My preferences in the Democratic nomination are now John Edwards and Hillary Clinton, in that order. (Edwards, thank god, has a
good shot in Nevada.) Barack Obama can go to hell.
Hillary made an innocuous and perfectly accurate statement: "Dr. King’s dream began to be realized when Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964." Obama's flacks have tried to misrepresent these words as some sort of attack on King and on Obama personally.
Obama's tactics have been pure Rove:
1. Obama had surrogates do the dirty work, while he stayed aloof. (Think Bush-v-McCain in 2000.)
2. He attacked his opponent's strength. The Clintons have always been popular in the black community. A large percentage of the voters in South Carolina are black; Obama needs black Clinton voters to switch over to him.
3. He put his opponent on defense by forcing her to be ultra-self-conscious about every syllable. It's getting so that a candidate cannot say "Hi!" without fear that someone will find some reason to be insulted by that word.
Disgusting. Democrats should not crib from Karl in an intra-party battle.
Obama's sense of insult is entirely feigned and strategic, as the leaked internal memo discussed
here makes clear.
The document provides an indication that, in private, the Obama campaign is seeking to capitalize on the view - and push the narrative - that the Clintons are using race-related issues for political leverage. In public, the Obama campaign has denied that they are trying to propagate such a perception, noting that the document never was sent to the press.
I'm also disgusted, albeit less so, by the Clintons' reaction to the Bob Johnson dust-up. Of
course Johnson made reference to Obama's drug use, and there is no point in pretending otherwise. But Obama's youthful foolishness will be a major point of discussion in the general election -- especially if he faces McCain. If Obama's only response is going to be "How
dare you bring that up?" -- he'll be creamed in the general election and thus should not be the nominee.
Like it or not, Obama
did once use drugs. I hardly think that's a deal-breaker, but some folks do. A national debate must therefore ensue, and Bob Johnson has a right to be part of that debate.
On the other hand, Hillary is
not a racist and did not appeal to racism. That is
not open to debate.
Obama must learn that white people really don't dig it when their innocent words are twisted.
I could have said what Hillary said. If she's a racist, then so am I. And if Obama (or his flacks) want to accuse me of being a bigot -- well, screw him.
He's the candidate; I'm the voter. He needs me; I don't need him.