Two fellow TNR writers denounce Sean Wilentz's "Race Card" smear

[dailykoff]

Now that uber-racist and Clinton partisan Sean Wilentz is being relaunched as a World Famous Historian, it might be instructive to see how his fellow New Republic hacks assess two of his TNR articles, including his infamous "Race Man" article of Feb. 27:

1. Wilentz's first article: "The Delusional Style in American Punditry"
by Sean Wilentz, TNR, Post Date Wednesday, December 19, 2007:

Forget experience: Opinion-slingers are mooning over Barack Obama's instincts. Don't they remember how badly that worked out last time? Every now and then in American politics, normally balanced people get swept up by delusions of greatness about a presidential candidate, based on an emotional attachment to the candidate's oratory or image.

link: http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=1f22d28c-ced2-4761-b350-77f3513928ac


2. Cass Sunstein's denunciation: "A Mere Smear: Sean Wilentz's unfair attack on Barack Obama and his supporters"
by Cass R. Sunstein, TNR, Post Date Thursday, December 27, 2007:

Wilentz does deserve considerable credit--this is one impressive smear. Saying nothing about Obama's career or positions, Wilentz announces that there is a "delusional style" in American political punditry, typified by support for inexperienced, unqualified candidates on the basis of the delusional belief that those candidates have good "instincts." In Wilentz' view, the presidential candidacy of George W. Bush was merely the latest beneficiary of the delusional style.

link: http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=129d0545-4db1-4dfd-988c-2c6e1c807934
................................

3. Wilentz's notorious "Race Man" article: "Race Man: How Barack Obama played the race card and blamed Hillary Clinton"
by Sean Wilentz, TNR, Post Date Wednesday, February 27, 2008:

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.

link: http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=aa0cd21b-0ff2-4329-88a1-69c6c268b304


4. Jason Zengerle's rebuttal: "Did Obama Play the Race Card?"
by Jason Zengerle, TNR, 27.02.2008:

Over on the home page, you can find Sean Wilentz's long brief trying to make the case that Obama has played the race card in his campaign--by accusing the Clintons of playing the race card. Or, as Wilentz puts it, by "deliberately, falsely, and successfully portray Clinton and her campaign as unscrupulous race-baiters." I'm unconvinced. To see why, let's take one of Wilentz's examples:

link: http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_plank/archive/2008/02/27/did-obama-play-the-race-card.aspx
................................

The New Republic is not exactly famous for objectivity, so for two of its writers to accuse Wilentz of manufacturing racist propaganda is pretty damning.

[dailykoff]

1. "a long exercise in intellectual dishonesty"

is how one reader described Wilentz's "Race Man"--the first of 785 reader comments, most of them excoriating--and that sums it up about as well as anything.

http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=aa0cd21b-0ff2-4329-88a1-69c6c268b304

[dailykoff]

2. Sunstein's conclusion:

"Of course reasonable questions have been raised about Obama's candidacy. Many responsible people believe that some other candidate would be a better president. But having failed to show that the pundits who support Obama are deluded, Wilentz offers no reason to reject the arguments that they actually offer. And it is not so reasonable to manufacture, evidently for the occasion, something called a "delusional style" in American political history, and to accuse supporters of Barack Obama of having taken leave of their senses. Wilentz is a distinguished historian. I can't imagine what got into him."

http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=129d0545-4db1-4dfd-988c-2c6e1c807934

[virtualobserver]

6. the charge of "playing the race card" reminds me of the "class warfare" waged.....

against the vulnerable and defenseless wealthy by those who are poverty stricken

[dailykoff]

7. Right, the vicious plot to deprive Exxon-Mobile of its hard-earned profits

by the IRS. :crazy:

[sniffa]

3. But, are either of them respected historians?

:kick:

[dailykoff]

5. Aren't we all?

But I guess it depends on what the meanings of the word 'are' are.

[dailykoff]

4. Here's a typical reader response to "Race Man," signed by AaronRBrown:

I find Sean Wilentz latest propaganda to be one of the most despicable pieces of vicious slander and dishonest rewrites of history that it has ever been my misfortune to read, coming from a man who still fails to reveal in these publications that he is a longtime friend of the Clinton family and an open endorser of the Clinton campaign. This "article" is by far the worst, in what has become a series of the most openly biased anti-Obama screeds to be found anywhere on the net.

