Consensus: Hillary is playing the race card and it's backfiring

[ProSense]

*** Is Clinton playing the race card? That seems to be the conclusion of everyone from Peggy Noonan to the New York Times’ editorial page. This warning by the Times will have a lot of people talking today: “Mrs. Clinton claimed in an interview with USA Today that she would be the better nominee because a recent poll showed that ‘Senator Obama’s support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again.’ She added: ‘There’s a pattern emerging here.’ Yes, there is a pattern -- a familiar and unpleasant one. It is up to Mrs. Clinton to change it if she hopes to have any shot at winning the nomination or preserving her integrity and her influence if she loses.” Politico's Smith added that Clinton was as blunt as she ever was on the issue of her white support. He speculated that it might not have been an accident, since there are no primaries left with significant African-American electorates.

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Editorial

Sen. Clinton and the Campaign

Published: May 9, 2008

There is a lot of talk that Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton is now fated to lose the Democratic nomination and should pull out of the race. We believe it is her right to stay in the fight and challenge Senator Barack Obama as long as she has the desire and the means to do so. That is the essence of the democratic process.

But we believe just as strongly that Mrs. Clinton will be making a terrible mistake — for herself, her party and for the nation — if she continues to press her candidacy through negative campaigning with disturbing racial undertones. We believe it would also be a terrible mistake if she launches a fight over the disqualified delegations from Florida and Michigan.

The United States needs a clean break from eight catastrophic years of George W. Bush. And so far, Senator John McCain is shaping up as Bush the Sequel — neverending war in Iraq, tax cuts for the rich while the middle class struggles, courts packed with right-wing activists intent on undoing decades of progress in civil rights, civil liberties and other vital areas.

The Democratic Party must field the most effective and vibrant candidate it possibly can. More attack ads and squabbling will not help achieve that goal. If Mr. Obama wins, he will be that much more battered and the party will be harder to unite. Win or lose, Mrs. Clinton’s reputation will suffer more harm than it already has.

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Never Thought I'd Say It

How far off track is Hillary's campaign? It's so bad even Peggy Noonan is making sense, painful as that is to say.

NOTE FROM JOHN: I'm not sure I'd have compared her language to the Klan - but then again, I'm not black, so I don't presume to be as sensitive to the nuances of racism as I am to homophobia, for example. But, I do hear a lot of David Duke. I mean, "white Americans"? The more I think about the phrase, the more I really can't come up with a situation in which I would ever use it. White people, sure. But white Americans? That sounds like David Duke's phrase "European Americans." It's just not a phrase the non-racists use. Then again, every time Hillary moves into a new state, she picks the one right-wing issue to embrace that she thinks will help with that state. In North Carolina it was homophobia (pansy, etc.). In Pennsylvania she became Annie Oakley. And now with West Virginia, she embracing racism. It's like Hillary's own perverted rainbow coalition of homophobes, NRA members, and racists. I think this speaks volumes to what Hillary sees when she sees rural America, southern America,and the midwest. To her we're all rednecks.

_____________
Blogger Oliver Willis, who is African-American, weighs in with a post titled "Hillary White Power Clinton":
Indeed, a pattern has emerged some time ago. Boy, did we dodge a bullet.

“(W)orking, hard-working Americans, white Americans.” She really said that. Wow.

Congratulations, Hillary Clinton, you win the prize for the first Democratic Bigot Eruption since I’ve been keeping track of this. Even professional haters like Pat Buchanan and his ilk aren’t so balls-out about racism. You’ve been getting your ass handed to you and especially among black voters. This shows me once again that we - who are apparently lazy and shiftless non-Americans based on your definition - have yet again been a leading indicator.

There was maybe a slight chance Barack Obama might have been pushed to pick you as his running mate, but we can’t have someone spouting Klan-style talking points on the ticket. Heck, there’s a good shot with language like that you won’t win back your senate seat in 2012. I mean, a lot of those apparently lazy and shiftless non-American blacks helped you to win and they’d just as soon vote for someone else in the primary or the Republican in the election rather than someone echoing Bull Connor’s language.

“Working, hard working Americans, white Americans,” indeed.

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ABC: Obama Overtakes Hillary Among Super-Delegates

By Eric Kleefeld - May 9, 2008, 8:33AM

While each news organization's super-delegate count varies, Barack Obama has reached a new milestone: According to ABC News, the first news outlet to declare this, he has overtaken Hillary Clinton in support among super-delegates by a score of 267-265.

