race-bait '08: Bill and Hillary find their voice

THE 'HE SPEAKS SO WELL'... RACE-BAIT

Bill and Hillary are not racists.   They are unscrupulous politicians - which means they are experts in exploiting all undercurrents of the American political psyche to their advantage: apparently even racist ones.  In a way that would make Bob Corker blush, they have managed to advance the meme that a scholar who graduated top-of-his-class at Harvard Law and was a professor at one of the most prestigious law schools in the country is nothing but a "naive and inexperienced ...kid".  

That's right; the Senator from Illinois is nothing but another black man in a suit who 'SPEAKS SO WELL' and says a bunch of "pretty things"... "shucking and jiving" to and fro but in the end is just an empty suit.  

After all, is a black man really ready to be president?  Boy, it SURE IS RISKY!!!   Has he attended enough power luncheons, or Washington cloakroom chats??  Has he shared tea with enough foreign bureaucrats??  

"This whole thing is the biggest fairy tale I have ever seen"

...says a Hillary supporter who was once elected president with significantly less political experience...

It’s a gamble to turn the keys of the white house over to a black man.  He needs to be vetted.  Was he a drug dealer during his years in the madrassa??  

Dennis Kucinich does not need to stoop to these lows in order to compete with Obama for votes.  Instead Dennis continues to focus on the backbone of democratic values: ending illegal wars waged against foreign governments, making government work for the people, and ensuring that EVERY VOTE is counted (even up in new Hampshire).  The real risk facing America today is running away from the issues and values important to those in need of our help.

stay progressive people...

•  This is hitting the MSM

  The Clintons crossed the Rubicon:

  Racial tensions roil Democratic race

  They have sowed teh wind. Time for them to reap the whirlwind.

  I wonder how well a Clinton GE campaign will do if a portion of a major constituency simply stays home?

  - Albert Einstein

  by Walt starr on Fri Jan 11, 2008 at 01:09:14 PM PDT

  •  I don't know

    if Politico is MSM.  But chuck todd is a frequent blatherer on Hardball, I guess we will find out tonight if it will.

    by nisleib on Fri Jan 11, 2008 at 01:19:31 PM PDT

    •  My prediciton

      It'll hit.

      The Genie is out of the bottle. The big story in the GOP primary is the division within the coalition.

      Now we are seeing a division boil to the top in the Democratic coalition.

      - Albert Einstein

      by Walt starr on Fri Jan 11, 2008 at 01:22:53 PM PDT

      •  Who do you think

        it will help / hurt?

        Every time Hillary has attacked Obama it has backfired.  Well that hold out?

        by nisleib on Fri Jan 11, 2008 at 01:31:04 PM PDT

        •  Hillary will end up being the nominee after

          a very bitter primary process.

          She will go on to lose the general eleciton after record low African American turnout.

          The only way it won't turn out that way would be if she put Obama on the ticket. She may have a plan to put Harold Ford on it, but I don't think it'll fly. It'll have to be Obama if she expects to win.

          - Albert Einstein

          by Walt starr on Fri Jan 11, 2008 at 01:35:33 PM PDT

          •  You never know

            but I fear you are right.

            Hillary will win.  God I hate saying that.  She will tear the party appart securing that win, but she will get it.

            Then we'll have four more years of costant right wing attacks on the Clintons.  The Clenis will rear it's ugly head and Bill O'Lielly will rush out to combat it.  Parisan gridlock will grip DC like never before.  We may well lose the Senate because Hillary hurts the downticket candidates.  Nothing will get done.  The war won't end.  It will be the worst of the nineties combined with the worst of the aughts...

            God I'm tired

            by nisleib on Fri Jan 11, 2008 at 01:40:57 PM PDT

            •  she will win the primaries

              She will lose the GE.

              she will be too proud to try and heal the party after her dogwhistle poltics and it will destroy the party.

              It will be McCain in a landslide. His Veep will take over before 2012 and will win a first term in 2012.

              Twevle more years of Republican rule because Hillary Clinton wants her "turn".

              - Albert Einstein

              by Walt starr on Fri Jan 11, 2008 at 01:43:31 PM PDT

              •  I feel like

                an old man complaining about the futility of it all.

                What kind of odds do you give Obama?  Maybe we are wrong.

                by nisleib on Fri Jan 11, 2008 at 01:44:57 PM PDT

                •  I figure Hillary wins Nevada

                  It all depends on how much she wins by. I've already written it off, though.

