How lovely. Blacks who support Hillary Clinton are now called "Uncle Toms"

[Tarc]

Cleaver, who is African-American and a superdelegate, has backed Clinton since last summer and this week re-emphasized that support. He said that he himself has not been pressured, but that black superdelegates from all over the country have been subjected to harassment, threatened with primary opponents and called “Uncle Tom.”

He said they have been told, “You’re not black if you’re not supporting Barack Obama. … It is ugly.”

The ugliness of some of Obama's DU supports has always been excused away as "oh, its just a forum, the real-world supporters aren't like that at all". Apparently Cleaver believes that it isn't initiated from the top;

Cleaver said he did not believe that Obama himself was behind the effort against the Clinton superdelegates. “But I think he’s probably aware of it by now.” And he said Obama should address the issue.

but between this and the Jesse Jackson Jr. strong-arming story from a week or so ago, that is getting harder and harder to believe.

[Skittles]

1. OK that is very bad

very bad indeed :thumbsdown:

[FrenchieCat]

29. Ok...that's a bunch of bullshit.

It's ok to call Obama not Black enough, or the Black candidate, but it is not Ok for constituents to speak their mind to their representative.

This bullshit is simply being overblown by Hillary Black supporters to attempt to make them look like victims, thereby invoking the sympathy card. It ain't gonna work, and they should give it up.

They talk about threats, while death threats are received by the Obama campaign daily.....and I don't hear them whining.

Attempting to split the Black vote up to provide Hillary more votes, and win these Individuals cover ain't gonna cut it. One thing about Black folks is that they weren't born yesterday. They are hip to the Okey Doke. :eyes:

[Skittles]

32. OMG

please, just shut up - a black coworker of mine was called an Uncle Tom for supporting KUCINICH - there, feel better???

[FrenchieCat]

38. I don't have to shut up!

That's part of the problem right here. Black folks can't speak unless they are spoken to? Black folks are allowed to contact their representatives and tell them..."hey, man, why are you supporting Hillary Clinton when We, who you are supposed to represent, have voted like 89% to 11% for Barack?"

Maybe some folks are out of line in how they communicate with these folks, but I'm pretty certain that it is in the minority.

Like I said, this whining is for cover.

If they really feel strongly about their decision, don't care about their Constituents and what they have to say, then they should just bite their lip and deal with it instead of whining to the media.

This is so transparent, till it ain't even funny. :eyes:

[Skittles]

43. I am speaking to OBAMA SUPPORTERS

NOT BLACK FOLK - PLEASE STOP ASSUMING

[FrenchieCat]

49. Well, I was talking to you.

Hillary Campaign has once again moved from the kitchen to the toilet. That's what I'm talking about.

[Skittles]

58. it's called POLITICS

and if you can't deal with THIS I hate to think of how you will deal with what the REPUKES will do.....and I AM NOT A HILLARY SUPPORTER

[Enrique]

55. it's bad

Hillary supporters and honest Obama supporters will admit that it's bad to do this.

[salbi]

61. I'm an Obama supporter, but I hate to see those tactics....

[leftofcool]

2. There have been veiled threats made on National TV

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

76. I support Obama, but find that behavior reprehensible and no doubt Obama would too. n/t

[jgraz]

3. Nicely played, sir.

This entire story smacks of another race-based fabrication by the Clinton campaign. I suspect every one of these allegations will evaporate once Hillary drops out.

[Tarc]

10. Ahh, of course. Emanuel Cleaver just made it all up

Methodist minister, two terms as KC mayor, currently a member of the House of Representatives. Yep, that just smacks of inherent shadiness and dishonesty.

:eyes:

[jgraz]

26. Oh, he's a MINISTER! Well, that changes everything.

They never lie, do they?

[Tarc]

41. Did you daddy build that strawman for you?

[jgraz]

60. Do you even know what a straw man is?

You might want to bone up on your logic, champ. You came out with a classic "appeal to authority" fallacy and I called you on it. No straw man whatsoever.

[RaleighNCDUer]

31. Who says that he, himself, has NOT been pressured

but relates 2nd hand stories of pressure.

Ever play 'telephone'? You know what 2nd hand stories are worth.

[Tarc]

40. The words of Re. Cleaver are worth for more than someone like you

who covers their ears and shouts NYAA NYAA whenever they hear something they do not like.

