Don King Praises Bush, Endorses Obama

                                                                                   A New Era Begins:
                                                                      Remembering George W. Bush
                                               By Don King, written in Chengdu, China on Nov. 3, 2008
                                                                    (Transcript of handwritten text)

Feel the power.  Change is in the air.  Change is America’s destiny.  All Americans, friend and foe alike, agree unanimously that we need change.  The kind of change that we can believe in.  Barack Obama represents that change.

            “We must obey the law of change.
            It is the most powerful law of nature.”

                            —Edmund Burke

            “The length, breadth and height of life.”

                            —John, on the island of Patmos,
                               seeing a spiritual vision of a
                              new Jerusalem

I am a Republicrat.  I’m for whoever is best for the American people.  Four years ago, I urged you to vote for George W. Bush.  Why?  Because I believe George Walker is a revolutionary, pioneer and trailblazer who loves America and the American people. 

We have had 43 great Presidents in our great United States of America; however, history tells us that God gives values.  There is a value system that cannot be compromised.  These aren’t United States-created values. These are God-given values.  They are inalienable rights, these values of freedom.  George Walker Bush illustrated and implemented these values like no other President who served before him. 

President Bush not only talked the talk, but he walked the walk in the field of inclusion of inclusion of black people and diversity.  He dared to make America be her, by making America one, inclusive of African Americans who had heretofore been left out. 

We were always promised with the tranquilizing drug of gradualism “to wait, be patient, don’t be in such a hurry, time will take care of it, you have to admit it’s getting better,” but never receiving the mantle of manhood, self-respect, dignity. human worth and first-class citizenship. 

In the greatest nation in the world, it all begins with image, opportunity and performance. 

When I campaigned for President Bush in the black community, the people thought that I had lost my mind; however, I quickly reminded them that the stereotype image of black people in my beloved country of America was that black people were lazy, lethargic, and that we could not rise to the occasion, that we all lied, cheated, and stole; that we were shiftless, worthless and of no account.

The black community has traditionally supported Democrats.  First, I told them we have a two-party system, and that our vote should not be taken for granted. 

“Sometimes party loyalty asks too much.”

—John F. Kennedy

Then I compared President Bush to Moses:  Moses was touched by God and told to go to the Pharaoh to tell him to “let my people go.”  Then, I told them that President Bush was either totally insane, or he had been touched by God to go to the un-Americans, the racists, the bigots, the prejudiced, the discriminators, and say, “Let my people in.”

The question was asked:  Why?

He had appointed two lazy, shiftless, lying, worthless, of no account black people—Colin Powell as Secretary of State, and Dr. Condeleezza Rice as National Security Advisor—to protect 300-million Americans, black and white alike for the safety and security of our great nation. 

Say what you will or may about President George Walker Bush, but you have to realize and appreciate the fact that he set the stage for black people in high policy-making positions of opportunity and performance.  How important is opportunity and performance?  Let’s look at history.

First, it doesn’t matter how much time, effort and money you put into opportunity, if you don’t perform it is irrelevant and immaterial. 

With the tainted stereotyped image black people are burdened with, giving the opportunity says it all.  One can change that stereotyped image through performance.

In sports, Branch Rickey brought Jackie Robinson into the Major League Baseball.  He performed magnificently. 

Bill Veeck brought in Larry Doby to play for the Cleveland Indians—remarkable performance. 

In football, Paul Brown brought Jim Brown to the Cleveland Browns—phenomenal performance. 

Red Auerbach brought in Bill Russell to play basketball for the Boston Celtics—super performance.

But this was just sports, but the American people began to think differently.  Are these the same class of people that they had been taught were inferior? 

But the racists held on.  “They can’t lead, they cannot rise to the occasion,” is what they would say, but the performance of black people dictated otherwise.

President Bush saw the error of this type of thinking and he set his focus on correcting this longtime wrong.

            There comes a time when one must
            take the position that it is neither safe,
            nor patriotic, nor popular, but he must
            do it because conscience tells him it is right.”

                            —Martin Luther King Jr.

Trailblazing President Bush realized that Americans must open their minds and their hearts to accept truth and implement fair play.  The American people had to begin to conceive of and treat black people as equals.  He knew that prior attempts to purge individuals of racism necessarily had to be accompanied by related efforts to purge institutions of the same malady.  Institutions and individuals had to be made safe for one another. 

So he appointed the most diverse cabinet in the history of America including Rod Paige as our 7th Secretary of Education; Alphonso Jackson as our 13th Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development; and Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General.

This necessitated related kinds of change.  By taking on the ultra-conservative wing of his party, which would rather maintain the status quo than seek progress, reform and inclusiveness of all Americans, he proved he was a true man of all the people.

He used his good offices to persuade congress to accept change—including attitudes, behavior, sound morality and good character—in the spirit of education and knowledge.

President Bush is a great American and a revolutionary President whose dedication and commitment to diversity and a better America will never be forgotten.  He created the environment for change and new respect for minority leadership that has spread across our great nation.

Barack Obama: Change
By Don King, written in Chengdu, China on Nov. 3, 2008
(Transcript of handwritten text)

My fellow Americans, the moment of truth is here.  America needs your vote to move forward with much-needed change.  Barack Obama is that change.  To my fellow Americans who feel that they just can’t vote for a black man, the great grandson of former slaves, I want you to know that I am emphatic, sympathetic and commiserate with your plight.  I understand very well that after more than three centuries of being taught, conditioned and indoctrinated to hate the black man as your inferior, it is unrealistic to think that now you can just change to respect him.  That’s easier said than done.

