The Guardian: Clinton Cynically Turns to Race Argument

[FrenchieCat]

Clinton Cynically Turns to Race Argument

Gary Younge, The Guardian

Hillary has cynically turned to the one argument she has left: race
She failed to convince the electorate of her own viability. Now her team claims that voters won't back a black candidate

It is one of the enduring paradoxes of American racism that those black Americans most likely to exercise their full rights as citizens - to vote, to stand, to speak out - are the most likely to be branded as unpatriotic.

"Of course the fact that a person believes in racial equality doesn't prove that he's a communist," said the chairman of a loyalty review board, one of the McCarthyite kangaroo courts that sat in judgment of possible communists, in the 50s. "But it certainly makes you look twice, doesn't it? You can't get away from the fact that racial equality is part of the communist line."

...The point here is not whether white people are prepared to vote for him. First, they clearly are. Of the 10 whitest states to have voted so far, Obama has won nine. And there are countless reasons why people don't back him that have nothing to do with race - not least that they prefer another candidate on their merits.

At issue is the insidious and racist manner in which his candidacy is now being framed as that of a nefarious, foreign interloper whose allegiance to his country is inherently inauthentic and instinctively suspect.

...But their accusations are not only cynical - by most accounts they also seem to be wrong. It seems they have underestimated the potential of the American electorate. Polls show that in the states won with less than a five-point margin in 2004 Obama does far better than Clinton against McCain.

The problem is not that Hillary Clinton is still in the race. She has every right to be. It is that she is running the kind of race that she is. Having failed to convince voters of the viability of her own candidacy, she is now committed to proving the unviability of his.

...more at the link
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/apr/28/hillaryclinton.usa

[EFerrari]

1. Gee, and I thought it was just my imagination. n/t

[FrenchieCat]

4. no, actually, it is the consensus!

Here's another one!

Dear Democratic Party: Please Don't Become Racist

by Bruce Allen Morris Page 1 of 2 page(s)
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_bruce_al_080425_dear_democratic_part.htm

[EFerrari]

6. Good. Even the foreign press is calling us out on this.

Or, calling the Clinton campaign out.

[Yossariant]

25. Obama racebaiting again in advance of NC -- Shocker.

The comments to the nutjob at the Guardian are rather illuminating.

God damn America.

[PaulaFarrell]

27. 'the nutjob at the Guardian'?

seriously?? you have just shown your comments have no credibility, as this guy is one of the most eloquent and informed writers on the paper. do you always label people as crazy because you disagree with them?

[Yossariant]

31. Informative? "The founding fathers held both that all men were equal"??!!

:wow:

He's a one trick pony shilling for Obama:

Hillary has cynically turned to the one argument she has left: race
Apr 28 2008: Gary Younge: She failed to convince the electorate of her own viability. Now her team claims that voters won't back a black candidate

The US needs to talk about class, but politicians don't have the vocabulary
Apr 14 2008: No one is addressing the concerns of white working-class Americans, least of all the current Democratic candidates, says Gary Younge

America lauds Martin Luther King, but undermines his legacy every day
Mar 31 2008: Gary Younge: Forty years after the civil rights leader's death, his myth masks how the US remains segregated in practice and attitudes

A sore that still festers
Mar 19 2008: Gary Younge If Barack Obama were white, he'd never have had to make the speech he made yesterday

Ranking race against gender is the first step towards fundamentalism
Mar 17 2008: Gary Younge: Pitting identities against each other undermines the potential for building the progressive coalitions that the Democrats need

Obama must build a movement to take him beyond the White House
Mar 3 2008: Gary Younge: An effective presidency will need his supporters to keep mobilising to take on the corporations and lobbyists in his way

It's up to the superdelegates to prove Democrats believe in democracy
Feb 18 2008: Gary Younge in New York: Party apparatchiks could yet choose a presidential candidate against the wishes of ordinary voters

In this great meritocracy, only one thing matters: who is your daddy?
Feb 4 2008: Gary Younge: To change the political sclerosis gripping their country, Americans need a president distinguished by his lack of pedigree

[cali]

33. you've lost it

not that I'm convinced you ever had it. You remind me of McCain sying that Obama is insensitive to the poor. pathetic as all get out to translate this as Obama race baiting. And disgusting- just like McCain.

[Yossariant]

34. You have a bad habit of posting personal attacks instead of responses.

Some might say that it reflects the inability of an incompetent mind to appropriately express itself.

[cali]

35. you just did what you bitch about. And you posted something

with NO supporting evidence whatsoever. Zip. None.

[journalist3072]

37. Precisely. An An African-American, I call bullshit on this non-fact based hit piece.

[mcctatas]

2. And the hillbots have to add another source that is out to get the

"goddess of peace" (or was it peas?). Pretty soon they'll only be able to read the RNC website and Hannity online!

[nomorenomore08]

5. Heh, yeah, it's ironic that the only people in the media sticking up for her now are the RWers.

Why are they doing this, you ask? Because they've seen her favorability ratings, and they know McCain can beat her. Also, so that the American people will have two hawkish candidates to choose from.

[FrenchieCat]

11. The irony is lost on her supporters.......

or the truth of it. I'm not sure how it is all rationalized in their minds. Must be quite the juggling act of denial and distain mixed together.

[democracy1st]

3. Haha The Clinton's would like everyone to believe

just blacks and a few rich liberals,are causing her to loose this race.

