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peoli Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-24-08 01:09 PM
Original message
Clintons lose luster with black voters
"An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll taken this month found that former President Bill Clinton, the so-called first black president, is falling out of favor with African-Americans.

More of the poll's respondents view him negatively (45 percent) than positively (42 percent). Compare this with his ratings just last year—a positive of 48 percent compared with a negative of 35 percent—and it's a pretty big deal.

Beyond scientific polls, anecdotal evidence reveals that his wife also is losing support from the Democratic Party's most reliable constituency.

A lot of black people are furious at Sen. Hillary Clinton in part because of the actions or infractions of her surrogates. They're angry at Bill for the dust-up he created after the South Carolina contest comparing Sen. Barack Obama's win there to that of Rev. Jesse Jackson's when he ran for president. They're angry at Geraldine Ferraro for suggesting Obama is mostly an affirmative action candidate."

<snip>


"Some have said they would sit out the general election, and risk a win by Republican Sen. John McCain. And these are people for whom not voting is anathema.

Indeed Clinton has her share of detractors. But, until recently, not too many blacks were counted among them. In fact, until South Carolina, a lot of black people felt heartsick about having to choose between Clinton and Obama.

Now folks' hearts are hardened and the resentment is visceral. Blacks didn't expect the Clintons to play the race card. You could argue that the Clinton strategy is just politics. It's not personal. It's not really racial. But this year voters of all stripes are rejecting the same old, same old."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-trice-24mar24,0,7474553.column
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Rageneau Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-24-08 01:16 PM
Response to Original message
1. The result of character assassination. The Clintons Have NOT changed.
What has changed is, Democrats who know Bill & Hill are NOT racists were willing to paint them as racists to gain a political advantage.

The Black Commmunity has not turned away from the Clintons.

They have intentionally BEEN TURNED away from the Clintons.
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ej510 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-24-08 01:23 PM
Response to Reply #1
2. I've been saying this my friends and family have discussed this.
It's all over national black radio shows.
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anamandujano Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-24-08 01:25 PM
Response to Reply #1
3. Fast work from the "clean" campaigner.
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mamalone Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-24-08 01:30 PM
Response to Reply #1
4. I don't think for a moment
that the Clintons are racist. No one could ever make me believe that.

What I DO believe is that the Clintons know that others are racist and they are willing to exploit that racism to further their own ambitions. And ya know what? I think that's almost worse...


This whole thing makes me just plain sad....

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movonne Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-24-08 01:37 PM
Response to Reply #4
5. I agree with you...
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Adelante Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-24-08 01:39 PM
Response to Reply #4
7. I agree nt
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mamalone Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-24-08 04:18 PM
Response to Reply #7
22. wow...
Two 1000+ starred posters agreed with me! I feel honored:-)

I hardly ever post here at DU because I am a complete wimp about of getting flamed, so I really appreciate the encouragement:-)
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Adelante Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-24-08 06:14 PM
Response to Reply #22
23. Don't be afraid to speak your mind
It's not life, it's only the Internet :pals:
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mamalone Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-24-08 06:26 PM
Response to Reply #23
27. Thanks for the warm words!
:-)
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DURHAM D Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-24-08 02:48 PM
Response to Reply #4
20. Yep - others are racist.
That is why Obama race baited to win South Carolina. He needed the vote of a certain demographic - that group that thinks being gay is a choice. It wasn't working fast enough. Therefore he had to go all out on the Clinton's are racist strategy. Seems to be working.
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SwampG8r Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-24-08 06:49 PM
Response to Reply #4
28. i dont think
they believe themselves to be racist
i think their thinking is a product of their times
and the geographic area they spent the most time in
they probably dont even see themselves as paternalistic on race
which is more what i percieve in them
the soft racism of low expectations
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loveangelc Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-24-08 01:39 PM
Response to Reply #1
6. you: blacks are easiy fooled
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goclark Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-24-08 02:28 PM
Response to Reply #6
14. You forgot to add the sarcasm smilie
African Americans stopped being fooled from the moment BC was in South Carolina.

Until then it was a push/pull within our community.

I can't speak for my entire race of course but I live in Los Angeles and have friends all over the map.

I personally only know maybe 2 AA friends that are for Clinton and they have always voted Republican.

We are so disappointed in both Clintons that we are finished with them period,end of story.

Most of my friends are activists and stay in touch with all Democratic campaigns and give ample donations.

I can not tell you how many have said they will NEVER vote for Maxine Waters(who we have supported her entire career) again and they will NEVER vote for Diane Watson again.

In fact, at a recent party,we were talking about a replacement for both Maxine and Diane.

Some magical wand may be raised above our heads but until then,no dime,no vote and no time will be given to the Democratic Party if she is the nominee.

I'll let you know if I feel a wand above my head. :patriot:
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wileedog Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-24-08 02:44 PM
Response to Reply #1
19. You know what
If you want to credit Barak with turning an entire voting block against CLinton, hoodwinking 80% of the public into thinking the Clintons have played the race card and has gotten away with it scott free, then you better credit him with being a Machiavellian genius. I mean that is first rate politicking that even the Clintons have to admire the hell out of.

