There he goes again - Obama playing the race card just by being black

[EffieBlack]

Frankly, I am sick and tired of being sick and tired of hearing people accuse Barack Obama of "playing the race card." He has gone out of his way to focus this campaign on issues unrelated to race, yet, from the minute Obama stuck his big toe into the presidential ring, others have consistently dragged race into the campaign, sometimes in the most blatant and insulting ways.

Most guilty of this are the media, who think nothing of discussing Obama's race, polling on Obama's race, analyzing whether white voters will vote for Obama, analyzing whether black voters will vote for Obama, analyzine whether Hispanic voters will vote for Obama, and scrutinizing everything Obama says and does for any indication that he actually knows that he is black. Yet, whenever Obama says, "Ok, you guys keep asking me about my race, so let me talk about it for a minute," they jump up and down screaming, "THERE HE GOES AGAIN, PLAYING THE RACE CARD!!!!"

Case in point - from an interview and discussion on "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" on May 13, 2007:

George Stephanopoulos: The 45-year-old who would be America's first African American president addressed the key question of his campaign, is he ready for the job?

{Video Clip:} Obama: I'm confident about my ability to lead this country.
. . .
Stephanopoulos: You have a very cool style when you're doing those town meetings where you're out on the campaign trail, and I wonder, how much of that is tied to your race?

Obama: That's interesting.

Stephanaopoulos: One of your friends told "The New Yorker" magazine that the mainstream is just not ready for a fire-breathing black man so do you turn down the temperature on purpose?

Obama: You know, I don't think it has to do with race. I think it has to do with when I'm campaigning I'm in a conversation, and what I don't do when I'm campaigning is to try to press a lot of hot buttons and use a lot of cheap applause lines because I want people to get a sense of how I think about this process, I want them to have some ability to walk through with me the difficult choices that we face.

From the roundtable discussion on the same show:

Sam Donaldson: In your first question to me and in your interview with him, you raise something let's just put it on the table. He is an African American. Is the country ready?
. . .
Stephanopoulos: I guess I think that anyone who is not going to vote for Barack Obama because he is black isn't going to vote for a Democrat anyway. And I wonder if there are as many people who will vote for him because -

Donaldson: I mean the place where Barack Obama really helps is in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Right outside Philadelphia.
. . .

George Will: And those who are going to oppose him, have to do it subtly and maybe they won't be able to actually say it, the people who really have to fear in the Democratic coalition, Barack Obama as the nominee, is Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, a whole superannuated collection of so-called civil rights leaders. They see this man who really knows that the principle problem of African Americans in this country is not racism. It's cultural.

All of this "Obama's playing the race card" is pure bullshit. Obama being black is NOT playing the race card, although some people apparently cannot see past his race and insist on projecting their own biases back onto him.

[MethuenProgressive]

1. Historian Sean Wilentz: "Obama was the first to play the race card."

Obama was the first to play the race card

By Sean Wilentz

(Wilenz is the Sidney and Ruth Lapidus professor of history at Princeton University, and the author of the article "Worst President in History?" which appeared in Rolling Stone magazine in 2006.)

Quietly, the storm over the hateful views expressed by Sen. Barack Obama's pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, has blown away the most insidious myth of the Democratic primary campaign. Obama and his surrogates have charged that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has deliberately and cleverly played the race card in order to label Obama the "black" candidate.

Having injected racial posturing into the contest, Obama's "post-racial" campaign finally seems to be all about race and sensational charges about white racism. But the mean-spirited strategy started even before the primaries began, when Obama's operatives began playing the race card - and blamed Hillary Clinton.

Had she truly conspired to inflame racial animosities in January and February, her campaign would have brought up the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and his incendiary sermons. But the Clinton campaign did not. And when the Wright stories and videos finally did break through in the mass media, they came not from Clinton's supporters but from Fox News Network.

Although Wright had until recently been obscure to the American public, political insiders and reporters have long known about him. On March 6, 2007, the New York Times reported that Obama had disinvited Wright from speaking at his announcement because, as Wright said Obama told him, "You can get kind of rough in the sermons." By then, conservative commentators had widely denounced Wright. His performances in the pulpit were easily accessible on DVD, direct from his church. But Clinton, despite her travails, elected to remain silent.

Instead, she had to fight back against a deliberately contrived strategy to make her and her husband look like race-baiters. Obama's supporters and operatives, including his chief campaign strategist David Axelrod, seized on accurate and historically noncontroversial statements and supplied a supposedly covert racist subtext that they then claimed the calculating Clinton campaign had inserted.

snip/

One pro-Obama television pundit, Keith Olbermann of MSNBC, fulminated that the Clinton campaign had descended into the vocabulary of David Duke, former grand dragon of the Ku Klux Klan.

