Get Me More White People!!!

[2rth2pwr]

While the crowd was indeed diverse, some students at the event questioned the practices of Mrs. Obama’s event coordinators, who handpicked the crowd sitting behind Mrs. Obama. The Tartan’s correspondents observed one event coordinator say to another, “Get me more white people, we need more white people.” To an Asian girl sitting in the back row, one coordinator said, “We’re moving you, sorry. It’s going to look so pretty, though.”

“I didn’t know they would say, ‘We need a white person here,’ ” said attendee and senior psychology major Shayna Watson, who sat in the crowd behind Mrs. Obama. “I understood they would want a show of diversity, but to pick up people and to reseat them, I didn’t know it would be so outright.”
http://www.thetartan.org/2008/4/7/news/obama

Mrs. Obama was introduced by Teresa Heinz Kerry, wife of former Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. John Kerry (D–Mass.), who endorsed Mr. Obama’s candidacy in South Carolina last January. Heinz Kerry stressed the similarities between Mr. Obama and her late husband John Heinz III, the popular senator from Pennsylvania. She remarked that she has become friends with Mrs. Obama, mainly from exchanging messages on their Blackberries.




If Hillary's team did this...

[AX10]

1. God forbid Hillary did this.....

[MonkeyFunk]

2. I'm sure ALL campaigns do this

images are carefully crafted, including the makeup of the audience. But yeah, the same story about Clinton would cause another explosion here.

[Cali_Democrat]

33. WOW!! I agree with you

Hell has frozen over.

:P

[MonkeyFunk]

100. No

I frequently defend Obama from stupid attacks.

When you defend Clinton on something, then hell will have frozen over.

[democrattotheend]

38. They do all do this

But yeah, the guy should have been a little more subtle about it. I'm not sure it would cause more outrage if Clinton did it though...the night of the South Carolina primary, they made the point on the news that Obama had chosen mostly white people to sit behind him and Clinton had done the opposite and put a lot of African Americans on stage with her. She has been making a point of putting African Americans on stage with her for a while, as most campaigns do. For Obama they sometimes do the opposite to showcase his appeal to white people. The advance guy was tacky in how he went about it, but all campaigns do this.

[NashVegas]

62. It's Weak, As Far As Anti-Obama Arguments Would Go

But it's still pretty funny, from a distance. Some comedy skits write themselves. It demonstrates how uncomfortable Dems are of appearing racist or out of harmony with the idea of racial balance.

[polmaven]

78. You HAVE to be kidding!

I'm not sure it would cause more outrage if Clinton did it though

If this report had said "The Clinton campaign" rather that "The Obama campaign", this forum would not be able to handle the traffic, and the words f***ing; B****; A**Hole; hate etc. would be flying off of the keyboards of many, many posters.

I agree with the rest of your post, though. Of course all campaigns do it, and yes, the guy should have been more subtle.

[ruggerson]

54. Remember the "planted question" controversy?

That ran in the media for a week.

If Hillary's campaign ever were caught saying "Get me more black people", it would be the lead story on the nightly news.

[ScottS]

9. You don't remember how Hillary PAID Black people to hold her signs and stand behind her?

[Umbram]

37. Good call. (nt)

[Rockholm]

42. No. Can you provide link...or proof.

My guess is a no.

[BumRushDaShow]

93. Link

http://backtalkeastdallas.typepad.com/back_talk/2008/02/southern-fried.html

[MonkeyFunk]

102. That link doesn't say

she paid black people to stand behind her.

Try again.

[BumRushDaShow]

107. Read it again.

The answer from the sign-holders was that they were "paid for" and they referenced the promotional company who paid them, where a link to them was included.

[indimuse]

51. hmmm.

GO LIE somewhere else!

[Life Long Dem]

29. If Hillary's team did this...

[Hepburn]

50. No.....

...you think they all don't do this? :rofl:

[XemaSab]

3. Um... I saw Howard Dean's people do this in Iowa

EVERYONE does this. Or do you think a bunch of Black people randomly decide to sit behind W at his events? :shrug:

[gateley]

4. I was thinking it was kind of ironic and a sign of the times --

For years I bet all the white candidates were hollering "we need more black people!". :7

[butterfly77]

112. McCain is...

everytime he does a speech I notice he has a black woman behind him, and he stands in that place for most of the speech. I think they all do it...

[Raine]

23. Yup they all do this going way back

when I was a kid my parents were active in politics (repub). I was a "Nixon Girl" :blush: :hide: and they put us up front because they wanted to give the whole event an energetic youthful look.

