How Barack Obama played the race card and blamed Hillary Clinton--Somali costume latest episode

[candice]

http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=aa0cd21b-0ff2-4329-88a1-69c6c268b304

While promoting Obama as a "post-racial" figure, his campaign has purposefully polluted the contest with a new strain of what historically has been the most toxic poison in American politics.

More than any other maneuver, this one has brought Clinton into disrepute with important portions of the Democratic Party. A review of what actually happened shows that the charges that the Clintons played the "race card" were not simply false; they were deliberately manufactured by the Obama camp and trumpeted by a credulous and/or compliant press corps.

...the Clinton campaign, in fact, has not racialized the campaign, and never had any reason to do so. Rather the Obama campaign and its supporters, well-prepared to play the "race-baiter card" before the primaries began, launched it with a vengeance when Obama ran into dire straits after his losses in New Hampshire and Nevada--and thereby created a campaign myth that has turned into an incontrovertible truth among political pundits, reporters, and various Obama supporters. This development is the latest sad commentary on the malign power of the press, hyping its own favorites and tearing down those it dislikes, to create pseudo-scandals of the sort that hounded Al Gore during the 2000 campaign. It is also a commentary on how race can make American politics go haywire. Above all, it is a commentary on the cutthroat, fraudulent politics that lie at the foundation of Obama's supposedly uplifting campaign.

[FrenchieCat]

1. What planet are you on?

“The Hispanic voter—and I want to say this very carefully—has not shown a lot of willingness or affinity to support black candidates.” —Clinton pollster Sergio Bendixen
http://www.rollingstone.com/nationalaffairs/index.php/2008/01/12/clinton-pollster-latinos-too-racist-to-vote-for-obama

Clinton at Root of Racist Stereotyping - Hispanics vs Blackswashingtonpost.com — Where did this come from? "Hispanics traditionally do not like Blacks." Since when? This is a racist, divisive falsehood that the Clinton Campaign has created and nurtured as a 'historical statement' in an attempt to pit the political arena against Obama. First mentioned by a Hillary pollster and then affirmed by Clinton herself. There is no proof.
http://www.digg.com/2008_us_elections/Clinton_at_Root_of_Racist_Stereotyping_Hispanics_vs_Blacks

A few weeks ago, Sergio Bendixen, a Clinton pollster and Hispanic expert, publicly articulated what campaign officials appear to have been whispering for months. In an interview with Ryan Lizza of The New Yorker, Bendixen explained that "the Hispanic voter - and I want to say this very carefully - has not shown a lot of willingness or affinity to support black candidates."

The spin worked. For the last several weeks, it's been on the airwaves (Tucker Carlson, "Hardball," NPR), generally tossed off as if it were conventional wisdom. And it has shown up in sources as far afield as Agence France-Presse and the London Daily Telegraph, which wrote about a "voting bloc traditionally reluctant to support black candidates."

The spin also helped shape the analysis of the Jan. 19 Nevada caucus, in which Clinton won the support of Hispanic voters by a margin of better than 2 to 1. Forget the possibility that Nevada's Hispanic voters may have actually preferred Clinton or, at the very least, had a fondness for her husband; pundits embraced the idea that Hispanic voters simply didn't like the fact that her opponent was black.

But was Bendixen's blanket statement true?

Far from it, and the evidence is overwhelming enough to make you wonder why in the world the Clinton campaign would want to portray Hispanic voters as too unrelentingly racist to vote for Barack Obama.
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=713782

---------------------------

[jackson_dem]

11. Race entered the campaign in November of 2007

It was the Obama campaign who brought it into the race through Charles Barron (who said then what Obama's national co-chair is now saying to black superdelegates: you're black, vote for the black guy over the whitey!), Michelle Obama, and even Chris Rock.

[indimuse]

15. the big O_prah!

it was all there...nobody said a word about what i like to call...Obama's SWORD and SHIELD! you figure it out!



Thanks 4 the post...!

[EffieBlack]

23. Race entered the campaign the second that Obama declared

And every pundit, every pollster, every reporter, a whole bunch of people on DU and elsewhere started talking about, analyzing, and polling whether a black man could be elected president.

Race has been a part of this campaign from day one. And neither Obama nor Clinton had anything to do with it.

example:

From the May 13, 2007 "This Week with George Stephanopoulos:"

George Stephanopoulos: The 45-year-old who would be America's first African American president addressed the key question of his campaign, is he ready for the job?

{Video Clip:} Obama: I'm confident about my ability to lead this country.
. . .
Stephanopoulos: You have a very cool style when you're doing those town meetings where you're out on the campaign trail, and I wonder, how much of that is tied to your race?

Obama: That's interesting.

Stephanaopoulos: One of your friends told "The New Yorker" magazine that the mainstream is just not ready for a fire-breathing black man so do you turn down the temperature on purpose?