(In his Philadelphia speech on race, Obama pressed the attack by three times likening Ferraro to Rev. Wright.)

Since the Philadelphia speech, the candidate and his surrogates have sounded tone-deaf on the subject of race. On March 20, Obama described his Kansas grandmother to a Philadelphia radio interviewer as "a typical white person." The same day, Sen. John Kerry said that Obama would help U.S. relations with Muslim nations "because he's a black man." Another Obama supporter, Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, called him the first black leader "to come to the American people not as a victim but as a leader." Her history excluded and conceivably denigrated countless black leaders, from Frederick Douglass to Rep. John Lewis. Obama remained silent, refusing to take Kerry and McCaskill to task for their racially charged remarks.

Neither candidate can win sufficient elected delegates in the remaining primaries to secure the nomination, and so the battle has moved to winning over the superdelegates. Obama's bogus "race-baiter" strategy is one of the main reasons he has come this far, and it is affecting the process now. But by deliberately inflaming the most destructive passions in American politics, the strategy has badly divided and confused Democrats, at least for the moment. And having done so, it may well doom the Democrats in the general election.
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/currents/20080330_Obama_was_the_first_to_play_the_race_card.html

[mrreowwr_kittty]

5. Wilentz is a longtime bud of the Clintons.

He, like Krugman, has a bias. Nothing wrong with that, per se, but I wish people would take that into account when reading their criticisms of Obama.

[chascarrillo]

6. New Republic Contributing Editor Sean Wilentz

[RC]

7. I supposed it is a disadvantage when

mentioning your family when one parent is White and the other is Black. How can one avoid the race card in this situation?
A question: How can Obama be Black when he is half White and Irish to boot!

[Diana Prince]

62. Easy..

My children who have a black father and white mother are considered black. The school has no choice for biracial or even other. I told them I would not list their race and they informed me that they would then decide what they would be listed as. I told them to leave it blank.

[RC]

63. It seem to me that if they are interested in race, they should

at least have a 'mongrel' check box. More and more of us would qualify to check that box. I know I would and I am mostly white.

[EffieBlack]

81. That makes me smile

My aunt, who wass white, used to call her mixed children "the mongrels." Some people are horrified when I tell them that, but she said it with such love, good humor and irony that we all (including her kids) thought it was so hilarious.

You made me think about that wonderful woman just now and I'm smiling. Thanks.

[RC]

86. You're Welcome.

:thumbsup: I do what I can. We are all people after all.

[ecdab]

20. Wilentz got sliced and diced by his fellow columnists at the new Republic

for this piece - and rightfully so.

Here's a link to an active DU conversation on the topic.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x5314720

[LiberalAndProud]

21. --- delete

Reply to wrong post.

[geek tragedy]

22. Wilentz is a Hillary worshipper and incapable of being

fair and reasonable on this subject.

He's also an out of touch rich white elite who has no clue how black folks think and react to stuff like this.

[MethuenProgressive]

34. You play the race card poorly:

Your sneer:

"He's also an out of touch rich white elite"

is an inelegant play of the Race Card.

[geek tragedy]

46. No, blaming black people for white racism

is an inelegant playing of the race card.

[MethuenProgressive]

49. So you give BO a pass for Swiftboating the Clintons on Race - because he's black?

Pastor Wright has a pew waiting for you.
You need to watch this video to see how you've been bamboozled by Obama:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuB_W8o_UsU&feature=RecentlyWatched&page=1&t=t&f=b

[izzybeans]

67. You are too funny.

God is an inclusive God. Remember that. k?

[NDambi]

42. It's you again!

[Fredda Weinberg]

2. There you go again, trying to make everyone a bigot. Who said the

questions were biased? The first anything will get the same questions ... you just happen to back a lightweight and doubts are appropriate.

[EffieBlack]

4. There YOU go again accusing people of calling other people bigots, when they did no such thing

You're really rather predictable, but your pathetic attempts to throw out red herrings - and you managed to get at least 5 into 2 sentences, pretty good even for you - do nothing to advance your cause or to obviate my point.

Nice try, though.

[VolcanoJen]

38. Right on, Effie.

Excellent OP, as we've come to expect from you, by the way.

[burythehatchet]

56. I can't stomach reading that one's vile BS

[Name removed]

64. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[cali]

14. If the shoe fits, Cindrella, wear it.

[Fredda Weinberg]

74. You *are* green w/envy aren't you? Well, accusing others of bringing

their bias is callin' 'em bigots, so the quote above covers that. But my most reliable stalker, you pounced too soon ... and reveal too much.

