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billbuckhead Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-10-08 09:07 PM
Original message
How Barack Obama played the race card and blamed Hillary Clinton.
THE NEW REPUBLIC
Race Man
by Sean Wilentz
How Barack Obama played the race card and blamed Hillary Clinton.
Post Date Wednesday, February 27, 2008

----------------------snip-----------------

"Clinton complained that her opponent's backers were deliberately distorting her remarks; and Obama smoothly tried to appear above the fray, as if he knew that the race-baiting charge was untrue and didn't want to level it directly, but didn't exactly want to discourage the idea either. "Senator Clinton made an unfortunate remark, an ill-advised remark, about King and Lyndon Johnson. I didn't make the statement," Obama said in a conference call with reporters. "I haven't remarked on it. And she, I think, offended some folks who felt that somehow diminished King's role in bringing about the Civil Rights Act. She is free to explain that. But the notion that somehow this is our doing is ludicrous."

Meanwhile, below the radar, the Obama campaign pushed the race-baiting angle hard, rehearsing and sometimes inventing instances of alleged Clintonian racial insensitivity. A memo prepared by the South Carolina campaign and circulated to supporters rehashed the King-Johnson matter, while it also spliced together statements of Bill Clinton's to make it seem as if he had given a speech that "implied Hillary Clinton is stronger than Nelson Mandela." (The case, with its snippets and ellipses, was absurd on its face.) The memo also claimed, in a charge soon widely repeated, that he had demeaned Obama as "a kid" because he had called Obama's account of his opposition to the war in Iraq a fanciful "fairy tale."And a few reporters, while pushing the Obama campaign's line that black voters had credible concerns about the Clintons' remarks, had begun to notice that the Obama campaign was doing its utmost to fuel the racial flames. "There's no question that there's politics here at work too," said Jonathan Martin of Politico. "It helps campaign to... push these issues into the fore in a place like South Carolina.

When asked about the race-baiting charges, Obama campaign spokeswoman Candice Tolliver roiled the waters: "Folks are beginning to wonder: Is this really an isolated situation or is there something bigger behind all of this?" Representative Jesse Jackson Jr., the Obama co-chair, as before, was more direct and inflammatory, claiming that the "cynics" of the Clinton campaign had "resorted to distasteful and condescending language that appeals to our fears rather than our hopes. I sincerely hope that they'll turn away from such reactionary, disparaging rhetoric." The race-baiting card was now fully in play."
----------------------snip------------------
<http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=aa0cd21b-0ff2-4329-88a1-69c6c268b304>
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democrattotheend Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-10-08 09:09 PM
Response to Original message
1. How many times is this same article going to get posted here?
Why not resurrect one of the ten other threads on this article?
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Yes We Did Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-10-08 09:14 PM
Response to Reply #1
8. WTF Ever. Hillary has been consistently race baiting this whole damn time.
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democrattotheend Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-10-08 09:09 PM
Response to Original message
2. Oops, dupe
Edited on Mon Mar-10-08 09:10 PM by democrattotheend
Sorry, did not realize it posted the first time.
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billbuckhead Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-10-08 09:11 PM
Response to Reply #2
4. Don't like this article? Can't imagine why?
The truth hurts!
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democrattotheend Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-10-08 10:13 PM
Response to Reply #4
22. I just suggested that you resurrect one of the other 10 threads on it
Why do we need a new one?
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scheming daemons Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-10-08 09:10 PM
Response to Original message
3. You posted this a week ago.... can't find anything new?
...
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Johnny__Motown Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-10-08 09:11 PM
Response to Original message
5. This is dumb. Obama is to blame for what Hillary and Bill said.. good one..Maybe they should shut up
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SoCalDem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-10-08 09:16 PM
Response to Reply #5
9. Amen.. There is VIDEO of them SAYING those things
and I don't think BHO is into ventriloquism..

The Clintons are just getting "out-gamed" and it pisses them off. Their sly faux-innocent "comments" are being turned back on THEM and they don;t like it..

