Before we discuss the Myth, let us first remind ourselves of a few facts. In December of 2007 -- not so very long ago -- Hillary Clinton seemed inevitable. She was ahead in all the polls --
even among black people:
But Clinton has a higher approval rating among blacks nationwide than does Obama, according to a poll released a few days ago by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.
That suggests it's possible Obama could win in Iowa and New Hampshire only to see his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination run aground when voters go to the polls in states with sizeable black populations - such as South Carolina, Mississippi, Georgia, Florida, Michigan, Alabama and New York.
Barack Obama thus stood in a humiliating and desperate position. Despite his own heritage, he could not gain the African American vote. He had to find some way to win it, or his candidacy would end.
That's why Obama's blogostan supporters engineered the Myth.
According to the Myth, Hillary Clinton -- dependent on African American voters, hardly in need of desperate measures, well-known (and even derided) for her "play it safe" attitude -- held a meeting with her top staffers and announced:
"Friends, the time has come to initiate Operation Niggerbaiter. From now on, we are going to send out transparently obvious racist code words, in order to go for that all-important bigot vote. Bill, here are
your lines....Geraldine, here are
your lines..."
"But Hillary," a staffer interjected. "We don't need to do this. We're ahead. Why would you pick a time like
this to do something radical?"
"Right," said another staffer. "Your husband won without making a dumb move like this, and he began in a far worse position..."
"Yeah," added still another staffer. "Bigots are never going to vote for you, anyways. You'd lose the Klan vote even if wore a white sheet. If you go down this road, you'll only piss off the black voters..."
"Enough!" said Queen Hillary the Evil. "I did not say that we were going to
debate this strategy. And don't even think about telling the media about what I have said here. Remember what happened to Vince. Go; do as ordered.
I have spoken!"
That's the myth.
Pretty ridiculous, isn't it? Compared to the inane scenario outlined above, I find it easier to believe that Athena popped out of the noggin of Zeus.
Nevertheless, Kos, the DUmmies, and the TPM crew actually think that the Clintons fastened upon "Operation Niggerbaiter" as a conscious strategy, and that they kept employing this strategy even
after it was a proven vote-loser.
I'm not kidding. Look at this commentary from a boobish
TPM writer:
I'm a white guy, but I know the politics of racial dog whistling when I see it.
No one is accusing Hillary or Bill of being racists. No one thinks they are white supremacists or harbor any racial prejudice whatsoever.
No, what they are doing is much worse. They stand accused of coldly mobilizing the racial prejudices of white voters, prejudices which they do not share, as a means of getting votes from people whose views they hold in contempt.
Riiiight. As if any candidate would initiate such tactics at a time when comfortably ahead -- in an age when even
Republicans are skittish about sending out a racial dog whistle. (Name the last national Republican ad campaign with a detectable whistle in the background. You have to go all the way back to Willie Horton.)
In a saner future, we will see this myth for the inanity it is.
In the future, people will understand that
Obama, not Clinton, was in a desperate situation a few months ago and thus needed to do something radical.
That's why Obama's forces deliberately fostered the legend that Hillary initiated a suicidal "court-the-racists" campaign. Moreover, we have documentary evidence -- in the form an internal memo from the Obama camp -- that this has been a conscious strategy.
You cannot understand the primary campaign without reading this important article by Sean Wilentz: "How Barack Obama played the race card and blamed Hillary Clinton."To a large degree, the campaign's strategists turned the primary and caucus race to their advantage when they deliberately, falsely, and successfully portrayed Clinton and her campaign as unscrupulous race-baiters--a campaign-within-the-campaign in which the worked-up flap over the Somali costume photograph is but the latest episode. While promoting Obama as a "post-racial" figure, his campaign has purposefully polluted the contest with a new strain of what historically has been the most toxic poison in American politics.
The very next morning, Obama's national co-chair, Representative Jesse Jackson, Jr., a congressional supporter from Chicago, played the race card more directly by appearing on MSNBC to claim in a well-prepared statement that Clinton's emotional moment on the campaign trail was actually a measure of her deeply ingrained racism and callousness about the suffering poor. "But those tears also have to be analyzed," Jackson said, "they have to be looked at very, very carefully in light of Katrina, in light of other things that Mrs. Clinton did not cry for, particularly as we head to South Carolina where 45 percent of African-Americans will participate in the Democratic contest ... we saw tears in response to her appearance, so that her appearance brought her to tears, but not Hurricane Katrina, not other issues."
