Breaking: Another Writer Demands Real Evidence Of Bill And Hillary's "Race Card" Playing
February 12, 2008 -- 11:36 AM EST // //

Well whaddaya know. I've just found another person asserting that maybe -- just maybe -- we should have something approaching conclusive evidence before alleging that the Clintons hatched a dastardly and bigoted scheme to "blacken" Obama and provoke a white backlash.

Via Krugman's blog, here's what The Atlantic's Clive Crook, an Obama supporter, has to say about this:

I find the idea that the Clintons have "played the race card" -- which is now established as one of the stylised facts of this election -- hard to understand. It is never defended in detail...

Can it seriously be contended that the Clintons thought to advance their campaign (yes, “their” campaign) by alienating black support -- that the crushing defeat in South Carolina is something, as Morris seems to believe, they actually sought? The idea is ridiculous.

It's good to see Crook hitting on what think is a key point: The alleged playing of the "race card" is now established fact. It's not easy to pinpoint when something crosses the line from selected narrative to accepted truth -- it's a bit like trying to specify when a person passes from adolescence into adulthood -- but that has clearly happened here.

Then Crook gets downright freaky. He actually insists on asking whether the individual pieces of evidence allegedly proving that the Clintons played the race-card actually prove that the Clintons played the race card. He concludes:

Some commentators accused Bill of playing the race card when he called Obama's account of his position on the Iraq war a "fairy tale". How so? What did that have to do with race? And does Hillary's comment about King, the only instance Morris bothers to offer, even qualify? She merely said that getting the job done required a can-do president as well as an inspiring and visionary champion. And so it did. I cannot see that this subtracts anything from King's stature, or that it was intended to. Whatever its merits, this is the Clintons' old theme, not a sinister new one: if elected, she would hit the ground running, whereas the inexperienced Obama would be out of his depth. It took a hyper-sensitive press to turn that comment into a racial slur...

I think the press played the race card, not the Clintons.

There are, of course, other pieces of evidence proffered to back up the Billary-race card thesis, as I detailed here yesterday, But the truth is, while it's of course possible that hardball political players like the Clintons could have hatched such a nefarious scheme, the case just hasn't been made convincingly enough to warrant such explosive charges.

And it's good to hear someone like Crook saying so. By my count there's now roughly half a dozen people making these points. It's a veritable movement! It's unstoppable!

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