Obama: You know, I don't think it has to do with race. I think it has to do with when I'm campaigning I'm in a conversation, and what I don't do when I'm campaigning is to try to press a lot of hot buttons and use a lot of cheap applause lines because I want people to get a sense of how I think about this process, I want them to have some ability to walk through with me the difficult choices that we face.

From the roundtable discussion on the same show:

Sam Donaldson: In your first question to me and in your interview with him, you raise something let's just put it on the table. He is an African American. Is the country ready?
. . .
Stephanopoulos: I guess I think that anyone who is not going to vote for Barack Obama because he is black isn't going to vote for a Democrat anyway. And I wonder if there are as many people who will vote for him because -

Donaldson: I mean the place where Barack Obama really helps is in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Right outside Philadelphia.
. . .

George Will: And those who are going to oppose him, have to do it subtly and maybe they won't be able to actually say it, the people who really have to fear in the Democratic coalition, Barack Obama as the nominee, is Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, a whole superannuated collection of so-called civil rights leaders. They see this man who really knows that the principle problem of African Americans in this country is not racism. It's cultural.

FOUR references to Obama's race by a bunch of white journalists and pundits on ONE episode of ONE show. And Obama's only comment on this was that it didn't have anything to do with race.

So, WHO injected race into this campaign.

[cloud75]

12. bull hispanics my race and blacks have issues.

but i can't or anyone else can talk about it or we'll be accused of being racist. that is what you are saying it's true and he was stating a fact it's not spin if it's true.

[casus belli]

87. I think it's more how you talk about it than if you talk about it

In fact, the only way to get over some of this lingering bile between races is to have an open, honest discussion. Unfortunately, usually when you get honest about such tough issues, inevitably someone will get "offended" and cry foul. I think there's a way to have these types of discussions without dredging up more hard feelings, but it would take understanding someone who really understands the complexity of the issue and can form a bridge where all sides are comfortable saying what they feel and why they feel it.

[mmonk]

102. Planet Clinton. It's as far out as Pluto.

[billbuckhead]

2. Obama is a hothouse flower that can only exist in a politically correct environment

When the general election comes, the proud to be politically incorrect Republicans and their media allies will decimate him and his movement. Hell, one can't even say his full name since that would be racist.

[jlake]

5. That should be an OP! Agree 100%

[goldcanyonaz]

8. I agree that this should be an OP. Now we can't even use his name around here, or any abbv. of it.

[oasis]

85. Will Chief Justice Roberts use Obama's full name in the swearing-in ceremony?

Will his name still be a no-no?:think:

[rodeodance]

52. He has a good enviroment here in gd-p.

[anamandujano]

57. I was thinking more along the lines of--now that Obama has played his

hand out on this. What can he possibly do as a followup to McCain?
Does Jesse Jackson Jr. know how to do anything else?

[route66left]

89. Yeah this "you can't say his middle name" business...

is ridiculous. What are the rules now: what can we say?

[rodeodance]

90. don't cha know--we gotta get permission from the Obamafolks to do anything!

SARCASM

[sueragingroz]

109. one of the more insightful posts i've seen in a while

that pretty much sums it up!

it's a nasty world out there. McCain may denounce the swift boaters... but that won't stop them!

[sandnsea]

3. Sean Wilentz is a HilShill

I don't care what he says, a quick Google search will turn up all kinds of articles in favor of Hillary and attacking anybody who dares to speak against her. He omits the Kerrey, Shaheen, Cuomo, and other remarks and so you can't take anything he has to say seriously.

[Window]

4. Tell me about it.

LOL!



Peace:thumbsup:

[jackson_dem]

14. sandnsea is lying about an article sand has clearly not even read!

He is right. There was only one candidate who would benefit from racializing the campaign and the results in South Carolina and a few other states confirm Obama was that candidate.

[dionysus]

56. shame on you.

n/t

[jackson_dem]

95. Alex it is obvious

"don't care what he says, a quick Google search will turn up all kinds of articles in favor of Hillary and attacking anybody who dares to speak against her. He omits the Kerrey, Shaheen, Cuomo, and other remarks and so you can't take anything he has to say seriously.
There has never been a"

[dionysus]

97. Alex? what is that supposed to mean?

[Alexander]

101. Those Shillbot idiots love to accuse us of sockpuppetry.

Hillary's strategy seems to be to accuse your opponent of the same thing you're doing.

[rodeodance]

108. Insulting us with name-calling is not condusive to your leader's UNITY mantra!

[George_Bonanza]

98. JacksonDem, are you serious?!

Clinton had far more to gain by racializing this contest because despite states like South Carolina, Alabama, and Georgia, the majority of the Democratic electorate is WHITE. Nobody's ever going to win the nomination by only carrying the Black vote. In hindsight, it looks to have worked brilliantly for Obama because he was able to monopolize the Black vote and eventually win a slim majority of the White vote, but at the time, there was much concern about the fact that Obama may have sacrificed everything in his Black-dominant victory in South Carolina. My oh my, how selective memory can get.

