Bill Vaughan's TASTY CLIPS

WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED ABOUT THE PROCESS FROM THIS PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION RUN?

BRANFORD MARSALIS - Musician/Composer(Braggtown) I have learned that the Democratic party has proportional awarding of delegates, as opposed to winner-takes-all. I have learned that there are gems out there for a candidate who understands all of the rules, as opposed to doing what everyone else has done. I have learned that there is a large percentage of the electorate that considers eloquence a liability. It explains how the success of American Idol is no fluke.

NIKKI GIOVANNI - Poet/Educator (Hip Hop Speaks to Children: A Celebration of Poetry with a Beat) Everything old is new again. I learned that the good habits and honest commitments of the old Civil Rights workers "back in the day," still work. Barack Obama took that which moved a nation over fifty years ago and made it relevant to today. Politics is still about hope and dreams and making the world a better place. I also want to give a shout out to the Hip Hop Nation for all they have done to impose the possibility of change on America. I think without those young people and the truth they bring this might be a different outcome.

FRANKLYN AJAYE - Comic/Actor (Car Wash; Deadwood)/Musician (Vagabond Jazz)/Author (Comic Insights) I have learned truly how trivial and superficial our political process really is. The media is focused on the gossipy elements of the campaigns not the issues. I also now realize how much of what we hear is nothing but propaganda and brainwashing--on both sides. The shows have dueling spinmeisters from each side who do nothing each day but spout mantras and talking points; no matter what question they are asked. American politicians, including Obama are not willing to really tell Americans hard truths they really need to hear, so we can know clearly what problems we face. We're treated like children. The Republicans have really shown me this year how much their followers are nothing but brainwashed NASCAR lemmings with absolutely no respect for the truth, as long as they are continually being told how great they and America are. We're just a nation of gun toting' shop-keepers in search of lower taxes to them. Stingy and unfeeling Mr. Potter in It's a Wonderful Life is the poster child for modern day Republicanism. Teddy Roosevelt was the last Republican with a progressive, egalitarian vision for America.

ALVIN "VINNIE" CHEA - Singer/Composer (TAKE 6 - The Standard) You name it and I had to bone up on it; Caucuses/Primaries, The Popular Vote/The Electoral College, and Delegates/Super-Delegates. I had to find out what specifically were the planks in Obama's platform. It was very much like when Tiger Woods burst onto the scene. Black men, all across this country, had to become knowledgeable about golf just to keep up. We, as a people, need to educate ourselves to our Democratic process. Education is empowerment. We have finally reached the day where barbershop talk has elevated beyond sports & women. Instead of hearing "Did you see the game?," you now hear, "Did you catch the debate?" It is a wonderful time to be a person of color in America.

NTOZAKE SHANGE -Feminist/Educator/Actor (Danglin' Participle and Shady Syllables @ The Nuyorican Poets Cafe)/Author/ Playwright (For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf) Well I think what I learned is that the approach that early civil rights took to registering voters in resistive areas of Alabama to go county by county was magnified in the Obama campaign. They took the country apart, county by county or state congressional district by state congressional district, and that’s how they’ve been able to have a 50 state plan instead of just a border state plan. I learned that our initial instincts or intellectual revelations in the late 50s and early 60s were right but they needed to be magnified.

EDDIE GRIFFIN - Comic/Actor (Undercover Brother; Norbit) That the media is owned by corporations that were bailed out by taxpayers and it was used to not ask the real questions which is will white people grow above and beyond institutionalized racism to vote for a black man. This entire election is not about black people. It is about white people and have they grown above and beyond a superiority complex.

KENNY LEON - Director (Raisin In The Sun)/Actor/Artistic Director (True Colors Theatre Company - Swimming Upstream (Nov. 5-16) That candidates will do anything in order to win. The Truth is evasive. That there is too much news and too much reporting of the election 24/7. It’s not about presenting the truth so that the US citizens can make an informed choice. It’s often about winning at any cost.

KEVIN ALEXANDER GRAY - Activist/Civil Rights Organizer/Author (Waiting for Lightning to Strike - The Fundamentals of Black Politics) Can’t say I learned anything new. Money is still the mother’s milk of politics – if you got it and plenty of it, you can not only compete but win. Second, power concedes nothing without a demand. I see a demand for change but I don’t yet know if it’s just a change in personnel or a change in policies, politics and the way we live in relation to the rest of the world.

