James Clyburn's latest attempt to inject race into the Democratic nomination process was truly strange. The subtext of his comments were unmistakable -- that there is somehow a racial component to Hillary Clinton's mere presence on the campaign trail.
Clyburn told the newspaper that many African-Americans believed the Clintons were trying to damage Obama to the point where he could not be elected. He also made similar comments in an interview with Reuters Thursday."There are African Americans who have reached the decision that the Clintons know that she can't win this," he told Reuters. "But they're hell-bound to make it impossible for Obama to win."
Got that? Winning the nomination is no longer Hillary's motive. It's all about destroying Obama. By juxtaposing the ridiculous 2012 conspiracy theory with claims about "maginalizing black voters", Clyburn is implying that by running against Obama, Hillary is running against blacks.
Clyburn accused Clinton and her husband Friday of marginalizing black voters and opening a rift between her campaign and a black Democratic base that strongly backed Bill Clinton's presidency. Some surrogates in her camp are trying to render Obama unelectable against the Republican nominee so she could run for the Democratic nomination in 2012, he suggested.
On Friday's Countdown, even Olbermann questioned the inference -- wondering at the linkage between the 2012 theory and race.
When I heard Clyburn's comments last week, I couldn't help but be reminded of some recent remarks by a top Republican message guru. Testing out some new "code words" to use against the Democratic candidates, GOP pollster Kellyanne Conway commented that Clinton and Obama are debating "whether she should let him sit on the back of the bus of her presidential ticket" and that "[Hillary] doesn't want him to be the first black president".
Doesn't really seem to be much different than what Clyburn is implying. And it's not the first time that he's used a racially-tinged Republican meme to frame this campaign. Just before the South Carolina primary, while echoing blatant race-baiting by other Obama surrogates (asserting that Bill Clinton's "fairy tale" comment had a racial component), Clyburn brought up Willie Horton -- and blamed Al Gore.
In a telephone chat late this afternoon, Clyburn told The Sleuth that he spoke to Clinton again last night. He didn't have to tell the campaigner-in-chief to chill out again, but the congressman said he reminded the former president how George H.W. Bush defeated Michael Dukakis in 1988 by seizing on an issue that was raised in the Democratic presidential primary that year -- Willie Horton.
Didn't know that Willie Horton was injected into the 1988 presidential race by Democrats? That's because it's untrue. But it is something that Republicans have been lying about for some time. During the 1988 Democratic primary, Al Gore questioned Dukakis about his support for the Massachusetts furlough program. Gore never mentioned Willie Horton, nor gave any specific examples about the program, but that hasn't kept Sean Hannity and his ilk from blaming Gore for the race-baiting ad that George H.W. Bush ran during the general election. And it hasn't stopped James Clyburn from doing the same. Read between the lines: Clyburn cited a debunked Republican smear to imply that the Clintons are using Willie-Horton tactics against Obama.
Is this Obama's new politics of Hope? It bears a striking resemblance to the kind of politics we've seen for a generation -- from Republicans. And how did Obama respond to Clyburn's latest comments? The same way McCain responds every time Republicans hit Obama below the belt.
Speaking to reporters Friday, Obama said he does not believe in "irreparable breaches. ""I am a big believer in reconciliation and redemption," he said. "This has been a fierce contest. I am confident, come August there are going to be a whole bunch of people standing on the stage with a lot of balloons and confetti raining down on the Democratic nominee and people are going to be excited about taking on John McCain in November."
As usual, Obama takes the high road while his surrogates continue to sew racial divisions among Democrats.
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