So, big hoo-ha over Hillary Clinton's race remarks to USA Today:
Hillary Rodham Clinton vowed Wednesday to continue her quest for the Democratic nomination, arguing she would be the stronger nominee because she appeals to a wider coalition of voters — including whites who have not supported Barack Obama in recent contests."I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on," she said in an interview with USA TODAY. As evidence, Clinton cited an Associated Press article "that found how Sen. Obama's support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me."
"There's a pattern emerging here," she said.
Translation: Working-class white people won't vote for the black guy.
Veteran Clintonista Paul Begala refined the point in a sharp Tuesday exchange on CNN with Donna Brazile. Said Begala: "We cannot win with eggheads and African-Americans. That's the Dukakis coalition... ."
Brazile got angry at Begala for trying to "divide" the Democratic Party by making those remarks.
But what if they're true? What if Hillary is telling the truth? What if her argument that she's a more electable candidate than Barack Obama because working-class whites and Hispanics are more likely to vote for her in the general election is sound?
Should she and her surrogates not be afraid to say that out loud? It's not like they're basing it on nothing.
I don't think there's anything wrong in principle with saying it if you can back it up with facts. It is obviously a dangerous thing to say, and frankly a depressing one, because it reduces Hillary to arguing that she's a better choice than Obama because there are too many racist Democrats in the party. Not exactly an inspiring rhetorical tack to take, is it? Still, if she thinks it's true, why not say so?
But look, as a matter of practical politics, the time to have said that was weeks ago. To say it now, in the face of an almost certain Obama victory in the nominating process, is foolish and destructive of the party's chances in the fall. It's too late for Hillary Clinton to win. Anything she says now, even if there's truth in it, can only hurt Obama.
What say you?
Add to Del.icio.us
Add to Technorati
Add to Digg
Add to Newsvine
Add to Facebook
Add to StumbleUpon
Subscribe
I think very few people "won't vote" for a woman or a black man. But most people do vote "for their own kind." We see this with older women voting big for Hillary and blacks going big for Obama. It's not that these Dems are racist or sexist, they just prefer to vote for somebody who looks like them. Everybody does it.
From everything I've read, African-American supporters of Obama are more likely to stay home in November if he doesn't get the nomination (esp. if there is a perception that he was denied it unfairly), than women and working-class white are to stay home if Hillary doesn't get the nomination. I'm not offering that as a reason to vote for Obama (if one is a Democrat), that's just the tenor of much of what I've been reading.
David White writes "From everything I've read, African-American supporters of Obama are more likely to stay home in November if he doesn't get the nomination (esp. if there is a perception that he was denied it unfairly), than women and working-class white are to stay home if Hillary doesn't get the nomination."
I am not so sure I agree with that. African-Americans are more solidly democratic with no where else to go, or so they think, than women and working-class whites.
Bouquets to HRC for saying out loud what many people know. Her statement was a gaffe, under the definition of "when politicians accidentally tell the truth".
Take a hard look and listen at Michelle Obama. You really want her for first lady? Many don't.
Why wouldn't we want Michelle Obama for first lady? What's the matter with her, Jack? She's no nanny Nancy Reagan or country club wife like Pickles--Laura Bush. She's no Napolian like Hillary. But so what?
We White people can stay home all we like. It's because of us that we've gotten into the trouble we have with Bush.
Stay home and cut your own throats, I say.
I'm not staying home just to satisfy some White ancestral rage over.....what pray-tell?
I'd rather have the Obamas than John McCain. But then I am not one of those Whites living in Kansas or actively voting for my own financial demise by voting for McBush--John McCain.
"Take a hard look and listen at Michelle Obama. You really want her for first lady? Many don't."
So Jack, you'd rather have a first lady who is a lapsed prescription drug user with a heritage in distributing cheap beer, while in addition refusing to release her tax documents (because you know the trust fund baby doesn't want to reveal she's probably worth more than the Clinton and Obama families combined)? Wait, hold on, let's stick to the blog entry script, which was...hmmm...oh, right, it doesn't have anything to do with Michelle Obama.
Post a Comment
By submitting these comments, I agree to the beliefnet.com terms of service, rules of conduct and privacy policy (the "agreements"). I understand and agree that any content I post is licensed to beliefnet.com and may be used by beliefnet.com in accordance with the agreements.