CHAPIN, S.C. — I'll be leaving South Carolina shortly, so this is probably my only blog post of the day.
Until tomorrow, here's my story from today's paper about what's next for the Democratic candidates. I focused on Tricia Moseley, a Republican who voted for and volunteered on behalf of Sen. Barack Obama.
(Here is one of Astrid Riecken's great shots of Moseley.)
As I noted last night, Obama mentioned Moseley in his victory speech. About an hour later, I bumped into Moseley in downtown Columbia, who was beside herself with excitement.
The next stop for her is Georgia, where she will reach out to Republicans to try and convince them to vote for Obama.
During our day together on the campaign trail, Moseley told me she was frustrated that Sen. Hillary Clinton unleashed criticism about Obama saying President Reagan transformed the country's politics.
"That just infuriated me. It's a historical fact that President Reagan won in 1980 with a huge number of Democrats," she said.
I've already gotten a bunch of e-mails about the story — coming from both perspectives.
Some folks have said they are Republicans and plan to vote for Obama, while others wrote in saying no Republican would ever vote for a Democrat as liberal as Obama.
— Christina Bellantoni, national political reporter, The Washington Times
Comments (8)
Obama supporters wake up. Obama is running a racist campaign.
Obama's camp compared their victory over Clinton in Iowa to OJ Simpson's murder of his white wife. "The natural reminder here is O.J. [Simpson] -- how does an African American candidate attack a white woman?" said Rep. Jesse L. Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.), a fellow Black Chicagoan whose father ran for president twice in the 1980s.
That was waaaaaay back in January. And the media covered it up!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDaO7N-JujU
This is how Washington Post buried the information by ignoring its racist tone.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/04/AR2008010400117.html
Posted by FJ Stratford | January 27, 2008 4:03 PM
There are only two possibilities to explain Tricia Moseley's behavior. First is that she is possibly just a nut case and goes in whatever the direction the wind blows and is has a very gullible mind. The second being that she was never a Republican to begin with and her whole story is bogus. A Republican might vote for a moderate Democrat, if there still was such a thing, but any Republican who miraculously converted to the radical left wing of the Democratic party is a nut case moonbat! It would be equally as ridiculous as to converting to Wahabi Muslim after having been a Southern Baptist all your life. Lunacy is the only explanation not enlightening.
Posted by Hollywood3763 | January 27, 2008 6:44 PM
Dennis Praeger this morning talked about the meaningless word "Change" that is clearly the centerpiece of the Obama campaign. Meaningless for a lot of reasons, not the least of which each and every candidate wants change. Where the theme "Change" fuels the heart of the wonderful rhetoric from Obama we will begin to see in the general election what the real stances are on hard issues. Obama will face the facts and his policies will be looked at very closely. He is not the choice of Republicans by any stretch. I do however, wish we had a spokesperson on the right who spoke as well as Obama does.
Posted by Jeff | January 28, 2008 1:20 PM
Great article Christina!! I am also a life long republican who will be voting for BARACK OBAMA next Tuesday! As a father of two I have seen what a bad president can do for their future. It is time to put an Honest man with INTEGRITY back in the forefront of American Politics. While John McCain is a great American hero, Barack Obama can transcend all race, religions, and genders and will be able to finally bring America back to World-wide prominence. As a republican I urge all of you to vote for the Future, not only your future, but the future of your children, grand-children and generations to come!
Posted by IvebeenTranscended | January 28, 2008 3:45 PM
Not a nutcase, but an older female Republican that's been an Obama supporter before he announced.
Read his book. Trust his heart. Simple.
Posted by Jan | January 28, 2008 3:53 PM
"Barack Obama can transcend all race, religions, and genders and will be able to finally bring America back to World-wide prominence."
OH PLEASE! You speak of Obama as if he was the Lord Jesus Christ incarnate. Give me a break! This is not the praise from a "converted" Republican, it is the ravings of a lunatic. It is so plainly obvious when people don sheep's clothing and try to pass themselves of as one who has "Seen the Light"!