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billbuckhead Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-10-08 09:24 PM
Response to Reply #9
12. Here's a video and what's so evil?
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SoCalDem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-10-08 09:35 PM
Response to Reply #12
16. Where in my post did I say "evil"? n/t
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KAZ Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-10-08 09:16 PM
Response to Reply #5
10. This article has been posted at least 80 times during the last..
.. 2 weeks. Please don't give this attention starved poster what he craves. Let it drop.

I know, I just kicked it. Can't help myself. :)
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moobu2 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-10-08 09:13 PM
Response to Original message
6. He wont be able to race bait his way through the GE
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Drachasor Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-10-08 09:13 PM
Response to Original message
7. Two thoughts...
From what I remember, Bill Clinton did call Obama a "kid."

Also, Hillary did downplay King's role a great deal. She acted like Johnson had an equally important role, but really he was just continuing Kennedy's legacy on Civil Rights, and Kennedy had been inspired by King in this matter.
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billbuckhead Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-10-08 09:20 PM
Response to Reply #7
11. Without Everett Dirksen the Civil Rights bill wouldn't have passed
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Drachasor Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-10-08 09:46 PM
Response to Reply #11
17. That doesn't have much to do with what Hillary said, now does it?
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union_maid Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-10-08 09:24 PM
Response to Original message
13. Did Bill point out that Jesse Jackson also won SC or didn't he?
Seems to me he did. Sure it was literally true, but that doesn't change the obvious intention behind it. If all this stuff was going on just prior to that it seems like an even more idiotic choice to make. That was a naked attempt to stick Obama in the "black candidate" box. It was even more than race baiting. Obama's ascendency into the status of viable candidate was a truly historic moment in our country, regardless of who ultimately prevails. Bill was trying to denegrate it. It was a very ugly thing and it turned a lot of people, including me, totally off of the Clinton campaign.
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billbuckhead Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-10-08 09:27 PM
Response to Reply #13
14. Can you read minds and tell that the intention was different than actual words?
Edited on Mon Mar-10-08 09:27 PM by billbuckhead
Now here is actual use of in your face racism in politics.
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESsaVSTSYxQ>
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union_maid Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-10-08 09:47 PM
Response to Reply #14
18. You really don't have to be a mind reader
I'm not even calling it racism, exactly. I think it was just what was available to use. It a willingness to trivialize this moment in time on the altar of their personal ambitions. There was nothing wrong with making other arguments, but to compare the Obama campaign to Jackson's was such a failure to acknowlege the milestone that had just been reached. I just thought it showed the Clinton campaign in a very, very bad light.
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johnnydrama Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-10-08 10:12 PM
Response to Reply #14
21. john edwards
John Edwards won Sorth Carolina just 4 short years ago. Why did he mention Jessie Jackson who won it 20+ years ago?

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fishwax Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-10-08 09:29 PM
Response to Original message
15. It's the "it all started when he hit me back" defense
the problem is not that people say questionable or insensitive things, it's that other people point out that those things are questionable or insensitive. :crazy:
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C_U_L8R Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-10-08 09:53 PM
Response to Original message
19. The New Republic? The New Republic ???
oh my eyes !!!
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EFerrari Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-10-08 09:54 PM
Response to Original message
20. Thanks. I don't have enough access to right wing bs. n/t
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cooolandrew Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-10-08 10:36 PM
Response to Original message
23. So the fairytale(homophobic) wasnt clinton and Johnson didnt cal him a drug dealer PLEASE.
Edited on Mon Mar-10-08 10:40 PM by cooolandrew
I have not blamed the clintons themselves for racism but there certainly has been some questionable remarks from surrogates. Johnson to be fired for a start, but HRC won't and this is how HRC wil rule.
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Blue-Jay Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-10-08 10:38 PM
Response to Original message
24. In other news....
billbuck(sic)head posts an Op-Ed from The New Republic.
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stillcool Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-10-08 10:39 PM
Response to Original message
25. that's not how I remember it...
it's what they do. While the Obama Campaign reaches out to people, racking up the votes and the delegates, the Clinton Campaign plays cheap tricks with the media.

