Fresh Loaf

Since 1972, no Democratic candidate for president has won more than a third of the Southern white vote with two exceptions: Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. And in the last two presidential elections, the Republicans made a clean sweep of the South.

Barack Obama plans to put the South into play, according to this story in today’s New York Times. Obama’s campaign notes there are 600,000 blacks in Georgia alone who aren’t registered to vote, and a pool of progressive, younger white voters.

Obama is already running television spots here, and will come to Atlanta on July 7 for a fund-raiser at 103 West in Buckhead.

Smart move: One recent poll shows Obama and John McCain are in a statistical dead heat in Georgia. One released this week, however, shows McCain with a 10 point lead.

Emory University’s Merle Black explained to the Times why Obama’s strategy is smart: When the Democrats give up the South, they need to win 70 percent of the rest of the electoral votes.

It’s no coincidence that Carter and Clinton also happen to be the only two Democrats elected president since the Johnson administration.

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HAWKS POPULI: Philips Arena pulsates as the suddenly unstoppable Joe Johnson leads the surging Hawks over the heavily favored Celtics to tie the series at 2-2. They’re in Boston Wednesday and back here Friday.

TAYLOR BENNETT: Ga. Tech QB transfers to La. Tech. He’ll be playing for Vince Dooley’s son and La. Tech’s mascot is also the Bulldogs, so page-view-hungry websites come up with misleading-but-not-untrue headlines like this:

JEREMIAH WRIGHT: Doing his best to keep Obama out of the White House. CNN has this bio of the ravin’ reverend. ATLMalcontent is justifiably worried that Obama is showing a Kerryesque lack of anger over this.

JIMMY CARTER: On “The Daily Show” last night.

NEED FOR SEED: UGA anthropologists’ Southern Seed Legacy protects heirloom varieties of old and disappearing Southern crops such as the plum granny and the turkey craw bean.

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OBAMA: Getting snarkier, outspending Clinton 2-to-1 on TV ads in Pa. on Primary Eve.

GRACE UNDER FIRES: Okefenokee Swamp open, still recovering from last year’s forest fires; boat tours survey remaining damage.

A NICE METH YOU’VE GOTTEN ME INTO: CNN reporter arrested in Central Park with meth in his pocket while returning to his hotel room with friends.

THE TRIALS OF ABRAHAM: Smitten DOT commish to announce today whether she plans to stay in her post, will then be voted in or out by the board.

KATHRYN JOHNSTON SHOOTING: Jury selection for Arthur Tesler’s trial begins today.

THE NEGOTIATOR: Jimmy Carter gets Hamas to agree to hypothetical peace deal, gets snubbed by Israelis.

HAWKS: Lose Game 1 handily.

JUNK FEUD: NBA players LeBron James and DeShawn Stevenson hold proxy feud via rappers Jay-Z and Soulja Boy.

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LOVE IS IN THE AIR: Delta and Northwest finally shack up. The AP offers this timeline of the two airlines’ histories. And while local congressmen seem keen on the idea, the merger still has more skeptical politicians, as well as unions and antitrust regulators, to clear before becoming final.

HERSCHEL WALKER: Appeared on “Nightline” last night to discuss his dissociative identity disorder.

IDLE HAYNES: Norreese wants back on board, but the school system’s attorney suggests the board wait until the courts rule on his residency. Meanwhile, the actual accreditation crisis continues.

JIMMY CARTER: Meets with Hamas, pisses off Israel.

HAWKS: Make the playoffs for the first time this century, earning the right to lose to the Celtics in the first round. I think this is a good time to revisit the video below (there’s an 18-second delay at the beginning of the clip). Look out for current Celtics coach and then-Hawk Doc Rivers near the end:

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The Soviet gulag prison system will be the subject of a panel discussion hosted next week by the Carter Center – or will it?

Actually, here’s how the CC describes the event: “A panel of human rights leaders will discuss its impact on Russia and the world today, as well as offer comparisons to the American Civil Rights Movement.”

Fair enough, but does anyone imagine that the topic of America’s own gulag at Guantanamo Bay won’t come up among a panel that includes Larry Cox, executive director of Amnesty International USA; former Gulag prisoner Sergey Kovalev; and Pres. Jimmy himself?

Just yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on the question of just how much access to the judicial process the more than 300 in Cuba should have. Said the Bush administration: not much. Said a lawyer for 37 detainees who’ve been locked away for more than six years without a proper hearing: more than they’ve gotten so far.

According to the NYT, the 83-minute hearing didn’t seem to go so well for the government, which tried to convince the court that being represented by an assigned officer before a military tribunal is all the justice the detainees deserve.

So the Carter Center event should be interesting. Shame you can’t go. Apparently, the program – scheduled for 7 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 12 – is already sold out. However, you can listen to a live webcast of the discussion on the CC’s website.

You can also check out an exhibition on the gulags at the Martin Luther King Jr., National Historic Site. It’s billed as the first U.S. retrospective of the Soviet gulag system. Be sure to bring the kids.

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When it comes to just about everything, author, commentator, essayist and general curmudgeon Christopher Hitchens is about as subtle as an enema. Hitchens was in Atlanta recently pushing his new (and typically unsubtly titled) book, God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. (Previous titles include The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice, and No One Left to Lie To: The Values of the Worst Family.) So it should come as no surprise to anyone who follows Hitchens to read his hyperbolic screed in Slate against former President Jimmy Carter after Carter’s recent criticism of President George W. Bush’s so-called foreign-policy decisions.
Here’s but a taste:

“[Carter’s] combination of naivete and cynicism — from open-mouthed shock at Leonid Brezhnev’s occupation of Afghanistan to underhanded support for Saddam in his unsleeping campaign of megalomania — had terrible consequences that are with us still. It’s hardly an exaggeration to say that every administration since has had to deal with the chaotic legacy of Carter’s mind-boggling cowardice and incompetence.

I come and go on Carter, who seems to hold the alternate (and rather dubious) titles of bad president and best ex-president ever depending on who you talk to — although many agree that both titles probably apply. His Nobel Peace Prize is certainly well-earned. But Hitchens, through all his bluster, does make a cogent point about Carter as historical revisionist. At his worst, Carter often seems to right his dubious record as president, with some of his interviews carrying a subtle “I told you so” quality about them. At his best, he’s a hell of an ambassador of goodwill, an elections observer and home-builder. I’ll leave it to others to decide what his ultimate record of achievement will be, and continue to be entertained by Christopher Hitchens’ general anger at the world.
What do you think?

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