BY KENNETH R. BAZINET and MICHAEL McAULIFF
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton share a friendly moment when they were still competing. Not so fast, say Democratic women of fears that undecided voters are being swayed to the GOP ticket [Photo: Deryk/Pool]

WASHINGTON – If wanted to poach the women’s vote from Barack Obama, he shouldn’t have tapped a running mate who dubbed herself a “pit bull with lipstick.”

At least, that’s the assessment of women Democratic operatives who seem tickled at Obama’s prospects for November.

There was a spike in donations to Barack Obama’s
campaign after Sarah Palin’s much-watched
acceptance speech last week. [Beck/Gettyl]

“So much of the information about her [Palin’s] agenda and her experience did not resonate with women voters outside the Republican base,” said Ellen Moran, executive director of EMILY’s List, which promotes Democratic women candidates.

There was a collective deep breath, and even a bit of shock, in the world where Hillary Clinton is queen after McCain turned Palin into the new sensation in the race for the White House.

But that soon was replaced by excitement, especially after the Obama campaign reported $10 million in donations the day after Palin’s GOP convention speech.

“It’s going to take more than delivering a line about lipstick to win over undecided women voters,” said Rebecca Kirszner, a consultant with Hilltop Publics Solutions.

EMILY’s List was perhaps the first to sing out about an opportunity rather than a threat from Palin, pointing to a poll it had done a couple of days after McCain selected the Alaskan moose huntress.

The survey of 800 women likely voters said Obama holds an 11-point lead on McCain, and that women Hillary voters in particular flooded the Illinois senator’s way.

Before the Palin pick, Obama led McCain by 44 points among female Clinton backers. That jumped to a 54-point lead afterward, 75% to 21%, the poll said.

Those kinds of numbers have the activists thinking that if Palin lives up to her schoolgirl basketball nickname of Sarah Barracuda, she’ll be less aquatic predator and more filet-o-fish.

“I feel really good about all this right now,” said Moran. Obama and Biden “are framing the election and the issues in terms that matter most to women – and they need to keep on doing that.”

Perhaps the surest sign of confidence on Obama’s side is that there is no visible change in their strategy, aside from an acknowledgment that they can’t say something about Palin that looks sexist or unnecessarily mean.

“They do have to think about how they engage her,” said one Dem strategist.

There will be little change beyond that. “What are they going to do differently? I know people don’t want to hear this, but nothing,” said a senior Democratic operative.

“There’s not any evidence we should be concerned,” echoed Jennifer Palmieri, a Democratic consultant close to the Obama campaign.

Various operatives insist a lack of concern does not mean there’s any chance women will be taken for granted. In fact, the opportunity will be seized, they said.

To bolter the nominee’s own efforts, Team Obama also is sending out a cadre of powerful women: Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, and Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

Then, of course, there is Clinton, who is due in Florida tomorrow. Before Palin’s pick, Clinton had the task of healing wounds from the bitter primary – which she still must do – but she also gets to play the role of closer, at least for the women’s vote.

“Undecided women voters care about getting out of Iraq, affordable health care, and creating jobs,” said Kirszner. “On those issues, Sarah Palin is no different than John McCain or George Bush – and that’s going to be a deal breaker for a lot of women. If Obama can keep the debate on those terms, he’ll win.”

By Camillo de Marco

African film has for some time been all but excluded from selections and above all from prize lists at most international festivals. Selected in competition at the Venice Film Festival, Haile Gerima’s film ‘Teza’ could represent a reversal of this tendency.

In Europe, there are many who believe in the work of African filmmakers. Indeed, German company Pandora and a minority investment from France’s Unlimited provided backing for the production by the
Ethiopian director’s small company.

Having lived in the US for 40 years now, Gerima is considered the most representative director of films from the Horn of Africa. Moreover, Teza confirms the centrality in his work of the theme of the journey
in time and history, which is characteristic of African diasporic film.

In a series of flashbacks and flash-forwards, protagonist Anberber (Aaron Arefe) looks back at his return to Ethiopia in 1970 after studying medicine in West Germany. In Addis Abeba, he intends to
dedicate himself to the battle against infectious diseases but has to confront the violent repression of dissent from the upholders of the Marxist-Leninist regime.

Intellectuals inspired by the values of socialism are persecuted. His best friend is murdered and Anberber is forced to go to East Germany, where – after the fall of the Wall – he becomes a victim of racist extremism. As a 60 year-old, haunted by nightmares and memories, he finally returns to his impoverished village, where he challenges the prejudices of the traditional culture, while civil war rages.

The skilful and polished direction – often reflecting the filmmaker’s theatrical training – reveals disillusions and frustration, which are cast aside at the end to give way to enthusiastic hope in future
generations. Gerima’s previous major film was entitled Sankofa (1993), which means “returning to the past to look to the future”.

The Ethiopian director continues this approach in Teza, which emerges as the number one contender for the Golden Lion.

By Karen Price, WalesOnline.co.uk

AS A boy, Yosef Haimanot escaped the troubles in his Ethiopian homeland by walking for three days through desert to reach the coastal state of Djibouti.

Now, more than 20 years later, he recently returned to Ethiopia with two artists – Matt Clark and Melanie Hobday – to retrace his steps to freedom.

Haimanot, who is now a film-maker based in Wales, has produced his second documentary on his early life, The Impossible Journey.

The project is funded by the Arts Council of Wales, and the results have just gone on display in Cardiff before going on tour.

“Through this project I aimed to induce questions by shedding light on the incredible journeys, sacrifices and often heartbreaking decisions that many of Africa’s citizens have had to make before coming to Wales and by, association, the journeys Welsh citizens have faced over the generations when leaving their homeland in order to start life anew,” says Haimanot.

“I hope that this exhibition will help the audience to take a second look at their own identities, surroundings and sense of place.”

The exhibition is at the Butetown History and Arts Centre in Cardiff Bay until October 30

Obama’s position about halfway between his recent highs and lows

PRINCETON, NJ — Gallup Poll Daily tracking from Tuesday through Thursday finds Barack Obama with a four-percentage-point lead over John McCain in the presidential preferences of registered voters, 48% to 44%.

While the difference between today’s result and Thursday’s 49% to 42% lead for Obama is not statistically significant, some of the broader shifts seen over the past 10 days, spanning both party’s national conventions, have been meaningful.

Support for Obama since just before the Democratic National Convention kicked off on Aug. 25 has ranged from 44% to 50%, while McCain’s support has ranged from 41% to 46%. Whereas the race was initially tied at 45%, Obama pulled into an eight-point lead at several points over the course of his convention. It now appears the Republican National Convention may be helping McCain to recoup some of his losses, though with Obama’s current four-point lead, the entire convention period to this point has still been a net plus for Obama. (To view the complete trend since March 7, 2008, click here.)

While both conventions are now over, measurement of public reaction to them is not. Results, based on interviewing conducted Sept. 2-4, include just one day of interviewing conducted after Wednesday night’s widely viewed acceptance speech by McCain’s vice presidential running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Most interviewing Thursday night was conducted before McCain’s acceptance speech, so Gallup Poll Daily tracking results will start to reflect its impact in Saturday’s report. The full impact of the GOP convention on voter preferences will not be known until Monday’s report, the first in which all interviews will have been conducted following the convention’s conclusion.

(Click here to see how the race currently breaks down by demographic subgroup.)