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| Thursday, January 10, 2008 |
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Hillary and Bill's Quandary
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This morning I think I got a sneak peek into the Barack Obama presidency.
A black girl across the room was up lecturing those near her, "Bill Clinton called Obama's campaign a 'fairy tale!' Then Hillary cried some tears at the debate to make some old white ladies vote for her!" I knew some of her facts were wrong right off the bat. Hillary "cried" at a diner, not the debates. The debates are where she yelled at John Edwards. During break I went to the Internet cafe and watched video of Bill Clinton's speech for myself.
Bill doesn't call Barack's campaign a "fairy tale," the fairy tale he cites is in how the media has treated the Barack Obama campaign with kid gloves. Any other candidate can expect to have several in-depth analyses of their record. "At this point the candidate said this, two years later he said this. Critics say he's failed on this, this, and this issue." There have been no such reports on Barack Obama. All we see are feel-good stories about our possible first black president. Clinton is mystified as to why.
I'm not. I know why. He's black! Or half-black. Therefore there can be no criticisms from any quarters of anything Barack Obama does. On inauguration day a large part of the Democratic base, African-Americans, may bestow upon Barack the O.J. Simpson Cloak of Unimpeachability. From that moment Obama could take office and declare war on Canada, and the American public would stand by all smiles, cowed, because to criticise this judgement would get them labelled "racist." He could make as big a mess of the nation as G.W. Bush (is that possible?) and his defense would be, "You're just angry to see a black president!," much as George Bush, Jr. used, "Do you not support the troops? You're anti-American!"
The moron's commentary this morning just illustrated this for me. After all the decades of good will Bill Clinton has built up with the black community -- speaking in black churches and even putting his current office in Harlem -- it's all gone in a 1:30 criticism of Barack Obama.
And therein lies the quandary. How can you campaign aggressively against a minority candidate without alienating their voter base that you share? Barack Obama can throw stones at Hillary all day without it even being mentioned in the press, yet if Hillary gets one lick in all sorts of negativity is thrown her way, Bill Clinton wisely points out.
You may think I'm an offended Hillary backer, but actually after reading the three Democratic candidates sites I found Barack Obama's to be the most informative and best-written and may vote for him, though I personally felt partial to John Edwards. It's entirely true, though, what Bill Clinton says.
No less than William Smythe, one of the most-read Washington pundits, pointed out any Obama supporter you talk to can't tell you one thing he stands for, they just say he's "fresh," "exciting" and "new." At the call center penitentiary the other day I talked to a lady in New York and asked who her neighbors were favoring. She said she was in Manhattan and her neighbors liked Obama. When asked why they liked him more than their senator she said they were liberal. Pressed further, she said, "They're very liberal and to have a black president would be very exciting for them."
That's it? Just because he's black? Funny, used to the conventional thinking was you couldn't get elected because you were black. Now you can get elected just because you're black!
It's worth thinking about. |
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Posted by Art | 10:20 PM EST |
3 comments
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He's not perfect, and the scrutiny will certainly come if he is the nominee. But he is a breath of fresh air compared to the tired, old, failed windbags running against him, always re-fighting the last war. I think he could very well be this century's Lincoln, an unlikely, unusual man whose qualifications will be universally questioned, and who could be a pivotal figure in the success or fall of American history.
rankin' rob
Ah, but people ARE responding to him as a black candidate, whether they say so or not! Witness how Bill Clinton recently had to make a round of call-ins to talk shows to further explain his critcism of Barack, lest he upset the black vote. Look at the girl in my call center, angry he said "fairy tale" and accusing Hillary of crying for "old white ladies." Or how about the lady I talked to in Manhattan, "...to have a black president would be very exciting for them"? And it's possible those 98% white voters in Iowa were voting to impress themselves they aren't racist.
It just seems like the hip thing to do. Throw down a cup of Guatemala Casi Cielo, put on a Youssou N'Dour CD, and blow down to the polls in the Audi to put in the $50,000+ income white guilt vote for Barack.
All that said, I do like how explicit his site is and am 95% likely to vote for him. I just wonder if Al Sharpton will get involved if one of his proposals is stopped by old white men on the Hill.