CBS: One Of His Top Aides Tells 60 Minutes "Zero" Meetings Were About Obama's Race

[marmar]

Aides: We Didn't Obsess About Obama's Race
One Of His Top Aides Tells 60 Minutes "Zero" Meetings Were About Obama's Race
Comments 106
Nov. 7, 2008


(CBS) Not getting obsessed about Barack Obama's race was one of the secrets of the successful campaign to put the first African American in the White House, Obama's closest counselors tell 60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft.

The president-elect's four top campaign aides, political advisors David Axelrod and Anita Dunn, campaign manager David Plouffe and press secretary Robert Gibbs, were debriefed by Kroft on election night for a 60 Minutes segment to be broadcast this Sunday, Nov. 9, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

Answering Kroft's question about whether race was a part of planning the campaign, Plouffe replies, "No, honestly, you had to take a leap of faith in the beginning that the people will get by race. And I think the number of meetings we had about race was zero," he says.

Adds Axelrod, "The only time we got involved in a discussion of race was when people asked us about it. It was a fascination of the news media…the political community," he tells Kroft. "But internally, it was not an obsession of ours."

The only time that Obama's race became a campaign issue for them was when the media began playing video of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama's former pastor, excoriating America's treatment of blacks from his pulpit. "That was a terrible weekend," Dunn remembers. "The excerpts were endlessly looped on television." Then, said Axelrod, " said 'I'm going to make a speech about race and talk about Jeremiah Wright and the perspective of the larger issue…And either the people will accept it or I won't be president…'" ........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/11/07/60minutes/main4584507.shtml

[Dr Fate]

1. Good to have the adults running the show here.

"And either the people will accept it or I won't be president..."

That is called taking things like a man! President Obama is a real gem...

[Triana]

2. THAT SPEECH was THE speech that brought me TO Obama...

It was the ONE that cinched it for me. He HAD me right there. I've printed it out and saved it because it is a truely historical speech coming from our first black President of the US. That speech, along with those of the Kennedys and MLK, will become an indelible part of history.

Obama is a REMARKABLE man. I'm still so damn happy he's going to be our President.

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. Thanks for the transcrit idea. Here's link to one.

I am going to save a lot of his speeches.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/03/18/obama.transcript/index.html

[question everything]

3. As it should have been

Neither Obama nor Clinton ran as a black or as a woman candidate. Rather, as a candidate who happened to be black or a woman. It was the supporters, and opponents, who turned these races into a debate about race and gender in America.

And, yes, even on DU, it often bothered me that many women said that they were not going to vote for Clinton just because she was a woman, yet, black voters emphasized that Obama was 'Ours."

See also

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x399761