[FrenchieCat]

7. Well, the Clintons "used" to believe that it was the Republican that used Race......

"they're gonna pull in the next election is the same old scam they've been pulling on us for decade after decade after decade.When their economic policies fail, when the country's coming apart rather than coming together, what do they do? They find the most economically insecure white men and scare the living daylights out of them. "-- BILL CLINTON
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/04/13/bill-clinton-flashback-al_n_96433.html

[pompano]

17. and a rebuttal, Bill

...you take the most self centered, egotistical, ecomomically insecure wife of yours and run her for President...and scare the living daylights out of everyone? Well, I say everyone? There are a few leftover down at Kool-Aide Central that buy the sweetest double trouble triple berry flavor, still googling everything imaginable to try to find a breath of truth behind the corkscrew landing in Bosnia and have rippling Schwarznegger biceps from toting goal posts on a regular basis.

Even them show signs of seeing the light as they can tell Clinton hangovers are much more severe and pronounced as they age.

[chknltl]

8. oops, responded in the wrong spot...sorry NT

[guyanakoolaid]

9. Gary Younge continuously reports on US events with more honesty than the M$M here is capable of

I miss the Saturday Guardian. <sigh>

[chknltl]

10. I am neither black nor rich nor am I alone in my support for Obama

If it is the blacks and the rich liberals who are doing this, they have my most profound thank you for siding with American Democracy. What Senator Clinton is not getting: This ain't about race nor gender and not even about party anymore, It is about AMERICANS wanting to take back OUR COUNTRY DAMMIT!!!


All together my fellow Americans: YES WE CAN! :grouphug:

[livingmadness]

12. As usual, awesome articles Frenchie-cat

Thank you sooooooooo much!

[FrenchieCat]

14. Happy to oblige!

[journalist3072]

38. Happy to be a disingenuous a*shole, you mean. eom

[Bodhi BloodWave]

40. Nice of you to state for everyone what you are, saves other from finding out the hard way n/r

[AdHocSolver]

13. The Clintons know she can't win the nomination. They are now going to Plan B.

Clinton's aim is to divide the Democratic Party and stir up racism issues among Republicans and independants so as to bring about a McCain victory in November. Then she will jump into the 2012 presidential campaign on an "I told you so" platform.

There are at least two flaws in this line of thinking. First, if she succeeds in electing McCain president by these tactics, she will destroy the Democratic Party making it unable to elect a dog catcher, let alone a President. Second, the economy and the social fabric of this country under another Republican Bush/Cheney-like presidency will be so shattered that the Great Depression of the 1930's will look like a picnic in comparison

The biggest threat to America in this presidential campaign is Hillary "It-is-my-turn" Clinton. If they cannot fairly win the Democratic nomination, the Clinton's seem to be quite willing to bring down the Democratic Party, and the country, in flames.

[Hardrada]

15. Maybe the slur "Hitlery" is not so far off base!

[FrenchieCat]

16. Well, we don't need to go where she's at.

But she is stooping about as low as one could stoop without digging to China!

[anigbrowl]

18. Everyone knows the UK press is in the tank for Obama...um...

Well, the Guardian is part of the corporate media, right?

The Manchester Guardian was founded in Manchester in 1821 by a group of non-conformist businessmen headed by John Edward Taylor. The prospectus announcing the new publication proclaimed that "it will zealously enforce the principles of civil and religious Liberty … it will warmly advocate the cause of Reform; it will endeavour to assist in the diffusion of just principles of Political Economy; and to support, without reference to the party from which they emanate, all serviceable measures." According to a December, 2004 survey, 44% of Guardian readers voted in favour of Labour, 37% for the Liberal Democrats and only 5% for the Conservatives, the lowest percentage of any large British newspaper.

I used to work for the Guardian back in the early 90s :blush:

[EFerrari]

19. Most of the rest of the world is very excited about Obama's candidacy.

:)

[FrenchieCat]

20. How cool!

That must have been something! :thumbsup:

[ccharles000]

21. Hillary is not racist.

[FrenchieCat]

22. The article clearly is making a case that she is exploiting the issue......

and so, I'm not sure which is worse; using it for one's own advantage or being it. I think both stink.

[ccharles000]

24. We will have to agree to disagree.

[Bodhi BloodWave]

41. You don't need to be something to use it to your advantage n/t

[intaglio]

30. Nobody said SHE was, but her Campaign

uses racism

[ClayZ]

23. OBAMA/44 POTUS

K and R

[FrenchieCat]

26. Aye!

[Rageneau]

28. This guy is a paranoid idiot. He does not cite a SINGLE example of racism by Hillary...

But that doesn't stop him from labeling her a racist and other people from parroting that nasty charge without even reading this lousy article, which basicaly says that Hillary is a racist because Paul Robeson was treated badly half a century ago.

[Spider Jerusalem]

29. You should try rereading and attempting to comprehend.

he doesn't say Hillary Clinton is a racist. What he's saying (and something that I think is quite obvious from this campaign) is that she is quite capable of cynically exploiting racism when it serves her own political ends to do so.

[Yossariant]

32. Precisely. Here's a link to his prior columns. They are all the same. He's an Obama shill.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/garyyounge

[BooScout]

36. Ahhhh Gary Younge......

He loves to tell Americans how racist we are..........much more racist than the UK in fact. He writes as if he is an expert on America. He isn't. Not by a long shot......and he needs to take a good long look in the mirror before commenting on America's race issues as opposed to the UK's.

According to Younge's other writings just about everything boils down to racism. It's his central theme. Blaming Hillary for it all just ties in right nicely for him.......nevermind the fact that it's been the Obama Campaign who inserted race into this season's campaign from the beginning.....but you see it can't be Obama who played the race card since he's black and blacks can't play the race card.:sarcasm:

Oh and I'm sure I'm racist for thinking as I do.....so skip the nasty hate filled name calling regarding my opinion. :sarcasm:

[phrigndumass]

39. K+R ... good read, Frenchie

:hi: