All the while, his supporters taking notes

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Hi folks, sarah and I are both hiding underground now. Please vote for us and we will pop up like groundhogs for the inauguration.

NOTES FROM NEW ORLEANS: A Hard Head Makes A Soft Behind

By now, you�ve heard the election results � Mayor Nagin against Lieutenant Governor Mitch Landrieu in the run-off, the mayor coming away with the a large number of the Black vote, including those of my Black friends who swore they were done with him. As one brother later told me, �At the end of the day, I had to go with my own.�

Forcing the issue of having a Black mayor for New Orleans, even when all his actions demonstrate an inability or unwillingness to make issues important to the Black community a priority, in the hopes that it will help us reclaim our �Chocolate City�, strikes me as, well�hard-headed.

I went to the Sheraton Election Night to cover Nagin�s speech. The room was filled with nothing but Black faces, so shocking considering just two months ago, you couldn�t hardly find a Black person with a New Orleans driver�s license who had anything nice to say about our Mayor�s on-the-job performance. I looked into those faces, faces of friends and people I�d met out at rallies and neighborhood planning meetings, all of whom openly discussed their dissatisfaction with the current leadership. But this mayor�s race was no longer about the future of New Orleans. This race has become about race.

At Nagin�s Election Night party, there was a distinct feeling of Black people welcoming the prodigal son back home, of redemption of the husband who strayed. Once it was clear his White majority supporters were backing anyone but him, he started out on the �Back To Africa� tour so many of our prodigal sons and daughters have performed in � OJ Simpson, Mariah, Vanessa�and was successful in securing a large number of Black votes. There were literally tears in the eyes of many of the women there, cracked voices calling out �We love you!� �Speak your truth!� They loved that he said �Chocolate City� and pissed White people off.

The room was electric and his speech had some profound moments. But then� the classic Nagin kicked in and he said something that fell like a bad note in his otherwise melodic song.

�This economic pie is getting ready to explode. And it will be shared equally. I want the community to get more comfortable with the Ray Nagin type. The Joe Canizaro type...�

Joe Canizaro is a local land developer and one of President Bush�s biggest campaign contributors. When Nagin tapped his choices for the �Bring Back New Orleans� advisory panel that would create a rebuilding plan for New Orleans, he followed Canizaro�s advice and stepped over local talent and intelligentsia and hired consultants from Los Angeles called the �Urban Planning Institute�, of which Canizaro was a long time board member. Many New Orleanians were upset they had so little representation on the BNOB panel. And the ones that were included on the panel, like City Council President Oliver Thomas, voiced frustration at being dis-included from many a luncheon and social gathering were decisions and deals were made about the rebuilding plan. When the plan was finally unveiled, it was clear to those watching why the planning lunches were secret.

When the BNOB committee presented it plan to the public at the Marriot Hotel last November, we saw a map of New Orleans on the overhead screen that had large green swatches over areas that the ULI recommended for permanent closure -the Ninth Ward, New Orleans East, and Gentilly. These areas are predominately Black communities. Even more telling about the agenda of the planners was the fact that the plan made no mention of where else in New Orleans the residents of these closed Black neighborhoods could move to.

A plan for a new New Orleans. �Oh, we don�t know where �those� people went�� Residents were absolutely livid. So much so that the ULI returned to the community months later with a revised plan that said the neighborhoods proposed for phasing out would be given four months to prove they could repopulate and be viable or the city would begin a forced buy-out program. There still seemed to be a lack of understanding on the part of the from-out-of-town panel that people have not been able to repopulate their neighborhoods because their houses are destroyed, the insurance companies are denying claims across the board, landlords are price gouging the rental market, and FEMA�s STILL not provided even half the trailers requested.

Just as the BNOB panel began to take public comments after their presentation of the revised plan, a huge Black man bellowed out like a sonic boom from the back of the room:

�You�re not taking my land!! If you come trying to take my property, you�re gonna have a baby Iraq on your hands! Nobody worked the jobs I�ve worked, taking crap from employers I didn�t wanna take, to make my note every month to sit here and have you tell me I can�t rebuild MY own home!! That�s my house and if you thinking �bout coming to take my land, you betta come heavy. And Joe Canizaro � I HATE YOU!�

Mr. Harvey�s explosion was a pivotal moment in this early phase of our reconstruction. His face made the front page of the paper and he�s since been interviewed by dozens of media outlets. His roaring outburst exposed the stifled anger, disgust, rage, pain, and grief so many homeowners felt at the slap in the face by these Los Angeles-based, Nagin-Canizaro sponsored planners.