[rodeodance]

127. Your premise is wrong. Bill Clinton has worked tiredlessy with Blacks--he would

"use" them!

[sendero]

Like I needed to...

.. like most of the defenses of HRC around here, and the absurd attempts to discredit Obama, there's no there there. Just conjecture, innuendo, deflection, you know, the stuff the Clintons have made a career of.

I almost hope it is true, it would be good for them to be taken down by the same kind of shit they've been doing forever.

And BTW, Bill screwed the pooch big time with his comments a few weeks ago, comments that I believe helped push HRC over the ledge. Just plain Karmic IMHO.

[rodeodance]

46. He is an acedemic historian

[babylonsister]

6. I just tried to read this, but this guy is full of opinions with no facts

to back up his assertions. He's a known Clinton supporter; search that site and you'll see.

[jackson_dem]

16. Here are some big facts

It has never been satisfactorily explained why the pro-Clinton camp would want to racialize the primary and caucus campaign. The argument has been made that Hillary Clinton wanted to attract whites and Hispanics in the primaries and make the case that a black candidate would be unelectable in the general election. But given the actual history of the campaign, that argument makes no sense. Until late in 2007, Hillary Clinton enjoyed the backing of a substantial majority of black voters--as much as 24 percentage points over Obama according to one poll in October--as well as strong support from Hispanics and traditional working-class white Democrats. It appeared, for a time, as if she might well be able to recreate, both in the primaries and the general election, the cross-class and cross-racial alliances that had eluded Democrats for much of the previous forty years. Playing the race card against Obama could only cost her black votes, as well as offend liberal whites who normally turn out in disproportionally large numbers for Democratic caucuses and primaries. Indeed, indulging in racial politics would be a sure-fire way for the Clinton campaign to shatter its own coalition. On the other hand, especially in South Carolina where black voters made up nearly half of the Democratic turnout, and especially following the shocking disappointment in New Hampshire, playing the race card--or, more precisely, the race-baiting card--made eminent sense for the Obama campaign. Doing so would help Obama secure huge black majorities (in states such as Missouri and Virginia as well as in South Carolina and the deep South) and enlarge his activist white base in the university communities and among affluent liberals. And that is precisely what happened.

[rodeodance]

44. I know--it never any sense to me all--Hillary would lose black votes!!

[Recursion]

7. I thought she was "tough, vetted, and experienced"

and therefore immune to that kind of thing

[jackson_dem]

9. Who benefited from the introduction of race in the campaign?

Obama. He has won every state that has voted on racial lines. South Carolina is a prime example and had he lost South Carolina he would have lost Super Tuesday and may have been fighting for survival in Texas and Ohio.

[stahbrett]

28. Hindsight is 20/20

The attempt to pigeon-hole Barack Obama as nothing more than the stereotypical black candidate of the past (Jesse Jackson being mentioned by name) was meant to get white voters to think that they shouldn't waste their votes on him, because he has no chance at the nomination. The attempt failed.

[jackson_dem]

33. That is the Obamite explanation but, sorry, it makes no sense

Hillary had just won two upset victories in NH and NV. She had no reason to gamble heading into South Carolina. The candidate who had nothing to lose and only upside potential by making race an issue is Obama and the results since this happened prove this.

He mentioned Jesse Jackson after South Carolina. Two candidates have won the SC primary with nearly unanimous support from one racial group while losing badly among the other racial group. One is Obama. The other is Jackson. Is it racist to state the obvious when analyzing the result? The campaign was trying to diminish his win and this was a factual way to do it because none of the Super Tuesday states, aside from Georgia and Alabama (guess who won these two states...), had demographics like SC. The point was "Yeah, he won SC but he won't do much next week." The msm didn't buy this and Obama got a lot of momentum from his victory in SC, based on the swiftboating of the Clintons on race, and used it to essentially tie Hillary on Super Tuesday. Had he not had this momentum he would have lost Super Tuesday by a solid margin and Hillary would be the front-runner now with Obama fighting for survial in Ohio and Texas.

[stahbrett]

38. I agree that it was really, really dumb and there was no reason to do it

The fact that Bill Clinton DID do it is indisputable. To think that trying to pigeon-hole him so explicitly to Jesse Jackson's campaign in the 1988 campaign would do what they wanted it to do was dumb.

Here's HOW they should have done it, by the way - Bill Clinton should have said that Obama had run a great campaign, but Hillary had just won NH and NV (don't mention the virtual tie in delegates won, of course), and that historically there have been candidates who have won in South Carolina who wound up not doing as well in subsequent states. Then let the media take that quote, and have their fact-checkers do their work, and let THEM discover who those candidates are, and let THEM put the name out there.

