Obama Turns On the Race-Baiting Wurlitzer: Signs of Candidacy in Trouble
By Bud White on April 28, 2008 at 4:13 PM in Bamboozling, Barack Obama, Bill Ayers, Bill Clinton, Daily Kos, David Axelrod, Economy, Elitism, Hillary Clinton, Hoodwinking, Martin Luther King, Obamedia, Popular Vote, Race Card, Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., Superdelegates, Talking Points Memo, White People
I started crying during the speech and wept for a good while after Dr. King finished. He had said everything I believed, far better than I ever could…that speech steeled my determination to do whatever could for the rest of my life to make Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream come true. — From My Life by Bill Clinton
As Obama loses his grip on the nomination and the momentum of his candidacy slows, his campaign is reviving its race-baiting tactics heading into North Carolina.
We’ve seen this played out before: The Obama campaign hints that whites are unwilling to vote for Obama because he’s black, an Obama surrogate claims the Clintons are using race, and the Obamablogs, Keith Olbermann, and finally the MSM pick it up as “truth.”
The day after Clinton’s surprising victory in New Hampshire, Obama supporter Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. — in words which will live in infamy –said that Hillary’s tears in New Hampshire will “have to be looked at very, very carefully in light of Katrina and other things Mrs. Clinton did not cry for, particularly as we head toward South Carolina where 45 percent of African Americans will participate in the process.”
This was followed by Obama suggesting to mostly black audiences that the Clintons were playing them for fools by criticizing him. Obama appropriated Malcolm X’s “hoodwinked, bamboozled, okie-doke” speech and sent a clear signal that racial politics was on the table.
This narrative was given the blogger boy stamp-of-approval when Markos Moulitsas Zuniga claimed (falsely) that Team Clinton darkened a picture of Obama to make him look menacing.
Lastly, Orlando Patterson gave it legitimacy by claiming in the pages of the Times, again falsely, that there was not a black child in Hillary’s “3 a.m.” ad. Discussing Patterson, but just as accurately Obama’s racial strategy in general, Taylor Marsh said “Looking for racism in every moment of a white person’s political campaign is as bad as being racist. No, actually, it is racist.”
The Obama campaign successfully telegraphed their campaign talking points and the big blogs, Air America (Randi Rhodes said “Geraldine Ferraro is David Duke in drag”), Keith Olbermann, and many others fell in line and parroted the lie that the Clintons have been using race or are racists themselves. As others have pointed out, no one can explain why the Clintons would use race in a Democratic primary contest where African Americans have a disproportionate voice.
On the heels of another Obama defeat and the prospect that Hillary is picking up genuine momentum, members of his team are again telegraphing to their supporters in the press and the blogs that it’s time for racial politics. David Axelrod revved up the race machine when he told NPR that:
The white working class has gone to the Republican nominee for many elections, going back even to the Clinton years. This is not new that Democratic candidates don’t rely solely on those votes.
By framing the issue in terms of race, Axelrod signaled that others should do the same. Following on cue, Rep. James Clyburn told the Times:
“When he was going through his impeachment problems, it was the black community that bellied up to the bar,” Mr. Clyburn said. “I think black folks feel strongly that that this is a strange way for President Clinton to show his appreciation.”
In essence, Clyburn is telling us that Clinton owes the black community because of their support during the Lewinsky scandal and that Clinton should refrain from criticizing Obama:
Mr. Clyburn added that there appeared to be an almost “unanimous” view among African-Americans that Mr. and Mrs. Clinton were “committed to doing everything they possibly can to damage Obama to a point that he could never win.”
Clyburn, of course, ignores Rev. Wright, Wiliam Ayers, Tony Rezko, and Bitter-gate, all self-inflicted wounds. In truth, all Hillary has done to hurt Obama is win big, crucial states by talking about economic issues and national security, pretty boilerplate stuff.
The Democratic Party consists of two warring factions, and the precarious coalition that forms the Party is on the verge of splitting apart. Working class whites are not naive to Obama’s shenanigans. They’ve watched as the Obama team has smeared perhaps the most racially progressive president in our history as a racist, and they’ve seen Obama ridicule their concerns, faith, and culture.
The Obama campaign would like the superdelegates to believe that African Americans will revolt if Obama is not given the nomination. The more likely outcome–and this has actually been quantified, is that working-class whites will go with McCain if Hillary is not the nominee.
This is not because working class whites are racist but because Obama represents a wing of the party which encourages the trashing of poor white people, lacks an economic focus for their needs, and excuses the racist and America-hating rants of Reverend Wright.
Obama’s cold-hearted tacticians aren’t using these tactics because they are concerned about the plight of African Americans. They are trying to scare superdelegates about racial issues and smear the Clintons.
The use of race has nothing to do with race: this is about power, pure and simple, and controlling the largess of the federal government. Although the media loves to claim that Obama has brought in new voters, Hillary has actually received more votes than Obama and has done something which has the potential to change the political landscape for a generation: She has built a new governing coalition centered around the largest part of the electorate, women, and fastest growing part of the electorate, Hispanics.
I suggest that African American politicians, comfortable senators, wealthy blogger boyz, and lobbyists like Tom Daschle fear that Hillary’s new coalition could actually complete the New Deal promise of universal health care and dominate politics for a generation. John Kerry, for example, has gone so far as to say UHC is dead on arrival in the senate but Obama is a good candidate because the color of his skin, not exactly meat and potatoes for the working class.
Obama’s losses in Ohio, Texas, and Pennsylvania should not be underestimated. Obama is unable to win critical swing states despite having a near-monopoly on the institutional power-brokers, the media, the blogs, and the activists.
The narrative that Obama is a weak general election candidate is starting to take hold. Sensing this development, the Obama team has turned on the Wurlitzer and alerted its supporters that it’s time to smear the Clintons as racists once again. We’ve heard Axelrod and Clyburn.
Watch next for the blogger boyz, the columnists of the Times and the Post, Joe Klein, and then the mainstream media. We’ve heard this song before, and we know all the notes and lyrics by now. It means Obama is in trouble.
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