Personally, I will never forgive Jesse Jackson Jr. for that statement. I have rarely seen such flagrant and odious manipulation -- at least, not since the cancellation of the Jim and Tammy Faye show.
It has never been satisfactorily explained why the pro-Clinton camp would want to racialize the primary and caucus campaign. The argument has been made that Hillary Clinton wanted to attract whites and Hispanics in the primaries and make the case that a black candidate would be unelectable in the general election. But given the actual history of the campaign, that argument makes no sense. Until late in 2007, Hillary Clinton enjoyed the backing of a substantial majority of black voters--as much as 24 percentage points over Obama according to one poll in October--as well as strong support from Hispanics and traditional working-class white Democrats. It appeared, for a time, as if she might well be able to recreate, both in the primaries and the general election, the cross-class and cross-racial alliances that had eluded Democrats for much of the previous forty years. Playing the race card against Obama could only cost her black votes, as well as offend liberal whites who normally turn out in disproportionally large numbers for Democratic caucuses and primaries. Indeed, indulging in racial politics would be a sure-fire way for the Clinton campaign to shatter its own coalition. On the other hand, especially in South Carolina where black voters made up nearly half of the Democratic turnout, and especially following the shocking disappointment in New Hampshire, playing the race card--or, more precisely, the race-baiting card--made eminent sense for the Obama campaign.
Meanwhile, below the radar, the Obama campaign pushed the race-baiting angle hard, rehearsing and sometimes inventing instances of alleged Clintonian racial insensitivity. A memo prepared by the South Carolina campaign and circulated to supporters rehashed the King-Johnson matter, while it also spliced together statements of Bill Clinton's to make it seem as if he had given a speech that "implied Hillary Clinton is stronger than Nelson Mandela."
(Emphasis added.) The internal memo provides
damning evidence that Obama forces have deliberately created the Myth.
And a few reporters, while pushing the Obama campaign's line that black voters had credible concerns about the Clintons' remarks, had begun to notice that the Obama campaign was doing its utmost to fuel the racial flames. "There's no question that there's politics here at work too," said Jonathan Martin of Politico. "It helps [Obama's] campaign to... push these issues into the fore in a place like South Carolina."
The key role was played by Jesse Jackson, Jr -- whose vile behavior almost makes me regret having voted for his father.
Jackson, once again playing the role of the Obama campaign's "race man" enforcer, posed a leading question: "Do you want to go down in history as the one to prevent a black from winning the White House?" Black congressmen were threatened to fall or line or face primary challenges. "So you wake up without the carpet under your feet. You might find some young primary challenger placing you in a difficult position," Jackson said. Yet for the Obama-inspired press corps, it was the Clintons who were playing the race card.
Disgusting. Unconscionable. Revelations like these turned this former Obama voter (and believe or not, I
still don't much care for Hillary) into someone who now views that man as the worst thing ever to afflict the Democratic party.
Obama's use of The Myth is the single most reprehensible tactic any Democrat has used within this generation.
I got rid of my former co-writer, doc e., because she bought into this Myth, which the prog-blogs have pushed incessantly. (Progressive bloggers have become the new Radio Right: As Limbaugh
was, Kos
is.)
If you can still vote for Obama after learning about such unforgivable tactics, stock up on Benadryl or Xanax. You're going to need some help getting to sleep at night.
Added note: All the responses to this piece have so far refused to address the main question: Why would Hillary Clinton make an appeal to racism when she was ahead in the national polls, and she had the black vote, the Hispanic vote and the working class vote?
Can you really argue that she was so desperate for Obama's more affluent voters that she was willing to risk her base and erase her national lead? Can you really argue that a racist appeal would do anything but repulse affluent Democrats?
Any refusal to address the question -- any attempt to switch the subject -- constitutes intellectual cowardice. I have decided to enforce courage. All comments which do not address the above questions directly -- even comments which praise me -- will be deleted.
