The scene at I.S. 117 in Mount Hope

Mount Hope Monitor photographer Alma Watkins says there's lengthy lines inside I.S. 117 Joseph Wade this morning. She spoke to a number of voters as they entered the Morris Avenue school to find out what's driving their decision.

I came from Costa Rica 40 years ago and have always heard rascally remarks about how the white man keeps the black man down. Now we see with our own eyes that a black man is a candidate for president of the United States. That’s why I’m voting for Obama. - RALPH BLESSITT


We've had enough with white presidents - it is time for a change. He [Obama] ran a good campaign and is a better speaker then McCain or Bush. Bush just never connected with the American people. We need a president that can communicate with the people.- JD MORRISON

I’ve been a Democrat all my life. I wanted Hillary for president but I picked Obama. He's better then the other guy.
- SANTA MERCADO

Other thoughts:

Obama for change, get Bush out, get the money back to the people. - ANDREW LAIOSA

I'm voting for Obama as he will help minorities and has a good health plan for the elderly. - CYNTHIA SCOTT

Obama has better ideals, and stands firm on his feet. He will make a good leader, a strong leader. - ISRAEL ROBLES

It was taking voters about an hour to get in and out of the building, Alma said. She says she's "still working on finding a McCain fan."

Stop Hatin' on Community Organizers!

Opinion by Gregory Lobo Jost
In case you weren't watching last night, a political party repeatedly degraded the role of community organizers at their convention.

Former mayor Giuliani (laughing): "Maybe this is the first problem on [Obama's] resume... he worked as a community organizer!"

VP nominee Sarah Palin: "I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a ‘community organizer,’ except that you have actual responsibilities.”

Regardless of whether you are an Obama, McCain, McKinney, or Barr supporter, these comments denegrate important contributions made by thousands of (mostly) young women and men during the past 70 years, in both urban AND rural America. To say the very least, if not for the work of community organizers, redlining would still be official bank policy and the Bronx would still be burning. And what about empowering low income and working class people to stand up and fight for their neighborhoods, take pride in their communities, and make REAL changes in our society? Is this a job without responsibilities? Indeed it is a job that is difficult to perform properly, requires long hard hours, is often thankless and pays very little! Certainly for the millions of Americans who have benefitted from the work done by community organizers (myself and the other 1.4 million Bronx residents) it is nothing to laugh at.

I may be over-reacting, but I take these insults very personally (and I don't even qualify as a pure organizer). Sure, these comments are made for calculated political gain during a campaign, and I expect no better from the former NYC mayor. But to hear it over and over again on national TV (PBS no less!) without any counterpoint just made my blood boil.

Has any other profession been repeatedly ridiculed like this at a political convention before? Could you imagine if this was said about YOUR LIFE'S WORK to millions of viewers with no rebuttal?

Update: David Gonzalez of the New York Times has posted a column, Bronx Organizers React to G.O.P. Punchlines, featuring the work of two past local community organizers still active in the neighborhoods.

2nd Update: A new site has sprung in response to these attacks on organizers, and the initial post (also available on the Indypendent) features west Bronx organizer Jackie del Valle of New Settlement Apartments/CASA!

Community organizers across America, taken aback by a series of attacks from Republican leaders at the GOP convention in St. Paul, came together today to defend their work organizing Americans who have been left behind by unemployment, lack of health insurance and the national housing crisis. The organizers demanded an apology from Alaska Governor Sarah Palin for her statement that community organizers have no “actual responsibilities” and launched a web site, http://organizersfightback.wordpress.com/, to defend themselves against Republican attacks.

Also, this entry on the Huffington Post features the Center for Community Change's official response to the remarks.

Bronx BP to Host Obama, McCain

Next Saturday, Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion, will host presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama in his role as chair of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials. We reported recently that Carrion had left the door open to possibly serving in an Obama administration in an appearance on NY1.

Victorious: Clinton and McCain

Hillary Clinton, then, somehow defied pundits and pollsters to snatch a win that just 24 hours earlier had seemed all but impossible.
Here's talkshow host Arnie Arnesen's fascinating (and funny) take on how the New York senator did it.

On the Republican side, John McCain pushed Mitt Romney into the silver medal position. See the full results here.

I was at Barack Obama's event. His supporters had come for a victory party, but as the evening wore on it became clear that Clinton's early lead would hold. The young crowd looked deflated; the "Fire it Up!" "Ready to Go!" chants were not as convincing as the previous night's.

Flanked by his wife, Obama was gracious in defeat. If shell-shocked, he didn't show it. (In a measure of how unexpected the result was, several reporters we heard from had already written their "Obama Wins Big" story, and were just waiting for the polls to come in so they could fill in the numbers before filing.)

