It might be that I am absolutely unconcerned about fashion but I believe it cheapens the entire enterprise. Holler at me when we see how Eric Holder handles the disproportionate sentencing issues in black America. I worry about just how petty some folk will get, losing sight of the forest not for the trees, but for individual leaves.

This country is facing a titanic economic crisis, one that will, like those preceding it, disproportionately impact black America — do we really need that kind of distraction? It’s unfortunate that for some folk Obama can do no wrong (trust me, I fight with them too) but I have no tolerance for that fringe of black America wherein he — and Michelle — can do no right.

The Warren issue was more substantive because Obama was raising the profile of someone who has had direct impact upon policy and people’s views.

As for paring the young evangelicals away, it’s actually a pretty shrewd idea. We’re not talking about Pat Robertson/Jerry Falwell Christians here but a younger variant whose politics don’t center solely on abortion. They’re more likely to care about the environment and social justice/poverty issues as part of their religious mandate. In the end, that may pay long term dividends for Obama as he tackles things like green energy, etc.

The Brooks and Collins article is a reference to how Congress hasn’t really changed at all, i.e. voting on legislation without doing any research, bullying opponents, voting pretty much along party lines, etc.

Re Warren and pragmatism, I’ve been wondering why we need young evangelicals to enter the Democratic tent. Are they worth it? I question the value of bringing people into the fold who helped to ruin the Republican party as we know it.

More crucially, Obama’s campaign made some notable mistakes vis-a-vis black folk during the campaign that I tried to highlight as well.

But here’s the problem: the surfeit of dumb criticism makes it that much harder to create a space for the legitimate concerns to be voiced. I agree with you that Obama has to “prove” he’s down for the people who put him in office but that will not be determined by who designed the dress his wife is wearing.

Now, as for the pragmatism, I haven’t read Brooks and Collins on this but I absolutely think it applies to Obama. The Warren selection was pure pragmatism — Obama is hoping to basically encircle his GOP critics by peeling off the younger evangelicals whom Warren represents. The same thing with the straw man of Rush Limbaugh.

Here is a useful bit of information that we might reflect upon during the next four years: Barack Obama is the President, not the host of Soul Train.

is pure genius!

More seriously, I’ve said previously that there are limits to rationality — unfortunately — and Obama’s greatest asset and biggest liability in some instances is his rationality.

Palestine is by no means a simple conflict and it is one defined by the extremes. Hamas appears to be the Islamic equivalent of the Mugabe government in Zimbabwe — relying upon very real, very fucked up historical grievances to camouflage their own shortcomings as leadership.

This doesn’t mean that Israel gets a blank check but, as I’ve told my friends on the left, it’s not like there’s a reliable set of Palestinian leadership to work with either.

As “Barack Obama is the President, not the host of Soul” Nor should we accept him serving as the host of American Band Stand for Corporate America.