So... Edwards Heard The "Hard Working WHITE Voter" Schtick From Hillary, And THAT Was Enough !!!

[WillyT]

Damn... ain't that why Kennedy\Kerry (and others) did the same???

And she still owes Mark Penn several million dollars, and would like us to pay the bill. I'm thinking his advice wasn't worth it.

You???

:banghead:

[babylonsister]

1. I wouldn't be at all surprised if that was the final straw for Edwards; that

was no way to bring unity to the party.

[WillyT]

2. Amen...

:shrug:

[Gore1FL]

9. Really?

I thought he made an excellent argument for unity.

[Gore1FL]

10. nevermind

I misread the post.

[peterbluepedro]

14. Edwards said none of that

You guys are hallucinating, as usual, mind-reading people.

Edwards praised Hillary today. He spoke about the fact that the America people have voted for Obama. That's it.

[WillyT]

16. Wow... Your Gone Already ???

And I was just sharpening my tongue.

:shrug:

[AllentownJake]

18. Magistrate

Doesn't play around.

Fair and locks threads fast.

[TahitiNut]

26. Pizza delivery is prompt these days

:shrug:

[patrice]

3. That was my guess. I think he was just looking for the best moment.

[WillyT]

6. Well... She Definitely Gave It To Him...

:shrug:

[anonymous171]

4. Being a southern dem, he can sense a Southern Strategy well before it is fully implemented.

[WillyT]

7. You're Gonna Need To Flesh That Out A Bit More...

Please?

:shrug:

[Alcibiades]

11. Look at the wikipedia entry

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_strategy

The "southern strategy" is basically how the Republicans capitalized on our party's support for civil rights and turned the "solid south" into a solidly Republican south.

Basically, the story of the southern strategy is how the Republicans attracted the George Wallace vote into the GOP. So when Clinton says things such as "hard-working white Americans," that's what it sounds like to southern Dems. 95% of white southern Dems would never even think such a thing, but when Clinton said it, I don't think she had a clue about how divisive such a comment is in the south. For what it's worth, I think she's being strategic, not genuinely racist. She just seems to have no clue, no clue, about race relations in the south. As the former first lady of Arkansas, she should, but apparently she missed some of the subtle points of southern social and political life during her sojourn in Arkansas.

[wvbygod]

20. and the misquoting of Hillary continues...

I believe it was "hard working, white voters".

Commas mean a lot when one uses proper grammar. But hey, whatever helps you mislead
those who have not seen the exact quote and context.

[Ino]

22. Wrong.

The quote was, "...Senator Obama's support among working... hard-working Americans -- white Americans -- is weakening again, and how the whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me..."

http://youtube.com/watch?v=PfidftLe5Z0

But hey, whatever helps you mislead others with talk about commas and grammar while misquoting her yourself!

[Samantha]

A good many Southern Republicans are Democrats who defected

from the party, in protest of the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Signed into law by Lyndon Johnson, originally championed by John F. Kennedy, vigorously supported by Senator Albert Gore (Al's father) who knew the support of that bill (as well as his objection to the Viet Nam war) would cost him his dearly-beloved Senate seat (it did), it led to the defection of many ardent Southern Democrats who crossed over to the Republican right. Good riddance to them, I say.

Sam

[kath]

23. yep - LBJ said "we have lost the south for a generation" when he signed the Civil Rights Act.

Interestingly, the person he said it to was Bill Moyers:

When President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, striking down Jim Crow in July 1964, he famously remarked to his young press secretary, Bill Moyers: "We have lost the south for a generation." http://www.opendemocracy.net/democracy_power/america_inside_out/lady_bird_johnson_political_journey

And the Repugs have been using racism to gain votes ever since. See the wikipedia article on "Southern Strategy", linked above.

[Alcibiades]

25. Exactly

It seems that what drives the Clinton campaign is polls. They have data on the views of white voters, black voters, by gender, education level, and income. So they use this to triangulate their positions, fulfilling Hobbes' ambition of a politics that is modeled on geometry.

What's remarkable, however, is that they seem to forget that every time they raise a negative about Obama, they forget that it's a positive for many voters, and that raising the issue will alienate many members of what is supposed to be the Democratic base. They have a very good snapshot of people's opinions today, but they forget how we got to be where we are. So when you base an appeal to voters based not on policy, but on the idea that there are "hard-working Americans -- white Americans" who won't vote for Obama simply because he's black, you alienate many, many more blacks, liberals, and especially liberal blacks, gays and other people who have suffered under the rule of people elected by the "George Wallace" vote, people who have seen these kinds of attacks used by the Republicans for the last 40 years or so. (And, BTW, though Wallace is a convenient label for these voters, it is important to remember that even he eventually repudiated this brand of politics.) They have poll-driven talking points, derived from accurate data, designed to appeal to group A, but they have failed to understand that there may be a larger, more significant group of voters in group B who have a strong negative reaction to using what has looks very much like a Republican tactic in a Democratic primary.

That and the fact that the group of "hard-working Americans -- white Americans" who are Democrats may be numerous in West Virginia, but, by and large, they have left the party and become, as you mention, Republicans. The vast majority of southern Democrats, including, I think, John Edwards, get this instinctively. The highly-paid but inept people running the Clinton campaign are so deep inside their poll-driven bubble that they have forgotten it, if they ever knew it to begin with.

[Barack_America]

5. Yeah, she'd better stop jumping on the camel's back or her Senate seat...

...may be in jeopardy too.

[WillyT]

8. I'm Starting To Wonder If She Cares...

:shrug:

[cici4691]

12. It will be rather ironic if Obama still gets creamed in KY after Edwards

made this dramatic splash in an attempt to rescue him from the white voter Bermuda Triangle.

[MindMatter]

21. You seem to miss the point

Obama didn't campaign in WV because he didn't want to tempt Clinton to do any more divisive rhetoric, and the WV primary had no bearing on the outcome. He is ORGANIZING in KY to set up for the fall campaign. He doesn't need to win the primary. He only spent a little time in Oregon, which will lock up the pledged delegate victory. His main efforts now are towards building unity for the fall. It is no coincidence that his coming out with Edwards was in Michigan.

And why was he in Michigan? Because he already has the nomination wrapped up and he needs to reach out to Michigan to get them on board. There will be plenty of time to work on the crossover states like KY and WV between now and November.

[peterbluepedro]

13. Edwards couldn't even win the hard-working white vote anywhere

Did he win any states?

[anonymous171]

15. There is no hard working white vote. There is an uneducated white vote though.

[berni_mccoy]

17. Sorry WillyT... YOU ARE WRONG. Clinton Couldn't Afford the Jet Ski with 20 million in debt

Obama had plenty to afford THREE OF THESE BABIES:

[WillyT]

19. LOL !!! - SWEEEET !!!

:rofl:

:hi:

[Peace Patriot]

24. Some of you think Kerry/Edwards lost. Prove it. nt

[BenDavid]

27. Should a black man be allowed to win the White House? Sure.

But if the biggest voting block in America, uneducated whites, won't have it, we're left with two choices:We can vote for "the way things OUGHT to be" and possibly lose, or we can accept the fact
that America is a terribly racist country, and run our white candidate and possibly win. I'm not happy that I live in a terribly racist country, I suppose you aren't, either,but the question has become, "Do we want to win or do we want to make a point?"

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

28. It was certainly the 10th "last straw" for me!