It was one of the better ones—when it was about the candidate who didn’t come.

I greatly enjoyed the dustup about the invitation (scroll down to the bottom of this link to hear Tavis Smiley’s commentary). As I like to say, Tavis keeps trying to be Larry King and Martin Luther King at the same time. It’s a mix that works for him, but he’s not the whole NAACP. He’s a communicator (and book hustler 🙂 ), not a leader. And I’m glad somebody put him in his place.

Hillary Clinton showed up at the end after trying to rip Barack Obama a new one. Before talking with Tavis (and apologizing for her campaign’s racist excesses), she outlined her career to the Black audience, but I was more interested in her view of the present: “We stand at such a historic moment.” Yep. “Unchartered terrority,” indeed.