Race Still Divides Obama and Clintons
[Guest post by DRJ]
The Politico examines how the Clintons – especially Bill – and Clinton staffers have reacted to allegations of racism traded by the Obama and McCain campaigns. Apparently race is still a sore subject:
“The depth of the anger in Clinton’s circle became clear Friday, when McCain’s chief strategist compared his candidate to Bill Clinton, and the Clintons seemed to accept the analogy.
“Say whatever you want about Bill Clinton, but it’s deeply unfair to suggest his criticism of Obama was race-based,” McCain adviser Steve Schmidt told Politico, after his campaign blasted Obama for suggesting the McCain campaign would use his race against him. “We knew it was coming in our direction because they did it against a president of the United States of their own party.”
Hillary Clinton’s staff declined to comment, but her campaign communications director, Howard Wolfson, appeared on Fox News later that day to, in effect, back Schmidt up.
“I think the McCain camp watched our primary on the Democratic side very carefully, and they know that any accusation of racial divisiveness can be very, very harmful for a candidate’s prospects,” Wolfson said last Thursday.
In interviews Monday, some former Clinton aides declined to discuss the sore subject at all, because they support Obama and don’t consider it helpful. Others would discuss it only on background. But several former aides said that being tarred as racists, if not by Obama’s campaign, then by his supporters, had left deep scars on a campaign whose top officials were black women.”
In related news, a Lifetime Network poll via the Chicago Sun-Times shows that almost 1-in-5 female Clinton voters support McCain and 10% of women voters remain undecided:
“According to the survey, neither presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama nor Republican presidential nominee John McCain has secured a clear majority of women, who have decided every presidential election since 1968. Obama garnered 49% to McCain’s 38%, and 6% of these women said they were only leaning toward a candidate. With 90 days to go until Election Day, 10% of women are firmly undecided, indicating either candidate has a shot at becoming the next president.
***
Hillary Clinton’s Legacy
Hillary’s Women Supporters• While the majority of women who voted for Hillary in the primary are flocking to Obama (76%), nearly one out of five (18%) says they will vote for McCain for president.”
The Lifetime poll is lengthy but it has some interesting results.
— DRJ
When you have Democratic voters actually changing their names to match that of the Messiah, it should come as no surprise that they would also engage in the non-Olympic sport of throwing loved ones under the bus.
Icy Truth (4beca1) — 8/5/2008 @ 11:42 pmObama’s campaign did what they had to do to cripple his opponent — Chicago politics at its finest.
I don’t think they fully understood that they were quite possible burying their general election prospects in the process.
If he hasn’t brought 30% of HIllary’s female supporters into his camp by now, he will never win them over decisively. They may bounce back and forth for another couple months. If Obama begins to take on the stink of a loser, they’ll abandon him with the thought that and Obama loss creates an opening for Hillary in 2012.
wls (4ab682) — 8/6/2008 @ 12:07 amI wonder about the Clinton supporting women. I assume the vast majority of them are pro-choice, and that issue alone is too important for them to give up potential SCOTUS seats by voting Mccain. I’m quite sure that many democratic women won’t bother voting at all (Mccain has a similar problem), but Obama has seriously screwed up if he’s losing the feminists.
Not to say he hasn’t. though none of these polls function properly in a world of cell phones and such.
One thing is clear: a lot of Obama supporters are very caustic towards the Clinton loyalists and anyone vaguely critical of Obama. Merely criticizing Mccain does not get any kind of anger on the right. That’s not really a strength of Mccain’s but Obama has shown that he cannot control his people, and that may be his undoing.
Juan (4cdfb7) — 8/6/2008 @ 12:29 amI never pay attention to these polls. You can’t even guarantee that these people will even go to the polls on voting day. Honestly, if you’re biggest supporters are young college kids, how the hell can you expect to win? I’ve had numerous heated political discussions with passionate lefty students who berate me for my choice of candidate, only to find out they stayed home on election day. So much for passion. Undecided voters always wait to see who is leading and then they vote for that person. It’s part of that ‘I don’t want to be on the losing team’ syndrome. Take a stand on what you believe, win or lose!
that other JD (ed5675) — 8/6/2008 @ 12:44 amI never thought that Bill Clinton would be labeled a racist by many in his own party.
Perfect Sense (9d1b08) — 8/6/2008 @ 2:21 amClarence Page has a column today telling us that Obama “hasn’t closed the deal yet.” Gee Clarence, ya think? Amazing your powers of prognostication, they are.
Dmac (c859cf) — 8/6/2008 @ 6:29 amMcCain, meanwhile, has closed all manner of deals.
David Ehrenstein (21c975) — 8/6/2008 @ 7:25 amThis story shows how dangerous any mention of race is right now. McCain is showing good judgement in refusing to talk about anything that can be decoded as race but slamming right back at Obama’s people when they brought the subject up. It will be interesting to see if Obama can keep his “bargainer’s” face until November. If he thinks he is losing ground, the temptation to go to the race card may be irresistible. Joking about it is the best defense.
Mike K (2cf494) — 8/6/2008 @ 7:35 am“Some find it racist, some don’t”
Put me down for “Don’t”…
Scott Jacobs (425810) — 8/6/2008 @ 7:53 amScott,
Chris (da1e70) — 8/6/2008 @ 8:09 amHilarious link. Even Stewart (and his sycophants) gets it? Then it was truly a dumb move.
