton, 60, has an 8.7 percent of winning in New Hampshire, according to futures contracts at Intrade, a unit of Dublin-based Trade Exchange Network Co. Bettors give former North Carolina Senator John Edwards, who placed second in Iowa, only a 0.3 percent chance of victory in New Hampshire.
Before the Iowa vote, traders gave Obama a 34 percent chance of victory in the New Hampshire primary and a 1-in-4 likelihood of becoming the presidential nominee. That compared with Clinton’s odds of 60 percent in New Hampshire and a two-thirds likelihood of gaining the party’s presidential nomination. Now, Obama has a 66 percent chance of becoming the Democratic nominee, while Clinton’s odds have fallen to 33 percent, according to Trade Exchange, which runs both Intrade and TradeSports.com.
“t looks like Hillary will lose,” said Mike Lenhoff, who helps oversee about $36 billion as chief strategist at Brewin Dolphin Securities Ltd. in London. “I am genuinely surprised at the groundswell of support that Obama has received and the crest of popularity he has ridden on.” In a USA Today/Gallup poll taken after the results of the Iowa caucuses were reported, Obama and McCain held the advantage with the New Hampshire voters before tomorrow’s primary. CONTINUE READING
If you’re a regular reader to T2W you’ll know that I am behind Senator Barack Obama 100%! So just in time for the primaries and caucuses, I decided to add a Politics category where I’ll keep you updated on who’s doing what, and who’s winning what states. I’m no politics expert, but this is my first time being able to vote for a President, so I’m still learning about how everything works … so we can learn together, lol. But anyhow, if you haven’t been living under a rock, then you already know that Barack took the win in the Iowa caucus. If you’re interested in seeing his speech, check it out above.
If you have not registered to vote, then I suggest you do before it’s too late! Contrary to popular belief, if you are currently 17 years old, and will turn 18 on or before November 4, 2008, then you can register TODAY and participate in the primary elections. I won’t be 18 until the 18th of this month, but I registered to vote last fall when they had a rally at my school, and told all of the juniors and seniors what I just told you. I’m from South Carolina, and our Democratic primaries will be held on the 19th (Republican) and the 26th (Democratic). So if you’re from SC, it’s too late to register to vote for the PRIMARIES, but you can still register for the NOVEMBER ELECTION. I provided a link below if you are unsure how to register, or if you’re not sure whether or not the deadline has passed for you to participate in the primaries.
Primary elections are important because they decide who will represent the Democrats and Republicans in the election. So, for instance, if you’re rooting for Barack Obama, then you need to participate in the primaries, because if he doesn’t get enough votes, then he won’t even be able to participate in the November election. Now, I could be wrong on how that process works, so if someone knows, please correct me.
Today is the Wyoming caucuses, so I’ll keep you updated on who wins what … even if my favorite doesn’t make the cut. I’ll try to provide you an unbiased view of everything, but I can’t make any promises lol. My mistake, the Wyoming Democratic caucus isn’t until March 8th. The Republican caucus was held today… But the first Democratic primary will be next Tuesday, January 8th and we’ll definitely keep you updated with that. And just to clarify what I said about providing an “unbiased view of everything,” I meant an unbiased view of the Democratic race. Eff the Republicans lol.
Will Smith hit up MTV’s TRL today to promote his new movie, “I Am Legend.” The film is set to hit theaters this weekend (Friday, December 14th)! I might have to check this one out… Peep more photos from random events after the cut! CONTINUE READING
