Barack Obama is in town today – look for him on The Daily Show later tonight – and the non-vacationing Azi was on hand at a rally near Times Square that the Illinois senator held to show off some endorsements from New York pols.
You can get a summary of the event here, but Azi took note of the presence of one particular elected official:
Given that one of Obama’s themes is “turning the page” on the past, it seems ironic that he’s touting the endorsement of City Councilman Al Vann. Vann is a product of the Civil Rights generation who got his political start during the Ocean Hill-Brownsville fight over school control. But he’s dabbled in the kind of racially polarizing politics that Obama talks about overcoming. For instance, he rallied opposition to David Yassky’s Brooklyn last year – in part, by pointing out that Yassky was “a white individual.”
