Letters to the Editor
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KStone
You really need to pay attention. I said the Obama camp and supporters are using repetitively echoed charges of race baiting against the Clinton camp which, are usually based on flimsy facts and strained interpretations, in order to turn the charge into the "fact" of Clinton race baiting.
I’m paying attention – I just flat out disagree with you. I’d be willing to cut Hillary some slack if this was just an isolated incident. But over the course of the campaign, she and her husband and surrogates have made such a habit of invoking race as a rationale for her nomination that I no longer believe this stuff is an accident.
For the record, I don’t believe the Clintons are racists, but I do believe they’re trying to send the message that Obama may be unelectable because of his race and it’s become less subtle as Hillary’s become more desperate. In other words, they are willing to exploit race divisions for political gain.
Now in terms of blacks overwhelming support of Obama based on racial pride (what you called because he's only black), if consistent 90+% totals are not proof enough then that's your issue.
My problem isn’t with the idea that some black voters support Obama because of his race.
Where we disagree is your insistence that the 50-point swing among blacks that Obama’s enjoyed since October is entirely because he’s now seen as a viable candidate. I’d buy that if he were carrying 75% of the vote. But when Hillary Clinton, the wife of a recent former president who was absolutely revered by African Americans, is getting clobbered by 92% of the black vote in a state where blacks are 40% of the Dem electorate, I think there’s something else going on. I think it’s the condescending way Hillary and Bill have treated black voters.
My other problem is that you only question the motives of Obama’s black voters. What about Hillary’s white and female supporters? Obama loses 70-30 among working class whites, and the MSM and Hillary camp repeatedly question his appeal to those folks like you blame the voters.
In other words, you blame Obama for failing to appeal to working class whites but you blame blacks for failing to embrace Hillary.
Why?