The Slicing and Dicing of America Again

Email This Post Email This Post

First there was the Christian Coalition separating Real Christians from the Others.
Then there was Bush making us Red or Blue.
Now Obama using the race card again and again separating blacks and white.
The Obama Campaign’s Strategic Blunder – They Made it Personalby Angie Pratt

When the Obama campaign made its claim of racism against Hillary after theNew Hampshire primary they made a booboo. A big one. Prior to that Clinton’s supporters were open to entertaining a vote for Obama. Maybe he’d be OK.
The evening of Hillary’s win in New Hampshire the claim came out that Hillary had somehow cheated. Somehow she had gotten white folks to vote for her because she was white and Obama was black. That claim was used to explain away Obama’s defeat and set the stage for getting out the black vote in South Carolina.
The media jumped on it. It explained how they could have been so wrong. Chris Mathews and Keith Olbermann actually had to tone down their anti-Hillary rhetoric for a week or so. So this lie got repeated over and over again.

>snip<

It worked. Obama had a winning strategy. If he could consistently get 80% to 90% of the black vote he’d be set.
Well … if it worked once … try it again. So the Obama camp called the Clintons racists again and again and again – at every opportunity.

The national media loved it. It fit with the stereotype that many wanted to tag Hillary with anyway – that’s she’d do anything to win – including playing the race card. What black would vote for her if she’d stoop so low. Just goes to show that white folks can’t be trusted.

All Hillary could say was “no I didn’t.” As the Obama campaign knew/knows full well, disproving the negative is virtually impossible.

The problem with this approach and the strategic blunder for the Obama Campaign is that in the process of calling the Clintons racists they were also calling Hillary Clinton’s supporters racists too. They made it personal.

>snip<

Then the Rev. Wright revelation came out. In their tone deafness, Obama supporters tried to brush the issue aside by saying Rev. Wright was ACTUALLY typical – he wasn’t an extreme example of black preachers.

“You mean it isn’t just a few blacks who think that way?” asked whites to themselves and their friends. In so doing, Obama supporters inadvertently confirmed what had been whispered about in the white community for a long time – blacks are racists too.

Then the Obama folks made one more mistake. They went ahead and directly personalized the issue. In so many words they said, “if you can’t understand, appreciate the context of Rev. Wright i.e., black liberation theology, then YOU (not just Hillary) are a racist.”

The response to that verbalized accusation by non-Obama supporters is/was perfectly predictable – “if you’re going to call me one, I’m going to call you one.”

>snip<

So much for being a uniter.

The Obama Campaign should have never played the race card. The consequences will reverberate well past the election.

So much damage has been done to American citizens by this divisive campaign mentality. Will we ever be able to come together again?
(cross posted at MYDD)

Information and Links

Join the fray by commenting, tracking what others have to say, or linking to it from your blog.


Other Posts
From today’s Media News mailing 3/28/08
From today’s Media News mailing 3/27/08

Write a Comment

Take a moment to comment and tell us what you think. Some basic HTML is allowed for formatting.

You must be logged in to post a comment. Click here to login.

Reader Comments

Thank you for documenting this! I have been saying for two months now that the Obama campaign has/will set race relations back 50 years.

I wrote in one comment that when Rev. Wright’s words came out I was stunned to hear him tell me, in effect, that I am a racist (I’m white). I never thought I was. I have never said, done or thought bad thoughts about other ethnic groups. I have friends and professional colleagues who are black and I have been thrilled when they have achieved things…just like I am thrilled for all of my friends.

It felt like back in high school - when I thought that a group of girls were my friends only to find out that they were saying nasty things about me behind my back. How could I have been so stupid?

And now I find myself hesitant about black relationships for the first time in my life.

I will get past this…but I wonder how many others might not.

It is so sad. So sad. This man could have become qualified for POTUS if his friggin ego hadn’t gotten in the way (along with his wife’s) - and now he has….well ruined it for himself and others.

It’s a damn shame.

I am sure the damage will be healed eventually but I think it may take a long time. A shame this has happened when so many people actually believed in uniting the country from a candidate that has clearly hoodwinked way too many people.