In a further sign of political decline for Hillary Clinton, African-American Congressman Donald Payne of New Jersey has now switched his allegiance from Clinton over to Barack Obama. "It's time now for us to pull our party together," Payne told the Newark Star-Ledger.

Obama has also picked up Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR), while Hillary has gotten freshman Rep. Chris Carney (D-PA).

The score so far for today: Obama +2, Hillary net +0.

Late Update: Obama has just been endorsed by Maryland DNC member John Gage, bringing Obama to +3 so far today.

Late Update: Just to clarify a certain point, Payne's switch does beg the question of whether Hillary's statement about winning more white voters has alienated her in any way from black supporters.

Obama wins endorsement of government employees union

<...>

While calling Clinton a friend and saying she has worked hard for federal employees, Gage said some members of AFGE's board also think having Obama as the Democratic nominee would help the Democratic slate as a whole. Obama will do better in "bringing along some of the downticket races," Gage said.

AFGE is the largest federal employee union, representing 600,000 workers in the federal government and the government of the District of Columbia.

[Lerkfish]

1. it's reassuring to know that it DOES backfire.

[roseBudd]

9. Macaca proved that the Southern strategy hurts more than it helps

[BlooInBloo]

15. Macaca got more of the black vote than Clinton did - hahahha!

[uponit7771]

17. YEAPERS!!

[uponit7771]

14. AMEN TO THAT!!!

[SoonerPride]

2. Frankly, I'm shocked at the apologists who say she doesn't need to apologize

Talking so frankly about support by "whites" is terribly divisive and dog whistle politics.

Disgusting.

[babylonsister]

3. I'm waiting for a backlash from residents of WV and Kentucky.

They're her peeps; does that mean they're all racist? That's an insult to a lot of them, I would think.

[NoFederales]

7. It is certainly an opportunity for WV and KY to repudiate Clinton. nt

NoFederales

[babylonsister]

8. But will they? I know nothing about either state. nt

[marions ghost]

25. yes it DOES insult the residents of WV and Kentucky

--good point--and just ASSUMES they're all knuckle-draggers. It stereotypes them and keeps them in a box too. Many of these areas of the country have moved beyond knee-jerk racism and are trying to get there one day, more slowly than other places perhaps, but trying.

[Thrill]

4. Unfortunately the next two states will give credit to her claims

[ShortnFiery]

11. Not necessarily. The Younger Generation doesn't have so much baggage.

Further, when it comes to Puerto Rico, the YOUNG people will convince their older parents ... I do believe "These times they are a changing'" :thumbsup:

[uponit7771]

18. RIGHT!!! 95% of polled highschoolers think interacial dating is OK and 60% have dated outside of rac

[Submariner]

5. The wheels have come off her campaign

[cliffordu]

23. Hey - that's me at graduation....where'd you get that??

:rofl:

[TahitiNut]

27. You joke. I actually did even worse.

Yes, it was around college graduation. As a near-graduate at Wayne State University in Detroit, I did the "'cove to the coast run" - a pedestrian 'pub crawl' beginning at 9pm at the Alcove Lounge on Woodward Avenue, 2.5 miles from the Detroit River and the last place that serves drinks: the Top of the Flame (a Stouffers restaurant) at One Woodward Avenue a the top of the Michigan Consolodated Gas building. Thirty-five (or so) bars. Two-and-a-half miles.

Nobody had EVER finished. Many tried. Nobody succeeded. Until me! (hic!)

Short story ... I found myself laying on the floor of the men's john at the Top of the Flame, in front of a line of wall-to-floor urinals. I was barfing into one and peeing into another. Yep ... classy. Efficient, too.

I get a headache just thinking about it. I was actually hungover TWO days later. (I'm actually lucky to have survived, I think ... without liver damage.)

[ampad]

6. I noticed it was backfiring

When I logged on this morning and noticed her supporters pathetic attempt at spinning her words and the plea to stop beating a dead horse; funny that most of them beat the Wright horse to a pulp but I digress. :rofl: Good serves her right.

[ShortnFiery]

10. Yes, that tired old "spade work" of employing Atwater's Southern Strategy is a BIG TELL!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oRwZQLdhEw

[nichomachus]

12. I'm going to give Hillary a pass on that one

Normally, I'd look at what someone said to find what clues it gave to their thought process. And, I think Hillary has an awful lot to answer for. She lost me when she started mocking the Obama supporters with the "The skies will open . . blah blah blah" remark.

