Clinton's diminishing of black voters

[Forkboy]

By Derrick Z. Jackson
Globe Columnist / May 10, 2008

IN HER long, sad self-diminution to being merely a white candidate for subsegments of white people, Hillary Clinton claimed to USA Today this week, "I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on." Clinton exploited an Associated Press poll to say how "Senator Obama's support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me . . . There's a pattern emerging here."

This was on top of Democratic strategist and Clinton supporter Paul Begala saying this week on CNN, "We cannot win with eggheads and African-Americans. OK. That's the Dukakis coalition, which carried 10 states and gave us four years of the first George Bush. President Clinton, you know, reached across and got a whole lot of Republicans and independents to come."

This reaches across the aisle all right, straight to right-wing talk show host Rush Limbaugh. Limbaugh, who has been urging people to vote for Clinton to prolong the Democratic primaries, said this week, "Barack Obama has shown he cannot get the votes that Democrats need to win: blue-collar working people. He can get effete snobs. He can get wealthy academics and he can get the young, he can get the black vote, that's about it."

Obama just got done being tarred and feathered as an elitist by Clinton and the talk shows for belittling "bitter" people in jobless small towns who "cling to guns or religion." Yes, that was dumb.

Yet here is Clinton dancing all over stereotypes. There is no way you can say in the same sentence, "hard-working Americans, white Americans," without diminishing black Americans as lazy.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/05/10/clintons_diminishing_of_black_voters/

[ShortnFiery]

1. It's not complementary toward any other "peoples of color" either like Asians and Latinos?

:(

[Alia]

2. hard-working Americans, white Americans

I do believe that this was an unfortunate mis-speak by Hillary. I don't think she meant to imply that only white Americans are hard working. On the other hand, the article is right that Obama was blasted for a similarly unfortunate mis-speak.

[DeSwiss]

9. She seems to have more....

...mis-speaks than speaks!

- Welcome to DU...

[bluestateguy]

3. Wealthy academics?

Limblob is full of shit. Does he know (of course he doesn't; he's a college dropout) how many years it takes to get a doctorate? During that time students accrue mountains of debt and earn very low pay as TA's or research assistants. An assistant professor at a top research university might earn $80,000, and possibly a lot less at a lower caliber university or college, which is where most new Ph.D's end up. A new Ph.D is much more likely to end up at Chico State than UC-Berkeley or Stanford. A full professor at a top research university might make $200,000, but could make only half of that somewhere else. That's enough for a comfortable life, but I don't think qualifies one as "wealthy".

[DeSwiss]

11. Limpballs' listeners....

...do not have a clue about the cost of an education. They eschew all that is educated. Which is how Dubya still has about 19% popularity.

- And besides, they listen to this ass so they don't have to think for themselves in the first place!

[redstate_democrat]

4. Hillary Clinton is a fucking cartoon character.

She has no soul. She has no morals. She is merely a shell of a person. Her only ambition in life is to be the first woman to be president so she can feel validated in something. I ask you, would Hillary Clinton be where she is today if it weren't for the fact she met Bill Clinton at Yale Law School? I don't think so. She would be an unmarried, frumpy 60 year old woman partner at some law firm in New York or Chicago, with a major fucking chip on her shoulder. She couldn't pass the D.C. bar.

She is poll driven. She has no CORE. She changes her message depending on who she is talking to. Since the gas tax BS didn't work in IN and NC, she changed her entire tune. What happened to the legislation that she was supposedly trying to push through. She has to employ an acting coach to teach her how to appear as a feeling person. She is a cold and calculating person who only appeals to the smallness of people.

This whole racist meme she's pulling now is guaranteed to bring her to her knees. She thinks she can win without black people? Trust me, she has no fucking idea how stupid she sounds. She'd better reel that piece of bullshit back in before major black leaders come forth to embarrass her ass.

She will not get away with this shit. If she thinks for one minute the Democratic party will shit on black people, white people who voted for Barack, young voters, "latte liberals", progressives, party activists, people living in "small states", people living in "caucus states", people with college degrees, "eggheads", people who live in "red states we don't win in November", she has another damn thing coming. If the SDs hand this nomination to her undeservedly, she will be to blame for the destruction of this party. I will leave this fucking party and so will many others. She didn't fucking win. Why can't she get that through her damn head? How does the person with fewer states won, fewer delagates with NO CHANCE of catching up, fewer votes, no money, high negatives, 1200 pages of oppo on her, get handed the nomination over a person with the exact fucking opposite scenario?

She is the ultimate entitlement queen. She has no fucking shame. She is not the fucking queen of England. I don't want that woman anywhere NEAR the White House and if she is handed the nomination, she WON'T get anywhere near it. She will go down in history as the WORST PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE EVER, lose the election, and destroy the Democratic party in the process.