                  South Carolina will be close. If Hillary wipes the floor with Obama in Nevada and takes South Carolina, it's over. A win by less than three points in South Carolina by Obama and he won't have the moemntum for Super Tuesday.

                  Overall, he's got maybe a 25% chance to win it.

                  - Albert Einstein

                  by Walt starr on Fri Jan 11, 2008 at 01:48:21 PM PDT

                  •  I need a drink

                    by nisleib on Fri Jan 11, 2008 at 01:51:54 PM PDT

  •  How well will Obama do in the primaries...

    ...if his supporters succeed in creating a narrative that race baiting works (which is implied -- otherwise, why would the Clinton's do it?) -- which would therefore validate an "electability problem" for a candidate Obama that might cost him the general election.

    Republicans are 100% confident they can beat Obama because of his race, his name, and his muslim relatives, but -- out of politeness -- will focus their machine on pummeling the crap out of him on experience.

    So his campaign would do well to come up with better responses than to whine about how experience attacks are coded racism...

    Maybe they're saving the argument for later, but isn't Obama's experience pretty comparable to Abraham Lincoln's?

    by Minerva on Fri Jan 11, 2008 at 01:36:14 PM PDT

    •  I'm not a part of his campaign

      but I will never vote for Hillary Clinton in eany election. That option is no longer open.

      - Albert Einstein

      by Walt starr on Fri Jan 11, 2008 at 01:40:52 PM PDT

    •  We expect race-baiting from the Republicans,

      just not from members of our own party, especially the two most powerful Democrats in the country.

      It makes me want to puke to see Bill down in the gutter like this.  The respect I had for the man has washed away rather quickly these past months.

      I just hope the Clinton's are happy when they sacrifice our chances of victory on an alter of vanity.

      by cato on Fri Jan 11, 2008 at 02:13:34 PM PDT

  •  <sticking fingers in ears>

    la la la la la la
    no backlash
    not dog whistle
    la la la la la la

    by Drewid on Fri Jan 11, 2008 at 01:38:58 PM PDT

    •  It's been boiling for weeks

      and everybody tried to deny it.

      Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind.

      There's a tornado bearing down on the house the clintons built.

      - Albert Einstein

      by Walt starr on Fri Jan 11, 2008 at 01:41:41 PM PDT

•  Good god, will these

  silly diaries ever end?

  You said it yourself, they are not racists, now do they condone racism.

  by dskinner on Fri Jan 11, 2008 at 01:09:15 PM PDT

  •  should read..

    NOR do they condone racism.

    by dskinner on Fri Jan 11, 2008 at 01:09:56 PM PDT

    •  That is the question

      there is a pattern of racial code words coming out of the HRC campaign.

      If not planned it is a heck of a coincidence.

      by nisleib on Fri Jan 11, 2008 at 01:20:31 PM PDT

      •  There is no pattern of code words

        There is a pattern of distorting everything the Clintons say about Obama.

        Can someone explain to me how the fairy tale comment is race baiting?  Is that about Obama's lack of experience and knowledge?

        by tmendoza on Fri Jan 11, 2008 at 02:08:31 PM PDT

    •  Irrelevant.

      They are more than willing to stimulate and exploit racist stereotypes in order to win for themselves. Perhaps we will have to face it: the Republicans may well may have been right all these years about the essential character--or lack thereof--of the Clintons. It is time for the Democratic party to wrest control from their hands.

      by skeptica on Fri Jan 11, 2008 at 01:23:06 PM PDT

      •  Then Obama is playing the "race" card?

        Because if the Clinton's are responsible for every word uttered by their supporters, then Obama is responsible for homophobia and race-card-playing on the part of McClurkan and Jackson Jr.

        by BrentHartinger on Fri Jan 11, 2008 at 01:43:22 PM PDT

  •  Would also like to add that

    the handwringing over NH votes is lame. Obama lost, Clinton won. Don't try the "it's not about who won" argument, it's a lie. Had Obama won not a word would have been mentioned on this site.

    by dskinner on Fri Jan 11, 2008 at 01:12:10 PM PDT

    •  but the strawberries prove it

      recount the strawberries!

      CAPT. QUEEG (Humphrey Bogart): "Ah, but the strawberries! That's, that's where I had them."
      THE CAINE MUTINY, Columbia, 1954

      by ratador on Fri Jan 11, 2008 at 01:33:59 PM PDT

•  I never saw this ad...

  http://www.youtube.com/...