[Catherina]

30. Effie has a very good memory, like many others here n/t

[sniffa]

3. Race card gives cover for bigots

It's insulting, and offensive.

[UALRBSofL]

10. But the fact the misogyny card is played every day

And is perfectly acceptable by Obama, he gets a pass, OK, I get it now.

[JimGinPA]

31. It Seems To Me Obama Has Been More Respectful To Her Than She Has Deserved

:shrug:

[mrreowwr_kittty]

35. How about both of them get played every day and neither is acceptable?

It's shocking to see some of my fellow feminists don't get that.

[stillcool]

37. The "gender card"?

Did Hillary "Play The Gender Card"?
By Greg Sargent - November 2, 2007, 3:51PM

So what really happened here, anyway?
http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2007/11/did_hillary_play_the_gender_card.php
After the debate, Hillary's campaign sent out an email describing her as "one tough woman" and deriding the nature of the "piling on" that had ensued. And the next day, AFSCME president Gerald McEntee endorsed Hillary with remarks that almost certainly had plenty of input from the Hillary campaign: "Six guys against Hillary. I’d call that a fair fight. This is one strong woman.:
So just after the debate the campaign didn't argue that she was being attacked because she's a woman. But the campaign clearly did try to strongly emphasize the gender picture here.
--------------------

Hillary pollster Mark Penn subsequently said in a conference call that the image of six men beating up on Hillary would play well with female voters. And anonymous Clinton advisers told the Associated Press that "there is a clear and long-planned strategy to fend off attacks by accusing her male rivals of
gathering against her." Though one should approach anonymous stuff with caution, this doesn't seem especially difficult to believe.
---------------------------------------------------------
Bottom line: As best as we can determine, Hillary never explicitly made the accusation that the men were piling up on her because she's a woman. But you'd have to be very credulous indeed not to believe that the campaign is explicitly trying to emphasize, for various political reasons, the fact that she's a woman getting hammered by a bunch of men. I don't know if that constitutes "playing the gender card" or not -- the exact meaning of the term is unclear, at least to me -- but that's obviously what's going on.

Sunday, November 4, 2007
CLINTON PLANNED TO USE GENDER CARD ALL ALONG

RON FOURNIER, AP - Clinton's advisers, speaking on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss internal matters, said there is a clear and long-planned strategy to fend off attacks by accusing her male rivals of gathering against her. The idea is to change the subject while making Clinton a sympathetic figure, especially among female voters who often feel outnumbered and bullied on the job. As one adviser put it, Clinton is not the first presidential candidate to play the "woe-is-me card" but she's the first major female presidential candidate to do it.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071101/ap_po/on_deadline_c...

[Catherina]

8. The Clinton people didn't notice he was Black until he started winning

It's pure bullshit. I can't wait to see the leadership torch passed on to a younger generation that's pretty much colorblind so we can stop pandering to Dixiecrats and other bigots.

[Bjorn Against]

9. Good post Effie...

I find it really interesting how quite often the very people who complain about Obama playing the "race card" are the very first to accuse him of being racist against whites because of his association with Wright. It says a great deal that no one is accused of playing the race card when they talk about racism against whites, but as soon as a black person even responds to any talk about race they are accused of playing the race card. The truth is that the very phrase the "race card" is an attempt to get people to stop talking about the very real racist attitudes that exist in our society, it is an attempt to prevent anything from being done to bring about true equality. Implying that blacks have some race card that they can play thus making it appear that they have an advantage in society because of their skin color is not only false but it perpetuates racist stereotypes. When people accuse minorities of playing the "race card" I call them out on it, because racism needs to be confronted wherever it rears its ugly head.

[EffieBlack]

13. Well said! nt

[Catherina]

41. That's a very astute observation. n/t

[myrna minx]

53. All too true. Very good observation. n/t

[Lerkfish]

65. "race card" "affirmative action" "reverse discrimination" are all codewords for bigots.

the fact that they are being used, whether the people using them are bigots or not, is an indication of the effect they desire, whom they wish to influence.

[EFerrari]

77. Very well said! The very term "race card: is an attempt to silence the speaker. n/t

[izzybeans]

11. Some (a lot) white people do not know what it is like to be turned into a token representative of

a large group of people they have never met. When it is pointed out that a phrase like "The 45-year-old who would be America's first African American president addressed the key question of his campaign, is he ready for the job?" or "how much is that tied to your race?" forces one into a patronizing spokesperson role, they tell you, you are the one race baiting. And then when the tables are turned they cry wolf.

