August 23, 2008

Mankiller endorses Obama

Native Currents

Energized and hopeful for Sen. Barack Obama[A]s the campaign has narrowed to a general election, my hope for the future of this country and its policies toward tribal governments and individuals only grows. I know we have an advocate in Sen. Barack Obama, who unveiled his First Americans platform while the campaign was still in its infancy and has since been meeting with tribal leaders around the country. He is humble enough to respectfully listen, and empathetic enough to fully understand the challenges facing our communities today. I believe Sen. Obama when he says he feels "a particular sense of outrage when I see the status of so many Native Americans, and there is a sense of kinship in terms of the struggles that have to be fought." The other candidates simply cannot speak from the same place.

But he does more than talk the talk. Since entering the U.S. Senate, Obama supported the Indian Health Care Reauthorization Act and pushed for a billion-dollar increase in IHS funding. As a presidential candidate, he took that commitment to Indian health care further and called for full funding of IHS. In addition, one of Obama's first initiatives as a candidate was to plan for a National Indian Policy Adviser as a senior staff member in the White House.

I'm inspired that this country chose him as a presidential candidate and I'm eager to be a part of history when we elect him in November. And make no mistake; we will be the ones electing him in November. Native people have an unprecedented degree of electoral power this season. We are a voting bloc that must be courted. Native populations are the most geographically dense in states likely to be up for grabs this election, meaning 1-2 percent of the vote in swing states could be the difference between an Obama victory on the one hand and four more years of Indian-hostile policies on the other. We can make that difference, but only if we vote.

6 comments:

writerfella said...

Writerfella here --
"Endorses?" What did she do? Write 'Wilma Mankiller' between his shoulder blades and then try to take him to the bank?
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'

dmarks said...

Endorse check turns up 45 million hits, and endorse candidate turns up 44 million hits. That's about the same. The idea of endorsing a candidate is hardly an obscure idea at all. To avoid the cliched "authority by Google", I used Altavista this time for the search.

writerfella said...

Writerfella here --
What about Ask.com, dMarks? And do you still have your RocketMail and Excite.com accounts?
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'

writerfella said...

Writerfellahere --
POSTSCRIPTUM -- And writerfella patiently has been waiting for Barrack O'Bama to make that 'big' mistake. And now O'Bama has: he chose Biden as his running mate. Ah, missed it by THAT MUCH! Sorry about that, 99!
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'

Rob said...

I think Russ was trying to be funny, DMarks. As a humorist he leaves something to be desired.

Choosing Biden as VP won't hurt Obama and may help him. Especially if Biden attacks McCain in a way Obama has been reluctant to.

P.S. As usual, Russ, you spelled Obama's name wrong. Which isn't surprising since you can't spell "casinos" or "memos."

dmarks said...

I have yet to see any pundit on the left or right call Biden a big mistake. There probably are some, but few and far between.