How Barack Obama played the race card and blamed Hillary Clinton
POSTED BY: CrevanReaver
UPDATED: Thursday, February 28, 2008 21:00
VIEWED: 1858
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Race Man
by Sean Wilentz
How Barack Obama played the race card and blamed Hillary Clinton.
Quote:
After several weeks of swooning, news reports are finally being filed about the gap between Senator Barack Obama's promises of a pure, soul-cleansing "new" politics and the calculated, deeply dishonest conduct of his actually-existing campaign. But it remains to be seen whether the latest ploy by the Obama camp--over allegations about the circulation of a photograph of Obama in ceremonial Somali dress--will be exposed by the press as the manipulative illusion that it is.
Most of the recent correctives have concerned outrageously deceptive advertisements approved and released by Obama's campaign. First, in Iowa, the Obama camp aired radio ads patterned on the notorious "Harry and Louise" Republican propaganda from 1993, charging falsely that Senator Hillary Clinton's health care proposal would "force those who cannot afford health insurance to buy it, punishing those who won't fall in line." In subsequent primary and caucus campaigns, the Obama campaign sent out millions of mailers, also featuring the "Harry and Louise" motif, falsely claiming that Clinton favored "punishing families who can't afford health care in the first place." A few bloggers and columnists, notably Paul Krugman in The New York Times, described the ads as distorting, but the national press corps mainly ignored them--until Clinton herself, seeing the fraudulent mailers reappear in Ohio over the past weekend, publicly denounced them.
The Obama mass mailings also attempt to appeal to Ohio's labor vote by claiming that Clinton believed that the North American Free Trade Agreement, signed in 1993 by President Bill Clinton, was a "'boon' to our economy." More falsehood: In fact, Clinton had not said that; Newsday originally applied the word "boon" and has now noted the Obama campaign's distortion. In this campaign, Clinton has called for a moratorium on all trade agreements until they are made consistent with labor and environmental standards--and account for the effect on jobs in the United States. Obama makes a big deal about how Bill Clinton signed NAFTA. But he fails to mention that, within the councils of her husband's administration, Hillary Clinton was a skeptic of free trade agreements, and as a senator and candidate she has said that NAFTA contained flaws that need to be rectified. Ignoring all that, the Obama flyer features an alarming photograph of closed plant gates, having no connection to any action of Senator Clinton's, as well as the dubious quotation about her from Newsday in 2006. Newsday has criticized "Obama's use of the quotation" as "misleading ... an example of the kind of slim reeds campaigns use to try and win an office." Obama, without retracting the mailing (and while playing to protectionist sentiment in the party) said only that he would have his staff look into the matter--long after the ad has done its dirty work.
Misleading propaganda is hardly new in American politics --although the adoption of techniques reminiscent of past Republican and special-interest hit jobs, right down to a retread of the fictional couple, seems strangely at odds with a campaign that proclaims it will redeem the country from precisely these sorts of divisive and manipulative tactics. As insidious as these tactics are, though, the Obama campaign's most effective gambits have been far more egregious and dangerous than the hypocritical deployment of deceptive and disingenuous attack ads. 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.
More than any other maneuver, thNOTIFY: N | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
I'm kinda sick about hearing all this crap about race and gender in this race. Oh my god, there's a woman and a black man that might make it to president, oh wait, it's 2008, this shouldn't be impressive.
Here's an idea, how about instead of picking the president based on who's playing the best "cards" as you put it, and let's actually listen to what they have to say and pick based on that, now there's a concept.
"Haha, mine is an evil laugh."
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Quote:Well, the obvious problem with that is that neither Obama or Clinton are actually saying anything. They are both working hard to avoid defining themselves.
Originally posted by EvilDinosaur:
I'm kinda sick about hearing all this crap about race and gender in this race. Oh my god, there's a woman and a black man that might make it to president, oh wait, it's 2008, this shouldn't be impressive.
Here's an idea, how about instead of picking the president based on who's playing the best "cards" as you put it, and let's actually listen to what they have to say and pick based on that, now there's a concept.
Nihil est incertius vulgo, nihil obscurius voluntate hominum, nihil fallacius ratione tota comitiorum.
Nothing is more unpredictable than the mob, nothing more obscure than public opinion, nothing more deceptive than the whole political system.
-- Cicero
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Hey Frem, that's pretty neat. Can I use it?
Bad_karma
Great and Exalted Grand Pooba, International Brotherhood of Moonshiners, Rednecks, and Good Old Boys.
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Actually I kinda swiped it, someone left it "laying around" on the net without any way to find out who to ask for permission.
I had run across it earlier in the day and one look at this... well, whatever you wanna call it up there, and I was like, it must be done!
(Cue fanfare and dramatic score)
-F
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