Posted by
(New Leadership) Mark S. Allen on Thursday, May 22, 2008 10:25:35 PM
Originally Released Thursday, January 31, 2008
Contact Mark S. Allen @773-392-0165
OBAMA/CLINTON - CLINTON/OBAMA IS THE TICKET?
I was one of the first community organizers who Barack Obama met in Chicago over 20 years ago, and I have worked directly with him throughout his political career. I think that he missed an opportunity to explain how his community organizing in Chicago was historic. In 1986, Barack was Project Director for Project Vote, a city-wide voter registration campaign that put over 100, 000 new voters on the books, which set the stage for the historic election of Illinois U.S. Senator Carol Moseley-Braun, the re-election of Chicago's 1st Black Mayor Harold Washington in 1987, and a new Chicago City Council.
The fact that Obama and Clinton complimented each other and often used the word "we" in their presentations of course raised the question of whether there could be an Obama/Clinton or Clinton/Obama ticket. That question got a lot of reaction from the audience, and is worthy of consideration. The combination of them both best represents a ticket that is not the Black or White ticket, but the right ticket. As a former staff member on Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr's 1988 Presidential staff, I watched how many of our supporters did not support the Democratic nominee Dukakis after Rev. Jackson as the number two vote getter with 7 million votes was not on the ticket.
The Democratic Party cannot afford for the excitement and new generation of voters that Obama and Clinton have brought to the process to turn off by the non inclusion of the other candidate on the ticket. Will Obama supporters have the same passion to elect Clinton if she becomes the nominee without Obama as VP? Would Clinton supporters have the same enthusiasm for Obama if he is the nominee without her as VP? A lot of new voters may not understand why the two top vote getters are not automatically the ticket. Based upon my experience of 1988, let me be one of the first to say that I would surely support the Obama/Clinton - Clinton-Obama ticket."
Mark S. Allen
Associate Editor
The South Street Journal Newspaper
*Veteran Political activist with over 30 "straight years in public service on local, state and national levels, including 7 years as a national staff member to the
Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr
*Former talk show host on the legendary Black/News Talk Station WVON
*Who's Who Among African Americans
*Who's Who In Black Chicago