WaPo's Eugene Robinson: A Hand the Clintons Aren't Showing

[flpoljunkie]

A Hand the Clintons Aren't Showing



By Eugene Robinson
Tuesday, January 15, 2008; A13

It turns out that Toni Morrison's famous line about Bill Clinton as "our first black president" was just a bon mot. If the Clintons took it as a sign of African Americans' unconditional fealty, they were mistaken.

A new Post-ABC News poll shows that black Democrats nationwide support Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton for the presidential nomination by nearly 2 to 1. This striking reversal -- a month ago, Clinton held a big lead among African Americans -- is perhaps why race has suddenly become such a hot issue in a campaign that previously had dodged the subject.

It was never realistic to think that race -- or gender, for that matter -- would stay out of a contest starring the first woman and the first African American with realistic hopes of becoming president. From the Democrats' perspective, it's probably better to hash all this out now rather than wait until the general election campaign, when the Republican Swift-boat machine would set the parameters and tone for the discussion.

Still, it's surprising that the Clinton campaign has been so aggressive in keeping the race issue alive. On "Meet the Press," Clinton didn't just seek to explain her remarks about the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s role in landmark civil rights legislation (she said it took a president to bring about real action) or Bill's "fairy tale" crack about Obama's record on the Iraq war (which some African Americans took as a dismissal of Obama's candidacy as mere fantasy). Instead, she went on the attack, accusing the Obama campaign of "deliberately distorting" her words in a way that was "unfair and unwarranted."

<>The Clintons are reading the polls, too; they might well be resigned to the possibility that most black Democrats will vote for Obama. This would mean that South Carolina is probably already lost and that the campaign's focus now has to be on Florida and the many states whose delegates are up for grabs on "Tsunami Tuesday."

Is it possible that accusing Obama and his campaign of playing the race card might create doubt in the minds of the moderate, independent white voters who now seem so enamored of the young, black senator? Might that be the idea?

Yes, that's a cynical view. But history is history.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/14/AR2008011402082.html

[Fredda Weinberg]

1. And Congressman Charlie Rangel called Obama stupid ... get over it

This is what you get for putting up a lightweight.

[BeyondGeography]

2. Hillary Clinton's base speaks again

:thumbsup:

[gaiilonfong]

3. Taylor Marsh and eriposte will be sending out

all those 4000 paid commenters financed by the Clinton campaign to muck up the blogs. Thety already have been over to HuffPost to denegrade Kerry

[Adelante]

6. Do you have a link to back that up?

"4000 paid commenters financed by the Clinton campaign"

[babylonsister]

7. Don't you mean basest of the base?

:shrug:

[Fredda Weinberg]

9. You remind me of the playground ... nah, nah, nah

Well, Charles Rangel is no one's fool, so if he thinks this little of your candidate, perhaps you should reconsider. After all, we recruited HRC to our state ... see any such forward thinking on your side?

[cali]

10. He's a partisan's partisan in this mess.

He's speaking to boost his candidate with NYC African Americans and try to dampen their enthusiasm for her opponenet. She's in a world of trouble with that constituency in her own state. And Jim Clyburn, who is not supporting either had a very different take, in case you're ignorant of that fact. And he's the highest ranking black rep in the House and no one's fool....

[BeyondGeography]

11. Recruited? It was an easy and attractive mark for the calculators

Now go back to watching your imagination-free candidate copy everything the lightweight does.

[flpoljunkie]

12. Charlie Rangel is part of the insider Dem establishment, who are supporting establishment candidate

[gaiilonfong]

15. Charlie Rangel is also an IDIOT

They aren't happy because Obama is by-passing them, and bucking the establishment...Remember Sheila jackson Lee Kissing Chimpy before the state of the union, these so called leaders think it is all about polotics...YEAH RIGHT

[OHdem10]

4. The records will show that the first salvo was thrown out

by Obama Supporter on CNN. MEric Dyson

Get real. The only way Barak Obama can win is to have all the
more educated voters, All African American Vote and this movement
of young people he is working on. To win he has to have every
African American Vote. In whose interest is--that conflict
be caused in African American Community??? Not the Clint

This has been reported several times on MSNBC and CNN

[Adelante]

8. When was that "first salvo" the records will show? Link please nt

[rodeodance]

14. That said, I do think his Blackness will be a major factor for many--one way

or another. This is true for Sen. Clinton's femaleness also---one way or another.

[Adelante]

5. Duh

Is it possible that accusing Obama and his campaign of playing the race card might create doubt in the minds of the moderate, independent white voters who now seem so enamored of the young, black senator?

[Sulawesi]

13. Obama has nothing to gain by playing the race card...it only hurts him.

I think he wants to talk about other things...

[Bullet1987]

16. The article is about the Clinton's campaigns shenanigans...

not Barack Obama.

[Evergreen Emerald]

17. Obama's campaign is about race "Our time is now" is no accident

Michelle telling the black voters not to be afraid to vote for Obama.
Evoking MLK and falling into the "black speech patterns" that everyone here has been discussing.

And the minute there is any question about his qualifiactions or on his story-line suddenly the Clinton's are racist.

Conversly: the double standard. When Clinton says "the boys are piling on" in a debate when the boys were piling on--she is vilified for using the gender card. Not allowed to suggest that she is female. And, if someone mentions that Obama is using race--THEY are the racist for suggesting that he is using the race card.

Double standards