Clinton Disagrees with Obama Race Comment

First off, I think the media played up the racial issue around the SC primary, and Obama did disappoint me a little when he said that Clinton's MLK/LBJ comments were "unfortunate" and "offended some folks". I think Obama should have said that the comments were not racial in any way; however, he did not say that, he wants to win--whatever. I also think Bill Clinton should not have made the Jesse Jackson comments, but the comments had no impact on that election, he made the comments on election day and Hillary had given up on SC days before, so the polls were already showing African Americans were going to vote for Obama in big numbers. Also, Jackson is really the only person that won multiple primaries and SC and did not win the nomination over the last several decades, so Bill Clinton was just trying to minimize his victory.

Now for why Obama is winning, he basically has Howard Dean's base plus African Americans. Also, he has been able to get the Deaniacs to the polls in greater numbers and I think this has to do in part with Facebook and other social networking sites. Howard Dean is generally compared to Bill Bradley, Paul Tsongas, etc. these people are seen as progressive/reform candidates but generally their campaigns go nowhere. So why is Obama's campaign going somewhere? A huge difference between Obama and the other progressive/reform candidates is that he is a great candidate, Dean, Bradley, and Tsongas were pretty bad candidates and Bradley and Tsongas are very difficult to listen to. So generally the progressive/reform candidate generates enthusiasm but fails, so the progressive base is not enough to win.

Obama also staked out the middle ground in 2007 to better position himself for the general, he did this while maintaining his appeal to progressives, this is a pretty good feat, see John Edwards for what happens when you feel the middle ground is taken and you have to run to the left.

Now another big difference between Dean and Obama is that Obama appeals to African Americans--without the large Southern states Obama's campaign would have been over on Super Tuesday. Generally, the establishment candidate, not the progressive/reform candidate, gets the African American support. Now in the past African American candidates ran but did not get African American support, so it is not just that he is African America, see Al Sharpton and Carol Mosley-Braun. Obama won Iowa and came close to winning New Hampshire, that made him a viable candidate. Also, the war is extremely unpopular and the overwhelming majority of the members of the Congressional Black Caucus voted against the war (Obama represented a district with a majority of African Americans and so opposing the war in 2002 was politically expedient for him).

So other factors have to be present for Obama to get African American support, so just being African American would clearly not get a candidate 85% of the African American vote. Obama is African American and he is getting 85% of the African American vote, but clearly not every African American candidate will get 85% of the vote.

Also, this is why demographics and momentum are so important to this race, because other than Wisconsin, demographics have controlled how a state votes. Also, it appears both candidates' bases win them substantial amounts of votes.
 
I am predicting that there will be at least as many, most likely more, incidents where McCain and his supporters get called racist than HRC and supporters. There are many people in a campaign, and they don't all voice their concerns in a perfectly politically-correct manner. It's really all very depressing, the state of racial division in this country.
 
You guys are absolutely in denial over this "monster" issue. NOBODY ever called Bill Clinton a "monster". NOBODY ever called W a "monster".

It is reserved for Hillary because she is a woman.

Your arguments to the contrary are silly (but expected from a bunch of politicos). I hate this board. See ya.
 
WTF? Bill was called a lot worse than a Monster at times...esp after all the scandal **** went down

George Bush has been crucified by many the last several years and called A LOT worse than a monster. How could anyone deny that?

Most people dont bash Hillary because she is a woman...its because she is HILLARY. How is that so hard to understand?
 
It is worth updating:At a little after 9:30pm (CST) on Wednesday night, CNN has this poll:"Should Geraldine Ferraro apologize for her comments about Barack Obama and race?"

So far 207,150 people have voted and the "Yes/No" is looking like:

Yes- 46% (95,611)
No- 54% (111,539)


The Link
 
Well, I'm convinced...


The real question, of course, is whether this works as intended. Dog-whistling to working-class white resentment is as old as the hills, and good-old fashioned hack liberals like Ferraro can recite this playbook in their sleep. As she did with the 60 minutes interview, as she did with Bill's Jackson comparisons, and as she did with her Farrakhan nagging in Austin, Clinton has shown her willingness to prime this pump and leverage it for all its' worth without getting her tit caught fully in the wringer.

Of course this is not to say that Hillary planned all of these 'moments', of course - obviously her campaign is not that strategically clever, or this thing would have been over long ago and Obama would be wiggling his toes in the sand in Key West with the wife and kids. No, she just knows a nice meaty rib bone when she sees one, and Hillary's not the kind of politician to toss something into the trash if the dogs might like to gnaw on it a little while. These are the periodic little treats that keep them inside her fence and out of the neighbors' yard, you know.

So, bottom line, does this work to solidify her advantage in Pennsyltucky? Does it backfire completely? 5 weeks is a long time in this primary season. ..

I think she wins, but not big enough, and it'll be Pyrrhic regardless. As she continues to shove black voters under the bus, supers will start skittering away like rats from a sinking ship. But I'm still left to wonder what she'll do to save face in the end. The popcorn is flying off the Republican concession stands as they hope and pray she leaves lasting scars as she continues flailing about with her switchblade campaign.

**** it. I'm gonna go get some mangoes.
 
This precedent is interesting. I wonder how many more campaign-affiliated people will have to unaffiliate themselves from their respective campaigns in the next couple/few months, over any remotely controversial comment.
 
This is exactly how Karl Rove campaigns work. Look at the Swiftboat fiasco from 2004. Bush always made vague statements about how he was against dirty tactics, but never made any effort at all to actually stop it.
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Well, in fairness, the swift boat veterans for truth have been around for a long time....rove did not create them, there story did not become relevant to the mainstream media until conservative news outlets started reporting their existence and story. rove may have had a hand in exploiting that, but he did not create them....
 
Plus, to the extent that they focused on Kerry's weirdo protests and medal throwing and hyperbole-ridden testimony ("Jhen-jhiss Khan"), they made relevant points. When they focused on whether Kerry actually deserved his medals or whether he fudged reports to get them, they probably went a bit too far.

The Swiftboaters were relevant because Kerry centered the theme of his campaign around his Vietnam service. If you want to know what kind of man John Kerry is, just ask the people who served with him, etc. Turns out, it was a mixed record. He burned bridges in the 70s, and it came back to burn him in 2004.
 
So? Who thinks it works? I mean, between PA, NC, IN, KY, WV, this could cause quite a bit of separation if white voters take this bait.

Anyone?
 
I am not convinced that the statement was necessarily racist. I am convinced that it is complete rubbish and does nothing but hurt the current political climate. I think everybody would be insulted if someone said that the Thomas Jefferson was president because he was white. Everybody would think it completely foolish to think that Tiger Woods is popular because he is of mixed race.
 
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