June 20, 2008
June 18, 2008
Seems Hillary's Finger Wagging Delusional Doomsday Predictions Might Be a Tad Off Base!
Here's Your Bounce: Obama Up In PA, FL, OHJune 18, 2008
Bounce-obsessives can calm themselves: Quinnipiac's out with surveys of Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania this morning showing Obama gains in each state as compared to the last time Q-PAC polled. The sample sizes are huge -- more than 1,400 likely votes in each state, although I'm a little wary of likely voter samples at this stage. No matter:
Florida: Obama: 47, McCain 43
Ohio: Obama 48, McCain 42
Pennsylvania: Obama 52, McCain 40
The crosstabs: Obama's leading among white voters in PA, and his multi-ethnic coalition puts him over the top elsewhere. He leads by double digits about women everywhere; men are split evenly. The economy is the major issue in each state; President Bush's approval rating is highest (27%) in Florida.
Obama's getting the votes of 13% of '04 Bush voters in Florida and Ohio, and 19% in Pennsylvania. McCain gets the support of 24% of Clinton voters in PA and roughly equivalent percentages in OH and FL. So, from O's perspective, maybe it doesn't really matter that a quarter of Clinton Democrats turned Red.
Some other key findings after the jump.
More QPAC findings:
By almost 2 - 1 margins in each state, voters say going to war in Iraq was wrong. But they split between Obama's plan to withdraw U.S. troops under a fixed timetable and McCain's plan to keep troops there until the situation stabilizes and then withdraw without a set schedule.
Florida
Florida women likely voters back Obama 50 - 40 percent, while men go 47 percent for McCain and 44 percent for Obama. White voters back McCain 50 - 40 percent while black voters back Obama 95 - 4 percent. Obama leads 57 -35 percent with voters 18 to 34 years old; he splits 48 - 46 percent with McCain among voters 35 to 54, and 44 - 46 percent with voters over 55.
Ohio
Obama leads 51 - 39 percent among Ohio women likely voters, while men go 46 percent for McCain and 45 percent for Obama. White voters also are narrowly divided with 47 percent for McCain and 44 percent for Obama, but Obama commands black voters 90 - 6 percent. The Democrat also leads 58 - 36 percent among voters 18 to 34 and 49 - 42 percent among voters 35 to 54, while McCain has the 47 - 43 percent edge among voters over 55.
Pennsylvania
Obama tops McCain 57 - 34 percent with women as men go 47 percent for McCain to 45 percent for Obama. Obama leads 61 - 33 percent among voters 18 to 34 years old, 51 - 41 percent among voters 35 to 54 and 48 - 43 percent with voters over 55. The Democrat inches ahead 47 - 44 percent among white voters and leads among black voters 95 - 1 percent.
Obama gets a 54 - 25 percent favorability, to 43 - 33 percent for McCain.
Gets Sweeter Every Time!
Back on topThey are not your old man's Celtics. No black canvas high-tops. No cigar smoke wafting toward the Garden rafters from the Boston bench. No behind-the-back passes from Cooz, and no Larry Legend smashing his face on the parquet floor.
But the 2007-08 Boston Celtics are champions of the world, worthy successors to the men your dad always told you about.
The Celtics returned to glory last night, winning their 17th NBA title - their first banner since 1986 - with a 131-92 Game 6 dismemberment of the soft-shell Lakers at the Causeway Street Gym.
No smoking laws were waived in the New Garden when NBA commissioner David Stern presented the Larry O'Brien Trophy to Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck at 12:03 this morning.
"Someplace, Red is lighting up a cigar," said Stern.
"This win is for Red Auerbach," said Grousbeck.
It felt like a restoration of the natural order of the basketball universe.
The finale, Boston's record 26th postseason game of 2008, was an homage to the 12-man selflessness, teamwork, and ferocious defense that marked the golden days of Green dominance. Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen led the champs with 26 points apiece while second-year guard Rajon Rondo scored 21 to go with 7 rebounds and 8 assists.
Celtics captain and Finals MVP Paul Pierce scored 17 points and had 10 assists, and Boston's bench won the game in a 34-15 second quarter that demoralized the visitors and made the second half more coronation than competition.
In bygone days when dinosaurs ruled the earth and Bill Russell roamed the paint, the Celtics were the signature franchise in pro ball. Internationally famous, they won 16 championships between 1957 and 1986, including eight straight with Auerbach on the bench.
They disappeared from the local sports landscape in recent seasons, but re-emerged in full championship fury after general manager Danny Ainge acquired Garnett and Ray Allen in the summer of 2007. Boston won 66 games in the regular season and went 13-1 at home during the 68-day postseason tournament.
Russell, John Havlicek, and JoJo White were in the house for the last loud roar. Auerbach, Walter Brown, Dennis Johnson, Reggie Lewis, Johnny Most and a few other gods of Green watched from a higher place as role players named James Posey, Eddie House, and P.J. Brown helped the starters methodically erase the Lakers. Don Cherry would have loved it. Kobe Bryant scored 22 for the losers, but ultimately LA just had too many Europeans.
Brilliantly coached by Doc Rivers, sculpted with Auerbachian guts and guile by Ainge (who learned it all at the right hand of Red), the Celtics won the title one year after a 24-58 campaign, which included an 18-game losing streak. The champs struggled in seven-game series against the Hawks and Cavaliers (0-6 on the road) before finding their voice in a six-game set against the formidable Pistons.
"This is unreal," Pierce told the crowd. "I'm just happy that . . . everybody, the city of Boston stuck with me throughout all the hard times. I know we didn't have a lot of great years, but you guys stuck with me, and now we bring home a championship to you."
The Lakers had a much smoother path to the Finals and were consensus favorites of national experts who'd been blinded by West Coast sunsets. It didn't take long to discover that the run-and-shoot Western Conference champs were no match for the brawlers from the East.