However, my take on this latest gaffe is that her campaign is in disarray. Her presidential run is over. Her political career in general may well be on the ropes. Her supporters are leaving her in droves.

What I see in this remark is desperation. She's lost the thread and she can't pick it up. Her advisers are all looking for the lifeboats, and she's got no coherent message to move forward with. So she's hammering together bits and pieces of phrases she heard from her latest polls. I think she was just trying to spout some demographics and cobbled together some very unfortunate phrases.

This is what we see Bush do a lot -- he just hammers together things he hears other people say in meetings and it comes out all loopy.

So, I'm not going to read too much into this -- although I know other will.

[uponit7771]

19. But this isn't just passive comments from a politician, those comments HURT minorities and rich...

..white folk (rich white people = new black?!?!?!..) because stupid people are involved in every walk of life from CEO to mother to president of a supper power and they don't know any better and take words of politicians like Hillary and use them against people overtly or covertly.

[nichomachus]

21. I'm not saying they won't have bad effects

I'm just talking about what led her to say them. Sometimes people say unintentional stupid things that have bad consequences. Back in 2002, Bush was talking about "deflation" in Japan and said he had had discussions with the prime minister about "devaluation." That slip of the tongue caused a huge plunge in the price of the yen.

[ProSense]

24. "Sometimes people say unintentional stupid things" Except that it's

not unintentional. Her campaign threw the talking point out there right after the IN and NC primaries.

[ProSense]

13. The Card Clinton Is Playing

The Card Clinton Is Playing

By Eugene Robinson
Friday, May 9, 2008; Page A27

From the beginning, Hillary Clinton has campaigned as if the Democratic nomination were hers by divine right. That's why she is falling short -- and that's why she should be persuaded to quit now, rather than later, before her majestic sense of entitlement splits the party along racial lines.

If that sounds harsh, look at the argument she made Wednesday, in an interview with USA Today, as to why she should be the nominee instead of Barack Obama. She cited an Associated Press article "that found how Senator Obama's support . . . among working, hardworking Americans, white Americans, is weakening again. I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on."

As a statement of fact, that's debatable at best. As a rationale for why Democratic Party superdelegates should pick her over Obama, it's a slap in the face to the party's most loyal constituency -- African Americans -- and a repudiation of principles the party claims to stand for. Here's what she's really saying to party leaders: There's no way that white people are going to vote for the black guy. Come November, you'll be sorry.

How silly of me. I thought the Democratic Party believed in a colorblind America.

<...>

The other notion -- that Clinton could position herself as some kind of Great White Hope and still expect African American voters to give her their enthusiastic support in the fall -- is just nuts. Obama has already won a majority of the Democratic primary contests; within a couple of weeks, he almost certainly will have won a majority of the pledged convention delegates and will be assured of finishing with more of the popular vote. Only in Camp Clinton does anyone believe that his supporters will be happy if party leaders tell him, in effect, "Nice job, kid, but we can't give you the nomination because, well, you're black. White people might not like that."

Clinton's sin isn't racism, it's arrogance. From the beginning, the Clinton campaign has refused to consider the possibility that Obama's success was more than a fad. This was supposed to be Clinton's year, and if Obama was winning primaries, there had to be some reason that had nothing to do with merit. It was because he was black, or because he had better slogans, or because he was a better public speaker, or because he was the media's darling. This new business about white voters is just the latest story the Clinton campaign is telling itself about the usurper named Obama.

"It's still early," Clinton said Wednesday, vowing to fight on. At some level, she seems to believe the nomination is hers. Somebody had better tell her the truth before she burns the house down.

[L0oniX]

16. K&R

[ProSense]

20. The president of the government employees union is also a superdelegate

AFGE President and Superdelegate John Gage Endorses Obama; Delegate Countdown - 164 To Go

[K Gardner]

22. "If donkeys could vote, she'd play the animal card" -- pundit on MSNBC yesterday.

[ProSense]

29. So true. n/t

[JBoy]

26. I love this description of Paul Begala by Peggy Noonan:

"Paul Begala wore the smile of the 1990s, the one in which there is no connection between the shape of the mouth and what the mouth says. All is mask. Donna Brazile was having none of it."

