McCain, Obama Rising In New Hampshire

After my election predictions last week, I just had to post this headline from today's Huffington Post. A few people wrote me directly who did not believe that McCain or Obama would win New Hampshire, so I thought it amusing when I clicked on the Internet this morning and stumbled upon this story.

Of course, this doesn't mean that those candidates will win in New Hamsphire, and it doesn't mean my prediction will be right. A prediction is just an educated guess. Anything could happen between now and January 8. But it does seem to suggest that the prediction is not completely implausible. I know I'm closing down the site this week, but I promise to write an article after the Iowa Caucuses and New Hampshire Primary so you can find out if I was right or wrong.

Posted in politics on December 23 2007, 12:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Jaded: A Lovely Diamond in the Rough For The Holidays

Reviews by Stanley Bennett Clay

I confess. I am a sucker for a good love story. But Kevin E. Taylor's Jaded, a tender, life-affirming tale of romantic, committed, respectfully considerate, and passion-filled love, swept me off my feet!

Proving that nice guys can finish first, Joshua Knight, an ad agency executive, and Elijah Monroe, a music producer, meet in a Harlem record store specializing in lost and/or hard-to-find musical treasures, a fitting metaphor for the predicament these two handsome and successful thirty-something African American men have found themselves in, having both been wounded by previous break-ups.

With everything they have going for them—good hearts and loving parents that easily trump their tremendous good looks and admirable career successes—it is surprising and not so surprising that they have dodged Cupid’s arrow so cautiously. These are two smart and sensitive men, and although the attraction is immediate, they take it slow, very slow, and that slow-dance to happily-ever-after is a beautiful detailed account of a dreamlike courtship.

Posted in books on December 21 2007, 10:05 AM | Read More | Comments (4)

Official 2008 Iowa and NH Predictions

Clinton and Huckabee Will Win Iowa

Two weeks from today, voters in Iowa will cast the first votes in the 2008 presidential election cycle, and the race on both sides is still too close to call. At the moment, Obama and Huckabee are leading in the polls in Iowa, but the former frontrunners, Clinton and Romney, are right on their heels. It's a very tight race and the polls are all over the map, but I'm going to take a risk and make a prediction today.

Looking at the trends and the momentum in the first two contests, it looks like Huckabee's momentum as the new GOP frontrunner is still going strong. On the other side, the untold story is that Clinton seems to have contained the losses she suffered as Obama surged in that state recently. All of this works into a complex arrangement that leads us into an even tighter contest in New Hampshire. Based on what I see now, I'm going to predict that Clinton and Huckabee will win Iowa. But then, in a real shocker, Obama and McCain will win New Hampshire.

Posted in politics on December 20 2007, 12:56 PM | Read More | Comments (12)

The Phony War on Christmas

I got a call this morning from a producer at a TV news show asking me if I would come on to talk about Mike Huckabee's new "Christmas ad" that features the Republican presidential candidate discussing "the birth of Christ" in front of what some believe to be a Christian cross in the background. The host wanted to use the ad as a segue to discuss whether it was still acceptable to say "Merry Christmas" anymore.

Of course it's acceptable, I responded to the producer, who was actually looking for someone to go on TV and say that it's not okay to say "Merry Christmas." I'm not the right guy for that show, I explained. The producer asked if I could think of someone else who might object to "Merry Christmas" wishes, and then it occurred to me that I really couldn't. All of which led me to question the phony belief that there is some sort of liberal "war on Christmas" being plotted by left-wing activists and academics with a politically correct agenda to secularize the holiday and deprive young kids of their Nintendo Wiis.

Posted in politics on December 19 2007, 1:07 PM | Read More | Comments (11)

Clash of the Choirs

It would have been easy to write about politics today. But with so much going on in the presidential campaign, I figure everybody else will be talking about that already. So today I decided to take a little pop culture diversion. Anybody who has ever read this website in January knows how much I love American Idol. Although the last two winners have disappointed me, the show itself continues to entertain every year.

So last night when I turned on the television and decided not to go to the gym, I was looking for something to keep my interest. Clash of the Choirs almost did that. It's a 4-day reality show in which celebrities recruit singers from their hometowns to compete in a choir sing-off. Kelly Rowland, Nick Lachey, Michael Bolton, Blake Shelton and Patti Labelle select and lead the choirs. To be honest, I wasn't blown away by the show or the choirs. That is, until Patti Labelle took the stage.

Posted in pop culture on December 18 2007, 9:25 AM | Read More | Comments (21)

Introducing Gentleman Jigger

With all the evidence of homosexuality and same-sex relationship in the Harlem Renaissance, I've always wondered why so few books were written about the subject at the time. Surely, homophobia played a role in these decisions, but it always seemed odd that many of the defining literary and cultural figures of the time were so visible and open about their sexuality in some ways, but so guarded in other ways.

Now there's a "new" book coming out that helps fill in the gaps. It's the first new work to come out of the Harlem Renaissance in quite some time. Written between 1928 and 1933, Richard Bruce Nugent's novel Gentleman Jigger tells the story of Stuartt, an openly gay Bohemian heir to one of Washington D.C.’s elite black families. Stuartt joins the young intellectual crowd in Harlem dubbed the "niggeratti" and later moves to New York's Greenwich Village and becomes sexually involved with a "young hoodlum."

Posted in books on December 17 2007, 11:57 AM | Read More | Comments (67)

Two More Weeks

Last month I announced my plans to close down this site. Today I want to take a moment to update you on the status of that transition.

On Friday, December 28, two weeks from today, I will post my last daily commentary on the site. After that, the site will remain open, at least until the end of February 2008, but I will no longer post articles everyday. I will continue to write about the presidential race and other important issues as circumstances warrant. My goal is to post at least one article per week. And I plan to continue publishing guest columns from the regular contributors to the site as they see fit to contribute.

Posted on December 14 2007, 1:25 PM | Read More | Comments (38)