Letters to the Editor
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@ Picko: Race-baiting
Go back through news articles and news clips about his New Hampshire Primary loss and the lead-up to South Carolina, for starters.
The first thing that Obama's campaign suggested when he lost the New Hampshire primary is that it was due to the "Bradley Effect" (whites saying that they would vote for a Black candidate, but once inside the polling booth voting for the white candidate). Once this got out to the media, the media went crazy over it.
Second: if you go back to news stories and clips after New Hampshire, leading up to SC, Obama's campaign used and reused the MLK "I have a dream" speech (in part because of Black History Month). But the minute that Hillary Clinton made the "tin-eared" comment about LBJ actually signing the Civil Rights Act, Obama's campaign cried foul and accused Clinton of being racist by saying this.
Combined with this is Bill Clinton's "fairy tale" comment about Obama's voting record on the Iraq War. Again, Obama's campaign cried that the Clintons were "racists", even though Bill Clinton said nothing about Obama's race and did not even suggest that it was Obama who was a "fairy tale."
Fast forward to SC. Obama's campaign continued to hammer away at the Clintons' so-called racist comments (LBJ/MLK connection, the "fairy tale" comment), and the so-called "Bradley Effect" that was responsible for Obama's NH loss, in phone calls and advertisements and PR. Bill Clinton fell right into it when he compared Obama's win in SC to Jesse Jackson's wins there.
Nevada: Obama's campaign runs ads in Spanish saying, "Sen. Clinton does not respect our people"), implying again that she is racist. When Clinton calls Obama on this, he feigns surprise.
This pattern has continued in one form or another ever since the Obama campaign gained traction using it prior to SC. Now, of course, both sides are using it. But the facts do not support the notion that Clintons started it.
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@ LJ - minor point, but...
...if you're going to be that sensetive about "Ilk" then you should beware using terms like "Acolyte" ("Obama followers, supporters, acolytes, whatever").
ILK:
1. family, class, or kind: he and all his ilk.
–adjective 2. same.
—Idiom 3. of that ilk,
a. (in Scotland) of the same family name or place: Ross of that ilk, i.e., Ross of Ross.
b. of the same class or kind.
ACOLYTE:
1. an altar attendant in public worship.
2. Roman Catholic Church.
a. a member of the highest-ranking of the four minor orders.
b. the order itself. Compare exorcist (def. 2), lector (def. 2), ostiary (def. 1).
3. any attendant, assistant, or follower.
If you tell me you meant Acolyte #3, I'll retract my earlier comparison. But you're quite literate, and I think you knew very well what connotations the word acolyte implies.
Nevertheless, you maintain plausible deniability. Bravo.
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@ Lj
By the way, you infer. I, however, imply.
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Consider the youth vote, Uncle Fester.
If Obama is president, man, he'll change the weather, and we'll, like, have perfect tubes forever! I'm so stoked! I was going to vote in the primary, you know, but then I forgot I wasn't registered, and then I had to score, but then the polls were closed. Did you see the lastest Warren Miller, man? I was so stoked.
Youth have yet to rock the vote in any general election. We will see, but it is entirely possible that with slightest shift in the wind, their attention will be elsewhere in November.
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@ ljwalker53
My dear ljwalker53,
I've used a Lexus-Nexus search and have found no instances of Senator Obama using the phrase "Bradley Effect" between NH and SC. Not a single instance.
As a matter of fact, I haven't found a single instance where Senator Obama mentioning race between NH and SC.
Obviously you've found some news articles quoting Obama saying the "Bradley Effect" was responsible for his very, very narrow loss in NH, because I have no doubt you'd never misspeak and exaggerate the truth. Please provide links to the articles.
Thanks,
Xufapemu
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crying foul
But the minute that Hillary Clinton made the "tin-eared" comment about LBJ actually signing the Civil Rights Act, Obama's campaign cried foul and accused Clinton of being racist by saying this.
Obama said this:
From NBC/NJ’s Aswini Anburajan
Obama called the "notion" that his campaign is responsible for the backlash Hillary Clinton has faced about her comments on Martin Luther King Jr.'s role in the in the civil rights movement "ludicrous" in a conference call today to announce the endorsement of Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill.
"Well this is fascinating to me," Obama began of Clinton's remarks on Meet the Press, in which she accused the Obama campaign of stirring the pot among African-American leaders about her remarks that it "took a president" to pass civil rights legislation.
Obama characterized Clinton's remarks as "tired Washington politicians and the games they play."
"She made an unfortunate remark about Martin Luther King and Lyndon Johnson,” he said. “I haven't remarked on it. And she offended some folks who thought she diminished the role about King and the civil rights movement. The notion that this is our doing is ludicrous.”
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/01/13/574170.aspx
Do you have any language (w/links) available that contradicts this?
At this point, if any Salon poster said the sun came up today, I'd have to stick my head out the window, just to double check.
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It's telling
that the only way Mrs. Clinton can now secure the nomination is to cleave the Democratic Party in half; hoping for the complete collapse of the Party's front-runner this late in the process.
Should Mrs. Clinton win the nomination in this way, I think it is safe to say she would get less of the African-American vote than her husband, Al Gore, or John Kerry.
Since LBJ, no Democrat (including her husband) has won the white vote in the general election. In 1992, her husband won the Presidency with only 38% of the white vote.
A Democratic nominee MUST get close to 90% of the black vote, which this year could represent 15% of the total popular vote.
Despite what Mrs. Clinton does in the primaries, she will not win the white vote in the fall.
If her nomination is secured by the destruction of Sen. Obama's campaign, she'll be lucky to get 80% of a smaller black turnout.