Bill Clinton pressuring Janet Napolitano, tearing apart the party.
Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 06:00:17 AM PDT
What if I told you that Bill Clinton had been calling women who support Senator Obama in states where Senator Clinton won, pointing out the fact that the majority of Democratic voters are women and telling them that if they stand in the way of the first woman president by using their superdelegate status to vote for Senator Obama, that they might have the rug of support yanked from under them and find a female challenger for their seats in the next election? You'd say that was ludicrous right? How dare he interfere with their free choice to vote for who they think is the best candidate?
OK, Bill Clinton isn't doing that. And if he was there would be a media storm that would last at least a week over it. But Jesse Jackson, Jr., not satisfied with the fact that Senator Obama is consistently getting 80% of black primary voters, is calling black superdelegate supporters of Senator Clinton and bringing up the specter of a primary challenge if they stand in the way of the first black president. (link)
In an interview, Cleaver offered a glimpse of private conversations.
He said Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. of Illinois had recently asked him "if it comes down to the last day and you're the only superdelegate? ... Do you want to go down in history as the one to prevent a black from winning the White House?
"I told him I'd think about it," Cleaver concluded.
Jackson, an Obama supporter, confirmed the conversation, and said the dilemma may pose a career risk for some black politicians. "Many of these guys have offered their support to Mrs. Clinton, but Obama has won their districts. So you wake up without the carpet under your feet. You might find some young primary challenger placing you in a difficult position" in the future, he added.
I've been writing for weeks that I think the Obama campaign has been playing the race card to inflame black voters against Senator Clinton even though she and her husband both have strong records in support of civil rights. But I'm not even going to link to those diaries here because I think this latest move by the Obama campaign removes the last shred of doubt over whether the Obama campaign intends to transcend race or whether it will play the race card to further its own ends.
And I think this playing of the race card threatens the unity of the Democratic Party more than anything Senator Clinton or her campaign has done. What if black superdelegates think Senator Clinton's experience and her ability to win working class voters make her the better president? Should they, as superdelegates, be allowed to have input or should they be forced to vote with the way the popular vote went in their district?
If you go with the argument Jesse Jackson, Jr. is making then the judgment of elected officials who have run campaigns themselves and know what it takes to win and what it takes to govern, the judgment of those superdelegates is completely thrown out the window and they should be forced to vote in support of whoever won their district. If you follow Jesse Jr., voting for a black president is more important than voting for who one judges to be the better candidate.
This just seems like naked racism to me. And I don't see how it can keep from tearing the party apart along racial lines.
Additional comments about MoveOn
And while we are on the topic of pressuring superdelegates, I would like to point out that MoveOn, I think driven mostly by youth activists though I may be wrong about that part, is working against the candidate who stood up for them and for the candidate who did not. Senator Clinton supported MoveOn when John Cornyn brought up the amendment to condemn them over the Petraeus ad. And she took some heat for it from potential rivals like Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani and others. (link, link)
Here is the list of supporters of MoveOn when the vote was held. You will notice that Senator Obama's name is not on the list because he missed the vote, even though he had just been there to vote on the Boxer measure. (link) If he had voted to support MoveOn, his name would have been between Murray and Reed:
Those who voted to support MoveOn:
Akaka (D-HI)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Boxer (D-CA)
Brown (D-OH)
Byrd (D-WV)
Clinton (D-NY)
Dodd (D-CT)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feingold (D-WI)
Harkin (D-IA)
Inouye (D-HI)
Kennedy (D-MA)
Kerry (D-MA)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Levin (D-MI)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Murray (D-WA)
Reed (D-RI)
Reid (D-NV)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Sanders (I-VT)
Schumer (D-NY)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
Wyden (D-OR)
So, according to supporters of Senator Obama, it makes no difference if Senator Clinton has stood up for Civil Rights or if she has stood up for MoveOn. And nevermind that Obama tipped his hand on how he will fight for his supporters in this instance. Those things make no difference. With friends like these....
