Like ‘Shoe Polish,’ Clintons Rub Obama’s ‘Blackness’ Into Electorate
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It seems that just about everyone, both here and abroad, have concluded that the Clintons have been wrongfully manipulating the issue of race. But according to this op-ed article by columnist Rik Kuethe of The Netherlands’ Elsevier, widespread realization of this is unlikely to stop this anti-Obama plot from working. Kuethe writes unapologetically, “the Clinton couple, one of the most powerful political machines America has ever seen, is making sure that Obama’s blackness gets rubbed into the electorate like its shoe polish.”
By Rik Kuethe
Translated By Meta Mertens
January 28, 2008
The Netherlands – Elsevier – Home Page (Dutch)
It’s not young Senator Barack Obama ensuring that race remains an election issue. That’s the work of the Clintons, as it suits them in view of Super Tuesday.
Barack Obama’s won a resounding victory in the South Carolina Democratic primary. He received 55 percent of the vote against his main opponent, Hillary Clinton, who won 27 percent. And at the start of the month [January], Obama scored his first win at their first showdown in White Iowa.
Americans are easily susceptible to something new. Many, including John F. Kennedy’s daughter Caroline, consider this “lemon-fresh man” to be in an excellent position to win the Democratic nomination.
Whether he succeeds will be decided on Tuesday, Feb. 5 – otherwise known as Super Tuesday – when 22 states hold their primaries simultaneously. The chances that Obama will come out the victor, however, are small.
SNOW WHITE
The young Senator from Illinois says time and again that these elections are not about race. Quite apart from the fact that he had a mother who was as white as Snow White, he certainly means what he says. He also has an interest in keeping it so.
But more recently, the Clinton couple, one of the most powerful political machines America has ever seen, is making sure that Obama’s blackness gets rubbed into the electorate like its shoe polish.
READ THE REST AT WORLDMEETS.US, along with continuing translated foreign news coverage of the U.S. elections
4 Responses to “Like ‘Shoe Polish,’ Clintons Rub Obama’s ‘Blackness’ Into Electorate”
[...] Dana J. Tuszke wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptHe received 55 percent of the vote against his main opponent, Hillary Clinton, who won 27 percent. And at the start of the month [January], Obama scored his first win at their first showdown in White Iowa. … Read the rest of this great post here Posted by [...]
So by pointing out the obvious that somehow makes Pres. Clinton a race baiter? Sen. Obama won South Carolina by an extremely healthy margin but in a state whose demographics are unique vs. the rest of the US. He won over 80% of the black vote and barely 25% of the white vote. He also had a huge reversal in Nevada where he received the endorsement of the largest union in the state. In many cases union members carried Obama signs then went into the caucus to vote for Sen. Clinton. But if it was pointed out that the majority of the casino and hotel workers were of Mexican or Central American descent would that also be considered race baiting.
Also Rev. Jackson won 5 primaries that year and garnered over 24% of the vote yet in the all inclusive Democratic Party only received 8% of the delegates.
The corollary would be to suggest that Gov. Huckabee won in Iowa by mobilizing a rather large evangelical vote that was primarily home schooling its children. And that unless he could find other states with a similar demographic his victory was a oner. Yet that's exactly what happened. Does that make one anti-Christian for pointing that out. I suspect that by now the tide of hysteric overreaction among the press will accept any normal political charge made by the Clintons as throwbacks to the ante bellum South. I'm also wondering when someone will claim that the Clintons came from Arkansas and we all know that state is populated by hillbillies and racists.
The black vote is of more interest than the Religious Right vote and Obama as well as Huckabee must be interested in how well they do in the South today.
See page two of this map.
http://www.census.gov/prod/2001pubs/mso01-bp.pdf
This is a pretty aggravating post I must say. The candidates, both of them because both of them have said dumb things, have gone way beyond this issue now, this is old news, and your regurgitating it now is hardly helpful to our national discourse. I have news for you: Obama is black. He might be the first black president. His race is not irrelevant. He hopes to do well among black voters. Hillary is a woman. She may be the first woman president. Her gender is not irrelevant. She hopes to do well with woman voters. And the notion that the Clintons have race baited in this campaign is an urban myth spread by people with an unduly thin skin, whose heads will probably explode this summer when they see what the Repubs have in store for them.