There is no good way to talk about this subject. Obama handled the silly questions well. Imagine being asked "how much is that tied to your race?" Like what, my dancing? My "very cool style"? Because everyone in my group is the same? That's what it insinuates and it is also why this white boy said "some (alot) in the thread title.

That's why you will be told you are the one playing the race card. Because you pointed out the subtle ridiculousness of those questions and some people can not handle it because they have never walked a mile in someone else's shoes on this issue.

[tabasco]

12. George S. actually asked this question?

"You have a very cool style when you're doing those town meetings where you're out on the campaign trail, and I wonder, how much of that is tied to your race?"

:wtf:

Black people are so cool!

:wtf:

Nice response by Obama: "Interesting." Like when you look at a weird looking bug.

[izzybeans]

17. I might of said, "Yeah we all look good in loudly colored suits. Damn good."

just to mock the idiocy of that question.

[EffieBlack]

24. Can you imagine the reaction if Obama had said: "I have a very cool style - it's because I'm black"

or "I would be the first African-American president and I'm ready for the job."

or "I'm African American. Is the country ready for me?"

"Rev. Sharpton, Rev. Jackson and the other so-called black leaders fear me because I know what the principal problem in the black community is."

Yet, it's perfectly ok for white commentators to ask such questions and make such comments, with impunity - and then turn around and accuse Obama of "playing the race card" whenever he mentions anything that indicates he knows he's black.

Thurgood Marshall once said, "Not a single day in my life have I ever had to put my hand up to my face to know that I'm black." Well, not a single day in this race has Barack Obama had to tell voters that he's black for them to know that he is - even if they'd never laid eyes on him, the media has made sure, day after day after day to remind the voters of that fact AND to make sure we know that, in their minds, it makes a difference.

[tabasco]

47. I don't watch the corporate media anymore.

I'm still shocked when I see reports like this.

[ginnyinWI]

68. that was a telling moment, for sure

Stephy saying that Obama's style is deliberately cool because he's trying not to be the "angry black". I think it's simply his style; Stephy sees everything in terms of race.

Obama tries to keep race out of it and the media tries to put him right back into the box. How predictable of them.

I loved that, "interesting." "...interesting what that reveals about you..."

[EffieBlack]

82. John McCain often behaves very "cooly" partly because of his reputation for a vicious temper

But no one asks him if his "cool demeanor" has anything to do with HIS race - or a desire to avoid being seen as an "angry white man."

No - he's just "has a temper."

[ginnyinWI]

88. good example.

makes my point exactly. Funny how supposedly liberal pundits have no qualms.

[cooolandrew]

15. I think you have got it spot on. Barack has done everything to avoid it whenever possible.

[goldcanyonaz]

16. Substitute race for gender and you have a Clinton interview. It's been this way for both.

They have asked her the same questions in regards to her being a woman. They've only started picking on Obama now.

[UALRBSofL]

25. Gold, It's obvious the folks who posted on this thread

Have no regard to gender discrimination and gives the media/Obama a pass on that but anything about Obama is defensible.

[izzybeans]

26. How so?

Where on this thread are people talking about the campaign in a way that excuses sexism?

[goldcanyonaz]

28. You're right, considering much of the sexist bullshit comes from the fingers of posters here.

[EFerrari]

78. I'm still waiting for the list of sexist remarks out of the Obama campaign.

And, contrary to your assertion, many posters to this thread, myself included, have called out the media for REAL sexist bullshit.

People who sling wild generalizations like yours do a disservice to women and to the very serious issue of gender discrimination. You degrade the discourse and make it more difficult for woman (or for anyone) to raise the issue and be taken seriously.

[EffieBlack]

32. Why do you assume that a discussion of race, must also include a discussion of gender or else it

means we "have no regard to gender discrimination?"

It is possible, you know, to discuss race without discussing gender, and vice versa, without being indifferent to the other.

jeez.

[EffieBlack]

29. It's been this way for both - but they didn't only start doing to Obama now

They've been doing it to him from the beginning, as well.

This is not about who the media is picking on more. This is about Obama, not a slam against Hillary.

[goldcanyonaz]

45. I understand it's about Obama, but if I had posted the same topic in regards to Clinton

I would be laughed out of here. Sexism and misogyny have been celebrated on this forum and in the media.

That's my point.

[EffieBlack]

48. *I* would not have laughed. I think you're right that Clinton has been subjected

to outrageously sexist treatment.

[Bjorn Against]

57. Clinton has also been treated unfairly because of her gender, but this did not just start for Obama

If you think back to the time he first entered the race one of the very first questions the predominantly white pundits asked was "Is he black enough?" He has faced stupid questions about his race from the time his campaign started, don't think this is a new phenomenon.

