Redistricting and the Electoral College: Two Reasons Why Obama May Loose in 2012

Around the media world and blogosphere I incessantly see articles suggesting how Barack Obama has assured a victory in the 2012 Presidential election after his decision to go into Pakistan and kill Osama bin Laden. Words used to describe his eminent reelection included “sealed”, “slam dunk” and certain. This only demonstrated to me how little some black folk know about American government as if a bump from an assignation is all he needs.

Now I too, wrote a piece some weeks ago asserting six reasons why he had the inside road to winning in 2012. Although I stand by it, it was written before the raid on Osama bin Laden and more importantly, the actual redistricting of the GOP. Redistricting occurs once every ten years which just happens to be now.

Redistricting efforts will be very important in the 2012 Presidential elections since many states have become Republican dominated since the November 2010 elections which saw sweeping changes in legislations across the nation. The census shift that was documented last year will more than likely hurt Obama in 2012 since people have left traditional blue states for Red ones. Texas is one such case where it is expected to pick up three house seats and electoral college votes while Michigan, a traditional democratic state is expected to lose a house seat. In fact, census data indicate that states won by John McCain in 2009 are projected to gain six seats in congress, meaning states Obama won will lose six. New York and Ohio, also traditional democratic states are expected to lose congressional seats as well.

In North Carolina for example, the Republican-controlled state legislature looks to create new districts benefiting its party and are planning to try to re-draw the districts that would shift power to Republicans statewide by increasing GOP voting strength in non-Black regions. The reality is that November's elections put Republicans in control of dozens of state legislatures and governorships, just as states prepare to redraw their congressional and legislative district maps. Republicans now control the governor's offices and both legislative chambers in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, Indiana, Maine and Wisconsin. They are governors' in Nevada, New Mexico, Virginia and Iowa.

Those that assert his re-election is assured by the raid on the bin Laden compound are missing or lack the foresight to include the aforementioned and the electoral college on the selection of the Presidency. The Electoral College, administered by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), is a process that began as part of the original design of the U.S. Constitution. It was established to serve as a compromise between election of the president by Congress and election by popular vote. The political parties nominate electors at their State party conventions or by a vote of the party's central committee in each State and often recognize and are dedicated to their political party first.

Although Obama has a good chance of being re-elected, he may just as likely lose due to the census, gains in republican dominated states and the electoral college. He laso has on his side, a group of GOP hopefuls who for lack of a better word are comical to say the least. So if he doesn’t win and the projections of pundits based on one political/military event that he would, just remember their failure was due to a lack of knowledge of the constitution and middle school civics.

Mutha fuca please

I will be going on a brief hiatus from politics and the economy, or at least I think I am and that I will try my best. But seeing that it is very improbably that jones here will serve as some ones campaign advisor, better yet, the chief of staff; or will never ever be the president up in this camp, I got a few thangs I want to say about what I want to here from Obama and McCain and Nader, and McKinney, and Baldwin and Barr. So please preface the following statements with mutha fuca please:

• Talk about the national debt
• Talk about prosecuting the folk on Wall Street
• Talk about eliminating penalties associated with capital gains, if one desires to use money from 401Ks or stocks that they liquidate from their portfolios if the have hardship or use the cash to start a business
• Talk about regular jones the same way you talk about corporate jones
• Talk about how we loose so much human capital via prison and the prison industrial complex and how you would treat drug use as a health issue and not a crime.
• Talk about helping to engender small business growth and reinvigorating the manufacturing sector.
• Talk about how you will increase the value of the dollar
• Talk about screening for the best teachers and paying them as if they are the best and connect education to the collective economic well being of America
• Talk about freezing the rise in pay for senators and congressmen and the need for them not to give themselves a pay raise every 6 months
• Talk about why the lower and middle class folks can’t and don’t have good paying jobs or afford homes and what you plan to do to fix that.

Yawl need to ask the folks some serious questions jones and keep the kats on point. Whew, I'm Ghost.

blinded by the Obamafication of America

Now I know most of yawl are in awe of the prospect of the first African American President in the history of these United States of America, and as well you should be. In fact it is nice seeing people being caught up in history when so many of us don’t know much about the subject. However, with the Obamafication (my own word) of America, there has been a tendency to look away from other things that are important and are historical in their own right. In fact, things that may make his presidency, if he wins in November, even more problematic and deterministic with regards to his success or failure.

This whole campaign started with hoop-la. By that I mean we were in a recession and we were engaged in war on three fronts (Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia). Yep, Somalia, but we wouldn’t know because we get our information from media magnates that we never question or even on our own, search to find out what is really going on in our world. But such is the myopia of a self-centered nation.

If you have not noticed, we don’t hear much about Afghanistan anymore. One should ask why? The way I see it, it is because we have lost ground in the country and region and because we do not want to hear such. We are happy in our frivolity of possibility without the recourse of mental anguish.

Things are hardcore in Afghanistan. Just a few years ago we were claiming victory over the Taliban because they had been removed from power and scattered into the hinterlands. We were claiming a change since we were able to install President Hamid Karzai into what we felt was a fledgling democratic government. Now true, recent reports have noted that Hundreds of Afghans (not thousands) have been holding demonstrations in support of his leadership, however we don’t know why and don’t even ask why. Namely because they are scared and don’t think he has the balls to keep the Taliban from reclaiming the country. Yep, I said it. We don’t either.

Hundreds if not thousands of Taliban have been reclaiming the country as it did before by force. A few weeks ago, like it was something out of Sun Tzu’s the art of war or the hand Book of Guerrilla warfare, the Taliban implemented a rather hep and precocious assult on Kandahar’s prison that resulted in the freeing of all the prisoners. Now not any prisoners, Taliban fighters. After this they have been able to take over a number of villages just outside of the largest city in southern Afghanistan, Kandahar, forcing US, Afghan and NATO troops to redeploy to meet the threat. Redeploying for me says two things, they did not think or expect such and that they do not have enough troops to deal with the Taliban.

So it is still on in this small poppy rich, land-locked country. But we wouldn’t know, because we are caught in to watch political play-offs and many of us would rather focus on the Obamafication aspect of this political season, than issues of war and economics – although we say otherwise. vote