[goclark]

28. Yea for the America that we need to be ~

[ProSense]

30. Kennedy: No veep slot for Clinton (ouch, ouch)

Kennedy: No veep slot for Clinton

It's fun to think about, but there are so many obstacles, and Ted Kennedy isn't buying, he said on Bloomberg Television's "Political Capital With Al Hunt," which airs this weekend.

Obama should choose a running mate who "is in tune with his appeal for the nobler aspirations of the American people," Kennedy said. "If we had real leadership — as we do with Barack Obama — in the No. 2 spot as well, it'd be enormously helpful."

Ouch.

[wowimthere]

31. She like her strategy is outdated. When you race bait. You are a racist.

[uponit7771]

33. Yeap, and that race baiting has negative effects on minorities because of stupid people taking it to

...seriously

[ProSense]

32. Hillary's campaign is officially deemed a waste of money by ALP

Big Pro-Hillary Third-Party Group Won't Be Funding Ads In West Virginia

By Greg Sargent - May 9, 2008, 3:00PM

I'm told reliably that the American Leadership Project -- the big third-party group funded by Hillary-backing unions and major donors -- will not be funding any ads on her behalf in West Virginia.

The West Virginia contest this coming Tuesday will obviously be an easy win for Hillary. Still, keep in mind that she needs to run up her margin of victory as high as possible, so any third-party spending on her behalf would be helpful.

So it's not hard to divine the significance of the fact that ALP -- one of the biggest-spending outside groups in her corner -- isn't putting any cash into the state.

[Spazito]

34. The movement of 8 Super-delegates to Obama today says it all....

They waited to see if Senator Clinton would dial back her attacks on Obama and focus on McCain and united the party after Tuesday. Her racially divisive comments yesterday showed them she will continue to harm the party and the Democratic chances in November and are now moving quickly to send a VERY clear message to her, imo.

[ProSense]

36. Hillary's comments have become her campaign's talking point. n/t

[Spazito]

37. Yes, and it bewilders me, to say the least....

even if they believe she still has a chance, common sense should tell them their tactics are hurting, not helping. If the intent is to burn all the bridges, then I have to ask for what gain. There is no way in hell going out in flames in 2008 works toward any 2012 run, a run some subscribe to as her motives.

How does leaving one's reputation in tatters help in any way toward any goal?

[ProSense]

38. There are some people who appear to believe

"it's all good."

Hillary's campaign has become a joke and disgrace.

[FogerRox]

35. YO !, the campaign is a backfire.

[tblue37]

39. Of course, Ferraro said he couldn't have gotten so many votes

if he were white--so which is it? Is he getting just getting votes because he is black, or is he incapable of getting votes because he is black? The Clinton camp does seem to offer mutually exclusive narratives.

[barack the house]

40. Yep from campaign alone it says Hillary stereotypes the south and thinks minorities are lazy....

Obama is affirmative action and that he is secretly hiding for 20 years he is a muslim. If you voted in a caucus you are undemocratic. If you ever quote someone then you are unoriginal and use a xerox machine. Also it is useless to have any hope when cynicism works just as well a negative view always helped solve world affairs. We can't talk to our enemies, heaven forbid we might make friends and then where would the war idnustry be. If you ever get popular watch out this only mean you are part of a cult. Don't ever associate with anyone whoever did anything bad in life or you will have to denounce and renoucne them even if they are your own family. You only matter if your a big state 1st don't have time for small states. All first questions must go to Hillary too, which is natural she was 1st lady. Plust the rich are blessed while the poor well they are only the unblessed who vote for her, so endearing. Her campaign also assumes that if you are not a minority who has a career you are stealing cars. Hillary has such an inspiring view of America change you can... erm.... believe in...maybe.

[ProSense]

41. California voters would switch to Obama

Californians Would Switch Clinton Vote For Obama

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5) ― California voters would change their February primary vote for Hillary Clinton to a vote for Barack Obama if the vote were held again, according to an exclusive poll commissioned by CBS 5.

While voters in the California Democratic Presidential Primary backed Clinton by a 10-point margin, a new SurveyUSA poll shows that if given the chance to vote again, Californians would choose Barack Obama by a 6-point margin, 49%-43%.

The poll was conducted on May 7 and 8 and has a margin of error of 4%.

On the Republican side, John McCain won by 8 points in the California primary. The new poll says he would win by 35, in a 55%-20% victory over Mitt Romney, if Californians were given the chance to vote again.