I saw that yesterday as well, Scott – nice to see that Stewart and his lefty writers are finally realizing how badly they’ve been played by the Messiah. Best scene in that vid – where McCain basically tells the CNN reporter that the interview’s over (after he keeps asking him about “the race issue.”). Best FU he’s done in awhile.
Dmac (c859cf) — 8/6/2008 @ 8:10 amI’ve never actually felt that John Stewart was a far-leftie…
He mocks the Left just as much as the Right (Remember the “So you’ve decided to become a republican” book after a clip of Kerry giving a “we’re doomed” speech in 2004?), and frankly is pretty damn fair to guests that don’t share his views…
A while back he had on a Colonel, I believe it was, who had been on the staff that wrote the book on counter-insurgency, and it was a riot…
It ended to the effect of:
Stewart: “So how much of Iraq is Al Qida?”
Army Dude: “I can’t tell you that…”
Stewart: “Oh come on, you can say…”
Army Dude: “13 percent…”
Stewart: [surprised] “Really?”
Army Dude: [completely deadpan] “No.”
Stewart: [nearly falls out of his chair from laughing at his getting played like that]
I enjoy the “pre-show” as I call it a great deal…
Scott Jacobs (425810) — 8/6/2008 @ 8:22 amI don’t know – when Stewart first took over for Kilbourne way back, he was fairly agnostic regarding politics. And I saw that program with the Army General as well – but even Stewart admitted recently that he and his writers were handling Obama with kid gloves for all of this time. I remember his first attempt at trying to make a (very little) joke about Obama about a month ago, and his audience was completely silent after the punchline. Stewart had to quietly remind his minions that “it’s OK to laugh at Obama, you know.” Ridiculous, but better late than never.
Dmac (c859cf) — 8/6/2008 @ 8:31 amThe joke about Obama’s middle name?
Yeah… but I think Stewart was, like many, afraid of getting smeared by accusations of racism for making jokes…
At this point, however, he at least may be fed up with the false accusations, and decided “screw it, go for it”…
Scott Jacobs (425810) — 8/6/2008 @ 8:37 amAny joke about Baracky’s middle name is overtly and demonstrably racist.
JD (75f5c3) — 8/6/2008 @ 8:45 amDRJ
Apologies that this is OT but related to Bill Clinton – Look what one of his federal judges has done.
Darleen (187edc) — 8/6/2008 @ 9:05 amHow many times do I have to tell you. If you disagree with Baracky, you are by definition, a racist. Deal.
JD (5f0e11) — 8/6/2008 @ 9:31 amOn 11/5, how many millions will be declared “racist”?
Another Drew (a8404e) — 8/6/2008 @ 9:36 amOnly those who actually show up and vote for someone other than McCain.
Those who don’t even show up at the polls are “lazy racists”.
Drumwaster (5ccf59) — 8/6/2008 @ 9:40 amSomeone other than “Obama”.
Dammit. PIMF.
Drumwaster (5ccf59) — 8/6/2008 @ 9:40 amAD – Likely around 50,000,000 or so. But, fortunately, we will have been identified as same prior to that.
JD (5f0e11) — 8/6/2008 @ 9:41 am“Any joke about Baracky’s middle name is overtly and demonstrably racist.”
Specially if it stokes anti-redneck fears.
afall (dfd808) — 8/6/2008 @ 9:45 amI get the urge to say something along the lines of “I broke the dam” whenever I see some liberal use that word.
Hell, yeah, I think my race is awesome. With all our faults, the human race is the best this lousy planet has to offer (at least until we start translating whale song, then we will see).
Ethnicity doesn’t enter into it.
Drumwaster (5ccf59) — 8/6/2008 @ 9:49 amAnd who’s not afraid of rednecks, eh? Bastards.
Drumwaster (5ccf59) — 8/6/2008 @ 9:50 amDemocrats eating their own can’t be good for Obama 🙁
However, 4 more years of Bush Love policies has been proven to be bad for our country 🙁
Lose Lose.
Oiram (983921) — 8/6/2008 @ 9:59 amObama is a racist, and a liar. When questioned about Reverend Wright’s racial hatred and religious bigotry, Obama said he didn’t hear any such thing in the 20 years he and his wife sat in the pews at Trinity United.
When that lie didn’t stop the questions, Obama said he could no more abandon Reverend Wright than he could turn his back on Black America. He then preceded to tell an anecdote from his childhood illustrating the racism of his own white Grandmother in order to prove the sincerity of his commitment to Reverend Wright and to the Black Community. And, thereby demonstrated to all the extent of his graditude to the woman who raised him.
Fawning pundits in the MSM and other liberals rushed to praise what they insisted was Obama’s candor and to compete with each other in obsequious adoration of the flim-flam man from Chicago’s political incubator. But, what else would one expect from the current crop of MSM’s professional journalists?
While the man does have charm and talent, and may yet prove to have something of real value to offer, he’s immature and simply not ready for the national spotlight. Let him complete his term in the senate, get some foreign policy experence, and then show leadership in an executive capacity.
Perhaps then he will have learned what it means to be an honorable man. Then he might be qualified to make a run for the Presidency. At least he’ll have a record to run on and voters will have a basis for judging his candidicy.
Ropelight (cb4838) — 8/6/2008 @ 11:11 am