Barack Obama has already started staffing in anticipation and recognition of his transition to power. As loyalties and experience go, undoubtedly one of the most deserving and shrewdest appointees he’s made has been that of Valerie Jarrett. The Iranian-born intellect and former daughter-in-law of legendary African-American columnist Vernon Jarrett will serve as senior adviser and assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Relations and Public Liaison.

It was well before Jarrett headed up The Habitat Company while working for the Daley administration in Chicago that she met and eventually hired Michelle Obama in a rather moderate post in the Mayor’s office. The rest, as they say, is history, as the parties have remained close friends and confidantes ever since.

If Jarrett’s appointment falls under the umbrella of a no-brainer, without question the most interesting would be that of Hillary Rodham Clinton as Secretary of State. After winning an exhaustive and often times vindictive campaign against his Democratic adversary, Obama may now turn to her to man one of the nation’s most powerful and coveted positions. Say this for Team Clinton, if they’re truly able to convince her “The Time for Change”-minded Obama of such a fit, massaging the psyches and placating the fears of world leaders, even in this time of war, should prove comparatively mundane.”

Beyond all that, the President-elect is adeptly proving himself to be a man of his word, one willing to put partisan and personal issues aside in order to build the strongest team this country can possibly field at a time of its greatest challenge.

The die may have been cast by virtue of eight year’s of George Bush’s incompetence, but in moving as he has, Barack Obama has shown his true colors. In that, we all may yet share a brighter future.

Gods in Politics

Now just a week into the historic election of Barack Obama as our President elect, the exhausting trek to become the face of this much troubled nation just over, and it’s already time to adjust the vision of what we see and just who we most owe homage to for it.

It’s the season of Gods in Politics. And with such pressing issues facing the Obama administration, wouldn’t you agree the time is right? Even as George Bush showed the ever-cool president elect his new digs this week, Obama was already busy painting the scenario.

No time to take in the nouveau glam born of the moment, nor the historic beauty of the White House, Prez Obama walked through the door insistent that his lame-duck predecessor aid his emergency plan to de-stress the faltering auto industry. Obama’s aides also noted he backs House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s overtures to mandate that part of the $840 billion bank bailout monies be used as “temporary assistance” for auto makers.

Incredibly, Obama has also inherited all the failed debt derived from the current credit crisis, which has economists estimating that job losses will continue to rise during at least the first year of his term. Unemployment is forecast to pass 7% next year, a high not seen in well over a decade.

“Superman couldn’t change what’s in store for the U.S. economy. It’s going to be ugly,” said Rich Yamarone, the director of economic research at Argus Research.

But Gods in Politics certainly can. And Barack Obama, with our prayers and support, can be his instrument for it.

I can’t quite believe it, but it’s true, all the major networks have just projected Barack Obama president elect. The first Black as such. I can’t say much more. Sometimes I guess, God truly sees cause to show one and all that hard work, persistence and faith can indeed make miracles.

And now here Barack Obama stands. Man of the hour, new leader of our nation. What more can I say? Sometimes our acts are so dramatic as to render us all speechless. This is such a time. And now here we are, history in our midst, astonishment before our eyes.

But because of it all, we rise to live and fight another day. A greater day, a greater hour.

We now anxiously wait just on the precipice of what we pray will be a new world order of the highest calling. It won’t come easy, as there are the given and not so obvious polling tricks, long lines and threats, which are just harsh reminders of what it took to manifest the 15^th Amendment that granted Black men the right to vote in 1869. Truth be told, it took nearly yet another century of steely resolve and protest by Blacks and whites before the darker masses were actually allowed to register. And still, as the obstacles of this election have shown, the battle rages.

And as a former sharecropper in the Deep South, and privy to the 1965 Voting Rights Act that finally fulfilled the promise of the 15^th Amendment, my mother (during one of her extensive Obama gabfest long-distance phone calls) explained to me that our nation, even following Barack Obama’s expected ascension into the White House, will have to “Root lil’ pig or die poor.”

An Uptown girl by birth and thus at a loss for that old Southern vernacular, I waited for her to explain that even after the nation has a leader of courage, faith and fairness, Americans, particularly Black Americans, will have to work even harder to make sure their rights become their destinies, or this tremendous moment in time will all be for not.

