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)

<blockquote><a href=”http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/magazine/01axelrod.t.html”> Obama’s Narrator</a>

 This, Axelrod says, is what Karl Rove understood about George W. Bush. “One of the reasons Bush has succeeded in two elections,” Axelrod says, “is that in his own rough-hewn way he has conveyed a sense of this is who I am, warts and all.” For Obama, because of Senator Hillary Clinton’s far-greater experience and establishment backing, this is a particularly essential project. “If we run a conventional campaign and look like a conventional candidacy, we lose,” Axelrod says.</blockquote>

The Axelrod’s, Susan and David, must feel at times that they are ’sleeping with the enemy.’
(more…)

The Obama Bargain By SHELBY STEELE
March 18, 2008; Page A23

Geraldine Ferraro may have had sinister motives when she said that Barack Obama would not be “in his position” as a frontrunner but for his race. Possibly she was acting as Hillary Clinton’s surrogate. Or maybe she was simply befuddled by this new reality — in which blackness could constitute a political advantage.

AP 
Jesse Jackson and Barack Obama, June 4, 2007.
But whatever her motives, she was right: “If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position.” Barack Obama is, of course, a very talented politician with a first-rate political organization at his back. But it does not detract from his merit to say that his race is also a large part of his prominence. And it is undeniable that something extremely powerful in the body politic, a force quite apart from the man himself, has pulled Obama forward. This force is about race and nothing else.

I won’t be hoodwinked or bamboozled into casting a vote just because blacks can guilt-trip whites to do your bidding.

How to turn one’s blackness to advantage?

The answer is that one “bargains.” Bargaining is a mask that blacks can wear in the American mainstream, one that enables them to put whites at their ease. This mask diffuses the anxiety that goes along with being white in a multiracial society. Bargainers make the subliminal promise to whites not to shame them with America’s history of racism, on the condition that they will not hold the bargainer’s race against him. And whites love this bargain — and feel affection for the bargainer — because it gives them racial innocence in a society where whites live under constant threat of being stigmatized as racist. So the bargainer presents himself as an opportunity for whites to experience racial innocence.

This is how Mr. Obama has turned his blackness into his great political advantage, and also into a kind of personal charisma. Bargainers are conduits of white innocence, and they are as popular as the need for white innocence is strong. Mr. Obama’s extraordinary dash to the forefront of American politics is less a measure of the man than of the hunger in white America for racial innocence.

His actual policy positions are little more than Democratic Party boilerplate and hardly a tick different from Hillary’s positions. He espouses no galvanizing political idea. He is unable to say what he means by “change” or “hope” or “the future.” And he has failed to say how he would actually be a “unifier.” By the evidence of his slight political record (130 “present” votes in the Illinois state legislature, little achievement in the U.S. Senate) Barack Obama stacks up as something of a mediocrity. None of this matters much.

(snip)

Because he is black, there is a sense that profound questions stand to be resolved in the unfolding of his political destiny. And, as the Clintons have discovered, it is hard in the real world to run against a candidate of destiny. For many Americans — black and white — Barack Obama is simply too good (and too rare) an opportunity to pass up. For whites, here is the opportunity to document their deliverance from the shames of their forbearers. And for blacks, here is the chance to document the end of inferiority. So the Clintons have found themselves running more against America’s very highest possibilities than against a man. And the press, normally happy to dispel every political pretension, has all but quivered before Mr. Obama. They, too, have feared being on the wrong side of destiny.

I don’t dislike Barack. He’s a nice man, he’s interesting and quite charming. But pitting blacks against whites again and again is wrong. I have never personally hurt a black person at least not intenionally that I can recall. If anything I have done everything in my power to not appear racist towards anyone.
There are blacks and Koreans in my family. Most families are of mixed races. But that doesn’t mean I have to vote for anyone if I don’t feel they are ready for POTUS.

We can’t afford to be nice this time around.

I remember listening to Hillary speak. I was inspired by her health care and economic issues and her intelligence shined though. I got goose bumps thinking that this woman could be the next President of the United States.

From the beginning of the primary season Hillary became my first choice, Obama was second. The idea of empowering the most minorities, which is the majority of the people was my main basis on making my election selection.

Living in New Hampshire I voted for Hillary, she won and I got those excited chills up my spine again. I thought to myself this is going to be a great primary season.

But as time went on I was attacked by first, some Edwards supporters, then when he quit, I was attacked by most of Obama supporters EVERYTIME I diaried or commented about Hillary. Every time!  Being on a political blog has been a chilling experience this winter. The hate-speak and verbal abuse triggered a lot of anxiety in me.

Verbal abuse has long lasting effects.

Now we have Reverend Wright spewing hatred all over the MSM and in videos on the blogs. He too, sends chills up my spine. But the chills come from hearing blatant hatred. I noted my reactions with only a distant, few times exposure. I can only imagine how anyone who has been exposed, up close and personal, reacts to this kind of talk in person, year in and year out.

Hate does have an effect. Add listeners who have experienced any kind of negative trauma and suffer from Post Tramatic Stress Syndrome, whether they know it or not, and there will be bad reactions. Add anyone who has been a target of verbal abuse and one can see the enormity of the reaction to hatred and mean-spirited words.

Obama’s campaign spills over with this negative tone. That is not good for Obama and it will not be good for America.

I equate hate-speech with verbal abuse and it will incite bad actions. It creates FEAR and the whole world has suffered from BUSHco hate and fear.

We just don’t need any more and we are seeing the same hateful dynamics from many Obama supporters and that is a major concern for me and should be for others.

Be it from the Rev. Wright which is a direct link to Obama or the pseudo republicans for Obama who are purposely creating this divisive climate on top of it all. Obama’s campaign should have separated the two factions, but they didn’t because they WANT the votes more than a good for America Campaign.  That speaks VOLUMES and many of us SEE the danger there.

I don’t know if Obama, himself, can fix any of this. He should have been prepared, not so trusting as that has showed a BIG weakness in him.

We don’t need another weak president. Not in these times.

(crossposted from MYDD)