[BeyondGeography]

18. I remember that Stephanopolous question

Barack said, "That's interesting," really quickly, almost like he was shocked by it.

[40ozDonkey]

19. Her strategy is to play the victim.

The only thing that gets her consistent success is to play the victim. It's key to her supporters to continue to push that meme.

The only other option is to actually show Americans WHY she would be a good president instead of just saying why Obama would be a terrible one.

This isn't desirable, as she has no ability to connect with anybody besides people who already love her. She was hoping Bill would do that for her.

She should've had this wrapped up by now, but America finally got to know the real Hillary, not the fake version propped up by the media or her supporters. They were not impressed, and it's showing up every week in the polls and delegate counts. The frustration of her supporters to this reality is writ large in these forums.

[LiberalAndProud]

23. YOU speak the truth.

[Life Long Dem]

27. Hillary has gone out of her way to not focus on the issues.

We saw the laughing attacks to laugh off any questions asked. We saw the plants in the audience to fake answering questions. We saw her falsely blame Obama for starting the mud slinging so she could start attacking him so she can avoid the issues. And throughout this campaign we have saw Hillary attack Obama to avoid answering issues we care about.

[wildeyed]

33. I am tired of the media telling me that the only reason I want to vote for Obama

is because I get some kind of liberal white thrill from casting my vote for a black candidate. Could it be that I just think he is the best candidate? Sheesh!

[EffieBlack]

40. Or that the only reason he's getting strong support from blacks is that we are voting our race

when history shows that black voters have consistently voted for white candidates - including those running against black candidates - so obviously, race is not the basis for our voting choices.

People just seem to have a real problem digesting the fact that a black man is getting this much support - they keep looking under rocks for all kinds of reasons for it ("How can it BE?!") and just can't seem to wrap their minds around the fact that MAYBE people just think he'd make a good president.

[Usrename]

70. I don't why people support him, but it isn't because he's..

the smartest, hardest working, or best educated candidate. It can't be any of those things, he's black ya know.

[dailykoff]

36. I think that's what it boils down to.

And any time he talks about race in any way, like in his 2004 keynote speech, that's also supposed to be "playing the race card," even though the term as originally used in the OJ trial meant something entirely different.

[EffieBlack]

44. Interestingly, Edwards talked about race in HIS convention speech more than Obama did

But HE wasn't accused of "playing the race card."

I wonder why.

Oh, never mind. I think I know.

[suston96]

39. There is nothing wrong with voting for Obama because he is black.....

There is nothing wrong with voting For Hillary Clinton because she is a woman.....

Know why? Because most of their positions on the issues affecting Americans are the same. So, what's left? And besides...

The historical "concept" of a black person or a woman becoming president is unique and exciting.

There is noting wrong with voting for someone that excites you for whatever reason. Happens all the time.

[jcla]

43. Thanks EffieBlack!

Many of the replies just proved your point. This is still a racist country... racism is just institutionalized and much harder to "recognize" than when I was young in the 50's and 60's. Now many people don't "recognize" their own biases as racist or ... Keep posting and teaching!

[EffieBlack]

87. Thanks! n/t

[stillcool]

50. Yes Indeed...from day one...

race and religion have been used in an attempt to stop Obama's run-away-train. And yet, each time it is pushed it backfires. Through the entire Primary Season Obama has gone into state after state, talking to people, getting their votes and racking up the Delegates while the Clinton Campaign plays cheap tricks with the media.

December 10, 2007
Third Clinton Volunteer Knew Of Smear E-Mail
A third volunteer for Hillary Clinton's campaign was aware of a propaganda e-mail alleging that Barack Obama is a Muslim who plans on "destroying the U.S. from the inside out. "Let us all remain alert concerning Obama's expected presidential Candidacy," the email reads. "Please forward to everyone you know. The Muslims have said they Plan on destroying the U.S. from the inside out, what better way to start than at The highest level."

Two Clinton volunteers, Linda Olson and Judy Rose, have already been asked to resign from the campaign for their roles in forwarding the e-mail. The AP reported yesterday that Olson, a volunteer coordinator in Iowa County, sent a version of the e-mail to 11 people, including Ben Young, a regional field director for Chris Dodd's campaign. Young passed it on to the AP.
http://hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com/archives/2007/12/third_clinton_v.html

Kerrey Apologizes to Obama Over Remark
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=4031436
Kerrey's mention of Obama's middle name and his Muslim roots raised eyebrows because they are also used as part of a smear campaign on the Internet that falsely suggests Obama is a Muslim who wants to bring jihad to the United States.
Obama is a Christian.
The Clinton campaign has already fired two volunteer county coordinators in Iowa for forwarding hoax e-mails with the debunked claim. Last week, a national Clinton campaign co-chairman resigned for raising questions about whether Obama's teenage drug use could be used against him, so Kerrey's comments raised questions about whether the Clinton campaign might be using another high-profile surrogate to smear Obama.