EDDIE GLAUDE-Educator/Lecturer/Senior Fellow (The Jamestown Project)/Author (In a Shade of Blue: Pragmatism & the Politics of Black America) The thing that I’ve learned about the process is that it will never be the same. That it has been fundamentally changed and that change has everything to do with the kind of new role of technology in the mobilization of the electorate. That we’ve gone from the kind of Atari of the Howard Dean campaign to the PS3 of the Obama campaign in terms of its use of Wiki concepts and Facebook concepts and the like. So if there’s anything new that I’ve learned it’s that technology will play a crucial role in the mobilization of constituencies, whether for tips for running for political office or for grassroots mobilization.

DID YOU FIND YOURSELF WATCHING AND READING MORE NEWS? IF SO, WHAT ARE YOUR PREFERRED SOURCES?

ADELE GIVENS - Queen of Comedy/Radio Host/Motivational Speaker Yes, I do find myself watching and reading more news. I read any and all of them that are in front of me....(lol, couldn't resist a quote from the pit bull in lipstick). Seriously, my preferred source is CNN, not only do they usually seem to be neutral and unbiased in their reporting which I appreciate, but most importantly, I can read and watch at the same time thanks to the scroll at the bottom of the screen. Yeah I know its a ploy to keep you tuned in all day cause it takes THAT long to get ALL the news both on the scroll and verbally, but you have to admit, it's a great skill to master;-).

SAUL WILLIAMS - Spoken Word Artist (The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust)/Actor (Slam; Lackawanna Blues) I'm addicted to CNN.com for ticker updates. I've only turned on the TV for the past few months to watch debates. Anderson Cooper cracks me up. I occasionally check Guardian.co.uk just to tune into a bit more of an international perspective of what's happening here. I've also checked Politico.com and have followed a few other links to places forgotten.

JANIS IAN - Grammy Award Winning Singer-Songwriter (At Seventeen; Jesse)/Author (Society's Child) Absolutely. I've been more awake this election than any since John F. Kennedy (when I was too young to vote.) I try to get as many sources as possible, left and right and center. Television, radio, Internet, papers, magazines. Read: Janis & Joe The Bigot

RAUL MIDON - Musician/Composer (A World Within A World) I’m a news junkie so I’m always listening to NPR, Pacifica, and C-Span and when I want to laugh and still be informed I go over to Obama 1260 (locally) or The Daily Show.

KINDRED the FAMILY SOUL-Husband & Wife Singer-Songwriting Duo (The Arrival featuring the hit single House of Love) Definitely watching more news. CNN has become like another member of the family. We are certified Situation Room junkies.

BRANFORD MARSALIS - Not more news, no. I have, for years, subscribed to the NY Times and The Atlantic, and Newsweek since first reading Fareed Zakaria after 9/11. I have also watched CNN forever, but have added the MSNBC shows Morning Joe, Hardball, Countdown and Rachel Maddow. On the radio, NPR and Dian Reem.

EDDIE GLAUDE - Oh man, I’m hooked. From the Sunday morning talk shows to religiously reading the Times, to I don’t typically watch the network news channels but moving between CNN and MSNBC from television and then I’m a religious reader of The Huffington Post, CommonDreams.org, Salon and The Root. So it’s an interesting combination of internet sources and mainstream media sources.

ALVIN "VINNIE" CHEA of TAKE 6 - I used to start my day by watching ESPN, but now I am glued to CNN, although sometimes I do mix it up with CNN-HD :-) For balance, at least once a week, I tune into the Spin Masters on Fox News Network - just to hear what the enemy is saying.

NIKKI GIOVANNI - I've always been a news hound. I generally watch CNN because I like Larry King and Anderson Cooper. I really can't stand Lou Dobbs and I turn him off. Saturday Night Live is back in my life because they are bringing the heat.

EDDIE GRIFFIN - I’ve always watched news. I’m doing what I always do... watch the program that’s trying to be censored. It’s called television programming for a reason because they’re telling you visually the program. See, you have to read between the lines to get the truth. The truth is there. It’s masked with a lie.

WHAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT ISSUE TO YOU THIS ELECTION?

