Get rid of Bush - Who are the alternatives?

Carol Moseley-Braun

(abridged from Gary Younge in the Guardian, 03/03/03)

www.carolforpresident.com

Few credit her with having any chance of winning, but she has the potential to make a vital impact on the race. She has come forward at a time when some of the most prominent women on both sides of the political divide are black.

The Republicans have national security adviser Condoleeza Rice, while the woman who ran Al Gore's 2000 campaign, Donna Brazile, is also African-American. Moseley-Bruan represents a crucial demographic, both within the Democratic party and the anti-war movement.

More than 80% of African-Americans vote for the Democrats. Among them black women are the most loyal, with more than 90% backing the party. So as a black, female Democrat with a college education Moseley-Braun certainly knows her audience.

"I am a budget hawk and a peace dove. The unilateral attempt to take military action against Iraq is not in the interest of our long-term security. And the budget deficit is another matter. We have no right to saddle our children with our debt and our bad decisions."

And all this comes at a time when George Bush is threatening to remove affirmative action, there is the prospect of an anti-abortion judge being nominated for the supreme court, and the possibility that a presidential campaign will take place in the wake of an unpopular war. It seems unlikely.

But not much more unlikely than anything else she has achieved thus far.