Even after the fundamental right to vote was granted, the privilege of doing so actually meant years of added hardship and suffering for so many. And to that end, if the young Senator from Chicago becomes our nation’s first commander-in-chief of color, Americans of all creeds will have to dig in their heels and continue to pray and work toward change.

You see, as only mom could philosophize, when baby pigs come of age, their mothers stop nursing them and push them away to fend for themselves. At that point, the piglets that survive are the ones that go out and root underground themselves for sustenance. It’s either adopt the ways of folklore or give in to the means of extinction.

And, as we as a nation come of age in this New Day we will still have to prepare, dig deep and sustain in order to assure our own survival. That undoubtedly will take time; and, lest we forget, Obama will inherit the greatest economic debt known to man since the Great Depression, not to mention take the helm at a time of two of the nation’s bloodiest wars. We will all be forced to fight the good fight. Oh, but what a great fight it will be.

I’m right from old Virginny wid my pocket full ob news,

I’m worth twenty shillings right square in my shoes.

It doesn’t make a bit of differance to neider you nor I

Big pig or little pig, Root, hog, or die.

“Root, Hog, or Die” (1856)

Artwork: “The First Vote” drawn by artist Alfred Rudolph (1828-1891)

Can we all agree actions more often than not speak louder than words?

Thus in a week when a 20-year-old white woman falsely claims she was attacked by a “dark skinned, 6-4, 200-pound knife-wielding Black man” in the name of campaigning for John McCain, forgive me if I’m just a little bit skeptical of a new CNN national poll that concludes race will nary be an issue come election day balloting.

The rather hardline outpouring suggested would-be victim Ashley Todd is not alone in her disdain for Barack Obama for no other reason that he is a Black man now within footsteps of stepping into the White House. And, she was willing to go to the unfathomable lengths of carving a “B” into her own face to change the whole look of that probable reality.

Suffice it to say the idea of such a man making such an ascension, no matter how gifted, qualified or seemingly ordained he may be, drives her and far too many others beyond all logical deduction. This unfortunately is a sad reality, that is not deserving of defining in totality the faith of so many of us, Black or white, as we seek in unison, a new way of life. “Change is gonna come, Oh yes it will” and no insecure volunteer campaign worker, or her eager and preferred candidates, can stop that.

So John McCain, the decorated soldier that he is, insists he is “absolutely” proud of a faceless, cowardly piece of literature now making the rounds that wrongfully attacks Barack Obama as some sort of traitor in our mist.

The handiwork of Southern-based Republican leaders intent on not seeing Obama convert traditionally red states into blue, one of the brochures evokes memories and images of the tragedy of 9/11 by highlighting a plane slamming into a party of defenseless, unsuspecting victims. These disturbing mailers were sent out to the vital swing states of Missouri and Virginia.

Above the photo in question, the caption recklessly reads: “Terrorists don’t care who they hurt.” The mailer winds down with “Barack Obama. Not who [we] think he is.”

And with that, it’s clear the old divide and conquer through elements of fear approach is alive and well. Not to mention the economic meltdown and foreclosure epidemic that’s painfully becoming a sad definition of these times… Matters best left to be resolved on another day, so say members of Team McCain. But what’s to assure that a nation that now so perilously teeters will still be standing by then?

The third and final face-to-face between Barack Obama and John McCain at Hofstra University in Hempstead left so much to the imagination. And to boot, some guy named ‘Joe the Plumber’ took center stage in McCain’s debate platform as some kind of metaphor for the common man; I guess kind of in the same way ‘Joe Six Pack’ is Sarah Palin’s rather ignorant and sophomoric way of connecting with the suffering masses.

The night’s biggest highlight came when CBS’ Bob Schieffer quizzed the two candidates as to whether or not they felt it would be possible to balance the budget during their first four-year term. After embarking on an endless filibuster and claiming he, in fact, could balance a near trillion dollar and still-growing deficit, McCain got all swole’ up in the chest and confronted Obama: “I am not President Bush. If you wanted to run against President Bush, you should have run four years ago. I’m going to give a new direction to this economy in this country.”