[NashVegas]

65. People Aren't Buying It Quite So Easily Anymore

The Obama campaign pulls out the race card when it wants to, and his campaign pulled it out first. You don't own it.

[tabatha]

4. Very bad. Jesse Jackson Jr you should not behave like that.

[SoFlaJet]

5. yea and all the names that we, the people who DON'T support

Clinton have been called much worse every day here for the past 3 months-I am so sick of the divisiveness of the Clinton people here and on TV that I will laugh with joy when she has to suspend her campaign on Wednesday

[MonkeyFunk]

56. It's amazing isn't it?

There must be like 90 - 95% Clinton supporters here. And not a bad word is ever said about her. So unfair. :eyes:

[ronnykmarshall]

77. and of course we're all paid ya know!

[DemBones DemBones]

6. Rep. John Lews (D-GA) got robo-calls and live callers who

said very denigrating things to him until he switched to Obama last week. He is a superdelegate, and in case you don;t know, he marched with MLK, worked with the Freedom Riders and SNCC, but supporting HC meant he wasn't "black enough."

Tavis Smiley has gotten death threats for supporting Clinton and he has used his money to help other blacks.

It's very bad that race is being used this way, and also very bad that women who support Clinton are accused of only supporting her because she's a woman.

[Tarheel_Dem]

52. any links?

I would certainly like to see some examples of "denigrating" calls to John Lewis. I am so sick of Clintonites whining about "race". And I'd also like to see backup for your claim that Tavis Smiley supports Clinton. I have never heard Tavis say that.

I hope you were as outraged when Ed Rendell said that there were white folks in PA who won't vote for a black man. And the Latino HRC supporter who said that "Obama's problem is that he's black". The Clinton camp hasn't missed a trick trying to divide us along racial/ethnic lines. But I fear your disgust for the issue is pretty one-sided.

[Honeycombe8]

7. Another story from the Clinton people citing vague anonymous sources?

Yeah, right.

[DemBones DemBones]

13. No, it's not "a vague, anonymous source"

although the OP forgot to provide a link. I read it, too, and see my post above for more.

[jeff30997]

8. Hey!

I have an uncle and his name is Tom!!! :P

[polticalpout]

9. That's unacceptable. /nm

nm

[anonymous171]

11. Three more days...

[jgraz]

28. Counting the fucking seconds.

[napi21]

12. I don't know about you, but I HATE IT that this damn election is becoming a

racial thing. Damn it! I'm an old white woman, and I voted for Obama because I am hoping the media & the Pub Clinton hatred will go away. I couldn't stand another 4 years of Clinton criticism and slams! That has NOTHING to do with male/femal or black/white!

What the hell is wrong with you people that so many of you have to make it racial???????

YES I'M PI**ED OFF about it!

[anamandujano]

16. Obama's campaign made it racial. It will backfire on them eventually.

[anonymous171]

17. Same with Clinton and sex

13% and 52%

[rodeodance]

20. yes, he did and did it at the expence of Bill. C. !! BO will do anything to win!

[jgraz]

30. He totally did! That whole being born black thing was SUCH an obvious ploy

We're just lucky we have Bill and Hillary to point it out. Again and again and again.

[napi21]

34. Personally I don't care WHO it backfires on as long as it doesn't cost us a Dem in the WH!

To any of you who wants to paly race or gendr games, knock yourself out! Fight amoung yourselves, and do what ever you want. Just don't be AH's so much that we end up with Prez. McCain!

[Ravy]

50. I'm with you.

I got to vote for Edwards though, before he dropped out.

[high density]

14. Cleaver?

Didn't this shit linger over DU a few days ago? Why must you puke up this garbage again?

You guys aren't very transparent at all.

[madrchsod]

18. yes it did

the problem is that several black districts where barack received more votes than hillary the delegate is pledged to clinton instead of obama

[rodeodance]

19. Because what is happening is horrible--it needs to linger so that people are aware of the

hell is happening.


You need a pillow to cry on?

[Tarc]

22. Unlike you, apparently, I have a life

and do not read internet forums every hour of every day.

[AZBlue]

15. Who has said that to them?

I need more information!

If this is indeed true, it's disgusting and needs to be addressed immediately. But, without any facts, this is just another lame attempt at a smear.

[Steely_Dan]

39. Just to let you know...

I heard this almost a week ago concerning members of the Black Caucus. It was on a progressive radio station in Phoenix and in Seattle.