Hillary: Sorry for Any Offense Campaign (Bill) Has Caused
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FB65wJ6Rcfs

Bill Clinton Asks for a Second Chance
By Liz Halloran
Posted February 11, 2008
The morning after his wife, Hillary, was routed in three state contests by Sen. Barack Obama in their dead-heat battle for the Democratic nomination, former President Bill Clinton made his case for her before a packed Sunday service at one of the largest black churches in Washington, D.C.
But first he offered an apology of sorts for racially tinged comments he made about Obama and his candidacy that have triggered a backlash in the black community and among many other Democrats.

Clinton invoked his "worship of a God of second chances" in pronouncing himself glad to be at the Temple of Praise, which claims nearly 15,000 members. His invocation of second chances echoed comments he made early last week at black churches in California, where he campaigned for his wife before that state's
Super Tuesday primary, which she won.
http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/campaign-

2008/2008/02/11/bill-clinton-asks-for-a-second-chance.html

Source: Newsday
Posted on Sunday, December 16, 2007 at 12:04 pm
Barack Obama Accepts Apology From Hillary Clinton
Washington D.C. 12/15/2007 09:17 AM GMT (FINDITT)

Hillary Clinton went straight to Barack Obama with an apology following a staffer's remarks about any skeletons that may be lurking in Obama's closet, pointing out that she had accepted the staffer's resignation over the disparaging remarks. Obama accepted her at her word, according to his campaign staff, and is moving on without letting it interrupt his campaign plans.


Obama is currently leading the polls in Iowa and New Hampshire, the two early primary states often considered key to the process, according to numbers at usaelectionpolls.com, but on a national level Clinton still holds a huge lead. The most recently posted poll results show Obama with 31 percent of the
probable voters in New Hampshire backing him with 29 percent showing support for Clinton.
http://www.transworldnews.com/NewsStory.aspx?id=30629&cat=5

Clinton Camp Pushes O-Bomber Links: Ignores
Her Own Radical Ties
By: Justin Rood

ABC News - The Hillary Clinton campaign pushed to reporters today stories about Barack Obama and his ties to former members of a radical domestic terrorist group -- but did not note that as president, Clinton's husband pardoned more than a dozen convicted violent radicals, including a member of the same group
mentioned in the Obama stories."Wonder what the Republicans will do with this issue," mused Clinton spokesman Phil Singer in one e-mail to the media, containing a New York Sun article reporting a $200 contribution from William Ayers, a founding member of the 1970s group Weather Underground, to Obama in 2001.
In a separate e-mail, Singer forwarded an article from the Politico newspaper reporting on a 1995 event at a private home that brought Obama together with Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, another member of the radical group.
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=4330128&page=1

Bill Clinton To Apologize At LA Black Churches
Once again, Bill Clinton is ready to repent.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/02/02/bill-clinton-to-apologize_n_84573.html
On Sunday the former president is scheduled to visit black churches in South Central Los Angeles, where he's expected to offer a mea culpa to those who "dearly loved him" when he was their president, Rep. Diane Watson (D-Calif.) says. Watson, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus who has endorsed Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), tells us she'll usher the former president to more than half a dozen churches in
her district where she says he needs to "renew his relationship" with congregants who were turned off by his racially tinged comments in the days leading up to and following the South Carolina primary. (Such as when Clinton compared Sen. Barack Obama's landslide victory to Jesse Jackson's wins in 1984 and 1988.)

http://graphics.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/politics/20080112_nevada_lawsuit.pdf
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/17/a-feisty-bill-