[democrattotheend]

39. Yeah I remember that happening a few times on the Dean campaign

One of the criticisms of his campaign was that he was appealing mostly to rich white liberals and students, so they would often try to put a diverse crowd behind him at rallies. In our Students for Dean group, we had a few African Americans involved and we used to make sure they were in our pictures to show diversity. This is common practice.

[MyNameGoesHere]

47. BUT THIS IS THE candidate of UNITY, CHANGE, HOPE and all that shit.

His campaign or his WIFE should not HAVE TO DO THIS. Either that or all this crap he espouses is bullshit.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

5. Clinton's team probably does do this. I think all campaigns do.

Otherwise first newspaper article of the day "Candidate X hates (WHITE/BLACK/FEMALE/MALE) voters. It's a consequence of the way our campaigns are completely scripted out.

[MadBadger]

6. They all do this

Edwards did it at a poverty event I went to a couple years ago. Hillary had all older people in Iowa for her speech, and then in NH they were all younger women...I wonder how that happened?

[woolldog]

7. Hillary's team does do that.

[FrenchieCat]

8. Hillary's team does that and also attempts to make the crowds look bigger than they are,

You didn't know this?

But they are always looking for Black people! LOL!

[zabet]

27. I went to see Hillary and Bill both when

they came to NC and that did not happen at either place. There was a wide spread of diversity in the audience both times and......shockingly.....plenty of African-Americans and Hispanics. Very diverse crowds. Unlike the contrived salting of the crowd like Obama's campaign did.

[democrattotheend]

73. Who was up on stage with the candidate?

Are you sure there was nobody trying to ensure that the crowd on stage looked diverse?

[jackson_dem]

10. More proof his race speech and unity speech were just words

"Asians, go to the back of the bus!"

How ironic: the first viable minority candidate says "Asians, go sit in the back..."

[GarbagemanLB]

12. It's a shame the first viable woman candidate is running such a sexist campaign.

[jackson_dem]

16. True. Edwards was the only one not to use the race or gender card

But look at where that got him. :(

[lefty from jersey]

49. Edwards who??

Look where that brilliant strategy got him....

[AZ Criminal JD]

24. It's a shame the first viable black candidate is running such a racist campaign.

[AZ Criminal JD]

25. Dup

[DemVet]

36. Yeah, ....

...right...uh huh. :eyes:

[SemiCharmedQuark]

14. You can't seriously believe that Jim Crowe and staging at events are the same thing.

Can you?

[woolldog]

15. he doesn't believe anything.

he's just a bitter hater.

[jackson_dem]

18. No but you can't deny the irony, as well as the hypocrisy

Obama TALKS about getting beyond race. Once again he says one thing, does another. Just words...

[SemiCharmedQuark]

20. Well as you said in your other post "look what it got him" RE: Edwards

You know that both Clinton and Obama have supporters across all races,ages and genders. And yet you must know that if by pure chance, all the people that happened to get seats behind Obama speaking were black or all the people that happened to get seats behind Clinton were women, the newspapers would hammer them for it.

[Bake]

113. Yeah, but he can't talk about "getting beyond race"

and have no white people up there on the stage!! Somebody, go get Michelle some more white people!! Right fucking now!! I'm SERIES!!1!1!!!1! Oh, and lose the Asian!

:rofl:

Bake

[cliffordu]

22. Yawn....

[GoldieAZ49]

69. It was just a diversion, an attempt to blame America for Wright and justify his hate

They just don't know how to take responsibility for their words, actions and deeds.

The professional victim, not presidential material

[MercutioATC]

11. If most people weren't so dumb, it wouldn't all be about the photo ops.

Unfortunately, most people are only interested in a pretty picture...and that's what ALL campaigns sell, to some degree.

[Prophet 451]

52. Most people ARE that dumb sadly n/t

[GarbagemanLB]

13. BREAKING NEWS: A campaign stages a photo op.

[Emit]

17. lol, Hillary's team did do this and I watched as it happened

I came early to an event last January and watched as they seated the people that would be behind Bill Clinton. I also watched as they rearranged the flags for what seemed like hours (it was minutes, and they finally took them down all together and put them on a freestanding flag pole). We got a chuckle out of the flag thing, but it was obvious to all of us sitting in the first few rows that they were handpicking the crowd that would be most visible behind Clinton -- women, minorities, equal balance between young and old, etc. I've seen it with Kerry and Edwards, too, at their events. It happens frequently. The HRC team also controlled the signage -- they allowed only certain signs to be displayed, and they announced a head of time that the signs could be held only so high, so as not to block the camera's shot of Clinton. It's all staged.

