The largest news story that the mainstream media covered over the weekend is most likely Hillary Clinton’s recent attack on Barack Obama for arguments made in one of Senator Obama’s campaign mailings.

From a black American perspective, there were significant “developments” made at this year’s State of the Black Union (SOTBU). Generally, I believe that the SOTBU is more show than anything else. While I applaud Tavis Smiley for having a day of service for the city of New Orleans, in my opinion his conference fails year after year to make any impact on a macro level. Watching parts of the conference can be entertaining and his guests usually make valid points but I have not seen any evidence to suggest that the SOTBU’s impact has been significant or far reaching.

This conference was a bit different than past events. At this year’s SOTBU, we literally saw the monolith that is the “black leadership” crumble before our eyes. Jack and Jill Politics did an excellent job of breaking down all the action. There was a clear division among African American liberals in support of either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton. The debate was fierce as supporters for both candidates made their case. Stephanie Tubbs Jones and Sheila Jackson Lee made their arguments citing the experience of Senator Clinton and tried to appeal to women citing the American woman’s struggle for equality. However, the crowd was clearly pro Obama.

One highlight of the debate was when Al Sharpton came to the defense of Obama putting forth both cogent and passionate arguments on the issues of seating the Michigan and Florida delegates.

At another point during the discussion, Tavis asked panelist Dick Gregory a question about Obama. The question was clearly set up by Tavis so that Dick Gregory could criticize Obama. Instead, Gregory directed his commentary toward the Clintons.

It was widely reported that Tavis was displeased with Barack Obama for declining the invitation to come speak at the event. Some theorized that it would hurt Obama to attend because he would leave himself open to being painted as the black candidate.In a letter to Mr. Smiley, the Obama campaign said that Barack would be busy campaigning in Ohio and Texas. The campaign offered to send Michelle Obama, but the SOTBU people declined to accept the Obama campaign’s offer. Let’s think about that for a minute. The potential first lady offers to come to your conference and you decline! Not smart Tavis. I wonder if Bill would have been turned down if Hillary said she couldn’t make it.

However, to the clear dismay of most of the audience, Hillary Clinton did decide to attend and was given several minutes to make a speech and then sat down with Tavis to answer softball questions from the host. One of my favorite moments of the night was right before Senator Clinton arrived. Tavis was introducing Mrs. Clinton and asked the crowd to be “respectful.” It was very reminiscent of the speech your high school Principal gives right before somebody boring is about to speak.

In summary, Michael Steele’s comments captured quite nicely what we are seeing with this election and the Obama movement. As he put it, there were those who got us a seat at the lunch counter, but now we must change our mentality so that we can take ownership and not just settle for access. I believe what we are watching play out is a battle between those who have access to political power vs. those who want ownership.

If you have any thoughts of the SOTBU we would love to hear about them in the comments!

And now, a couple of random asides…

For those who watched the SOTBU this year, can you have a better panel member than Cornel West? His active listening abilities are off the charts. When another panelists speaks, Dr. West’s posture and verbal asides like “mm hmm and “that’s right” transform each panelist’s comments into profound cannons of wisdom. I would pay Dr. West to be in the room for any presentation. I guarantee he will make you look good.

I believe the “race vs. gender” argument the two congresswomen alluded to during the SOTBU is a tough argument to make given the audience. In the context of Hillary Clinton vs. Barack Obama, the argument forces black women to compare the obstacles faced by their fathers, husbands, brothers and sons to those of a white woman. Black men are going to win that contest every time.