clinton-defends-nevada-lawsuit/
CLINTON ALLIES SUPPRESS THE VOTE IN NEVADA...
On Meet the Press on Sunday, Hillary Clinton said her campaign had nothing to do with a lawsuit--written about by Nation Editor Katrina vanden Heuvel--that threatens to prevent thousands of workers from voting in the Nevada caucus on Saturday.
Back in March, the Nevada Democratic Party agreed to set up caucus locations on the Vegas strip for low-income shift workers, many of them members of the state's influential Culinary Union, who commute long distances to work and wouldn't be able to get home in time to caucus. It was an uncontroversial idea until the Culinary Union endorsed Barack Obama and the Nevada State Education Association, whose top officials support Clinton, sued to shut down the caucus sites.
The Clinton camp played dumb until yesterday, when President Clinton came out in favor of the lawsuit.
Clinton's comments drew a heated response from D. Taylor, the head of Nevada's Culinary Union, on MSNBC's Hardball. "He is in support of disenfranchising thousands upon thousands of workers, not even just our members," Taylor said of Clinton. "The teachers union is just being used here. We understand that This is the Clinton campaign. They tried to disenfranchise students in Iowa. Now they're trying to
disenfranchise people here in Nevada, who are union members and people of color and women."
Rank-and-file members of Nevada's teachers union also come out against the lawsuit filed by their leadership. "We never thought our union and Senator Clinton would put politics ahead of what's right for our students, but that's exactly what they're doing," the letter stated. "As teachers, and proudmDemocrats, we hope they will drop this undemocratic lawsuit and help all Nevadans caucus, no matter which candidate they support."
The lawsuit's opponents make a persuasive point. Creating obstacles to voting is what the GOP does to Democrats, not what Democrats should be doing to other Democrats.

Clinton adviser steps down after drug use comments
Earlier Thursday, Clinton personally apologized to rival Obama for Shaheen's remarks.
Obama accepted her apology, according to David Axelrod, the top political strategist for the Obama campaign.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/12/13/clinton.obama/index.html

January 6, 2008, 5:18 pm
Edwards: No Conscience in Clinton Campaign
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/edwards-no-conscience-in-clinton-campaign/
By Julie Bosman
KEENE, N.H. – John Edwards angrily took on Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton at two news conferences in a row on Sunday, saying that her campaign “doesn’t seem to have a conscience.”

COMPTON, Calif. (AP) — Hillary Rodham Clinton and her campaign tried to mend ties to black voters Thursday when a key supporter apologized to her chief rival, Barack Obama, for comments that hinted at Obama's drug use as a teenager. The candidate herself, meanwhile, praised the Rev. Martin Luther King and promised to assist with the rebirth of this troubled, largely black city.

Bob Johnson, the founder of Black Entertainment Television, apologized for comments he made at a Clinton campaign rally in South Carolina on Sunday that hinted at Obama's use of drugs as a teenager.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-01-17-

johnson-apology_N.htm?csp=34

Clinton Surrogate Compares Obama Ad to Nazi March
http://news.yahoo.com/s/thenation/20080201/cm_thenation/45278988_1
Fri Feb 1, 2:23 PM ET
The Nation -- On a media conference call organized by the Hillary Clinton campaign today, Clinton surrogate Len Nichols compared an Obama health care ad to Nazis.
----------
Accusing political opponents of Nazism is an outrageous smear. Raising the specter of a Nazi march in response to a health care mailer that evokes the insurance industry is so absurd, it would be hard to take the attack seriously, were it not launched from a high profile national campaign conference call in this crucial stretch of the presidential race. And political observers know, of course, that the Clinton Campaign regularly arranges opportunities for surrogates to launch these kind of smears, which are later followed up with apologies. (See: Bob Johnson, Bill Shaheen, Bob Kerrey, and Francine Torge, to name the most recent offenders.) For his part, Nichols did not immediately return a call requesting further comment.
-------------------------
Len Nichols, Director of New America's Health Policy Program, stated, "For nearly 17 years I have worked tirelessly to reform our nation's struggling health system. Today my passion overwhelmed me. I chose an analogy that was wholly inappropriate. I am deeply sorry for any offense that my unfortunate comments may have caused.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dk1k0nUWEQg

[indimuse]

51. Are these comments by Michelle Obama racist...some say..

Absolutely!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovO8hFt8-c8&eurl=http://rezkowatch.blogspot.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vevSQAbJjWY&feature=related


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kExctvzrIvI&feature=related lies


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8E3uB6lAhg&eurl=http://rezkowatch.blogspot.com

FUnny, I believe many people of all color and race have been told 'they can't' It
is a No NO world...One of the first words your parents teach you is NO! No, don't touch that...you can't have...She IS playing the race/GUILT card! Very obvious and
disgusting! puke.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtIHTFuMnWI&eurl=http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2008/03/oops-she-did-it-again-michelle-obama.html
"We don't like being pushed outside of our comfort zones. You know it right here on this campus. You know people sitting at different tables- you all living in different

dorms. I was there. You're not talking to eachother, taking advantage that you're in this diverse community. Because sometimes it's easier to hold on to your own stereotypes and misconceptions. It makes you feel justified in your own ignorance... That's America. So the challenge for us is are we ready for change?" - MIchelle Obama

[madrchsod]

58. you should post this racist shit at stormfront......

they would appreciate your concern for a black man and his black wife occupying the "white" house

[stillcool]

72. Isn't everything the Obama's say racist...

to you?

