By Johnette Jernigan and Kathy Wray Coleman, Cleveland Urban News. Com and The Cleveland Urban News.Com Blog
Less than a week after nearly 10,000 people weathered the rain at Krenzler Field at Cleveland State University in Cleveland, Oh. to listen to a speech by President Obama (pictured), the majority Black major metropolitan city continues to be a draw in a key presidential election year, and the vice presidential debate is no different.
Obama supporters, national senior campaign strategist Broderick Johnson (pictured), and London Sunday Times USA editor, best selling author and prize winning war correspondent Christina Lamb attended a spirited vice presidential debate watch party at Frederick’s Wine and Dine in the Cleveland area Thursday evening. (Editor's note: The debate was shown live on television from Centre College in Danville, Ky).
“The president continues to fight for issues that are important to all Americans, including women and the middle class,” said Johnson, a Black lawyer who also lectures on government relations and public policy at the University of Michigan. “We have to reelect this president and we are working to get the electoral votes in Ohio.”
Johnson has been a top adviser in the last two Democratic presidential campaigns and he said that while driving from Cleveland Hopkins Airport to Cleveland on Thursday morning he could not help but notice the controversial voter suppression billboards in Cleveland that threaten poor people and minorities with a felony, prison and a 10,000 fine if they vote this year.
Community activists and Black elected officials, including state Sen. Nina Turner (D-25) and Cleveland Councilwomen Phyllis Cleveland and Mamie Mitchell, all Democrats, rallied earlier that day under a voter suppression billboard at E. 35th Street and Community College Ave. in Cleveland, one of several throughout Ohio.
And the billboard in question is down the street from Cuyahoga County Community College where First Lady Michelle Obama spoke to a cheering crowd on Oct. 15.
“I was startled by the signs and believe they are designed to intimidate,” said Johnson of the billboards.
Spearheaded by the Obama for America Campaign, media consultant and construction entrepreneur Ariane Kirkpatrick, and retired Cleveland schools elementary principal Anna Smith, last week’s vice presidential debate watch party, where Democratic Vice President Joe Biden and Republican Vice-Presidential nominee and Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan squared off, drew practically every major local news television channel, including 3, 5, 19 and 8.
War Journalist Lamb, a bestselling author for her book 'Africa House', said that she and several other international reporters had been in Ohio that week because it is pivotal and is generating a plethora of news from media outlets across the country, and even the world.
“I have been in Ohio for a week and we will be writing about the vice presidential debate at the London Sunday Times, a weekly newspaper with an estimated 1.5 million readers a week,” Lamb told Cleveland Urban News.Com Publisher and Editor-n-Chief Kathy Wray Coleman.
The highly anticipated vice-presidential debate focused on abortion rights, the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, and domestic policy issues such as the Republican thrust to cut taxes for the rich on the backs of the middle class and the poor.
Post debate polls gave vice president Biden the edge over Ryan, including a CNBC poll that found that Biden had out debated Ryan.
Said Johnson after Thursday’s vice presidential debate, “I was impressed by Biden's specificity on domestic and foreign policy and Ryan seemed ill-prepared and he’s still not detailing deductions they'll eliminate.”
Reach Cleveland Urban News.Com by telephone at 216-659-0473 and by email at editor@clevelandurbannews.com.