[rodeodance]

92. recall how BO said his campaign does not whin (last debate)--but he

does have a habit of making well-places comments. This is from the article in relation to SC

http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=aa0cd21b-0ff2-4329-88a1-69c6c268b304
IV.

By the time the Obama campaign backed off from agitating the King-Johnson pseudo-scandal, it had already trained its sights on Bill Clinton--by far the most popular U.S. president among African Americans over the past quarter-century. Not only were Bill and Hillary supposedly ganging up on Obama in South Carolina--"I can't tell who I'm running against sometimes," Obama complained during the South Carolina debate--the former president was supposedly off on a race-baiting tear of his own. Yet, once again, the charges were either distortions or outright inventions………..

Barack Obama: I can't tell who I'm running against
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smumAIml_XU&feature=related

[RBInMaine]

10. And Hillary plays the gender card to the hilt.

[jackson_dem]

18. She hasn't swiftboated Obama as a sexist

So there is a big difference between what the two did, especially since what Obama does is in stark contrast to his rhetoric and promises.

She has played the gender card but we are left with one who plays the gender card and another who plays the race card. We deserve it. We had a major candidate who did neither and he finished third. Playing those cards work. Compare Obama's black support and Hillary's white female support to Edwards' white male support (he was tied with the other two among white males). We have only ourselves to blame for rewarding such tactics.

[rodeodance]

45. Changing the subject?

[Freida5]

13. Article also does a good job of reviewing history of misleading mailing of Obama campaign

[NYCGirl]

17. Two good debunkings of this POS:

http://www.oliverwillis.com/archives/2008/02/27/sean-wilentz-attacks-obama-ove/

Historian Sean Wilentz has written a piece in The New Republic that is being promoted by anti-Obama/pro-Clinton sites as some sort of revelation. What it is is serial excuse-making, taking the racial politics that has sadly been played by the Clinton team and blaming it on Sen. Obama. For example, Wilentz sees nothing wrong racially with a Clinton campaign surrogate caricaturing Obama as a drug dealer. Apparently Mr. Wilentz has not turned on a television in this century or the last and understood the way in all black men have been slimed, regardless of whether or not we've even seen illegal drugs, let alone sell them.

But where is this coming from for Wilentz? He's an avid Clinton supporter who has already written a piece in TNR pooh-poohing Sen. Obama's candidacy. Here's Wilentz rhapsodizing over Sen. Clinton:

"I think Hillary is important because the election really is the culmination of what's been a 40 year struggle for the Democrats to rediscover who they are. A 40-year struggle against what we'll call Nixon-slash-Reaganism. And, simply put, she's in the best position to be a president. Which is to say, she understands how American politics works. She understands the trajectory of American political history for the last 40 years because she's lived it in a way that the others haven't, really. She's seen it at all levels, from Arkansas to Capitol Hill."


Wilentz similarly attacked Sen. Obama for invoking JFK's presidency in relation to his candidacy. A few days later JFK's brother, Ted Kennedy, and President Kennedy's daughter, Caroline Kennedy, endorsed Sen. Obama as a worthy heir to JFK's legacy.

And, via Oliver Willis, is this one:

http://halfricanrevolution.blogspot.com/2008/02/im-all-out-of-violins.html

[babylonsister]

19. I rec'd your thread!

:thumbsup:

[NYCGirl]

24. Thank you. From you (and your great posts), that's high praise indeed! NT

[jackson_dem]

20. Typical from the Obama machine: attack the messenger, not the factual message

This is exactly the kind of politics Obama claims to be fighting against.

No one has ever explained what the rationale for the Clintons playing the race card, before SC no less, and after two consecutive upset wins was...Only one candidate would benefit from the racialization of the campaign and that is Obama, hence the swiftboating of the Clintons on race.

[NYCGirl]

22. Read this link, plenty of message debunking:

http://halfricanrevolution.blogspot.com/

[jackson_dem]

26. That link doesn't work

BTW can anyone offer the rationale for the Clinton campaign to play the race card right before SOUTH CAROLINA?

[NYCGirl]

37. Here, try the permalink:

http://halfricanrevolution.blogspot.com/2008/02/paging-sean-wilentz.html

[Jamastiene]

25. Precisely. n/t

[ProSense]

65. The entire argument in the OP article is based on the health care and NAFTA mailers. Hillary's lies

regarding those two pieces got a full hearing and were exposed in last night's debate


Hillary and her shills have been doing nothing but race and gender baaiting

[sendero]

21. I "rediscovered" who I am..

... and I decided I will not vote for a neocon in Democratic clothing.

[johnnydrama]

27. wow

Hillary Clinton is what the Democrats have been waiting 40 years for?

Since when does Bellvue have their own magazine?