TANANARIVE DUE - Author (Blood Colony; In The Night of the Heat with Blair Underwood & Steven Barnes) There are too many issues to count. We need a president who can reverse the trends of the past eight years especially, and who understands that we are strongest as a nation when we remember that we are a part of a world community. I also want a leader who understands how important education and opportunities are to worthy Americans who happen to have been born into poverty and unfortunate circumstances. He is the perfect portrait of the American Dream, and his election will help all of us, and our children, remember to aim high.

GINO VANNELLI - Singer-Songwriter (I Just Wanna Stop; Living Inside Myself) I’m going to be very self serving. We can go back and forth about what’s fair in taxation, or how much control The White House should have. For me as an artist, it's the freedom to write and say the things I need to say without anybody looking over my shoulder telling me what to say and how to say it ....to live and die by my own abilities or lack of abilities so I can better myself. That’s a very important thing to me. Each time we have a situation where someone is quieted for their opinion, although it hurts and it stings and sometimes may be uncivil, in the end [those] freedoms are the only way a nation or a world can rejuvenate itself and stay close in touch with its own soul.

JAREZ - Musician (To The Top)/TV Personality (Coolio Rules; Cooking With Coolio) The economy because if the economy doesn’t get better then there will no middle class just rich and poor ... and I do not want to be poor.

SAUL WILLIAMS - Change. The direct need to uproot ourselves from much of what we've been born into and have simply accepted and perpetuated as the norm. A complete re-assessment of democracy and values. ENERGY is not only a matter of the oil in our cars diets but also of the meat and dairy within our own. It's exciting that we have begun to reach a global consensus that tuning into nature will elevate society. Even if everyone has not yet realized it, once the energy discussion is truly raised it will effect and inform us in ways that will bring out the dormant Tesla in us all, which will eventually bring us to the capital HEALTH in healthcare as we END factory farming and promote a new generation of self-informed mavericks able to resurrect more than twobirds with less than one stone.

EDDIE GRIFFIN - Is there still going to be a country called America. That’s the most important issue.

EDDIE GLAUDE - The salvation of democracy. Most people are tied up in the specifics, and rightly so. We’re in a recession. Our economic system is teetering on collapse. Our military is overstretched. We’ve seen the effects of a foreign policy that’s eviscerated our moral standing in the world. A political ideology that’s skeptical of the role of government that resulted in the catastrophes of Katrina, the hurricanes that recently hit South Texas. Those communities are still trying to get on their feet and we see that the ineptitude of our government and the ideology that has resulted in that announced loud and clear that there is a substantive role for government. My intention has been really kind of revitalizing the deimos. That is to say I’m really anxious to see a resurgence of civic energy among young folk in particular. To take back our democracy from the interest of big business and career politicians. We have to begin to see on the ground in local communities, countiesand states;a kind of civic activity that is imaginative and creative. So I’m really interested in this election generating long standing, long term outcomes among the body politic.

FRANKLYN AJAYE - The most pressing issue to me is healthcare. I lived in Australia which has universal healthcare, and was able to get a full physical each year at no charge, whether I had a good year economically or not. Now I'm here in the states and when my S.A.G. healthcare insurance ran out in July due to me not making enough money last year as an actor, I had to continue with their self-pay plan because I just could not risk not having any health insurance at my age. Very scary. I had many medical issues last year, and the insurance saved me from economic disaster. Those issues would've cost me nothing in Australia. I looked into other insurance plans and the costs were astronomical. McCain's plan is a joke, and only insures that the rich can get health insurance, but not middle class, working class, or poor people. Typical Republican bullshit which benefits only the rich. It's not only a national disgrace, but an international disgrace that a country as wealthy as the US causes many of its citizens to have to declare bankruptcy due to medical costs. Unconscionable. Cubans wouldn't want our healthcare system. After experiencing it first hand, I now much more prefer the egalitarian Democratic Socialism to our form of Darwinian Democratic capitalism. Capitalism has trumped democracy in America, and created a "Frankenstein market," that we now live in fear of. I think it's great that America is finally getting humbled as Paulson said, with this unregulated sub prime mortgage mess which we sold around the world, as we have been too arrogant for too long. Hopefully we'll have a new found humility and learn from it so we can get back to basics, and truly aspire to fulfill this nation’s potential.

KENNY LEON - Our relationship with the rest of the world.

