Identity Politics: Hillary and Barack
by tdaxp ~ January 16th, 2008
Morris, D. (2008). In contrast to Obama, Hillary plays the race card. Real Clear Politics. January 16, 2008. Available online: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/01/in_contrast_to_obama_hillary_p.html.
Dick Morris is right on:
Frustratingly for the Clintons, Obama had achieved this likely solidarity among black voters without, himself, summoning racial emotions. He had gone out of his way to avoid mentioning race — quite a contrast with Hillary, whose every speech talks about her becoming the first female president. But precisely to distinguish himself from the Jesse Jacksons and Al Sharptons of American politics, Obama resisted any racial appeal or even reference. His rhetoric, argumentation, and presentation was indistinguishable from a skilled white candidate’s.
As I mentioned before, Hillary Clinton’s style is so bad that it will hurt the country.
The New York Times uses top 1% of income, not wealth. From the legend:...
January 17th, 2008 at 12:00 am
He should unload on her over trying to suppress the vote in Nevada of especially Latino service workers. I’d run ads in Cali, NY & elsewhere detailing her fake “concern and respect” for Latinos.
However, she’s succeeded in knocking him off his pedestal and has likely soured many Latinos on voting for him, not to mention whites.
His best bet is to respond in kind and go nuclear on her over her blatant dirty tricks, her Iraq lies (like not reading the national intelligence estimate on Iraq before voting for war somehow makes her presidential?) and her husband’s shoddy record.
January 18th, 2008 at 12:00 am
If he knocked her on her stance on Iraq then it would come back to hurt him just as much. Hillary made Iraq an issue in the Nevada debate because she has the momentum on it.
Bringing up Obama’s past statments saying that he wouldn’t ever vote for Iraq spending unless it had a timetable measure, and then voting for it anyway is kind of iffy.
I think her reasoning for not reading the NIE on Iraq is sound. She was briefed by the authors themselves over what the report said, a privelage not everyone could get.
January 18th, 2008 at 12:00 am
Eddie,
I fear that Clinton is purposefully trying to run an ethnically polarizing campaign, since the white vote alone is enough to get her the nomination [1]. Thus when Obama criticizes her for such tactics, he plays into her hands.
J,
As you mentioned, Clinton’s positions are often identical to or stronger than Obama’s.
The Democratic Primary Nomination in 2008 looks a lot like the general election of 1960, where the difference was one of style, not substance. (The only difference, I guess, is that in 1960, but candidates openly self-identified as “liberals”!)
[1] http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a86pY4CBoF0U
January 19th, 2008 at 12:00 am
Depressing update to the story; let’s hope the commenters are correct who insist this is just the work of a few political operatives.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article3216586.ece