Yeesh.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

72. Did somebody tell all Obama supporters to describe opinion as "debunking" or is it spontaneous?

This is viral around here... whenever anyone says anything against Obama, supporters claim it has been "debunked", usually with a link to someone's opinion.

Debunking does not mean, "contradicted by someone, somewhere."

And saying someone supports Senator Clinton does not render everything he might possibly say as invalid, which is the entirety of the supposed debunking!

That's it... that's what you offer as "debunking"? Some guy who says, "yeah, but that author likes Clinton so his writings cannot possibly mean anything"?

You guys are getting increasingly comical.

[Forkboy]

103. It's "shameless", isn't it.

[Kaylee]

29. At least TNR readers are more intelligent than the author of

this article. Read the comments...they are scathing.

[robbedvoter]

30. Thanks. I sometimes feel like I am losing my mind at the prevalence of lies

left, right, DU - it's good to find once in a while an account that matches your own recollection.
I am not blaming BO for the excesses of his supporters - here and elsewhere.
But these dirty tricks are made by his campaign - and therefore his responsibility.
Karma will get him back soon enough for that, but the damage to the party - by helping erase 8 years of peace and prosperity under a Democratic president from the history books for immediate benefit - it will remain his lasting legacy.

That anyone went along with his "he doesn't want the voters to see him as black and the Clintons are unraveling the illusion" boggles the mind!

Don't look now, I am invisible!:eyes:

[rodeodance]

62. it is basically my recollection also--but with outrage!!

[bellasgrams]

31. So glad others have also seen this. I noticed how he whined

race when there was no racial intent. The Clintons would never used race. Bill has always been their friend and they turned on him and of course Hillary, for a political unknown. Sick, Sick.

[jackson_dem]

36. Not only because of BC's record but because it made no sense for them to do it

They had just won two upset victories in NH and NV. What would their motive be to playing the race card before a state whose Dem primary is half black? If they wanted to play the race card they would have done it after South Carolina. It is obvious only one candidate had the motive to play the race card and that candidate was Obama. Look at who won South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Louisiana all on voting on racial lines. He has won at least four-fifths black support in every state since the swiftboating of the Clintons. Who benefited from the racialization of the campaign? St. Obama...

[rodeodance]

51. yeah--I was stunned when it started with the MLK remark--it just went batshit-crazy

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

74. Aside from the swiftboaters, the MLK thing was the lowest political smear I've ever seen

(Referring to the smear of Clinton as questionable on race)

[IndianaGreen]

32. Have ever heard the term "revisionism?"

A form of rewriting history.

[rodeodance]

47. Fact is-there have been articles on this prior to this one. You may not like it but it is NOT

revisionist

[Recursion]

64. OT: I wonder if Israelis for Obama can reuse old "Barack" signs...

Just noticed that...

[ruggerson]

34. Well that was a depressing read

n/t

[Name removed]

35. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

40. complaint about reply self-deleted because poster no longer with us

Damn, that was fast!

[kerstin]

39. k & r. n/t

[AtomicKitten]

41. Jeez, even Karl Rove advised against going after Barack on the Muslim "thing."

However, I'm sure not even he dreamed the Clintons would go full-tilt batshit crazy on this.

The Clintons - allegedly Democrats - have invoked the ugly shit from the shadows to beat up on Barack. It is repulsive and a sad day indeed when a goddamn Republican - Barack's soon-to-be opponent in the GE no less - shows more class and integrity by publicly taking a firm stance against this nasty shit than the Clintons have and do.

I see some Clinton people alternatively trying to blame this on the MSM, but it is they that pulled this into the national conversation. Trying to blame this on Obama, the victim yet again of Clinton-inspired and executed hit job, is beyond the pale.

I really believe the Clintons are cultivating some karma that they can count on biting them in the ass.

[rodeodance]

48. It was BO who was duped--he believed DRUDGE!!

[AtomicKitten]

and the Clinton people shopped the photo with a sniveling note and Drudge bit

Hillary has a history of this.

Here's a refresher, at least to get you started:

Clinton Camp Admits Iowa Count Chair Passed Along Muslim Smear Email:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/12/05/clinton-camp-admits-iowa-_n_75459.html

Clinton Campaign County Chair Pushing Obama Smear:
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/campaignmatters?pid=257119

Copy of the email:
http://politicalnighttrain.wordpress.com/2007/12/05/hillary-clintons-obama-muslim-smear-email-full-text/

Clinton Ally Repeats Muslim Smear:
http://www.americablog.com/2007/12/clinton-ally-repeats-muslims-slur-about.html

Obama Muslim Smear Email Confirmed to Have Come From Clinton Camp:
http://themoderatevoice.com/politics/barack-obama/16374/obama-muslim-smear-email-confirmed-to-have-come-from-hillary-clinton-camp/

Racial Undercurrent Seen in Clinton Campaign:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/12/23/racial-undercurrent-seen-_n_78069.html

[rodeodance]

58. debunked as the photo was in circulation on the net already--

[AtomicKitten]

61. but that's not the point -- ClintonCo shopped it with a note telling reporters

that "If this was Hillary, it wouldn't pass without scrutiny."

