Dems Shoot Themselves In the Foot
Race may be the ultimate red herring as well as the most potentially destructive element of the Democratic presidential race.
While the Republican field has fled from debates before black audiences, can expect precious few black voters come November and issues pertaining to race come up only incidentally such as in the context of immigration reform or whether Mitt Romney did or did not march with Martin Luther King Jr. as a young man, the Democrats have the high ground.
Which makes the by now incessant sniping between the Clinton and Obama camps over race downright silly. There always should be a place in national political discourse for racial issues, but they’re not doing that so much as engaging in a food fight over which candidate is more racially attuned in transparent and clumsy efforts to win precious black voters in the next round of primaries.
It is Bill Clinton, who is not facetiously sometimes referred to as “America’s first black president” because of his own struggles to overcome adversity and historically strong support in the black community, who is throwing the most food with ill-considered remarks aimed at Obama, including his dismissive description of the platform of his wife’s black challenger as the “biggest fairy tale I’ve ever seen.”
I’m not suggesting that the Clinton camp lay off of the racial stuff. Obama is fair game. But it has been embarrassingly bad as it trots out one surrogate after another and then inevitably, and I suspect calculatedly, have to backtrack and say they really didn’t mean what they meant.
The surrogates range from spear carrier Billy Shaheen, Clinton’s semi-disgraced former New Hampshire co-campaign manager, who “warned” that Republicans would seize on the issue of whether Obama had not just done drugs but sold them as a teenager, to a conveniently anonymous Clinton advisor who told a reporter for The Guardian that “If you have a social need, you’re with Hillary. If you want Obama to be your imaginary hip black friend and you’re young and you have no social needs, then he’s cool.”
Now the Clinton campaign is putting out the word that it is moving to ease racial frictions that are substantially of its own doing. If memory serves me correctly, this is at least the third such time in the last two months that it has said it would do so.
While the election is the Democrats to lose, it’s been a while since I’ve noted that they are perfectly capable of blowing it. The current smack down over race is a good, if ironic start considering that the big racial story is the shameful Republican Party record on race and its absence as a positive part of its candidates’ campaigns.
opinions powered by SendLove.to
10 Responses to “Dems Shoot Themselves In the Foot”
While the election is the Democrats to lose,
A month ago I would have wholeheartedly agreed with you. Hillary Clinton was just waiting for the coronation and then suddenly This hip black man showed up and all bets are off.
Will this nation select a “hip black man” to be our next president? A nation that has seen the hispanic voter pass the black voter in power and prestige. Will this nation select a “boring white woman” to be the next president? A nation where 51 percent of the population is women?
I would bet on the woman but with the polarization of both parties I feel that the abandonment by either camp will force the other sides supporters to not vote or to vote for a third party.
I now am convinced it is not the Democrats to win, but it is rather the GOP's to once again lose.
I have put the GOP back in the running because of the polarization of politics in their own party. The thirst for power in the DNC is mindboggling. No less so then in the GOP the problem is that the GOP is not nearly as fractured as is the Dems right now.
[...] Here’s another interesting post I read today by The Moderate Voice » Domestic and international news analysis, irreverent comments, ori… [...]
[...] Stephen Gordon wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptThe surrogates range from spear chucker Billy Shaheen, Clinton’s semi-disgraced former New Hampshire co-campaign manager, who “warned” that Republicans would seize on the issue of whether Obama had not just done drugs but sold them as a … Read the rest of this great post here Posted by [...]
The GOP's to lose? Well that's a spin I hadn't heard yet. Of course there's plenty of time yet for things shift around and I'd never underestimate the dem's ability to screw up a free lunch. They need to be more careful and keep their eyes on the ball, which means replacing the downwardly mobile status quo – without self-destructing in the process.
How cares that two Democratic candidates are fighting over the black vote (while not saying a word about it during the primary campaigns in all white Iowa and New Hampshire)? Blacks are going to vote for whoever has a (D) after their name no matter what.
I find it odd that the first time I hear about Jesse Jackson have a prominent role in the Obama campaign is when the election in South Carolina is important.
How can any campaign claim to be about bi-partisanship and change while having a racial shakedown artist involved with their campaign. Bipartisanship to Jesse Jackson Jr is to tell whites that they are racist and should give him what he wants.
This is actually one of the more interesting primaries we've had in awhile insofar as it's resistance to prediction. Who knows what will shake out by February? The ground seems to be ever shifting. Once the general election kicks in, the big guns will be coming out and it will be a playground for politcal junkies. . . and probably utter misery for everyone else.
“Once the general election kicks in, the big guns will be coming out and it will be a playground for politcal junkies. . . and probably utter misery for everyone else.”
Well, the Dem convention is in August and the Rep. convention is in Sept. so we have two months of general election campaigning to (depending on whether you're a political junkie or not) either get one huge mega fix, or to wallow in misery. Either way, if Obama is the Dem. nominee he'll have to keep his supporters inspired so they will vote. Otherwise the Rep nominee will have a real good shot of winning. If Hillary is the nominee, a lot people won't vote- it will just be seen as the same old game.
By the way, I think Obama came in behind Hillary (in NH) for two reasons: one, HIllary's appeal to women (Hillary's “tear” episode- along with the guys gaining up in her); and two, I don't think Obama kept his college supporters inspired enough to vote for him.
Since Bill Clinton is America's first black president, and Hillary by extension is America's first black first lady, it should be patently obvious to any pundit that they are both incapable of race baiting, racism, etc. Therefore, any remarks they make critical of Obama must, by default, be pure and blameless.
To even suggest that Democrats are capable of using race to their political advantage is absurd. Only Republicans could stoop so low. I therefore conclude that Shawn has been abducted and a Republican mouthpiece is writing under his byline. Someone call 911.
“spear carrier”
Racist!
Until I see otherwise I expect a Democrat, Clinton, to win the White House.