Yes, the wise cracks and frivolous attacks went on all night from McCain, who at one point questioned Obama’s associations with both Bill Ayers and ACORN. In full presidential mode, the Democratic nominee calmly dismissed McCain’s terrorism rants by pointing out he was just eight-years-old when Ayers was allegedly bombing public buildings as part of his anti-war radical activities.

‘Robo’ McCain also noted that Obama’s camp allegedly gave some $800,000 to the group ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. To that assault, Obama responded that investigations have shown some folks working to collect signatures for payment on behalf of the group submitted false and forged names as part of voter registration campaigns. Obama asserted he accepts no responsibility for those acts, and he shouldn’t.

Now can we please just get on with the business of voting and solving this global economic crisis? Let’s just stand hand-in-hand to fight the ignorance of racism. Let’s just… I don’t know, let’s just vote.

Of course, Barack Obama won the debate in Nashville last night, though the tone of the evening overall was slow and somber. As the night progressed, Obama was at once self-possessed and admiringly steady as a frazzled John McCain hurled one insult after another, many of them misguided, at the Democratic nominee.

Guided by the firm hand of NBC’s Tom Brokaw on the campus of Belmont University, Obama proved more than up to the night’s many challenges, at one point chiding an overmatched McCain: “This is the guy who sang, ‘Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran,’ who called for the annihilation of North Korea. That I don’t think is an example of ’speaking softly’ … This is the person who, after we had — we hadn’t even finished Afghanistan– where he said, ‘Next up, Baghdad.’ ”

During the debate, McCain attacked Obama on inexperience, while he had his attack dog Sarah Palin sniffing along the campaign trail falsely connecting Obama to terrorists and extremist activity. Was it just me or did there seem something quite disingenuous about a self-proclaimed war hero not having the verve to attack his opponent in a face-to-face confrontation the same way he’s had others do behind his back?

McCain went on to accuse Obama of announcing a possible attack on Pakistan to which the ever-calm Obama explained that he never called for an attack on that region. Further, Obama insisted that his efforts in that arena would be for one reason only. “If Pakistan is unable or unwilling to hunt down bin Laden and take him out, then we should,” he stated firmly.

Yes, McCain, as he has during the past few weeks especially, seemed erratic with arms flailing as he wandered aimlessly around the small half-debate, half-Town Hall stage. Watching McCain stumble and falter during his disjointed answers made one frightened at the possible effects his presidency would have on this nation.

On Monday morning, my family buried my 108-year-old paternal grandmother. Her amazing journey in the deep South bore witness to the post-slave era, the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights movement. She also lived to see the emergence of one Barack Obama, and be touched by his spirit. In her honor and all the other souls who have endured to have their struggles manifest, I am resolved and relieved to know a McCain/Palin presidency is looking more and more as if it can’t and won’t happen …

‘night grandma and thanks.

Photo: Hoag Levins/Kevyn T. Johnson’s oil and collage ‘I’m Still Standing’

Sarah Palin mugged, gyrated and winked her way through her first and only vice presidential debate with Joe Biden in St. Louis—using the same tone and cadence George Bush undertook when convincing this country to enter into a war most now clearly seen for the tragedy it is.

It was a fraud perpetrated on the American people on par with the Bush led Wall Street bailout plan also this week. The one that left taxpayers holding the bag on a $700 billion tax bill. No, check that—more than $800 billion—when you add on all the reported earmarks John McCain swore he would never vote in favor of just moments before he actually did so.

Get the pattern here? Republican Party members will do whatever, whenever in order to get their way. Thus, Barack Obama best be wise and alert in these final days before his expected Nov. 4, ascension into the Oval Office. As desperate now as ever before, McCain figures to re-adopt many of those same lowbrow principles in trying to eradicate a poll deficit that in some estimations has climbed as high as eight to 10 points.

All the “Obama’s a Muslim terrorist” falsehoods, Jeremiah Wright rhetoric and incessant code-word speak for “Barack’s not White” surely will be voiced all across the nation over these final days by talking-head Republicans who simply refuse to accept the realization that Obama is without question the man who has best put forth the plan for the resurrection of a troubled land.