Try to think of your children and their children and a better life for them.  Try to think of your beloved country America and what’s best for Miss Liberty.  Then try not to think of Barack Obama as a black man but as an American fighting for what’s best for your children and your country.  Barack Obama is in it to win it.  He can’t give in, he can’t give up and he can’t quit.  He’s fighting for a better America—black and white alike.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger recently said Barack has skinny legs.  He may have skinny legs, but he has Nike Freedom Shoes on his feet.

What time is it?  America’s time!  What time is it?  Globalization time!  America needs change.  Who will be the best to lead that change?  Without question it is Barack Obama.  If Barack Obama was white, it would be a landslide win in this election. 

The issues are firmly planted in the minds of the American people: the economy, jobs, health care, education, national security, improving America’s image around the world.  The all-commanding question is, “Can Americans elect an African American to the lead us and the free world???

That question is synonymous with America’s Liberty Bell—the bell of liberty, that is—ringing around the world.

Comes a time when custom and tradition has grown to a new level of elevation and progress.  Let freedom ring.  Barack Obama, from every hill, every dell, every nook and cranny of America, let freedom ring throughout every state, every city and every ghetto of this great land.  Supported by innovative and imaginative thinking is an idea whose time has come.

Remember Iowa.  America is ready to accept its challenge, “One land indivisible with liberty and justice for all,” and fulfill its promise.  “We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal.”

History has taught us that when you cover up an unassailable truth rather than face a clear, undeniable reality, the result is chaos, bigotry, bias, prejudice and divisiveness.

I love America….  And I love the American people, black and white alike.  When I began my second career, I realized and appreciated the fact that people were my most important asset.  Innovation and imagination were my tools, a better America was my goal, and I believed that people are beautiful.  So let’s come together with unity, solidarity and togetherness. 

I began my second career by helping a hospital, Forrest City Hospital, which served the black community of Cleveland, Ohio.  Devastated by racial segregation and discrimination, “The Greatest” Muhammad Ali came to Cleveland and performed a boxing exhibition spotlighting the plight of that healing organization.

The event led to my going to Africa to stage “The Rumble in the Jungle” in Kinshasa, Zaire, in 1974.  Even though I had signed the two most famous athletes in the world, racism prevented me from staging the event in my beloved homeland of America.  So, due to the disease of the mind called racism, I met Mubuto Sese Seko, President of Zaire, and that is where this seminal event was staged.

I am proud to be an American, and I never thought that I would live to see the day that a black man could run for the Presidency of the United States of America and have his campaign taken seriously, endorsed and supported by the major Democratic party—but more important, supported by the American people, black and white alike.  Demonstrating peaceful co-existence, tolerance and acceptance:  America The Beautiful!!!

Peaceful co-existence means we must love each other.  We must trust each other.  We must respect each other.  We must work with each other.  And we must perform with each other. 

Tolerance, consciously or unconsciously, we must believe somehow or in some form the moral universe is on the side of justice.  We must come to believe as Martin Luther King Jr. stated, “I can’t be what we ought to be until you can be what you ought to be.  And you can’t be what you ought to be until I can be what I ought to be.”



We are caught up in an inescapable network of mutuality.  What effects one directly, effects all indirectly.  We must eradicate the slave master mentality (capitalism without rights).  It is unjust.  There is something in the universe that evolves for justice.  Martin Luther King Jr. called it “cosmic companionship.” 

The world is watching American history in the making, live and in living color.  Should Barack Obama be elected President of the United States, America and the world will never be the same again.  That New Jerusalem that John saw on the island of Patmos will be transformed to America.  A New America transformed from a land of hypocrisy, bigotry, discrimination and divisiveness to an oasis of unity, liberty and freedom.  We will enjoy a new respect for the human personality and a divine love for humanity.

We have a great opportunity here in America.  An opportunity to build a great nation.  A nation where all people, men and women, black and white, Catholic and Protestant, Jew and gentile, Latin and Asian, Chinese and Japanese, live together as brothers and sisters, families and friends, with God at the center blessing us, guiding us to respect the dignity and worth of all human beings.

It’s America’s time.  America is on the move and there’s not stopping her now.  Change.  Change that we need.  Barack Obama.

                “Civil Rights is an eternal moral issue
                  which may well determine the destiny
                  of our civilization in the ideological
                  struggle with communism.  We must
                  we must keep moving with wise restraint
                   and love and with proper discipline and
                  dignity.”

                            —Marin Luther King Jr.

America has the opportunity to lead the world with love, respect, tolerance and understanding—reducing hatred and minimizing wars.

Barack Obama can make a difference.  Peace, freedom from war, a cessation or absence of hostilities between nations.  Prevention is better than cure.

The peace established during and after war means: stopping of killing openly, the stopping of the arms, automatic weaponry, bombs, nuclear weapons, weapons of mass destruction.  No more fighting each other, under the terms and conditions of the peace agreement.

But, we must remember, that it doesn’t end attitudinal hate.  Hate of the adversary, who you have been taught and conditioned to hate.  The hurt, scars wounds and deaths of loved ones, love of country and commitment to the cause for which you were fighting, which you mentally and psychologically fed off of must be dealt with in the continuing battle against hate and any bigotry and racism that you believed while in the relentless pursuit of your goal. 

Freedom.  It is easier said than done; however we must keep the faith, believe in God, and ask him to free your mind and touch your heart. 

And for those Americans, who just can’t fathom voting for an African American, when you go into the voting booth, ask God to help you to pretend that Barack Obama is white!!!!