I'm up in the Granite State with the New York Community Media Alliance, formerly know as IPA-NY. (See here for details on how the trip came about.) Yesterday morning, long before the results came through, we met with Andrew Smith, a pollster at the University of New Hampshire. Smith, who like everyone expected Obama to walk it, ran through the pre-election polls - Obama's meteoric rise, McCain's recovery, Clinton's stutter, etc. And he gave us his colorful opinion on some of the mistakes each candidate has made, and the hurdles they need to overcome to stay in the race. Here's some choice bits:

Smith said Giuliani's campaign was "horrible," and that he'd been arrogant to think he could get somewhere without old fashioned campaigning (he flew to New Hampshire for an short speech now and again but then got out of town). Smith compared Giuliani to a man who's about to walk off a cliff but is too stubborn to change direction.

McCain's chief problem, said Smith, is his stance on immigration which has dried up his fund-raising; Romney's, "his inability to be a skillful enough politician to change his position and make it believable."

Clinton, meanwhile, "has the worst media handling people of all the campaigns." Smith said that he'd spoken to reporters who'd received calls from Clinton's people demanding they retract a certain story and threatening to block a reporter's access to the White House if their boss is president. "The way they [Clinton's campaign] treated the press [in New Hampshire] was her biggest mistake," he said. "There was a level of control and paranoia in that campaign that’s scary." Because of this treatment, said Smith, reporters never gave her a break.

Obama's biggest issue is his lack of substance, thinks Smith. "[He's] like the meringue of American politics, light and fluffy, looks good, but when you eat it you wonder was it was." It a criticism, of course, that's been made before. But having heard Obama speak twice this week, I think it rings true. He spoke powerfully, as you'd expect, yet he was strangely boring and repetitive, hardly touching on his would-be policies or how he'd make them a reality. All talk ("change" "hope" "tomorrow") and no substance to speak of, may not wash for long.

Obama and company will soon be in New York ("Super Tuesday" is on Feb. 5). If you wish you vote, you need to register by Friday.

On a local level, here in the west Bronx, some community groups are using the hype to encourage local residents to take more of an interest in politics. On Saturday, for example, an event's being held at the Gambian Society on Jerome Avenue. The aim is to educate the borough's African population on the importance of voting.

Campaigning in New Hampshire

I’m currently in New Hampshire, covering the primaries with a group of eight other reporters and editors from New York City’s ethic and community press (in all, I told, there’s something like 1,200 media people here). The trip’s been put on by New York Community Media Alliance as part of their 2008 Elections Fellowship. We’re fortunate to have a knowledgeable guide in Feet in Two Worlds' John Rudolph, who has been driving us around as we follow the candidates on the campaign trail.

Each candidate and their staff spent the weekend and Monday jumping from town to town, putting on last-ditch rallies, as they try and pick up last-minute votes, and decide the undecided. They’re not really saying anything new at this stage, except, perhaps, to refute a rival’s latest attack and launch one of their own.

Yesterday, we caught up with caught up with John McCain in Exeter, Mitt Romney in Bedford, and Barack Obama (pictured) in Concord. Some 1,500 people showed up for the Obama event. There was just 300 at McCain’s and maybe 500 at Romney’s. So, first things first, the Democratic candidates are getting a lot more attention than their Republican counterparts. (We were hoping to see Clinton too, but there was a mile-long line of car-traffic to get into her event.)

McCain was a little lackluster in his speech. He looked tired – it was one of seven rallies he was holding that day – and kept things brief. Still, there was the odd moment of fire: “I'll get Osama Bin Laden if I have to follow him to the gates of hell!” (It’s the kind of talk that sounds much more convincing coming from McCain, a war hero, than, say, our current president).

If McCain was folksy and homey, Romney, all polished, professional and dapper, was the opposite. He stressed how he his experiences as a successful businessman would help him get things done, and turn around a Washington “that is fundamentally broken.” (Washington being rotten at the core, and the need for a change in direction, were common talking points through all three speeches).

Obama's event, in a school gymnasium, was the most impressive. Even the build-up was electric. Dozens of volunteers, mostly teens and early-twenty somethings, danced, high-fived each other, and screamed Obama’s signature chant: "Fire it up!" "Ready to go!" A little farcical? Perhaps. But electric all the same. By the time Obama was introduced by his wife, the crowd (a younger, more fresh-faced lot than Romney or McCain’s turnouts) had been whipped into a frenzy. Obama talked at length about hope and change, themes central to his campaign. "We’re at a defining point in our history," he said. "The time for change is now." He also hit back at claims his policy ideas are vague and ambiguous.

Today is election day; the results are out tonight. For more, check out Talking Points Memo. According to the latest polls, Obama’s lead over Clinton is growing. The Republican primary is likely to be closer, although McCain is the favorite. We'll have more tomorrow.

Photo: J. Fergusson