Yahtzee. Happy? Didn't quite pan out the way you hoped? I know you little monkeys have been spreading that around DU for months.

Nice try.
Thanks for playing.

Moving on.

[rodeodance]

63. you continue to live in you bubble--i will live in reality thank you.

[AtomicKitten]

67. The Obama Bubble -- Be There Or Be Square (no levis or capris, please)

[rodeodance]

69. slogans, unity, hope, glitter, mt-suit, vision thingy, ect ect ect

[rodeodance]

66. "The Obama campaign has yet to reach bottom in its race-baiter accusations"

I like this version from the article:

The Obama campaign has yet to reach bottom in its race-baiter accusations. On February 25, Hillary Clinton planned to deliver a major foreign policy address, an area in which Obama's broad expertise is relatively weak. Clinton was also riding high in the Ohio polls, despite the Obama campaign's false charges about her health plan and support for NAFTA. That same day, the notoriously right-wing, scandal-mongering Drudge Report website ran a photograph of Obama dressed in the traditional clothing of a Somali elder during a tour of Africa, attached to an assertion, without evidence, that the Clinton campaign was "circulating" the picture. The story was silly on its face--there are plenty of photographs of Hillary Clinton and virtually every other major American elected official dressed in the traditional garb of other countries, and Obama's was no different. The alleged "circulation" amounted, on close reading, to what Drudge's dispatch said was an e-mail from one unnamed Clinton "staffer" to another idly wondering what the coverage might have been if the picture had been of Clinton. Possible e-mail chatter about an inoffensive picture as spun by the Drudge Report would not normally be deemed newsworthy, even in these degraded times.

[AtomicKitten]

68. An aberrant voice to hang your hat on (any old port in the storm).

[rodeodance]

42. Bill Moyers did a segment on this: here

…….Among those dismayed by Obama's tactics and his supporters' was Bill Moyers. In a special segment on his weekly PBS broadcast in mid-January, Moyers, who as a young man had been an aide to President Johnson, demolished the charge that Clinton had warped history in order to race-bait Obama. "There was nothing in quote about race," he observed. "It was an historical fact, an affirmation of the obvious." Moyers rehashed what every reputable historian knows about how King and Johnson effectively divided the labor, between King the agitator and Johnson the president, in order to secure the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Moyers said was happy to see that, by the time he went on the air, the furor appeared to be dying down and that everyone seemed to be returning to their senses and apologizing--"except," he pointedly noted, "the New York Times." But this upbeat part of his assessment proved overly optimistic.

IV…………

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/01182008/profile4.html


MOYERS ON CLINTON, OBAMA, KING AND JOHNSON: A Bill Moyers Essay

[kikiek]

50. Good job helping spread the truth! It has all but disappeared around here lately!

[rodeodance]

54. yes, Bill Moyers is an excellant journalist--a real one-not a pundit.

[ContinentalOp]

70. Ugh, I just lost a huge amount of respect for Bill Moyers.

That was a great segment on LBJ and King but how can he deny the intention behind Clinton's statement? It's not about the facts of history but about her implication that Obama is just an inspirational figure while she is the truly presidential character with the power to actually enact change. I think his personal connection to LBJ blinded him to the subtext behind Clinton's comment.

[rodeodance]

73. oh but it IS all about "the facts of history ", And what do you know about Hillary's intentions?

Ugh, I just lost a huge amount of respect for Bill Moyers.
Posted by ContinentalOp


That was a great segment on LBJ and King but how can he deny the intention behind Clinton's statement? It's not about the facts of history but about her implication that Obama is just an inspirational figure while she is the truly presidential character with the power to actually enact change. I think his personal connection to LBJ blinded him to the subtext behind Clinton's comment.

[rodeodance]

124. and you claim to know the 'intentions" behind Clinton's statements? How

do you do that? magic?==yet you smear her by conjuring your interpretation of her 'intensions"!! shameful



"he deny the intention behind Clinton's statement?"

[Cameron27]

43. Thanks for posting this,

I read the article at TNR, and then saw Wilentz on Tucker this afternoon. I've been saying the same thing since the first "Bladley effect" comments were made after NH.

K&R

[ProSense]

49. Hillary apologized twice, including at the Tavis Smiley event, and Bill went on a mea culpa tour,

but they didn't racialize the campaign. What revisionist BS!

The Clintons and their surrogates played the race and gender card at every turn

[rodeodance]

53. oh----now think--why might they have done that. think real hard now.

