Tuesday, January 29, 2008
The "Race" Card & Tomorrows
Much too busy until today to post my musing about the latest political brouhaha, this time over the Clinton campaign injecting race into the race, Howling Latina respectfully submits that journalists were the very ones to drag the first racist code word into the '08 political lexicon, not Hillary or Bill Clinton.
As proof, she hearkens back to Sen. Hillary Clinton's huge win in New Hampshire over Sen. Barack Obama and how certain media elites, including progressive bloggers, minimized her huge win by attributing the Bradley effect as a major component, a not-too-subtle code word for white racism.
You see, how else could the former first lady come from behind and win in New Hampshire?!?
Today, one of the initial purveyors of this blatantly racist theory, Eugene Robinson, pens an op-ed in the Washington Post.
Sure, the former president could've used John Edwards as an example to show that winning South Carolina did not guarantee winning the over-all Democratic presidential nomination, but again, that would've missed the specific point that race was a factor in selecting South Carolina and race may well have played a part in Obama's landslide victory.
Was it not fair game to muse about the Bradley effect in New Hampshire's win for Hillary??? Why not give Bill Clinton the same degree of forbearance in South Carolina???
Now, as Mr. Robinson darkly writes, "[t]he Clintons [may be] running the kind of campaign they know how to run," but after seven painful years of clever sloganeering dolled up by Bush as thoughtful assessment, voters would do well to keep in mind that no matter how many times Obama tells them the election in '08 is "about the past versus the future," elections are equally about our yesterdays as they are about tomorrows.
Or is Obama using code words to remind blacks of Jim Crow and minimize it for whites? Conspiracy symbolism is endlessly suggestive of meaning.
Geez, why are Democrats allowing the media glitterati to frame their race? If this back and forth nonsense doesn' stop, folks may decide to stay home and not vote -- especially since both Obama and Clinton are excellent, credible candidates. And of course, the media will then frame the issue as Dems disgusted by the process with dire consequences for the party in the fall.
Update: Ohmygahd, the "howler" just realized that her use of "darkly writes" when referring to Eugene Robinson could ALSO BE CONSTRUED as racist code words. Please know that the problem lies with American idiom -- not with the "howler."
As proof, she hearkens back to Sen. Hillary Clinton's huge win in New Hampshire over Sen. Barack Obama and how certain media elites, including progressive bloggers, minimized her huge win by attributing the Bradley effect as a major component, a not-too-subtle code word for white racism.
You see, how else could the former first lady come from behind and win in New Hampshire?!?
Today, one of the initial purveyors of this blatantly racist theory, Eugene Robinson, pens an op-ed in the Washington Post.
You see, the Clintons are not allowed to talk about the huge elephant in the room; that is, that South Carolina was specifically selected as an early primary state because of its huge Democratic black voting block.Playing the race card against Barack Obama didn't work out quite the way Bill Clinton had hoped.
[...]
I wonder how all the Clintonistas who protested that Bill and Hillary would never, ever dream of stooping to racial politics must be feeling now, after Bill was videotaped in the act. On Saturday, as Democrats in South Carolina went to the polls, a reporter asked Bill about Obama's boast that it took two Clintons to try to beat him. Bill replied: "Jesse Jackson won South Carolina in '84 and '88. Jackson ran a good campaign. And Obama ran a good campaign here."
Sure, the former president could've used John Edwards as an example to show that winning South Carolina did not guarantee winning the over-all Democratic presidential nomination, but again, that would've missed the specific point that race was a factor in selecting South Carolina and race may well have played a part in Obama's landslide victory.
Was it not fair game to muse about the Bradley effect in New Hampshire's win for Hillary??? Why not give Bill Clinton the same degree of forbearance in South Carolina???
Now, as Mr. Robinson darkly writes, "[t]he Clintons [may be] running the kind of campaign they know how to run," but after seven painful years of clever sloganeering dolled up by Bush as thoughtful assessment, voters would do well to keep in mind that no matter how many times Obama tells them the election in '08 is "about the past versus the future," elections are equally about our yesterdays as they are about tomorrows.
Or is Obama using code words to remind blacks of Jim Crow and minimize it for whites? Conspiracy symbolism is endlessly suggestive of meaning.
Geez, why are Democrats allowing the media glitterati to frame their race? If this back and forth nonsense doesn' stop, folks may decide to stay home and not vote -- especially since both Obama and Clinton are excellent, credible candidates. And of course, the media will then frame the issue as Dems disgusted by the process with dire consequences for the party in the fall.
Update: Ohmygahd, the "howler" just realized that her use of "darkly writes" when referring to Eugene Robinson could ALSO BE CONSTRUED as racist code words. Please know that the problem lies with American idiom -- not with the "howler."
// posted by Howling Latina @ 10:53 AM 