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
Kerrey's mention of Obama's middle name and his Muslim roots raised eyebrows because they are also used as part of a smear campaign on the Internet that falsely suggests Obama is a Muslim who wants to bring jihad to the United States. Obama is a Christian.

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.



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.)


http://graphics.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/politics/20080112_nevada_lawsuit.pdf
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/17/a-feisty-bill-clinton-defends-nevada-lawsuit/
CLINTON ALLIES SUPPRESS THE VOTE IN NEVADA...
On Meet the Press on Sunday, Hillary Clinton said her campaign had nothing to do with a lawsuit--written about by Nation Editor Katrina vanden Heuvel--that threatens to prevent thousands of workers from voting in the Nevada caucus on Saturday.
Back in March, the Nevada Democratic Party agreed to set up caucus locations on the Vegas strip for low-income shift workers, many of them members of the state's influential Culinary Union, who commute long distances to work and wouldn't be able to get home in time to caucus. It was an uncontroversial idea until the Culinary Union endorsed Barack Obama and the Nevada State Education Association, whose top officials support Clinton, sued to shut down the caucus sites.
The Clinton camp played dumb until yesterday, when President Clinton came out in favor of the lawsuit.
Clinton's comments drew a heated response from D. Taylor, the head of Nevada's Culinary Union, on MSNBC's Hardball. "He is in support of disenfranchising thousands upon thousands of workers, not even just our members," Taylor said of Clinton. "The teachers union is just being used here. We understand that This is the Clinton campaign. They tried to disenfranchise students in Iowa. Now they're trying to
disenfranchise people here in Nevada, who are union members and people of color and women."

Rank-and-file members of Nevada's teachers union also come out against the lawsuit filed by their leadership. "We never thought our union and Senator Clinton would put politics ahead of what's right for our students, but that's exactly what they're doing," the letter stated. "As teachers, and proud Democrats, we hope they will drop this undemocratic lawsuit and help all Nevadans caucus, no matter which candidate they support."
The lawsuit's opponents make a persuasive point. Creating obstacles to voting is what the GOP does to Democrats, not what Democrats should be doing to other Democrats.


Clinton adviser steps down after drug use comments
Earlier Thursday, Clinton personally apologized to rival Obama for Shaheen's remarks.

Obama accepted her apology, according to David Axelrod, the top political strategist for the Obama campaign.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/12/13/clinton.obama/index.html


January 6, 2008, 5:18 pm
Edwards: No Conscience in Clinton Campaign
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/edwards-no-conscience-in-clinton-campaign/
By Julie Bosman
KEENE, N.H. – John Edwards angrily took on Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton at two news conferences in a row on Sunday, saying that her campaign “doesn’t seem to have a conscience.”



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


Clinton Surrogate Compares Obama Ad to Nazi March

http://news.yahoo.com/s/thenation/20080201/cm_thenation/45278988_1
Fri Feb 1, 2:23 PM ET
The Nation -- On a media conference call organized by the Hillary Clinton campaign today, Clinton surrogate Len Nichols compared an Obama health care ad to Nazis.
----------
Accusing political opponents of Nazism is an outrageous smear. Raising the specter of a Nazi march in response to a health care mailer that evokes the insurance industry is so absurd, it would be hard to take the attack seriously, were it not launched from a high profile national campaign conference call in this crucial stretch of the presidential race. And political observers know, of course, that the Clinton Campaign regularly arranges opportunities for surrogates to launch these kind of smears, which are later followed up with apologies. (See: Bob Johnson, Bill Shaheen, Bob Kerrey, and Francine Torge, to name the most recent offenders.) For his part, Nichols did not immediately return a call requesting further comment.
-------------------------
Len Nichols, Director of New America's Health Policy Program, stated, "For nearly 17 years I have worked tirelessly to reform our nation's struggling health system. Today my passion overwhelmed me. I chose an analogy that was wholly inappropriate. I am deeply sorry for any offense that my unfortunate comments may have caused.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dk1k0nUWEQg
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AX10 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-10-08 10:40 PM
Response to Original message
26. He won't be able to race bait his way into the Whitehouse.
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