I know that it sounds impossible. But I must be honest. The race issue has been just under the table and has been waiting to come out. I must say that while I am disgusted, I am also not surprised.

-P

[AZBlue]

74. But that's still unsubstantiated rumors.

Either way, there needs to be proof. Just because it's said on the radio, progressive or not, doesn't make it true.

If it's true, people need to come forth and prove it so it can be stopped immediately. If it's not true, this smear must end immediately.

[rodeodance]

21. Thanks

[BenDavid]

23. The truth is finally getting out about obama, and staff and jesse jr

playing the race card.....NOT BILL AND HILLARY CLINTON

After several weeks of swooning, news reports are finally being filed about the gap between Senator Barack Obama's promises of a pure, soul-cleansing "new" politics and the calculated, deeply dishonest conduct of his actually-existing campaign. But it remains to be seen whether the latest ploy by the Obama camp--over allegations about the circulation of a photograph of Obama in ceremonial Somali dress--will be exposed by the press as the manipulative illusion that it is.

Most of the recent correctives have concerned outrageously deceptive advertisements approved and released by Obama's campaign. First, in Iowa, the Obama camp aired radio ads patterned on the notorious "Harry and Louise" Republican propaganda from 1993, charging falsely that Senator Hillary Clinton's health care proposal would "force those who cannot afford health insurance to buy it, punishing those who won't fall in line." In subsequent primary and caucus campaigns, the Obama campaign sent out millions of mailers, also featuring the "Harry and Louise" motif, falsely claiming that Clinton favored "punishing families who can't afford health care in the first place." A few bloggers and columnists, notably Paul Krugman in The New York Times, described the ads as distorting, but the national press corps mainly ignored them--until Clinton herself, seeing the fraudulent mailers reappear in Ohio over the past weekend, publicly denounced them.

The Obama mass mailings also attempt to appeal to Ohio's labor vote by claiming that Clinton believed that the North American Free Trade Agreement, signed in 1993 by President Bill Clinton, was a "'boon' to our economy." More falsehood: In fact, Clinton had not said that; Newsday originally applied the word "boon" and has now noted the Obama campaign's distortion. In this campaign, Clinton has called for a moratorium on all trade agreements until they are made consistent with labor and environmental standards--and account for the effect on jobs in the United States. Obama makes a big deal about how Bill Clinton signed NAFTA. But he fails to mention that, within the councils of her husband's administration, Hillary Clinton was a skeptic of free trade agreements, and as a senator and candidate she has said that NAFTA contained flaws that need to be rectified. Ignoring all that, the Obama flyer features an alarming photograph of closed plant gates, having no connection to any action of Senator Clinton's, as well as the dubious quotation about her from Newsday in 2006. Newsday has criticized "Obama's use of the quotation" as "misleading ... an example of the kind of slim reeds campaigns use to try and win an office." Obama, without retracting the mailing (and while playing to protectionist sentiment in the party) said only that he would have his staff look into the matter--long after the ad has done its dirty work.

Misleading propaganda is hardly new in American politics --although the adoption of techniques reminiscent of past Republican and special-interest hit jobs, right down to a retread of the fictional couple, seems strangely at odds with a campaign that proclaims it will redeem the country from precisely these sorts of divisive and manipulative tactics. As insidious as these tactics are, though, the Obama campaign's most effective gambits have been far more egregious and dangerous than the hypocritical deployment of deceptive and disingenuous attack ads. To a large degree, the campaign's strategists turned the primary and caucus race to their advantage when they deliberately, falsely, and successfully portrayed Clinton and her campaign as unscrupulous race-baiters--a campaign-within-the-campaign in which the worked-up flap over the Somali costume photograph is but the latest episode. While promoting Obama as a "post-racial" figure, his campaign has purposefully polluted the contest with a new strain of what historically has been the most toxic poison in American politics.

More than any other maneuver, this one has brought Clinton into disrepute with important portions of the Democratic Party. A review of what actually happened shows that the charges that the Clintons played the "race card" were not simply false; they were deliberately manufactured by the Obama camp and trumpeted by a credulous and/or compliant press corps in order to strip away her once formidable majority among black voters and to outrage affluent, college-educated white liberals as well as college students. The Clinton campaign, in fact, has not racialized the campaign, and never had any reason to do so. Rather the Obama campaign and its supporters, well-prepared to play the "race-baiter card" before the primaries began, launched it with a vengeance when Obama ran into dire straits after his losses in New Hampshire and Nevada--and thereby created a campaign myth that has turned into an incontrovertible truth among political pundits, reporters, and various Obama supporters. This development is the latest sad commentary on the malign power of the press, hyping its own favorites and tearing down those it dislikes, to create pseudo-scandals of the sort that hounded Al Gore during the 2000 campaign. It is also a commentary on how race can make American politics go haywire. Above all, it is a commentary on the cutthroat, fraudulent politics that lie at the foundation of Obama's supposedly uplifting campaign.

