Letters to the Editor
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Time to get out
It's over. Time to end the campaign, Hillary. It's time to convince your supporters that they are Democrats first, and that they need to support Barack.
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Charges vs Facts
What the Obama camp and their supporters have done expertly is manage to turn repetitively echoed charges of race baiting against the Clinton camp which, are usually based on flimsy facts and strained interpretations, into a "fact" of race baiting.
Sometimes they have been bad at it like when Jessie Jackson Jr. tried it by claiming that Hillary didn't cry for the victims of Katrina and other times the Clinton camp has given them ammunition like in the Ferraro incident but, overall, it's nonsense.
But to give them credit, they understand that the perception they created by making the suspect charges matter more the dubious specifics themselves. All the while pretending to be above the fray. They did a good job.
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Disgusting
Look how generous the Obamapaths are.
They acknowledge the comments weren't racist, but instead of being appalled by the way the comments are being played, they just continue to argue that the Clintons have "used race."
Problem is, the Clintons didn't use race. Obama played the race card and Obamapaths followed the agenda-driven media nitpicking and interpreting of remarks like stupid sheep.
This endless, phony race card crap is the most disgusting aspect of this entire campaign.
Salon owes Hillary Clinton an apology for misrepresenting her comment which was neither clumsy nor racist, much less "channeling George Wallace.'
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@ KStone and lolcait
The race is over and Hillary lost. Time to quit whining about the refs, pull up your big boy pants and deal with it. If you want to vote for McCain in the fall go right ahead. Nobody really cares, so all your threats, crying and feigned outrage is a waste of time.
Good riddance.
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And if Obama says "Hillary has alienated African-American voters in favor of pandering to the fears and prejudices of White Ethnic voters - and allow me, once again, to count the ways..."
He would be absolutely correct. He would also be divisively playing the race card in a manner that's both vulgar and destructive to the party. But, again, he would be absolutely correct.
Obama could go a step further as Clinton has, and seek to increase the alienation of African-American voters by constantly pointing out how they abandoned Clinton in droves during the South Caroline primary. How more were set adrift with the Ferraro flap. How nearly all have jumped ship since Clinton started her ridiculous posturing in pursuit of White Ethnic Solidarity.
He could point to poll numbers showing that many African-Americans are now claiming they would never support Hillary in any campaign, how Bill's negatives have reached George W. levels among this group, and how tensions between Latinos and African-Americans have been inflamed by the Clinton campaign.
And he would be correct on the facts. And yet still be vulgar, short-sighted and morally dubious for attempting to take personal advantage of them.
Because the larger point is not the Obama will have a more difficult time gaining the votes of blue collar white ethnics with limited education than Hillary does. The larger point is that the modern GOP has been eating into this (long ago) Democratic base ever since Nixon's "Southern Strategy" and the phenomena of "Reagan Democrats".
And they've done it in the same way that Clinton has been accused of doing it:
-by making dog-whistle appeals to their social conservatism and racial prejudices (going all-out Annie Oakley in favor of the 2nd Amendment; claiming over and over in as many ways as possible that Obama's appeal cannot possibly extend beyond African American voters and those hoity-toity liberal elites with their fancy diplomas);
-by extending BS panaceas and meager handouts that do nothing to change the underlying economic dynamics that are crippling this demographic. ("What's the matter with Kansas (PA, OH, IN)? Nothing that a Gas Tax Holiday can't cure!");
-by the creation of diversions, wedge-issues, stereotypes, and posturing. (Fear the Persians... who I will obliterate! Fear Black Nationalist jeremiads from the pulpits! Sixties-era Radicals! Latte-sipping, hybrid-driving, diploma-earning elitists... like Obama! Like economists!).
So, sure, I think she was channeling George Wallace. It was and is an effective strategy, one that the Republicans have been winning elections on for years. But it is also vulgar. And short-sighted. And morally contemptible. And ultimately ruinous for a party that needs the support of the traditional have-nots, and suffers when one such racial/socio-economic subgroup is pitted against the other.
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Interesting read
I might submit that there are two Clinton eras to consider. The pre-1994 era and the post-1994 era. The loss of the house and senate in 1994 changed the tone, and I'm not sure that the CLintons could ever manage to come back from it.
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Joe Schmo
Pulling the Race Card on Hillary is ludicrous, but her comment was too tempting for people who dislike her not to capitalize on. Reports on the Dem campaign continually reference who has what vote -- Obama has 91% of the black vote, Clinton has the bulk of the non-educated white votes. All she did was put it out there, perhaps a bit awkwardly, that this is a group she can carry. Like Obama's team isn't sitting around a table formulating how to capture those very white voters for himself. Did you see his latest commercial? Looks like he got the feedback bout "elite" men bowling and rolled up his shirtsleeves. How real. Please. One thing the Obama campaign illustrates beautifully: Advertising works.
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@Mike LeP
Your petulant whining and tired cliches are great examples to follow. Of course, as usual, you avoid the point. Try getting up off your knees and thinking for yourself. You've been down there long enough and Obama looks bored. Hurry up and finish already.
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@KStone
Petulent whining? I'm not the one crying about how Hillary has been unfairly maligned by the rabidly anti-Clinton media and then "threatening" to take my ball and go home, as if anybody really gives an F what a tool like you does with your vote.
Boo hoo. Need a tissue?
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KStone
Way to keep it classy!
(sheesh)
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Salon Bias
Thanks to the poster who noted that Conason tarred Obama with the same brush re: dirty politics. MSM repeats that lie again and again when, in fact, Obama has more dignity than any successful politician I have ever seen. Why does Salon employ Joan Walsh? She has no sense of objectivity and is a poor writer.