[grantcart]

19. Didn't do it at all at Michelle's big event with Oprah

first in sat down behind her.

[Name removed]

26. Deleted sub-thread

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

[nadinbrzezinski]

21. ALL campaigns do this

it is called stagecraft... and psychological appeal

[Adelante]

28. Her team does do that

Everybody's team does that.

[MrSlayer]

30. Yes, standard political theater.

Don't tell me that people here are so naive that they do not realize that all of this is stage managed. Politics is a show.

[cleveramerican]

31. its showbiz after all.

EVERYTHING EACH CANDIDATE DOES IS STAGED.
ITS TOO CLOSE TO THE END TO RISK ANYTHING ELSE.
NO MORE STANDING WITH RANDOM CROWDS.
THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN ABOUT A YEAR AGO.

[datopbanana]

32. Are the politcally-savy people here on DU really this stupid?

EVERYONE DOES THIS. Hillary makes a point to get young people behind her. Is she AGIST?

wow.........................

[loyalsister]

63. LOL

It's not even Hillary it's consultants. Consultants are obnoxious in many ways, but they did prevent one problem here. Apparently, there was a reason for the switch that they recognized would bring the bad publicity that would have started a different thread.

And Hillary's consultants are trying to keep up with Obama's image of having support of young people.

It's the consultants stupid. They are doing their damndest to prevent stupid threads on DU.

[Bluenorthwest]

70. Everyone does it sure

But the stupid person in this story is the campaign worker who spoke out loud the exact nature of the staging. That is just stupid. Everyone controlls events, but talking about it is self defeating. The illusionist who points out the methods of distraction is making a stupid choice. The end.

[Vinca]

34. On a positive note, at least there were no planted questions in the audience.

(The Hillary team did that.)

[polmaven]

80. You are absolutely positive about that?

at least there were no planted questions in the audience

Or is it that they simply haven't been caught at it? This is another thing ALL of the campaigns will do when it suits the purpose.

[Warren Stupidity]

35. The student newspaper is committing a rather egregious error

It probably happened exactly as reported, however the text indicates that this was an overheard comment from an unnamed 'event coordinator'. The reporter should of course have asked the event coordinator for a name and an explanation for the overheard remark. Otherwise this report is simply rumor and should never have been printed.

[rodeodance]

40. Bad judgment call by Michele--last time I looked Asian-Americans were leaning Hillary

[democrattotheend]

41. It wasn't Michelle's decision, it was a member of the advance team

But yeah, you make a good point. I don't know why they took an Asian off the stage...I'd think that that would help show more diversity.

[rodeodance]

45. advance teams get their orders from the top don't you think?

[democrattotheend]

53. Not every little thing they do

The advance guy might have been told by the campaign manager or by whoever was in charge of the event to put white people on the stage, but I doubt the decision to remove the Asian woman went higher than that particular advance staffer.

[rodeodance]

115. photo ops are big things sweetie

[GoldieAZ49]

65. Weak candidates blame their subordinates - Real leaders take responsibility

as in "the buck stops here"

guess what kind of candidate the Obama's are?


Obama response to anything questionable:

I didn't know

Someone else did it

or (and my favorite because it is used so often and dare I say so liberally):

someone somewhere is a racist, should we be focusing on that?

[underpants]

43. Hillary does do this I guarantee you

Who you and I see sitting behind them is no accident.

Team "empty facade" Bush famously got caught telling the handpicked audience of contributors to take off their neckties back in 2003 ( I think it was) to make them look more "working class"

[noel711]

44. Grow up kids! This is SOP politics..

During the Kerry campaign, my husband and I attended a huge
rally in Allentown.

The was very careful is separating the crowds as they entered
the fair grounds stadium...


Labor union folks (very obvious by attired, hats, signs)
were herded up right below the stage.

There was a seating area on risers behind the stage
that was carefully crafted with multiethnic groups...
mixed groups, of mixed ages.

There was a group of young people, enthusiasts,
to the right of the stage.

Regular, white, middle class folks were herded into the stands.

Do not be shocked. This is part of staging for media.
Many political consultants have theatre experience
to 'plot it out carefully' like a play.

If we had no mass media, who would care?

[MethuenProgressive]

46. "Its OK If Its Obama"

:puke:

[Romulox]

48. I would get up and leave. I will never be somebody's prop

and I don't respect anyone who would agree to this...

[UALRBSofL]

55. Ewwwwwww We gotta email MSM about this

Thank you OP for the heads up on the racial profiling for the viewership, cameras, etc.