Blacks here have an over-arching mistrust of Canizaro. And the moment Nagin uttered his name on Election Night as someone we need to be checking for, we witnessed the first signs of the prodigal son returning to his old ways.

I looked at the Black faces around me, their responses to his Canizaro remark, and saw frozen smiles � and determination. Determination to go forward, against all the signs and track record of what they knew they didn�t want, for fear of losing our Black foothold in local government.

�Don�t we even get to keep that?�, we ask ourselves here in the New Orleans. �We lost our homes, every last stick of furniture, every appliance, photo albums and grandmother�s jewelry and all our files and the dog too and family, friends, neighbors we grew up with � everything that give context and meaning for even being here in this life�� The only thing many Black people got out of here with before the levees broke, besides our memories, was their Black skin. And a feeling is alive here that if we lose our Black leadership, the only thing that survived in New Orleans, we won�t have a future here.

When I first moved to New Orleans, I was saturated in blackness and I loved it. Black people were everywhere and it really felt like another country, other than the United States. One of my favorite jaunts then, and still today, is to go to City Hall and revel in the family vibe where �my folks� are running things. No other public office have I ever felt so comfortable, so�relevant. And so included.

I, too, am still constantly wrestling with strong emotions about being a Black public figure, a Black woman, tearing away from the fold, away from �the Black man�. I�d love nothing more than to be wrong about Mayor Nagin�s ability to lead us out of darkness. But�you know - especially you ladies - how you know something deep inside that you don�t want to be true, so you say to yourself, �Maybe I�m wrong�� But later on, when the sh-t hits the fan, you realize how foolish it was to doubt what your wisdom and intuition told you.

New Orleans can�t afford false pride based on race. Our empire has been completely demolished. Sometimes, there�s so much to do, so much wrong here that needs addressing, and you get so overwhelmed trying to hold it together, you just sit back down and start crying. Crying for the old days.

And that�s when faith comes in. Faith that if we walk on what we know is His truth, that He�ll provide the best outcome. And if we force things to be our way, moving from a limited, human mentality of fear, we�ll just end up with more of this hard knocks life.

My grandmother used to tell me whenever I was cutting up, �A hard head makes a soft behind!� Her words came rushing to me when Mayor Nagin finished his speech and the DJ fired up the room with a song from the Gap Band:

Deborah Cotton is a freelance journalist and public speaker based in New Orleans, covering on-the-ground stories of the city�s recovery and chronicling the rebuilding efforts of the historic Ninth Ward. She can be reached at Deborah.cotton@gmail.com.

* From now until May 7th, check out her election/Jazz Fest coverage in her daily blog �The Second Line� on http://blackvoices.aol.com

We all hear a lot of support for each candidate on this board. Curious if anyone has put their money where their mouth is? What extent would you/have you gone for the candidate you favor?

I received this in email this morning. I couldn't find it posted here already, so:

Check this out.........and be sure to read it to the very end.

Three former Fannie Mae executives

and left-wing media don't just repeat what they see and hear? LOL! Oh please. Half of the Obamanation supporters spout exactly what Obama says and only seeing the promise of change.....which I might add....WON'T HAPPEN. Obama can't do anything he promises and if he does.....our country will be totally FUBARed (f*cked up beyond all recognition).

What do you say we all switch and vote a dirty old maverick into the White House?

I don't normally post on this board, I stay over on the MT boards, but I have one thing to say from my heart: Please remember that you reap what you sow. All of the years of the Bush-bashing from the left...it was always "okay" to do that because Bush is an "imbecile" or whatever other hateful names he was called. You didn't agree with his policies, etc. So let's bash him. Forget that he is a human being with people who love him. I believe he did the best he could with what he had to work with in terms of faulty intelligence given to him and the unimaginable stress of being the Leader of the Free World.