[ExtraGriz]

24. i read a similar article

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0208/8762.html

but there was a more thorough article i read somewhere else, didnt bookmark it.

[eridani]

25. The campaign should cut this strong-arming shit out, ASAP

Clinton's state campaign manager did it in WA, and it backfired. Same for this situation in reverse.

[candice]

27. A name appropriate for American Blacks who descended from slaves is not appropriate...

...for Obama whose father was a Kenyan college exchange student at the University of Hawaii. When Mr. Obama left his American family, to study at Harvard, Barry was two and was raised by his white mother and grandparents (formerly of Kansas) in multi-cultural (mostly Asian) Hawaii. He spent four years in Indonesia with his mother's second husband, an Indonesian oil executive. Barry attended a posh prep school in Honolulu. He does bridge multiple cultures, and his background is quite different from a Condi Rice whose early years were spent in the segregated South.

Mr. Obama already had a wife and children back in Kenya before going to Hawaii to study. Multi-marriages are permissible in Muslim communities in Kenya.

[TacticalPeek]

33. A link?

For those quotes, please? Thanks.

:kick:

[Umbram]

35. Reminds me of what DUers are doing to GLBT folk who support Obama. nt.

[LadyVT]

36. Yes, I'm so sorry to see that. It's disgusting. It diminishes the human race.

[barack the house]

37. The info left out that this is most likely Black voters making these attacks the SC thing even

though I don't beleive Clintons to be racist has left a mark with those voters.

[Beacool]

42. Various people have been saying this for a while now,

but it hasn't been addressed because it doesn't fit the narrative of unity that they falsely portray. Tavis Smiley mentioned receiving death threats, Stephanie Tubbs-Jones remarked that black elected officials were being pressured to support Obama. John Lewis was also pressured and it was mentioned that he was told that they would run against him when he's up for reelection if he didn't switch his endorsement to Obama. A man who had not been afraid to stand up against racism and inequality caved in and backstabbed his friend of decades, a friend to whom he had committed his support. Pathetic............

The race card was played, but it was played against the Clintons. Two people who were fighting for civil rights when Obama was still in grade school were vilified and don't think that some whites didn't take notice. This HAS become a race issue.

I can just imagine the uproar if Hillary's surrogates were threatening women elected officials to vote for her. Same thing if McCain's surrogates pulled the same stunt in the GE but with white officials.

[CatnHat]

44. Obama's

whole campaign is based on lies. Obama and his supporters are strong-arming, no doubt about it, the DU has it's share of these kind of supporters. But it's not only on this forum; every forum I go too, it's the same tripe from Obama supporters. It's disgusting, and while posting garbage against Hillary Clinton, they are chanting hope and change. Pathetic.

[HooptieWagon]

45. Uh, folks - this is hearsay, and there's no link.

Let's wait until we hear a first hand account, and a link is provided before rushing off half-cocked.

[Beacool]

46. What hearsay????

Tavis Smiley mentioned receiving death threats and Stephanie Tubbs-Jones talked about about black elected officials being threated if they didn't endorse Obama. They talked about it at the State of the Black Union.

Besides, here's a link of what other black officials are saying:

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0208/8762.html

[Ravy]

51. Cleaver did an interview on MSNBC about it yesterday.

The OP is accurate as to what he said.

[Tarheel_Dem]

54. doesn't matter, if Obama's campaign is responsible, they should

cut it out. But, if the CBC is getting pressure from its constituents...they have every right to expect the their Reps will represent their wishes. Mel Watt is my Rep, and I would be placing the same phone call to him, if I felt it necessary. Clinton supporters have the right to do the same.