[BigDDem]

56. Any particular type of white person...

or just a "typical white person?"

[UALRBSofL]

57. OMG No You Dnt

Rolling on floor laughing :rofl:

[GoldieAZ49]

60. LMAO!!!!!!!!

touche!

:toast:

[Bake]

114. Yeah, typical will be fine!

Quick, somebody find me a typical white person!

:rofl:

Bake

[GoldieAZ49]

58. Staging, pandering, and racist

What a sham their campaign is

[Maribelle]

64. I am convinced this racist act was at the top of their campaign list from the beginning.

There was no way Obama could get to the nomination without stealing the strong support Hillary held with African Americans. What baffled me the very most was the way Kennedy played the race card in South Carolina - - but then that was before I realized how corrupt Kennedy was and how low Obama was willing to stoop, and before I was made aware of how these exact tricks were so successful with the Patrick campaign in Massachusetts.

[GoldieAZ49]

72. Yes, it was, Obama saw it as his only 'edge' and Kennedy played along

It doesn't work nationally, in fact it backfires.

America is not going to elect a POTUS so they can be called racist every time they criticize him, the press already has shown they can't deal with it.

In fact it has been 'charged' so many times as to be meaningless, just campaign rhetoric.


Imagine that, Obama who didn't grow up as a 'black man in America' is not a 'descendant of slaves' had to go to Wright to learn the 'black in America' experience has rendered the charge of racism as a political move.

[democrattotheend]

74. Getting votes is stealing?

So she was entitled to the African American votes, and convincing them to vote for Obama instead was stealing? This sense of entitlement is one of the things that really turned me off to Clinton. I will vote for her if she is the nominee but I can't stand the way she and her campaign and her supporters have acted like she is entitled to it.

[Maribelle]

81. Man you sure twisted my words. Obama knew Hillary had high favorability with African Americans.

By playing the race card against the Clintons he was quite successful in his dishonesty. I still am amazed at just how successful this dishonesty was, truly.

[democrattotheend]

83. Your exact words

"There was no way Obama could get to the nomination without stealing the strong support Hillary held with African Americans."

How did I twist your words?

[jonestonesusa]

116. Stealing the support?

Did the support of African Americans belong to Hillary Clinton? Or are African Americans allowed independent judgment in who they support? And what do you mean by "playing the race card," that overused and essentially meaningless phrase? Does Hillary Clinton "play the woman card?"

[Maribelle]

59. I'm wondering now how many race-card decks the Obamas have gone through so far.

Axelrod must be jumping with joy over this.

[GoldieAZ49]

66. the race card has become the joker

and they just play it over and over again, it no longer has any meaning or value...it is just a joke

[mckeown1128]

61. Hillary's team does do that...

That is why EVERYONE beind her is under 30... yet under 30 is one of her worst demographics... this is standard campaign MO.

[SoCalDem]

67. Ummmm.. They DO.. ALL candidates carefully place

people on the dais, or behind/around candidates (for pictures)..

At a recent HRH event, a well-known columnist was asked to go onstage to "fill a seat, so it would not look so empty".. She laughed and said "Do you know who I am?".. It was either Margaret Carlson or Maureen Dowd..cannot remember which

[Name removed]

68. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[kwassa]

71. John Kerry did this to my wife!

My wife, who is African-American, went to Kerry's rally where he announced his candidacy for the Presidency, and was placed in photo sight lines closed to the candidate. As it ended, Kerry moved around and shook hands, and held on to my wife for dear life, much longer than he needed to, so that he could have his photo taken shaking hands with a black supporter. She described how surreal it was to me later.

[ProSense]

75. I think that must be why he got 88% of the black vote? n/t

[Lilith Velkor]

96. I used to get photo-opped all the time at Black Voices for Peace events

I was usually the only white person there, so it didn't take me long to figure it out. Nor did it bother me in the slightest.

[ProSense]

76. An event coordinator set up a photo shoot...

this is the end of the Obama campaign!

:sarcasm:

[malik flavors]

77. Haha, give me a break. Clinton didn't just plant people, they planted questions as well.

This is a non issue.

[Barack_America]

82. That's a good point...n/t

[madrchsod]

79. "i see white people."....

politicians stage photo events, good god now what am i going to tell my grand children......

[UALRBSofL]

84. The issue with this is MO stated it

So by stating it out loud makes good headlines in the MSM. They will call it racial profiling in the news. You can argue they all do it, so, Obama is not above the dirty politician frey, LOL. However, when it's on video tape that she made the statement it's not good for the candidate.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

85. But see, Michelle Obama didn't state it.

Her event coordinator did.