Well, now the tables have turned. I, personally, do not intend to bash Obama until he does/does not do something I disagree with, but when the time comes that some people might have the gall to disagree with something Obama does and refer to him in a negative way by calling him names or otherwise, please remember how it was *okay* for the left to do it to Bush. Just remember that. The time will come when the hateful negativity comes back on you with a vengeance.

to respond to my post in such a reasonable and adult manner. Keep up the good work! You must be so proud.

COLUMBUS, Ohio, Nov. 22 - Leesa Martin never considered President Bush a great leader, but she voted for him a year ago because she admired how he handled the terrorist attacks of 2001.

Selena Smith, an advertising agency director in Atlanta. The war is more important to me now. What�s the plan? Give us something to hang our teeth on, she said.

Kevin Fitzsimons for The New York Times

I don�t know if it�s any one thing as much as it is everything. It�s kind of snowballed, said Leesa Martin, a market researcher in Columbus, Ohio.

Then came the past summer, when the death toll from the war in Iraq hit this state particularly hard: 16 marines from the same battalion killed in one week. She thought the federal government should have acted faster to help after Hurricane Katrina. She was baffled by the president's nomination of Harriet E. Miers, a woman she considered unqualified for the Supreme Court, and disappointed when he did not nominate another woman after Ms. Miers withdrew.

And she remains unsettled by questions about whether the White House leaked the name of a C.I.A. agent whose husband had accused the president of misleading the country about the intelligence that led to the war.

I don't know if it's any one thing as much as it is everything, said Ms. Martin, 49, eating lunch at the North Market, on the edge of downtown Columbus. It's kind of snowballed.

Her concerns were echoed in more than 75 interviews here and across the country this week, helping to explain the slide in the president's approval and trustworthiness ratings in recent polls.

Many people who voted for Mr. Bush a year ago had trouble pinning their current discontent on any one thing. Many mentioned the hurricane and the indictment of a top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, which some said raised doubts about the president's candor and his judgment. But there was a sense that something had veered off course in the last few months, and the war was the one constant. Over and over, even some of Mr. Bush's supporters raised comparisons with Vietnam.

We keep hearing about suicide bombers and casualties and never hear about any progress being made, said Dave Panici, 45, a railroad conductor from Bradley, Ill. I don't see an end to it; it just seems relentless. I feel like our country is just staying afloat, just treading water instead of swimming toward somewhere.

Mr. Panici voted for President Bush in 2004, calling it a vote for security. Now that a year has passed, I haven't seen any improvement in Iraq, he said. I don't feel that the world is a safer place.

A USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll in mid-November found that 37 percent of Americans approved of Mr. Bush, the lowest approval rating the poll had recorded in his presidency. That was down from 55 percent a year ago and from a high of 90 percent shortly after Sept. 11, 2001.

An Associated Press/Ipsos poll earlier in the month found the same 37 percent approval rating and recorded the president's lowest levels regarding integrity and honesty: 42 percent of Americans found him honest, compared with 53 percent at the beginning of this year.

Several of those interviewed said that in the last year they had come to believe that Mr. Bush had not been fully honest about the intelligence that led to the war, which he said showed solid evidence that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

I think people put their faith in Bush, hoping he would do the right thing, said Stacey Rosen, 38, a stay-at-home mother in Boca Raton, Fla., who said she voted for Mr. Bush but was totally disappointed in him now. Everybody cannot believe that there hasn't been one shred of evidence of W.M.D. I think it goes to show how they tell us what they want to tell us.

Mark Briggs, who works for Nationwide Insurance here, said he did not want to believe that the president manipulated intelligence leading the country into war, but believed that, at least, Mr. Bush had misread it.

Still, however much he may disagree with Mr. Bush's policies, Mr. Briggs said, he admires the president for standing by what he says.

There is the notion of leadership and sticking with the plan, which I believe in, he said. George Bush is clear and consistent. He made a tough decision to go to war - and others voted for it, too. And I think he's right: those people may be trying to rewrite history.

Kacey Wilson, 32, eating lunch with Ms. Martin, said she, too, had concerns about the death toll from the war, but she felt that Mr. Bush spoke the truth, even if it might not be what the country wanted to hear. I like his cut-and-dry, take-no-prisoners style, Ms. Wilson said. I think people are used to more spinning.

Others, though, saw arrogance in that approach.