[ProSense]

55. Shaheen, Johnson and the drug dealer implications? n/t

[rodeodance]

60. nope

[mtnsnake]

59. K&R

[stillcool]

71. LOL

COMPTON, Calif. (AP) — Hillary Rodham Clinton and her campaign tried to mend ties to black voters Thursday when a key supporter apologized to her chief rival, Barack Obama, for comments that hinted at Obama's drug use as a teenager. The candidate herself, meanwhile, praised the Rev. Martin Luther King and promised to assist with the rebirth of this troubled, largely black city.

Bob Johnson, the founder of Black Entertainment Television, apologized for comments he made at a Clinton campaign rally in South Carolina on Sunday that hinted at Obama's use of drugs as a teenager.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-01-17-johnson-apology_N.htm?csp=34

Hillary: Sorry for Any Offense Campaign (Bill) Has Caused
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FB65wJ6Rcfs

Bill Clinton Asks for a Second Chance
By Liz Halloran
Posted February 11, 2008

The morning after his wife, Hillary, was routed in three state contests by Sen. Barack Obama in their dead-heat battle for the Democratic nomination, former President Bill Clinton made his case for her before a packed Sunday service at one of the largest black churches in Washington, D.C.
But first he offered an apology of sorts for racially tinged comments he made about Obama and his candidacy that have triggered a backlash in the black community and among many other Democrats.

Clinton invoked his "worship of a God of second chances" in pronouncing himself glad to be at the Temple of Praise, which claims nearly 15,000 members. His invocation of second chances echoed comments he made early last week at black churches in California, where he campaigned for his wife before that state's Super Tuesday primary, which she won.
http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/campaign-2008/2008/02/11/bill-clinton-asks-for-a-second-chance.html

Bill Clinton To Apologize At LA Black Churches
Once again, Bill Clinton is ready to repent.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/02/02/bill-clinton-to-apologize_n_84573.html
On Sunday the former president is scheduled to visit black churches in South Central Los Angeles, where he's expected to offer a mea culpa to those who "dearly loved him" when he was their president, Rep. Diane Watson (D-Calif.) says.

Watson, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus who has endorsed Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), tells us she'll usher the former president to more than half a dozen churches in her district where she says he needs to "renew his relationship" with congregants who were turned off by his racially tinged comments in the days leading up to and following the South Carolina primary. (Such as when Clinton compared Sen. Barack Obama's landslide victory to Jesse Jackson's wins in 1984 and 1988.)

December 10, 2007
Third Clinton Volunteer Knew Of Smear E-Mail

A third volunteer for Hillary Clinton's campaign was aware of a propaganda e-mail alleging that Barack Obama is a Muslim who plans on "destroying the U.S. from the inside out."

"Let us all remain alert concerning Obama's expected presidential Candidacy," the email reads. "Please forward to everyone you know. The Muslims have said they Plan on destroying the U.S. from the inside out, what better way to start than at The highest level."

Two Clinton volunteers, Linda Olson and Judy Rose, have already been asked to resign from the campaign for their roles in forwarding the e-mail. The AP reported yesterday that Olson, a volunteer coordinator in Iowa County, sent a version of the e-mail to 11 people, including Ben Young, a regional field director for Chris Dodd's campaign. Young passed it on to the AP.
http://hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com/archives/2007/12/third_clinton_v.html

Kerrey Apologizes to Obama Over Remark
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=4031436
The Clinton campaign has already fired two volunteer county coordinators in Iowa for forwarding hoax e-mails with the debunked claim. Last week, a national Clinton campaign co-chairman resigned for raising questions about whether Obama's teenage drug use could be used against him, so Kerrey's comments raised questions about whether the Clinton campaign might be using another high-profile surrogate to smear Obama.

[ContinentalOp]

75. The Clinton Campaign "not racializing the campaign":

"Dr. King's dream began to be realized when President Lyndon Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, when he was able to get through Congress something that President Kennedy was hopeful to do, the president before had not even tried, but it took a president to get it done."
- Hillary Clinton on Obama's message of hope

"Jesse Jackson won South Carolina in '84 and '88. Jackson ran a good campaign. And Obama ran a good campaign here."
- Bill Clinton

"You can’t shuck and jive at a press conference"
- Andrew Cuomo, Clinton supporter

"The Hispanic voter—and I want to say this very carefully—has not shown a lot of willingness or affinity to support black candidates."
—Clinton pollster Sergio Bendixen

"If you have a social need, you’re with Hillary. If you want Obama to be your imaginary hip black friend and you’re young and you have no social needs, then he’s cool."
–Anonymous Clinton adviser

[rodeodance]

76. lame--isolated comments with no context!

[libbygurl]

77. K!

[bigbrother05]

78. First of all I will say this

I am shocked by some of the responses to this.
I don't ever want to hear on this DU board "sexist" again.
This is a candidate in the Democratic Party, and the trash that has been posted, makes we wonder
how far away from David Duke are we.