ALVIN "VINNIE" CHEA of TAKE 6 - In my opinion the most important issue in this year's election is The Economy. The failures of George Bush's unregulated trickle-down voodoo economic system, has manifested at the gas pump, check-out line, and on Wall St. What's amazing to me is this whole notion that if no one in the current administration refers to our current financial mess as a "recession," then it ceases to be so. Ronald Reagan's Voodoo Economics has been replaced by W.'s "Ostrich" economics.

NTOZAKE SHANGE - Well, This is difficult for me because so many there are of parity to me. But I imagine I would say the economy and the Supreme Court.

BRANFORD MARSALIS - The return of our intellectual stature and statesmanship, at home and abroad.

ADELE GIVENS - The most important issue to me this election is the issue of health care. I know the economy is top priority for most people, especially with this whole 'bailout/rescue plan' issue. However, for me it's health care. Mainly because I was raised by extremely poor parents and we we're very happy anyway. I am living proof that even when the economy is bad, we can thrive. I never even knew how poor we we're until I grew older and recognized that many people had homes, cars, and other luxuries that we didn't have. My father worked two jobs and my mother stayed at home with us. The only time we felt stress as children was when my father got sick. My mother's concern trickled down to us. I was around ten years old and fell and knocked out my front tooth and it stayed out until I was sixteen and my parents we're able to afford a partial for me. I found out that my dad had been saving up the money since my twelfth birthday because he knew I would be a teenager in a year and his goal was to make my thirteenth birthday a special one. Obviously, he had a few setbacks but he still got that tooth for me at sweet 16;-). My daddy was the authentic tooth fairy!

IF YOUR PREFERRED CANDIDATE DOES NOT WIN, HOW WILL IT AFFECT YOU?

WILL.I.AM - Producer/Actor (Wolverine)/Rapper (Black Eyed Peas) "Whether Obama's president or McCain's president, it's still important for people to be just as passionate and just as involved in moving and shaping their communities. I'm going to do that regardless of who is president. You don't just bail the f*** out. This political cycle isn't like Christmas. On Nov. 4, it isn't like I got my presents, and now I'm not gonna pay attention anymore." - E! Online

JALENE MACK -Houston Attorney/Actress(Hurricane Season) I will certainly be disappointed. I am ready for change. For an improvement of my quality of life in this country. I am ready for significant change for my children's future. I am also the fan on the side line watching my favorite track and field athlete, my candidate. It's like preparing for the Olympics for years. Making it through the trials, competing for the gold but coming in 4th place, not even second or third. No medal just an honorable mention. You regroup and try again in four years. I don't want to wait four more years. I want my candidate to win now! Anything can happen in four years.

SAUL WILLIAMS - I will lead the largest revolution in the history of poetry and music. I will turn mantras into muskets, stanzas into stampedes...

EDDIE GRIFFIN - Uh, let’s see, I’m a Canadian citizen. That’s how it’ll affect me. Or I’ll be living in mother fucking Bermuda somewhere.

JANIS IAN - It will convince me that the majority of America's citizens are content to stand idly by, while money that should go into educating an ignorant population goes into the pockets of the already-wealthy instead. But like they say, a country gets the ruler it deserves....

ALVIN "VINNIE" CHEA of TAKE 6 - I would be disappointed for the nation as a whole. When I sang at the DemocraticConvention I was struck with how much security was around this one man. Take 6 has sung for many sitting Presidents and we've never seen anything like it. There must have been at least 5k different personnel in various levels of security. There were helicopters, snipers, bomb dogs, Secret Service, state and local police all in full effect. It occurred to me, in the middle of seeing all of this, that Senator Obama is now a national asset, not just another eloquent black speaker, or a community leader from the South side of Chicago. I would be disappointed for all the races of people who, after being dashed and disappointed, dared to dream again. His presidential bid also represents the hopes and dreams of many generations of people. Obama's familial and political legacy, attests not only his indefatigable will to survive, but his determination to thrive, despite those odds. This weighty legacy reminds me of Cinque's stirring line from the movie Amistad. Cinque was alone and facing a trial which would deter mine his freedom, "I will call into the past, far into the beginning of time, and beg them [My Ancestors] to help me at the judgment. I will reach back and draw them into me. And they must come…for at this moment I am the whole reason they have existed at all." I believe Obama will be the 44th President of the United States of America. Yes WE CAN!!!