The never-gracious Auerbach no doubt is smiling somewhere, safe in the knowledge that Phil Jackson did not win a record 10th championship (both Auerbach and Jackson had nine as coaches) on the Red Auerbach court.
"I think everybody is disappointed that we didn't get a game out of this, give ourselves a chance," said Jackson. "I thought we played on our heels from the very get-go. They overran us."
The victory cements Boston's claim as Titletown, USA. Boston is home of the world champion Celtics and the world champion Red Sox. Now if only that slacker team in Foxborough can get with the program.
Patriots coach Bill Belichick watched Game 6 from the first row of the baseline by the Celtics bench. I think I saw him scribbling notes when the Celtics were playing defense.
Boston made only 9 of 24 shots in an erratic first quarter, but led, 24-20, thanks to the hot hand of Garnett. Called out by peers (Ron Artest) and NBA watchers from coast to coast, Garnett scored 10 in the quarter, and paced the Celtics to an early lead despite poor shooting.
The Celtic bench (more kudos for Ainge) took back the night in the second. Posey (11 points, one of five Celtics in double figures) and House hit back-to-back treys from the left corner to put the Celtics up by 9 and force Jackson to call a panic timeout.
It didn't help. The Celtics effectively won the championship with a 15-2 quarter-closing run to make it 58-35 at intermission. The Lakers spit back whopping leads on their home court. The Celtics do not.
The Celtics ran to a 79-48 lead midway through the third while the poet on the Laker bench just stood back and let it all be.
The Vault was a victory Garden in the final 12 minutes. Rivers took out his starters when it was 116-81 with 4:01 left. The lead peaked at 43 when Tony Allen flushed home a reverse dunk to make it 129-86.
Late in the fourth, while some fans lit cigars, Ainge's image appeared on the big board and he refused to even crack a smile. He was a bum at this time a year ago. Now he's a hero on a par with Belichick and Theo Epstein.
Light it up. The Boston Celtics, once synonymous with sports supremacy, are back where they belong, and Boston gets to party like it's 1959.
Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist
June 17, 2008
June 15, 2008
Isles shape Obama’s racial identity
Attention focuses on "melting pot" culture and local experiencesBy Richard Borreca
By becoming the first black presidential candidate to secure the nomination of a major political party, Barack Obama is forcing many voters across the nation to question their views on race.
In Hawaii, the question is particularly pertinent: Census figures show one person in five reports being of more than one race.
With a black father from Kenya and a white mother from Kansas, Obama is described as multiracial, biracial or hapa.
"Calling him 'biracial' as opposed to black is really beside the point because it's estimated that between 75 percent and 90 percent of African Americans are also of European descent," says Elisa Joy White, assistant professor of ethnic studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
"Most African Americans, regardless of being racialized as black, are biracial or multiracial," White said.
Roosevelt Freeman, office manager for state Rep. Colleen Meyer and a local Republican volunteer since 1996, says Obama is getting attention in Hawaii just because he was born here.
"I think voters are just excited that he is from here. I think if he were green and from here and was on the national stage, it would be the same," said Freeman, who is black.
For others, the idea of Obama encompassing Hawaii's diversity holds much of the attraction of the young Harvard-trained lawyer.
In a speech before the state Democratic convention last month, U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie, who was friends with Obama's parents at UH, called Obama special.
"The result of this union brought us the first world citizen who can cross over not just this nation but across the world to bring the message of Hawaii, the message of aloha, of togetherness, openness, tolerance and diversity," Abercrombie said.
White added in an e-mail interview that despite whatever "hapa street cred" Obama has in Hawaii, it doesn't displace the prejudice blacks find here.
"Being of African descent is not valued in the same way that other ethnic backgrounds are valued here. In spite of the many positive aspects of multiethnic, multiracial and multicultural interaction in Hawaii, we still have to realize ... that being black continues to be negatively perceived in Hawaii," White said.
In a 1999 essay written for Punahou's school alumni magazine, Obama recalls how his first perceptions of Hawaii as being "the world's mythical melting pot" changed that by the time he graduated from Punahou, his consciousness of race was much sharper.
"As an African American teenager in a school with few African Americans, I probably questioned my identify a bit harder than most," Obama wrote. "As a kid from a broken home and family of relatively modest means, I nursed more resentments than my circumstances justified and didn't always channel those resentments in particularly constructive ways."
Kathryn Waddell Takara, who designed UH's first black studies program and is black, adds that Obama still grew up in Hawaii, which gave him breathing room and perspective on being a black male in America.
"I think growing up outside of traditional America gave him a certain freedom and optimism. ... Someone born on the mainland, particularly a male, would have had quite a different experience," Takara said.
Obama today considers himself both black and "local," to the point of telling a Hawaii voter during a mainland rally to "vote for the local guy."
"It is evident that Obama considers himself to be black, prefers this description of his ethnicity, chose a wife who is black and established his career serving the black community of Chicago," says Miles Jackson, a retired UH professor and author of a history of blacks in Hawaii.
"He appears to be comfortable with himself as a black person," said Jackson, who is also the former dean of the UH library school.
Freeman, however, says Obama has been able to use his race to his advantage.
"He would not be historical if he were a Caucasian, he would just be the junior senator from Illinois," Freeman said.
In the end, many wonder if Obama's campaign will let America set aside the debate on race.
"Race has a very real impact on our lives, but it is not the fixed reality some would like to believe it is," says White.
"If the reality of race starts to sink in, maybe we'll be knowledgeable enough to start dealing with the absurdity of its social impact," White said.
Jackson adds, "As long as people of African ancestry have been in this country and as long as they have been multiracial, you would think people in this country would have gotten used to it by now."