[cooolandrew]

79. Why would Barack encourage the terrorist rumour..??????

[cooolandrew]

80. Then Tubbs Jones says be proud of being somalian when he is Kenyan. Now I don't want to cry race but

it is uncomfortabe to say the least about it. I'll say no more, I know her supporters are very passionate. Just bemused here about the last couple of days in politcs is all.

|

[rodeodance]

106. She made a mistake. as we all do. simple as that.

[dailykoff]

81. Blaming a victim of racism of being a racist is racist.

Really, really racist, like breaking-the-rules racist.

Also delusional. :hi:

[tandem5]

83. oh yeah well blaming the blamer of a victim of the racism of being...

uh of the... uh rules errr uh really breaking... uhhh is racist!

[kerstin]

82. Kick. n/t

[avrdream]

84. Hillary definitely never had a reason to insert racism into the campaign.

She is so above that tactic.

Ah well, let's see how this all plays itself out.

[rodeodance]

93. And no one has ever explained why she would do that. They just make the absurd claim.

[oasis]

86. kick

[CyberPieHole]

88. Glad you posted this link...great article.

Obama has smeared Hillary Clinton at every turn.

:kick: and rec

[ProSense]

91. Hillary's campaign pushes story linking Obama to former terrorists

link

[Raffi Ella]

94. Thanks for posting this.

I'm glad to see I'm not alone in my belief that Obmama & Co. are the ones who used race and used the race card in this election.


I stand with Hillary and Bill against these unfounded charges of racism.

[workinclasszero]

96. Blaming the victim racial attacks?

How much lower can you Hillbots go?:puke:

[rodeodance]

99. Bill and Hillary are ones who got disse----read the article please.

[robbedvoter]

100. Who is the victim and what are the attacks - it's what the article is about

[Perry Logan]

104. Hillary's camp playing the race card is a story that never made sense on the face of it.

[rodeodance]

105. Yes. it was absurb form the start!

[HeraldSquare212]

107. and the Congresswoman from Ohio playing the Somali card?

that was fantasy?

[rodeodance]

110. you guys like to play cards even when you do not what how to deal.

[HeraldSquare212]

112. Non-responsive, as they say.

[rodeodance]

119. say playing a card in insulting-especially when you know not what you talk about.

[rodeodance]

116. It was ethnic Somali dress--. Know what you are talking about before you spout off!

[HeraldSquare212]

118. Yes - and there's a large Somali population in Columbus that is generally hated

by many others in Columbus. That's why she referred to the 'dress of his homeland' or such. Try to keep up.

[rodeodance]

123. I do keep up. "his homeland" was an obvious mistake--when she meant Kenya. simple as that.

[libbygurl]

111. !

:kick:

[dcindian]

113. Directly from Wilentz the Hillary hitman to ears

bleeding to hear yet another negative attack from the Clinton smear machine.


How is that working out for ya?

[rodeodance]

126. Nothing but a Rovian style KILL THE Messenger response from you.

dcindian (93 posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Feb-28-08 07:54 PM
Response to Original message
113. Directly from Wilentz the Hillary hitman to ears

bleeding to hear yet another negative attack from the Clinton smear machine.


How is that working out for ya?

[cd3dem]

114. this will go down in history as the dirtiest campaign ever!

not white on black or black on white but democrat on democrat! Obama swift-boated Hillary and Bill Clinton by playing the wild card! The Race Card! There is nothing to counter it or defeat it! If you try to fix things, you dig yourself deeper... Obama knew exactly what was going on and he did not care! he played the American people to get himself the nomination....

I say don't let him get away with it!

March on Washington if you have to!!! Revolt!

[ElsewheresDaughter]

121. YES ..... Obama knew exactly what ha was doing...this is so fucking dirty

[Mass]

115. TNR - Those who endorsed Lieberman in 04? Really? They have 0 creds for real democrats.

[anonymous171]

117. They're left of center (DLC-style)

[ElsewheresDaughter]

120. indeed "reminiscent of past Republican and special-interest hit jobs"

[RBInMaine]

122. What absolute horsecrap !

Not sure what hole you pulled this nonsense out of, but it's pure unsubstantiated garbage.

And as to "baiting," Hillary Clinton says she doesn't gender-bait, and then turns around time and again and speels about how wonderful it would be to have a "WOMAN" president.

Whatever it is you're taking, change the prescription.

[rodeodance]

125. Do you care to discuss the article or just throw insults? And stay focused, as the

discussion is on the article. If you want to discuss gender related issues i am sure you can start your own thread.


What absolute horsecrap !

Not sure what hole you pulled this nonsense out of, but it's pure unsubstantiated garbage.

And as to "baiting," Hillary Clinton says she doesn't gender-bait, and then turns around time and again and speels about how wonderful it would be to have a "WOMAN" president.

Whatever it is you're taking, change the prescription.
RBInMaine