KEVIN ALEXANDER GRAY - It will not affect me because whoever wins, it’s gonna take pressing political, social and economic demands through a variety of organizing efforts on the victor. In regards to the major party candidates there’s not a dimes worth of difference so the fight is pretty much the same however it goes.

NIKKI GIOVANNI - I will be sad until tennis season then Serena and Venus, who by the way need to learn to be responsible citizens and vote, start winning.

GINO VANNELLI - It’ll be a passing moment then it’ll be whoever’s president to really root for them where you think you should root for them. And not just to support them blindly but to hold them to task. It’s not an easy job but part of the job is to demand very much of the president. He wanted the gig and he’s gonna have to really live up to it. It’s not just a popularity contest. It’s a hell of a difficult job. So I would say the day after the election whoever it is that comes in, it’s time to put your politics aside and let’s do it.

NTOZAKE SHANGE - I’m leaving the country. Civil rights would be so curtailed and there would be such a reign of fear in the country that I wouldn’t be able to sustain myself in an environment like that if McCain wins. Right now I’m choosing between Barcelona and someplace in Latin America.

EDDIE GLAUDE - It all depends on what we do. My interests are not so much in a particular candidate or a particular policy represented by a particular candidate, or ideology. I’m more interested in democratic energies being unleashed substantively. How we’re governed and how resources are distributed. So if my candidate doesn’t win there will be deep disappointment and then a longing hope that civic energies unleashed by the Barack Obama campaign. It’s the first time I’m really struck by grassroots energies of the object of which are to get someone elected to the presidency. It’s just weird. But I’m hoping this grassroots energy can translate into long term and sustainable political action over beyond whomever is elected. No matter who’s elected.

FRANKLYN AJAYE - If Obama does not win, and McCain/Palin take office, I will personally write off America's future. We will become an insolvent, second rate country capable of nothing but bluster and bravado. We're already the biggest debtor in the world. Our decline will accelerate, as the Republican Neo-Conservatives which run the party don't believe in anything but borrowing and spending, cronyism, and enriching the wealthy at the expense of the middle and working class which make up most of the country. Bush/Cheney has taken a once prosperous country to the brink with their disastrous poorly thought outpolicies and worship of the "market". McCain/Palin will complete the job, but they'll keep telling us how great and good we are.

ADELE GIVENS - I can say that if my preferred candidate (BARACK OBAMA) does not win I will be extremely disappointed. (UNDERSTATEMENT ALERT!!). I see and feel that this man is so close to winning and with all the personal attacks being initiated from the GOP, I know they feel it too. Sonaturally I would feel that loss on a personal level, and I may even consider a conspiracy or two. To be honest though,we have already won a great deal with Obama being a serious contender in this election. As a people and as a nation, we have truly shown our growth. I think Miss America is ready for that front tooth, wouldn't you say?

BRANFORD MARSALIS - It won't, really. I'll be Disappointed if Obama loses, but I have long believed what Alexis du Tocqueville said in Democracy in America: in a democracy, the people always get the President they deserve. If we, as a nation, have not learned the lessons from using a low barometer to pick our leaders (i.e. likeability, or the guy I'd like to hang with at a barbecue), then perhaps more pain will help in understanding our responsibilities as citizens in a Republic.

TANANARIVE DUE - Oh, I'm sorry---what was the question? My mind refused to accept the premise. In all seriousness, though, my family will be gathering at my parents' home in upstate Florida to watch the election returns---rather than meeting for Thanksgiving and Christmas. My parents are both civil rights activists, and my mother, Patricia Stephens Due, spent 49 days in jail for sitting-in at a Woolworth lunch counter in 1960, participating in the nation's first Jail-In. My mother was also shot at while registering blacks to vote in Florida in the 1960s. Needless to say, Sen. Obama's election would be an amazing watershed. If he does not win, I would have serious doubts about the validity of the electoral process, given Sen. Obama's significant lead in the polls. I would feel great sorrow and dread. The only consolation would be that my entire extended family will be there for support. And we would need it.But guess what: It's going to be a celebration instead!

KINDRED the Family Soul - Ultimately we are spiritual people who believe God is in control. If our candidate does not emerge victorious we will adjust and call our local and state government to task in fighting the good fight for next four years.