Just imagine the circles he is going to run around the dimwits in Congress...

So which is it, racist genius or honest 'empty suit'?
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TheWraith Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-24-08 02:51 PM
Response to Reply #1
21. So apparently, you know racism better than black people do.
The same principle as the non-apology-apology: it's the other person's fault if they were offended by what you said. We're sorry if you're such an idiot that you didn't understand us.

Nice. Never mind the idea that maybe their positives have been going down because of the slimy, mud-slinging campaign and their playing up to racist rural white voters in an effort to win the nomination.
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elixir Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-24-08 01:42 PM
Response to Original message
8. So this is the best you got? If this is the tone of GD:P Obama posts, you guys are cooked.
this is the headline I'd be surprised to ready "Clinton gains luster with African Americans as Black candidate fails to gain their support".
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galaxy21 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-24-08 01:45 PM
Response to Reply #8
9. I agree they'll exploit other people's racism even if they aren't themselves
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peoli Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-24-08 01:55 PM
Response to Reply #8
10. "The best you got"? Its an op-ed from the Chicago Trib.
Posting op-eds is not ok?
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ClassWarrior Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-24-08 02:09 PM
Response to Reply #10
12. .
:rofl:

NGU.


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chyjo Donating Member (615 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-24-08 02:03 PM
Response to Original message
11. I can't imagine why
I am a 26 year old white guy I can't stand them anymore as a result of their nonstop negative campaign.
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cooolandrew Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-24-08 02:17 PM
Response to Original message
13. Which is why HRC can only concede before HRC causes the Clinton name irrepairable harm...
Edited on Mon Mar-24-08 02:19 PM by cooolandrew
A gracious concession and call for unity speech will mean her career can continue from this point. To gain any election as a Democrat you should always honor the most reliable voters.
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Rosa Luxemburg Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-24-08 02:33 PM
Response to Original message
15. I don't think many African Americans will vote for Clinton now
I think all the contraversy will cause a backlash if Hillary is nominated. If Obama is nominated there will be crowds.
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uponit7771 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-24-08 02:39 PM
Response to Original message
16. Our Easter Sunday dinner included a good amount of Clinton Bashing after the picture of Wright....
...shaking Clintons hand came out.

They threw him under the bus with their silence and that's ....not good.
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Beacool Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-24-08 06:25 PM
Response to Reply #16
26. The Clintons took thousands of pictures with all sorts of people.
How does that compare with a 20 year close relationship with a pastor who many now consider racist?
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stillcool Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-24-08 02:42 PM
Response to Original message
17. For me it is very personal...
and very hurtful. And it's one nasty way to attempt to win an election that you've already lost. More cheap tricks being played in the media but this time they are playing with fire.


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


Source: Newsday
Posted on Sunday, December 16, 2007 at 12:04 pm
Barack Obama Accepts Apology From Hillary Clinton
Washington D.C. 12/15/2007 09:17 AM GMT (FINDITT)

Hillary Clinton went straight to Barack Obama with an apology following a staffer's remarks about any skeletons that may be lurking in Obama's closet, pointing out that she had accepted the staffer's resignation over the disparaging remarks. Obama accepted her at her word, according to his campaign staff, and is moving on without letting it interrupt his campaign plans.


Obama is currently leading the polls in Iowa and New Hampshire, the two early primary states often considered key to the process, according to numbers at usaelectionpolls.com, but on a national level Clinton still holds a huge lead. The most recently posted poll results show Obama with 31 percent of the
probable voters in New Hampshire backing him with 29 percent showing support for Clinton.
http://www.transworldnews.com/NewsStory.aspx?id=30629&cat=5

Clinton Camp Pushes O-Bomber Links: Ignores
Her Own Radical Ties
By: Justin Rood

ABC News - The Hillary Clinton campaign pushed to reporters today stories about Barack Obama and his ties to former members of a radical domestic terrorist group -- but did not note that as president, Clinton's husband pardoned more than a dozen convicted violent radicals, including a member of the same group
mentioned in the Obama stories."Wonder what the Republicans will do with this issue," mused Clinton spokesman Phil Singer in one e-mail to the media, containing a New York Sun article reporting a $200 contribution from William Ayers, a founding member of the 1970s group Weather Underground, to Obama in 2001.
In a separate e-mail, Singer forwarded an article from the Politico newspaper reporting on a 1995 event at a private home that brought Obama together with Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, another member of the radical group.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=4330128&page=1


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 proudmDemocrats, 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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thoughtcrime1984 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-24-08 02:43 PM
Response to Original message
18. Really?



:D
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Cha Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-24-08 06:18 PM
Response to Original message
24. bilary must have known this would
happen, right? They can't be that dense..so they must not have cared one whit.
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Beacool Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-24-08 06:22 PM
Response to Original message
25. So? Plenty of whites are not precisely thrilled with Obama either.
What's the point?
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woolldog Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-25-08 03:36 AM
Response to Original message
29. k
:kick:
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