"The Issue

The issue in this election is plain. The American people are called upon to choose between a Republican administration that has and would again regiment them in the service of privileged groups and a Democratic administration dedicated to the establishment of equal economic opportunity for all our people."

--from the Democratic Party Platform of 1936

I swore I wouldn't play this game since it is clear as mud that Debbie Wasserman Schultz is the only possible choice.

But there actually is a better choice.

Congressman and civil rights era hero John Lewis of Georgia!

At Saddleback Sen McCain said he would be consulting John Lewis as one of his three foremost advisors.

So if Barack Obama picks John Lewis as his running mate, why how is McCain going to be able to approve any attack ads on Lewis?  Or defend or approve anything at all critical of him from any of the 527s or proxies?

Besides, JL is a great American and in his understated quiet way overshadows all the candidates of both parties!

Congresswoman from Ohio, member of the Congressional Black Caucus and currently in the hospital in dire condition.

For any interested, I have copied her speech at the Democratic Party National Convention of 2004:

"Thank you, my fellow Democrats, my fellow Ohioans   the dynamic, dynamic Democrats from the 11th Congressional District of Ohio.  I want to thank you for the warm welcome.

Twenty-eight years ago on a night not unlike tonight, history was made when Barbara Jordan, the first African-American woman to represent Texas in the United States Congress  gave the keynote address at our party's convention. And it's because of the courage and hard work of people like Barbara Jordan and so many of you in this house tonight that I, too, have had the opportunity to make history as the first African-American woman to serve on the Ways and Means Committee of the United States Congress.

And this week everyone in this hall will make history when we nominate the next president of the United States, John Kerry.

Although it has been almost three decades since Barbara Jordan's keynote address was delivered, the words that night still ring through today. We are a people trying not only to solve the problems of the present, but we are attempting, on a larger scale, to fulfill the promise of America.

My friends, to fulfill the promise of America, we must make America stronger at home and respected in the world.  We must make the American dream a reality for all Americans. We must elect John Kerry and John Edwards to lead the charge.

Now there are some who believe that the American dream is limited to those who can lobby for the special tax breaks or limited to those who never sweat their growing health insurance bills and limited to those who can afford expensive vacations overseas to visit the jobs that they sent there.
But John Kerry and John Edwards have a different view. They believe in an America where the hopes and dreams of my parents, Andrew and Mary Tubbs, who punched the clock day in and day out, as factory worker and the other as a skycap, could bring them to the day where they could see their daughter serve as the hometown congresswoman for Cleveland, Ohio.

John Kerry and John Edwards believe in an America where the promise of America is open to all, no matter who you are or where you come from, as long as you are willing to work hard.

Now, these are not Democratic values; these are not Republican values, these are American values.
Sadly, these are values that this administration seems to have forgotten. On their watch, America has lost 1.8 million jobs, and more than 205,000 of those jobs were lost in my hometown, Cleveland, Ohio. In Cleveland, the unemployment rate is over 11 percent and more than 24,000 workers stand in the unemployment line rather than standing in the factory line. In our black and Hispanic community, the unemployment rate is entering into the double digits. Many of those out of work have exhausted their benefits, and the current administration refuses to extend them. And for many of those who have gotten jobs, they don't pay enough to lift their family out of poverty.

I know I speak for millions of my neighbors when I say we are tired of seeing American jobs shipped overseas.  We are sick and tired of working longer hours and finding it harder and harder to pay the mortgage, cover the cost of child care, and save for college. We are tired of seeing our hard-earned tax dollars go to the haves and the have mores, while the must haves, the could haves, the should haves, the maybes and the have not, have not at all.

It is time, it is time for new leadership. It's time for a new vision. John Kerry and John Edwards believe that America can do better, and we can get America working again. In a Kerry-Edwards administration, work will be valued, workers will be respected, and the businesses who invest here at home will be rewarded.

John Kerry will jump-start economic growth with a new jobs tax credit to encourage owners of small businesses, like the small business my late husband, Mervyn Jones built, to create jobs now.

Instead of lavishing giveaways on companies that ship jobs overseas, John Kerry will close those loopholes once and for all, and cut taxes for companies to help them create jobs here at home. He'll enforce trade laws so that there is a level playing field for our workers to compete on, and they will win. And he will always-and I say ALWAYS-defend the right to organize.

Let me tell you what our country will look like after four years of a Kerry-Edwards administration. We'll have 10 million new jobs. We will have a deficit half the size it is now, tax cuts to help those who are struggling to stay in the middle class and struggling to get their pay for things like health care and college tuition, and a minimum wage raise to $7 an hour.  But more than that, we'll have an America that is stronger, more united, and more prepared to seize the promise of the future.

In her speech so many years ago, Barbara Jordan observed that we are a people in a quandary about the present. We are a people in search of our future, and we are a people in search of a national community. My friends, the hardworking families of this country deserve a president who will work as hard as they do  who will lead us to that future, who will help us create that community.

My fellow Americans, John Kerry is that leader.  And with your help and hard work, he will be that president.

Thank you very, very much. "