[madrchsod]

52. why does`t anyone ask hillary her opinion on the

question of race and sexism in america?

why does`t she make her thoughts about these two important issues public?

[EffieBlack]

60. Or McCain?

Talk about "the black man's burden" - one of them is being expected to speak about race in terms that whites will both understand and will not find in any way offensive, guilt-inducing or discomforting. But only, of course, when called upon to do so by white people. Otherwise, any mention of race is "playing the race card" and will not be tolerated.

[noiretextatique]

54. race is always a factor in american politics

obama is as aware of this as any other politician. the race card meme has been completely overblown by the media, and by both campaigns. menawhile, people like george will get away with making blatantly racist statements while obama supporters seem to find racism in any criticism of obama. will's comments are typical...you can find them right here on DU.

[stillcool]

73. Not true...

It is not "Obama supporters" that find the Clinton Campaign's use of race and religion offensive. It is the American people. Mis-remembering is contagious.

[EFerrari]

80. That's right. And it was in fact watching how both campaigns

navigated this issue that put me in Obama's camp, not the other way around.

[IndependentDem]

55. this has always been "a black" vs "a woman" why?

because it makes for good tv and high ratings. the media intentionally shut-out or down-played all of the other candidates (many that were a BETTER choice) for this exact reason. the fact is clinton did not pull the race card, obama didn't play the race card and the supporters here on DU or anywhere else sure ass hell didn't do it first either. it was the media, period. the same thing is true for clinton. lets face it, the media has played us. they have taken one of the most basic principals of the democratic party and used it to divide us once again-- the sad thing is that it worked.

[EffieBlack]

59. Exactly!

[IndependentDem]

61. i don't understand why more people don't get it. it seems so blatant. n/t

[QC]

69. Exactly. That was the corpmedia's chosen narrative from the beginning,

and mere reality was not going to intrude on it.

[EffieBlack]

83. And now that the polls and the voters have contradicted their "theory," they figure they

can change our minds if they keep saying it over and over - and louder and louder.

I thought it pretty funny that, after two weeks of them telling us that the Wright incident would be Obama's downfall, the polls showed that it hardly had any impact. Now, instead of telling us that maybe, just maybe they were wrong, they are now saying that this is because most voters "weren't paying attention!" But, they say, just wait until the fall - THEN we'll see that they were right all along and this thing will REALLY hurt him!

[BumRushDaShow]

66. K&R

When the so-called pundits insist on injecting race into their very interview questions, they continue to perpetuate the very issue they whine about the candidates allegedly invoking.

[Cass]

71. Well, he did say he regretted his campaign playing the race card against the Clintons

when asked about it at the Nevada debate:

RUSSERT: In terms of accountability, Senator Obama, Senator Clinton on Sunday told me that the Obama campaign had been pushing this storyline. And, true enough, your press secretary in South Carolina -- four pages of alleged comments made by the Clinton people about the issue of race.

In hindsight, do you regret pushing this story?

OBAMA: Well, not only in hindsight, but going forward. I think that, as Hillary said, our supporters, our staff get overzealous. They start saying things that I would not say. And it is my responsibility to make sure that we’re setting a clear tone in our campaign, and I take that responsibility very seriously, which is why I spoke yesterday and sent a message in case people were not clear that what we want to do is make sure that we focus on the issues.

Now, there are going to be significant issues that we debate, and some serious differences that we have. OBAMA: And I’m sure those will be on display today.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/15/us/polit...PPg1RgmjYp5ZFTw

I agree that the fact he is black isn't playing the race card, but its not "pure bullshit" to say he has played it. He himself says he regrets it.

[EFerrari]

75. It was predictable, as soon as he declared, that the country would have

this conversation -- and we're not very good at it, are we? We're lucky that Obama is obviously a terrific teacher. He reminds me of the really bright student teachers I used to evaluate at Cal and not because he's a "student" but because he's gifted.

Even if he somehow loses the nomination, he's already done us a great service in facilitating this difficult process we're going through.

[blogslut]

76. "That's interesting"

hee hee. I loved that answer

Stephanopoulos: You have a very cool style when you're doing those town meetings where you're out on the campaign trail, and I wonder, how much of that is tied to your race?

Obama: That's interesting.

[EFerrari]

79. A teacher's civil dodge. lol

[EffieBlack]

84. What he said: "That's interesting." What he really wanted to say:

"You have got to be #@*!-&"ing me!"

[EFerrari]

85. That's what I usually wanted to say when I said, "Interesting".

:rofl:


Great thead, Effie!