Letters to the Editor
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Taliesan
"...This latest statement by Hillary is undeniably racist. It is the latest in a trend of increasingly borderline statements - from the start where Hillary expressed a view on LBJ that was largely overdramatised, to when Bill's Jesse Jackson moment, to Ferraro trying to paint Obama as the affirmative action candidate to this one, where Hillary finally jumped the line...."
I agree. And, when you put that together with the efforts of Bill Shaheen, Bob Johnson and Charley Rangel in New Hampshire, coupled with Bill and Hillary's comments regarding Obama vis a vis Jesse Jackson and Martin Luther King and "maybe he is; maybe he isn't" in Ohio, you can make a pretty good case for your position. Throw in a little Jesse Helms with Gerry Ferraro's "he's where he is because he's black" and Hillary's "I'm the qualified candidate, John's the qualified candidate; the other guy?" and you pretty much nail it down.
"...There hasn't been the same degree of escalation with Obama, in part to be honest because he is winning, and it would lose him votes rather then winning him some. Obama is no saint...."
Of course not. He'd be insane to get in the pig pen with the Clintons on this matter. He can only lose. Look, as I mentioned in another topic thread, I saw this phenomenon with another pair of strangers-in-a-strange land, a couple of new comers to an area not familiar with minorities, the Williams Sisters and the tennis arena. They were subjected to the most brutish behaviour I've ever witnessed in tennis, at Indian Wells, and when I blogged tennis sites I was amazed that they were blamed for it. When their defenders countered that as well as the often demeaning comments coming from opposing bloggers, they were blamed for the upheaval rather than the correspondents who started it in the first place. Obama? Well, he's to blame [isn't he?] for the constant, racially tinged, Clinton generated smearing after Iowa; his defenders are hooligans and cult-deranged maniacs for their spirited response to the derisive, often [but not always] race-baiting of either (a) GOP trolls or (b) disappointed Clinton supporters here at Salon and elsewhere. He's responsible for rallying blacks in a subtle racially oriented campaign, right? After all, look at all those blacks who voted for him in his inaugural win in Iowa!
Obama, in my eyes, has pretty much steered away from racial issues because a black [half-black? can we finally say this racial categorisation is nonsense, after all?] candidate could only commit political suicide by evoking race. On the other hand, HIllary can elicit gender solidarity and victim-hood after flubbing Spitzer's NY drivers-license fiasco; claim that gender bias on the part of the media is stymying her campaign, notwithsanding her colossal campaign errors, and that women and the white working class should vote for her and not the other..guy because?....
I didn't fall off the turnip truck, last night. I pretty much get what you, Hutman and the others are saying. Keep up the spirited--and, by my lights, principled--defense.
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@jpetty
It's not who she's carrying it's who she's targeting.
White Americans, who are of course hard working.
Her statement was clear.
Working - she Corrects herself - Hard Working Americans, then to make sure no one is confused, White Americans.
I wonder how her Latino supporters take this?
I know some Latinos consider themselves white, but I don't know how many in Peurto Rico do.
Has Senator Clinton made a statement on this statement yet, or are we just to talk amongst ourselves at it's obvious meanings.
If her explaination is sleepyheadedness again however, perhaps we should start raising the age issue, since she may have chronic fatigue syndrome.
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@ Hillary's exploitation of race?? You must be joking
So you would vote for the the decrepit Republican candadate McShame rather than voting for a black man.
Just shows exactly how racist you are!
No wonder the country is in such trouble!
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What's great about dumb whites
The great thing about dumb white democrats is they are easily lead to wherever you want to lead them. Black democrats can't be turned into white democrats. Old democrats can't be turned into young democrats, but dumb white democrats can be dazzled by the pretty colors and bright lights of the democratic convention and the all those wonderful 527's. So with a 98% black vote in his pocket, Obama's team will yell "Run, Forrest, Run!" and the dumb whites will line up at the polls in the general election. I am not being sarcastic, if you can't tell. This is exactly what will happen and it will be a beautiful thing, as far as I'm concerned.
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You don't have to be racist to play the race card.
People just don't seem to get it. Being racist is one thing and being a politician who is willing to use race as a wedge issue is another. The Clintons have traditionally fought for the rights of African-Americans. But this is in no way inconsistent with the idea that in her struggle to maintain a hold on her fading candidacy Hillary is willing to use race as a dividing line between those who would vote for her and those who would vote for Obama. It is not a race issue, it is a wedge issue, and to use it she has to make a reference to the racial divide. Is this racist? No. Is this playing the race card? Definitely yes.
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"ProudTexasGirl" please create a new handle
and leave "Texas" out of it next time, lest everyone think that "Texas" equates to "inflammatory troll out of control on Salon letters."
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She did not mispeak.
By the way, Hillary's reference to hardworking white Americans as her voters was no slip of the tongue. In a widely discussed television conversation between Paul Begala (long time Clinton insider) and Donna Brazille (undeclared but sympathetic to Obama), Begala not only made the same points that Hillary made, but he maid it over and over and over, to the point Brazille was -- to say the least -- pissed off. Again, this is the latest preconceived Clinton strategy, to create a sense of racial divide between white voters and black voters. It was no slip of the tongue.
To debate whether this is being racist or not is a waste of time. She is doing it whatever you want to call it.