Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Doing the Right Thing

Right now, I'm falling in love all over again with Spike Lee.

A few minutes ago, CNN's Suzanne Malveaux tracked down Lee for a brief interview from the floor of the convention. Malveaux breathlessly asked him about former President Clinton, who seems to have somehow turned into Grandpa Simpson during the spring. She wanted to know if the "black community" could ever again accept the guy once considered, only a tad facetiously, as America's "first black president."

Lee had to make one thing clear first, lest people again conflate his opinion with that of all black Americans - a common problem for only a handful of prominent brothas to make a name for themselves: "These are just my opinions. I'm not a spokesperson or anything."

Genius. Not to mention, he gave a wise, conciliatory and brief analysis of the Clintons' meltdown in the final weeks of the Democratic primary:
Some people take losses harder than others. This was a devastating loss.
I think, sometimes, people want to write off Senator Clinton's extended push for the nomination as a power play, a simple feeling of entitlement. But as sports fans like myself and Lee know all too well, some people just don't take losses all that well. Especially not people who are used to winning.

And especially winners on the scale of the Clintons.

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