Eugene Robinson - A Hand the Clintons Aren't Showing - washingtonpost.com
Is it possible that accusing Obama and his campaign of playing the race card might create doubt in the minds of the moderate, independent white voters who now seem so enamored of the young, black senator? Might that be the idea?
“A new Post-ABC News poll shows that black Democrats nationwide support Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton for the presidential nomination by nearly 2 to 1. This striking reversal -- a month ago, Clinton held a big lead among African Americans -- is perhaps why race has suddenly become such a hot issue in a campaign that previously had dodged the subject.”
I'd guess it depends on how calculating (and how devious) you think the Clintons are. After all, occasionally, smart people do dumb things.
At some point though, they get it. They figure out that this isn't working and start doing somwthing else.
On "Meet the Press," Clinton didn't just seek to explain her remarks about the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s role in landmark civil rights legislation (she said it took a president to bring about real action) or Bill's "fairy tale" crack about Obama's record on the Iraq war (which some African Americans took as a dismissal of Obama's candidacy as mere fantasy). Instead, she went on the attack, accusing the Obama campaign of "deliberately distorting" her words in a way that was "unfair and unwarranted."
It wasn't just her phrasing. The attitude seemed to be that if you found anything to be upset about you were the one with the problem. It might even be the case, but that's a strange attitude to take when you want someone's support.
A lot of the things associated with their quest for the nomination seem strange. They keep chastising the press for not examining Obama's record. You might think they'd do that. Instead, we get rumors that Barack is a secret muslim, or the elementary school he went to was a madrassah. We're told that he's so ambitious that he wante to be president in kindergarten.
The closest thing to a legitimate attack is a partial, out of context quote from an interview at the 2004 convention. Bill Clinton should be ashamed. A sense of shame is something neither Clinton seems to have.
Race is just one of the fights that the Clinton campaign is pressing with Obama; the other is an attempt to discredit Obama's opposition to the war. It could be that the idea is to engage Obama in so much tit-for-tat combat that his image as a new, post-partisan kind of politician is tarnished.
Is it possible? Have they given up on inclusion? Is destroying Obama more important than building a better coalition?
Bill won in 1992 by a very small margin, but, at least he ran on hope. This time they want us to abandon hope.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/14/AR2008011402082.html
Posts