[HooptieWagon]

63. Hearsay evidence

Main Entry: hearsay evidence
Function: noun
: evidence based not on a witness's personal knowledge but on another's statement not made under oath

Cleaver admits he hasn't been pressured or threatened, but others have. OK, who are the others? Has he named them? Have the others stepped forward? Are there any first hand witnesses (those who were present at the times pressure/threats were made)? Is this the Obama campaign making the threats, or constituants acting on their own? No to all of the above, and there's no link. It's like the friggin internet - anybody can make some claim, but unless credibly established it's nothing but an unsubstantiated rumor. I know the Hillbots want to believe it, much like they wanted to believe her double digit friday "surge", but wishful thinking does not make it fact. Until there is substantiated evidence, I'll count this in the column of unsubstantiated smear.

[Riktor]

47. The sooner this bullshit primary is over, the better...

... so that we detached and objective observers can get on with our lives without having to come here and see a childish pissing match between the "sexists" and the "racists".

This idolization of the candidates drives me fucking nuts.

They are both career politicians. We should be questioning every word that comes out of their mouths (even more so that they are representing our side of the aisle), not singing their praises from dawn to dusk. Christ, if these people want something worship, there's always room at a fucking church!

[CyberPieHole]

48. Obama surrounds himself with disgusting thugs...he's not a democrat...he's a charlatan...

:kick: and rec

[KLee]

53. HERESAY AND INNUENDO

[HooptieWagon]

64. True

Main Entry: hearsay evidence
Function: noun
: evidence based not on a witness's personal knowledge but on another's statement not made under oath

No first hand accounts - merely the spraeding of unsubstantiated rumor. Where are the SDs being threatened? Why haven't they stepped forward? Where are the first hand witnesses? This story smells of more Clinton bullshit.

[Tarc]

72. The only bullshit here is your pathetic song and dance and evasions

This is a Democratic Party House member we're talking about here. Y'know, the ones on our side? Not dirtbag Republicans, not a faux-independent traitor like Lieberman.

Your ignorant smears of news you don't want to hear don't work here, unfortunately for you.

[HooptieWagon]

73. Cleaver is quoted as saying he's received no threats

"but others have". OK, please give evidence of who the "others" are. C'mon, name names. Who's received threats? Who's been called an "Uncle Tom"? Who has made the threats? Unless you provide evidence, you are full of shit.

[GeorgeGist]

57. upping the ante ...

isn't the way to trump the race card.Just call it what it is:

a joker's way to 'win' votes.

[Alamom]

59. k&r

[Bluerthanblue]

62. this is rude and wrong- just as being a woman not voting for Hillary

does NOT mean we are 'sexist' or self-hating.

These kind of slurs speak poorly of all of us.


peace~

[Evergreen Emerald]

66. Black political leaders are getting great pressure to support Obama

And of course if Clinton called women and told them to support her because of her sex--why that would be wrong.

[Avalux]

67. This is a he-said she-said report. I want proof of the Uncle Tom comment.

It sure is easy for a Hillary supporter to come and make this statement to sway votes towards her. The Clinton campaign is using the Kitchen Sink strategy and this is any ugly part of that.

[HooptieWagon]

68. 66 and 67

It wouldn't surprise me the least that black constituants are pressuring SDs supporting Hillary, just as all of us might pressure our Reps and Sens to change a position we don't like. That is what a Representative Democracy is about.
However, the stories of death threats and "Uncle Tom" name-calling being thrown about are unsubstantiated rumors. Has a SD stepped forward and said "I recieved a death threat from_______? No. Have there been any witnesses? No. Has there been any evidence other than unsubstantiated rumors? No. This story is very likely total BS.

[Tveil]

69. They are just like Condi and Powell

Uncle Tom's that is.

[ecstatic]

70. I haven't seen that anywhere. nt

[HeraldSquare212]

71. He says he hasn't been pressured, but others have?

it seems like the stories alleging things like this are never first-person but simply statements that other people have been attacked. I guess Tavis Smiley is the only one who has actually said has targeted with some pretty nasty stuff. And mixing Jess Jackson Jr.'s threat on primary challenges up in all this is just trying to make a valid electoral threat into a vicious attack, which it is not.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

75. Obama should come out and denounce (and reject) those tactics if, in fact, true

[zulchzulu]

78. I've seen commentary where blacks who support Obama are spellbound reefer freaks

Articles about how they are gravitating to "The Anointed One" and even Hillary's bitchy chastisement of Obama and his supporters are the very essence of insulting people who support a candidate and attempts to demonize them.

The Clinton campaign is in flames and is tumbling down. This is their final week.