We need to not be so stubborn, said Vicky Polka, 58, a retired school principal in Statesboro, Ga., who voted for Mr. Bush and described her support for him as waning. Something's not going right here. We need to resolve this. I hate to say it, but I think Iraq is going the way of Vietnam.

Few people said they were following the leak scandal, which led to the indictment of I. Lewis Libby Jr., Mr. Cheney's former aide. Some who could cite main characters and events dismissed it as little more than political theater. Even fewer said they had paid attention to other scandals preoccupying Washington: the indictment of Representative Tom DeLay, the powerful Texas Republican, and the guilty plea by his former spokesman.

But several people said that the leak scandal had left them with the sense that the president was not leveling with the public about his involvement

He has to give us more information, said Phil Niemie, 51, an elementary school principal eating lunch with his family in Columbus. The longer it goes without closure, it begins to trigger those Nixon Watergate years. I felt the same way with Clinton.

Progress has been made. The Iraqis have a constitution. They�re actually creating their own country, said Rich Canary, an information technology specialist, Columbus, Ohio.

He has to give us more information. The longer it goes without closure, it begins to trigger those Nixon Watergate years, said Phil Niemie, an elementary school principal in Columbus, Ohio.

But for Mr. Niemie, who voted for Mr. Bush, and others, the leak scandal raised the biggest doubts about Vice President Cheney.

A lot of problems tie back to some of Cheney's shenanigans, Ms. Martin said. It just seems like he could have done better for vice president the second time around.

In Atlanta, Selena Smith, a director at an advertising agency, echoed others when she said she thought too much time had already been spent on the investigation.

The war is more important to me now, said Ms. Smith, 46. What's the plan? Give us something to hang our teeth on. What's really top of mind for me is how many people are getting killed across the creek, and how are we going to get them home?

Here in Ohio, the most hotly contested state in the 2004 election, the heavy toll on a local Marine battalion had played out on television and in newspapers throughout the summer's end, and the majority of two dozen people interviewed here said they wanted to see the troops come home.

Some, though, faulted Americans as having short attention spans.

Anything that takes more than a couple of months, we get bored with, said Rich Canary, 35, an information technology specialist here. Progress has been made. The Iraqis have a constitution. They're actually creating their own country. When you hear the soldiers talk, they feel what they're doing is important.

And there was much division about how to end the war. Some military families said it was important to finish the task the troops had begun; others said they resented accusations of being unpatriotic when they criticized the war. Some who said their approval of the president had not wavered nevertheless argued for a quick end to the war, while some of Mr. Bush's strongest critics said it would destabilize Iraq to withdraw the troops anytime soon.

Too many people would get hurt, said Laurence Melia, 28, a salesman from Newton, Mass., who campaigned against President Bush last year. There has to be a last foot on the ground in the end, and there might be more problems if we run away too fast.

In Houston, Geoff Van Hoeven, an accountant, said he thought the war in Iraq had aggravated the terrorist threat by creating a breeding ground for Al Qaeda. Still, Mr. Van Hoeven said a quick withdrawal was not possible, because America's going to be perceived as extremely weak and unreliable coming in, and when the going gets rough, they pull out.

Even those who voted against Mr. Bush a year ago saw little satisfaction in his woes.

Part of me enjoys watching him squirm, said Shirley Tobias, 46, sitting with a colleague from Netscape at a coffee shop in Grandview, a suburb of Columbus. But he's squirming on our behalf. We're all in this together.

While you guys are here on this page engaging it "silly season semantics", we Obama supporters are working our plan to ensure that we get this wonderful man of the people in office. Has Senator McCain given his supporters any ideas on what they can do to try to help put him in office? Most of the 90,000+ people at the Democratic convention are right now working the plan (not to mention the millions of us who watched from home!) You guys need to wake up and give your support to someone who will work for you rather than against you in Washington.

The only thing wrong with being wrong is stubbornly clinging to your wrongness. You probably voted for our current president 4 and 8 years ago. The deplorable condition that our nation has fallen into over the course of the last 8 years makes me know I must do everything possible to avoid 4 more. I, and millions like me, are so happy that Senator Obama chose to use his awesome intelligence, skills and experience of working with people to help us help ourselves. We are an unstoppable force. Better get on board, folks.