There is one thing Obama's "transcendancy" won't transcend an that is races, religions and Republicans. Only one so naive in the real world would consider such a bizarre notion. Obama is a man like any other and in fact is lower than the common man because he is a professional politician, which means he is automatically more corrupt than the average guy on the street.
If Obama is elected president, he will not perform miracles or walk on water bringing sight to the blind or create world peace. Get a grip on what the world really is. The world is a place crowded with people with their own interests is mind and they will choose themselves over you every time. We compete daily with the rest of the world for resources and survival and do our best to do it peacefully and orderly but utopia is not just an Obama away by no means. Any nation who is successful in gleaning wealth for its people will be criticized by those who are without. It is a nice thought that there should be no poverty but your wealth is the result of someone else's poverty in the world. If you do not think you are wealthy, you need to get out and see the rest of the world. Upon arriving home you will realize just how fortunate Americans, even poor Americans, are compared to the rest of the world.
In the real world everyday there are people who want to end your way of life, end freedom, take your assets and dominate your world. In the real world there are terrorists and communists seeking to advance their cause at your expense. You can "show them all the love and understanding" you want but they will keep trying to blow you up or expand their military to expand their communist ideals over a larger area of the globe. To believe otherwise is to surely fall victim to one or the other or even both.
Obama has no experience in global affairs, he has no experience in economics, he has no ideas but offers a blank check "change". Change to what? While I suppose in such a forum it is meaningless, I will predict that an Obama presidency will see this country on the edge of revolution before it is over and he will turn out to be the most divisive president in our history. An Obama presidency will see our nation bankrupted and our capital markets failed and will mark the end of the reign of the United States as a global leader. An Obama presidency will see the US attacked again by terrorists and the rise of a nuclear armed Iran.
Go ahead and vote for your false dream but placing your dreams in the hands of a man you do not know, who promises you "pie in the sky" and has no history as having ever been "a butcher, a baker or candlestick maker" with which to support his glorious claims to be able to conger up this dream and make your wishes come true is mighty risky. By the way, have I got a sweetheart deal for you on some magic beans for growing giant beanstalks you can climb to get your pie from the sky.
Posted by Hollywood3763 | January 28, 2008 8:43 PM
I'm undecided about who & which party I'm voting for, but found this great article called "Black Voters and a Twist of Bias" on the BlogZine SAVAGE POLITICS.
http://savagepolitics.com/?p=59
WOW- all I have to say!
Here is an excerpt: "Last Saturday's South Carolina Democratic Primary produced the widely expected result of a Barack Obama victory. From the beginning of the week, it was the ethnic composition of the State in question which was amply discussed by both the Media and it's multiple pundits. It was here and through other sources that we discovered that 55% percent of Democratic voters in South Carolina were African American. An interesting number when you consider the "coincidence" that Obama actually won the election by exactly the same margin: 55%. Of course, many in Clinton's campaign have used this demographic reality to spin their defeat, vociferating that they had always expected to loose from the start. It should be noted that it has been this exact attitude which they have ridiculed Obama's camp for, insinuating that they had proved to be "sore losers" by not admitting their own failures in stating their case to the American People. As we all know, in modern politics, no campaign is free of idiotic childishness, sadly resurfacing the reality that our current political existence is dominated by whining imbeciles of the lowest ilk. Nevertheless, the Clinton Campaign's affirmation (victory based on a unified ethnic constituency) is valid, especially when we consider the data.
The Primary's exit polling, presented by all major networks, were utilized by analysts to determine how was Obama's, Edwards, and Clinton's support spread throughout different social markers. Their results indicated that 80% of the Black vote, and only 20% of the White vote, went towards Barack Obama. Regarding most White voters in the State, you could easily identify their split between John Edwards and Hillary Clinton. The significance of this racial division is crucial in understanding the fate of Barack Obama's campaign, and the Democratic Party, if they chose to face the General Election with him at the helm." Find the rest of the article at http://savagepolitics.com/?p=59
Posted by elsylee | January 28, 2008 11:15 PM
"Read his book. Trust his heart. Simple." Such silly, starry eyed remarks sound way too much like a Democrat....or are you the typical Illinois "Republican".
Posted by Anonymous | January 28, 2008 11:57 PM