The wrong side of history

I cried the night Senator Barack Obama made history as the first African American nominee for President of the United States. On that historic evening, I received cell phone and land line calls, text messages, IMs, and emails - from black folks getting choked up about the moment they never thought they would see in their lifetimes. I was on the phone with a friend from Washington, DC who worked in the Bush 43 White House rejoicing in this moment when Senator Obama and his wife Michelle took to the stage in Minneapolis.

Since that memorable evening, my thoughts turned to the Blacks in leadership who were on the other side of history the night Obama became the presidential nominee. I wondered about people like billionaire Robert Johnson, who personally attacked Obama for "doing something in the neighborhood" that he would not say while Hillary and Bill Clinton were on the front lines for black people.

I also thought about national television commentator Tavis Smiley, who is departing from the Tom Joyner Morning Show in July. He was vociferous about Barack Obama for not coming to his "State of the Black Union" summit. Smiley rejected an offer of Michelle Obama in place of her husband.

My thoughts meandered over to the two reverends, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, both former presidential candidates and competitors on the front line of the civil rights movement. Both have been silent about Obama. They argued since he was not a part of the civil rights lineage, African Americans might want to show caution about giving up their support too early. At one point last year, according to the New York Post, Sharpton made more visceral comments to a Democratic activist claiming that Obama "never did anything for the community....and that he's a candidate driven by white leadership." Sharpton's current position is that his "support" for Obama is low key.

I can't help but wonder about the cognitive dissonance all of these men felt that evening, and even now as they sit on the outside of history with their faces pressed to the glass window looking and perhaps wondering if a moment they have been fighting for and dreaming about for so long may finally come true without their old school involvement or input.

Black Republicans such as Armstrong Williams, and now others who have been hiding in the closet for Obama, are suddenly coming out. They feel the pain of being left out in the cold by the Republican Party and don't want to be on the other side of history. Black Republican television pundits are extremely conflicted over the Obama moment. Some Republican political analysts have reported the Republican National Committee admonished them against complimenting Obama - not even on the occasion of becoming the first ever Black presidential nominee.

So they share their frustrations with each other in secret as they try to put on a Republican happy face when the television cameras roll at Fox News, CNN or MSNBC. With the exception of former RNC Chair and Lt. Governor Michael Steele, and maybe one or two others, many privately want Obama to win.

An Obama superdelegate revealed before the Iowa Caucus "unfortunately there were black folks in leadership who needed permission from white people to support Obama. And when he [Obama] won Iowa, you saw the tide of support change."

African American members of Congress, due to their long political history with the Clintons, knew in their hearts that this historic moment was approaching. Despite their loyalty to Hillary Clinton, they were not going to let her get in the way; particularly when she could not make any logical case for staying in the race once Obama clinched the delegates.

Clinton's comments about being more electable than Barack among white voters and her reference to the Robert F. Kennedy assassination put the powerful Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charlie Rangel and his New York congressional delegation in a position to end the senselessness of her continued campaign. Rangel said that Clinton's statements were the dumbest things she could have possibly said. Rangel, who has dedicated his whole life to the cause of the entire African Diaspora, and others like Congresswoman Maxine Waters, probably felt deeply emotional about this extraordinary moment.

"Nobody blames some of the African American congressional leaders for being loyal to Hillary," said the Obama superdelegate. "It was totally expected since there was a long history of friendship and support for the Clintons. Loyalty is an honorable trait. For those African Americans who needed Iowa to give them permission to support Obama and those who made ego driven or inane comments about Senator Obama, all are forgiven. For Black Republicans who have no place in their own party now, we welcome them too. It is now time to move on in unity to get this man - Senator Barack Obama elected President of the United States."