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January 15, 2008

No race card up my sleeve, nosiree

I was rather disappointed to see the way Obama felt the need to step in to the "Clinton's going racist," "No she's not!" argument, and be the Reasonable Black Man (who abhors racism, but doesn't think you're racist at all, not one bit!) and make a big deal about how not-racist Clinton is.  I've heard the idea floated that the tone-deaf-to-plain-racist comments coming from Clinton's "surrogates" (I'm just not sure what's up with that term) are intended to incense black politicians, and therefore prompt a bunch of angry black folk to show up both and angry and black on teevee and scare white liberal voters about the prospect of racism being amongst their own motivations for voting how they plan. 

But if that's the case, Obama has played to the defensive white liberals' feelings very well, by downplaying race as an issue in the election.  Kevin Drum quotes Obama:

I think that I may disagree with Senator Clinton or Senator Edwards on how to get there, but we share the same goals. We're all Democrats. We all believe in civil rights. We all believe in equal rights. We all believe that regardless of race or gender that people should have equal opportunities....I think that Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton have historically and consistently been on the right side of civil rights issues. I think they care about the African-American community and that they care about all Americans and they want to see equal rights and justice in this country. 

Given all that's been said and done, it's arguable that Obama is giving the Clintons (and Democrats in general) too much credit.  But Obama is working to win a large number of votes (even from defensive white people), and if it takes a pep talk from a Real Live Black Person to comfort a white liberal about his or her own unresolved issues with race to do so, then I can see why he'd go that route. 

I haven't made up my own mind about what exactly is going on with Clinton's campaign, so I'm not ready to pass judgement.  But I do think this is a potential dynamic, and it works exactly the same way when Clinton downplays sexism in coverage of her campaign. 

For a more knowledgeable look at the way this has played out in the media, check out Liza Sabater's coverage, which I've been enjoying quite a lot.   

Comments

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Even if the Clinton's are race baiting for political gain, there is no way that Obama is going to help himself in the primary by personally going after them for it (nor is this the conversation that Democrats need to be having in the run up to the election). It is not fair, but that is how it is. He should have made this statement at least a day earlier to defuse the situation. It is not like there are a shortage of people to cry foul at what is starting to look like an ugly and cynical political ploy by team Clinton. So I think that it is not too fair to be disappointed with Obama for refusing to shoot himself in the foot here.

I'm not 100% sure what is going on with the Clinton's and the surrogates, but I've seen too much of a pattern here for my taste. In any case, I won't be forgetting about this any time soon.

C'mon now, don't believe the press hype that purposely distorts the Clintons' statements (Hillary's MLK/JFK/LBJ comment being an innocuous statement that was, at worst, not put well considering our hyper sound-bite culture and Bill's "fairy tale" comment about Obama's Iraq position) as "racist." Please, I like this blog.

Here's a basic rundown that shows the Clinton's were blown out of the water by a grossly irresponsible press willfully misinterpreting statements and also failing to hold Obama to the same (attempted) standard, not that the Obama camp seemed to mind:

The Obama campaign's hands are not clean, sadly, and I'm not speaking about the South Carolina memo, but the absolutely BASELESS and INFLAMMATORY comments made by Obama's national co-chair Jesse Jackson, Jr. the day after NH (Clinton only gets "emotional" in response to her appearance, not Katrina survivors) and Obama supporter, Michael Eric Dyson (Every criticism of Obama is "racial in subtext" and there's strong implication that white women who voted for Clinton were racists).

Clinton gets blasted for her supporter (Johnson) and yet Obama is let off scott free when his own staff goes on national television and spews polarizing rhetoric?! Come. On.

Here's the SC primary memo:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/01/12/obama-camps-memo-on-clin_n_81205.html

And if you're asking about Cuomo, his stupid phrase was in discussion of retail politics--not Obama:
http://blogs.timesunion.com/capitol/?p=6141#more-6141

Here's Jesse Jackson, Jr.:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNrlSn7ndAA&e

And lastly Mr. Dyson's remarks:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22598268/

Please, my man, Edwards, is basically out of this race and I honestly can't stand Clinton, but what I truly hate about this is that racial tension has been needlessly flamed by a press intent on hurting the Democrats and the failure of many to hold Obama to the same standards, which only allows the situation to get much worse (Seriously, Jackson and Dyson were even worse than Johnson).

Whew.

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