  I guess the old "black man gonna get the white women!" dog whistle's still shrill enough to draw the bigots out.

  by haruki on Fri Jan 11, 2008 at 01:15:19 PM PDT

•  Yes, there are ...

  'race baiters' in the current contest for POTUS, but they are none of the candidates, none of the candidate's spouses, and most likely none of the candidates high level staff. They mostly write fluff that is attributed incorrectly and presented inaccurately in order to denigrate their opponent by hanging the 'racist' lable around their opponent's neck.

  Much like this diary, and all the 50 or so we have seen spout forth so far ....

  by emsprater on Fri Jan 11, 2008 at 01:18:10 PM PDT

  •  Hillary-Hate

    I dont hate Hillary.  I just want some democrat other than her to be our nomineee and the next president.  

    by ratador on Fri Jan 11, 2008 at 01:30:25 PM PDT

•  Coordinated South-Carolina focused tactic?

  All these diaries kind of start to look like some kind of coordinated tactic to help ensure mondo african american turnout that will vote Obama in SC.

  The Obama campaign has consistently said publicly that race doesn't matter.

  If this is true, race-baiting can't work..

  If this is true, the Democratic party cannot be chock-full of closet racists.

  If not true -- and race baiting does work -- Republicans have a better shot of winning in November against Obama, and, therefore, Obama has an electability problem.

  The Obama campaign is wise to stand the ground that race does not matter, and would be better off if people would stop posting these types of would-be-incendiary diaries.

  Seriously -- if you were Karl Rove lurking at Daily Kos, isn't this the type of diary you would post?  

  (Perhaps alternating with diaries about Clinton only winning because of her crying?)

  by Minerva on Fri Jan 11, 2008 at 01:28:28 PM PDT

•  Stop. Just stop.

  by BrentHartinger on Fri Jan 11, 2008 at 01:38:44 PM PDT

•  The Crux of the Issue...

  Race-baiting is going on, this is pretty clear.  It is coming most directly from a few of Hillary's supporters and proxies (not herself, not her husband, not her immediate staff).  And I am not going to accuse the Clintons of being racists, because they are not.

  But by remaining silent they are indirectly condoning it.

  Hillary needs to come out and directly address her supporters and tell them in no uncertain terms, without parsed language, in a way that everybody understands.  That what is happening is wrong, it must stop, it will stop.  If she does not, the acidic nature of this will rip the Democratic party asunder.

  We are better than this, race baiting is the tactic of the other guys... we can and must rise above it.

  by Libesatva on Fri Jan 11, 2008 at 01:43:10 PM PDT

  •  Thats part of the plan. Dont you get it?

    The whole point is to stir the pot, cause the uproar, so then she can play the cool head looking to tamp it all down.

    You don't get this?

    by brooklynbadboy on Fri Jan 11, 2008 at 01:47:41 PM PDT

    •  What I get...

      ...is that any person who is willing to let the destructive politics of racial division harm the party, has no place in this party.

      by Libesatva on Fri Jan 11, 2008 at 01:58:32 PM PDT

•  Do us all a favor

  and go fuck yourself.  Really.  Then read what you wrote and be embarrassed, truly, for a long time.  Then, and only then, you can think about writing something else.

  Until then, just STFU.  And this goes for every "the Clintons are racists" and "Obama is anti-woman" and other bullshit.

  Clinton, Obama and Edwards are the candidates.  I support Clinton, although that's a recent development.

  Ultimately, though, and this is the point, any of them would make great presidents.  Talk about their respective positions, criticize them on the issues.  But for the love of God, stop with the juvenile and petty slurs and smears.  All of this is just going to be recycled against the nominee in the general election campaign.  Is it worth helping a Republican down the road just to make yourself feel good for five minutes now?  Is your self-control that weak?

  by jsmdlawyer on Fri Jan 11, 2008 at 02:04:19 PM PDT

•  the Clintons are behind the race baiting

  get real.  They are like bush; they have hired assassins to do their backstabbing for them.  They may not be 'racists', but they use racism if that destroys what is in their way.

  by Zacapoet on Fri Jan 11, 2008 at 02:12:40 PM PDT

  •  Spot on!

    If there is one thing you can count on from the Begala/Carville/Penn (especially Penn) crowd is to destroy anything and everything to get their way.  Including the Democratic Party.

    by yankeeinmemphis on Fri Jan 11, 2008 at 02:52:01 PM PDT