She touts her lead among "working class whites" as something that QUALIFIES her, even though she has effectively LOST this nomination, to be the nominee. What sort of cockeyed bullshit is THAT? If she hasn't realized, it was these same "working class whites" who couldn't STAND HER ASS or her husband in the 90s. It was these same people who watched Fox and wanted her ass in jail for the Travelgate, Whitewater, and Vince Foster shit. These people WILL NOT VOTE FOR HER. They are a SMALL portion of the Democratic party. These "Reagan Democrats" vote REPUBLICAN. She doesn't even feel bad about the fact that she is destroying the Party based on this FALSE impression that these crossovers will actually vote for her in the fall. She is one of the most hated people in the country.

Now she is trying to bring down the best candidate we've had in 50 years because of her crazed ambition. She doesn't really give a damn about these poor people or else she would get out of the damn race and let Barack wipe the floor with McCain NOW. But NOOOOOOO she wants to drag this thing out over the summer and for what? To get to the convention to get summarily DISMISSED? Because BELIEVE ME, they are NOT taking this away from Obama. McCain is getting a FREE LUNCH right now when Obama could be devoting his full attention on him.

She is a SORRY FUCKING LOSER. I wish she would have never met BILL CLINTON!!

[FrenchieCat]

5. Righteous Rant!

Tell it like it is.....cause it's just like that.

[redstate_democrat]

6. I couldn't hold it in anymore.

I had to breathe in, breathe out, and RELEASE. Whew! *wipes forehead*

[hokies4ever]

7. I kind of like this long primary process

because it reveals what the candidates' true colors are. Watching the Republican Primary, I hardly learned much about the candidates, other than the fact that Ron Paul got screwed because he's against the Iraq War and that McCain will flip-flop on any issue in order to become the nominee. I've learned a lot about Hillary Clinton though. If someone had told me 6 months ago everything she was going to do in this campaign, I never would have believed it. Now we see her for what she truly is.

[redstate_democrat]

8. I already knew she was cold and calculating

but I figured she would a lot more sense than this. She has completely made an ass of herself. She is an embarrassment to this party. My eyes have also been opened to many other politicians and members of the Democratic party too. I never knew we had so many hardcore racists in this party. I never knew we has SO MANY cowardly, kowtowing, spineless, poll driven, easily shaken, power grabbing Dems, you know, the kind of politicians now defending Hillary for her racists comments and poorly managed campaign. I never, ever would have thought Tubbs-Jones and Shelia Lee Jackson, two strong minded and outspoken women who represent in the Congressional Black Caucus, would be making excuses for Hillary on this, when, if it had been any other white politician, Democrat or NOT, they would have come out guns a blazin. They have LOST my respect. Yes, my eyes are OPEN. All you have right now with the Clinton people are a bunch of scared, old politics having, job seeking hustlers trying to make a come up by tearing down Barack Obama's candidacy.

[hokies4ever]

10. Agreed, but let's be honest

I never would have expected that Hillary would play the race card so much during the primary season. No way would she alienate blacks, a core part of the Dem Party. This process proved me wrong though. Keep in mind that this is still a US Senator. I would have thought that she would have a little bit more class. I hope that Chelsea sees what her mother has become and decides to stay out of politics. It really has made Hillary an evil person.

[redstate_democrat]

12. Agreed. I also never would have thought she would play the race card this hard,

on black people, especially considering this little jewel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dSMfLkp7_s

[marlo]

18. That was a fucking awesome rant.

:applause:

[DeSwiss]

13. She sees a pattern emerging?

Its the same pattern we've seen before. "The Reagan-DINO pattern." If she wishes to build "a coalition" with this as her base -- then go right ahead.

- Of course she'll have to fight the Repukes for them...

K&R!!!

[VotesForWomen]

14. and the race-baiting goes on. don't worry, obama will repudiate you later.... or he'll lose. nt

[Forkboy]

15. If he loses will you feel repudiated?

[MindMatter]

16. Diminishing of of BLACK voters? What about what she's doing to WHITE voters?

I'm not worried about the black voters. They know what's up.

The problem is what she's doing to the white voters. And what she is causing the media to do.

The fact is that Obama does exceptionally well with EDUCATED whites and young whites -- solidly beating Clinton in both camps. I'm sorry what that says about Clinton's base of support, but let's put it all out there. She is targeting white women over 55 and any whites who haven't finished high school. And you wonder why her campaign is broke? Let me say this as gently as I can. Those are demographics that are big in Kentucky and West Virginia, but you can't win with those demographics alone.

But in the meantime, she has twisted this, and the media has largely followed along, into a narrative that says Obama can't win the white vote. That is simply not true. He IS winning half of the white vote -- the more educated half. The half that can provide the economic support to win in November. The half that include the youthful energy to overwhelm McCain's army on the ground.

Hillary Clinton's job now, if she intends to leave this with any standing in our party, is to get our to her base of white folks and convince them of the stakes in November, and why they all need to get behind Obama.

[Doityourself]

17. The Clintons don't have to worry about this lazy, shiftless black voter ever again...