I condemn Wilentz, and I condemn Marty Peretz and all the other editors at TNR for allowing this trash to be published.

http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_plank/archive/2008/02/27/did-obama-play-the-race-card.aspx

Ouch.

[anonymous171]

21. ^^ PAY ATTENTION TO THIS POST^^^

:kick:

[dailykoff]

8. Zengerle's conclusions:

But a close reader of internal polls and an astute observer presumably would have noticed that Obama's '08 coalition was different from Jackson's '84 and '88 coalitions in one very important way: in '88, it's estimated that Jackson won 5 to 10 percent of the white vote in South Carolina (which was an improvement on his share of the white vote in '84); in '08, Obama won 24 percent of white South Carolina voters. That's a big difference. And it means that their victories weren't that similar at all.

So you can draw two conclusions: either Clinton isn't as astute as Wilentz thinks he is, or he was being a cagey race-baiter. I think Wilentz is right that Clinton's astute, so that leaves one other option.

http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_plank/archive/2008/02/27/did-obama-play-the-race-card.aspx

And that's putting it politely.

[dailykoff]

9. To make a long story short:

What Sunstein, Zengerle, and a thousand readers are pointing out is that Mr. World Famous is simply making counter-factual assertions and providing no support for them other than his own ridiculously biased opinions dressed up as facts.

In other words, he pulled this whole shameful argument straight out of his butt.

[izzybeans]

11. Exactly, his opinion

nothing else.

This reminds me of how racists use token black conservative academics to argue against anti-racist programs.

[dailykoff]

12. That's a good example.

The only way for the Clintons to deny their openly racist attacks is to make outrageous counterclaims which their partisans accept as gospel.

[izzybeans]

13. I'm not one that believes its openly racist, but innuendo and code are key

for southern strategy targeted voters. "Race baiting" is code for "uppity".

[dailykoff]

14. I think it's pretty open.

Not just the "shuck and jive" and "gangbanger" comments from surrogates, but Hillary's own words in interviews, like her Jan. 13 MTP interview which I heard. The venom was unmistakable and scary.

[izzybeans]

15. I missed that interview, how so?

The shuck and jive shit for sure. The Wright story is another example. You are right there.

[dailykoff]

16. She kept on hitting on "African American."

She must have said it at least twice in every sentence, and not in a nice way.

[McCamy Taylor]

31. No 'race baiting" is code for "race baiting".

That post is one of the funniest I have seen in days. I need to start a thread about it.

:rofl:

[dailykoff]

10. Preemptive kick.

:dem:

[Scurrilous]

17. Kick

:kick:

[LowerManhattanite]

18. Booted!

[anonymous171]

19. kick. Wilentz is a shamless shill.

:kick:

[dailykoff]

20. And he's everywhere it seems.

:kick:

[anonymous171]

22. kick

:kick:

[anonymous171]

23. kick

:kick:

[anonymous171]

24. kick

:kick:

[bhikkhu]

25. Kick. Would be appropriate if someone reposted this for rec's.

Having seen the guy's last article posted here as God's own truth about a dozen times.

[McCamy Taylor]

26. I read both Wilnetz articles. The first one underplays the role of the press

but otherwise well written. The second is about the press and is well written. Not everything that criticizes Obama is "uber-racist" and calling the author that is pretty---I hate to say it---Joe McCarthy like.

[anonymous171]

27. That problem with Wilentz "criticism" is his neutrality and his definition of playing the race card

Wilentz neutrality is the first problem. His connections with the Clinton campaign are vast and far reaching and should have been noted before/after/in the article.

Now, second, Wilentz definition of the "race card" is cloudy. He seems to think that the "race card card" (identifying racist remarks) and the actual "race card"(using racial prejudice to your advantage) are identical. They are not.

[dailykoff]

28. Mein Kampf was also well written.

:eyes:

[DerekJ]

29. Thanks, Great post , K & R, please repost in the morning.

:kick:

[dailykoff]

30. Thanks, good idea!

:kick:

[DerekJ]

37. kick

[anonymous171]

32. kick

:kick:

[anonymous171]

33. kickity kick kick

:kick:

[anonymous171]

34. kick

:kick:

[anonymous171]

35. kick

:kick:

[DerekJ]

36. kick

[DerekJ]

38. kick

[DerekJ]

39. kick

[DerekJ]

40. kick

[DerekJ]

41. kick