[democrattotheend]

87. I agree. Saying it out loud was stupid.

But this is standard practice for all campaigns.

[Inspired]

86. This happens all the time. It's always staged.

All campaigns do this. To make a big deal of it, or single out one candidate, is very naive.

[RamboLiberal]

88. Hell as an Obama supporter its made me nervous

at times when I've seen him speaking that the crowd behind him is mostly African-American. I've commented that they needed to balance out the crowds. I know how some voters viewing his speeches would be less likely to vote for him if they felt too many of his supporters were black.

That's just a sad fact in this country.

Hell the Repukes have to do the opposite. They have to find blacks and other minorities to try to balance out their mostly lily-white crowds. Remember how at the 2000 convention there were a ton more blacks on the Repuke stage than could be found in the audience?

Like the friggin' news media just discoverd this fact(Sludge and ABC have the story up). Oh, and this came originally from a student reporter writing for the student newspaper at CMU. Horrors that Obama campaign people are trying to balance out the subconcious perception going out over the airwaves about the crowd's diversity!

[cooolandrew]

89. I have to say I feel safer for Barack when he has white folk behind him. I say that as half black...

and having seen what I have seen over the years. I don't personally feel it is being racist just empathsising diversity.

[Occam Bandage]

90. If? Hillary's team does indeed do this. All campaigns do.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

98. Obama's campaign does it...

Hillary's campaign does it, and John McCain's campaign does it.

Obama's campaign person just got caught doing it. :D

[redqueen]

91. Aaahaahahahah...

This place is a laugh a minute, I swear.

[wowimthere]

92. I got news for you. HIllary's team does do this...ALL campaigns do it

do you think that the movies and commercials you see aren't coordinated? When I hire people, I consider all things relevant. Diversity is good!

[pdxmom]

94. I seem to remember it being in the news, back after Iowa, that the folks

behind Hillary changed from the Madeline Albright age group to the Chelsea age group. All campaigns manipulate the image.

[totodeinhere]

95. I agree that all campaigns do this, but...

I still think it's a sad commentary on our times that they feel it's necessary to do this. When oh when are we ever going to get past race and look upon all people in a color blind manner?

[ElsewheresDaughter]

97. theater Obama's entire campaign is a Madison Ave creation and is all about theater

[GarbagemanLB]

99. Unlike Hillary, who is SO genuine!

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[Zavulon]

101. At least Obama isn't claiming to have ducked sniper fire on Bosnia.

At least Obama isn't claiming to have been named after a mountain climber BEFORE said climber did his most famous climb. At least Obama doesn't lie about where his daughter was on 9/11 in a pathetic attempt to score sympathy points.

The sad thing: Hillary represents our party, and I could still go on for ages about what a lying piece of shit she is. On the bright side, she did vote for that really cool Iraq war we're in and refuses to admit it's a mistake, though.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

106. And Hillary's campaign is all about gritty realism.

Like sniper fire in Bosnia.

[CTyankee]

103. OMG. It's like "where the white women at?" from Blazing Saddles!

Sorry, that just flashed in my head, inexplicably. I obviously need attitute adjustment...

[mindfulNJ]

104. ALL candidates orchestrate the look

of their rallies. I remember waiting for a Bill Clinton rally in NH in '92 and watching them hand out all the "hand made" signs...they also stopped the band when they started to play "Dixie Chicken" :)

[Cheap_Trick]

105. so this is your endgame?

grasping at straws? :rofl:

[mkultra]

108. The Obama's are clearly racists

[aquarius dawning]

111. clearly.

[zulchzulu]

109. If you've ever thought people behind a candidate speaking was an accident...

...then I feel sorry for you!

:rofl:

Every campaign that has an event that will be broadcast does LOTS of work making sure they have the right people behind the candidate...no drunks, no sleepy people, no really ugly people and of course, it gets managed (usually silently) without most people knowing what's going on.

Chances are that it doesn't really matter anyway, but I've seen it all firsthand.

[aquarius dawning]

110. You'll need more than one white person there Mr. Obama.

[Major Hogwash]

117. Mrs. Obama was introduced by Teresa Heinz Kerry - that should have been their headline

Of course, it wouldn't have produced all these comments, but what the hell.

[Major Hogwash]

118. When Kerry endorsed Obama, that was the end of Hillary's campaign.

Maybe you guys didn't know that Kerry personally vetted Obama.
And that was all it took.

[HuffleClaw]

119. is there a campaign that DOESN'T do this sort of thing ?

seriously

[IsItJustMe]

120. So what? Desperation sucks.