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What Clinton hasn't said
John Edwards is endorsing Barack Obama tonight. That makes me think of something good the Edwards campaign did.
Mudcat Saunders said that John Edwards told him, Mudcat, if anyone tells you that they are voting for us because Obama is black, you tell them we don't want their vote. (Can't find the exact quote, sorry.)
Clinton has never said anything like this. None of her surrogates have ever said that if people are voting for her out of racism, they don't want their votes. If she had, and she still could, she could have/would do something lovely for this country and for the Democratic party. If she doesn't, it will be another thing for her to muse on in retirement.
Mudcat Saunders said that John Edwards told him, Mudcat, if anyone tells you that they are voting for us because Obama is black, you tell them we don't want their vote. (Can't find the exact quote, sorry.)
Clinton has never said anything like this. None of her surrogates have ever said that if people are voting for her out of racism, they don't want their votes. If she had, and she still could, she could have/would do something lovely for this country and for the Democratic party. If she doesn't, it will be another thing for her to muse on in retirement.
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Maybe we can get McCain to say it....
May 14, 2008 6:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
But who'd be left voting for him then?
May 14, 2008 6:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Unfair. There are plenty of gun nuts, religious crazies, war fans, social safety-net wrecking ballers, and assorted misanthropes whose hatred is not race limited in the slightest voting for McCain. Please sir, enough with the slander of these fine Americans.
May 15, 2008 9:13 AM | Reply | Permalink
Has Clinton ever taken a stance like that toward people who would simply vote for her because she's a woman? I want to say no, but I'm not as politically well-informed as most of the TPM bloggers. However, I think that she would severely fracture what's left of her base if she brought that kind of philosophy into her camp regarding race and gender.
May 14, 2008 6:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe I am a bit of a fool, but I don't think the same opprobrium should attach to gender based voting. For one thing, all of our Presidents have been men, so voting for a woman is voting for change. By contrast, all of our Presidents have been white, so voting against someone because he is not white does have a stench. Similarly with the prejudice that women have faced as opposed to the privilege that whites have enjoyed.
It still annoys me that women support Clinton solely because she is a woman, but it doesn't violently offend me. I just wish Clinton would reject the racist support.
May 14, 2008 6:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
You say this despite the fact that Obama has nearly 90% of the black vote. Think harder.
May 14, 2008 6:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
If you try thinking deeper, I will try thinking harder.
May 14, 2008 6:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
There's a difference between voting out of love and out of hate. Figure it out, Otto.
May 14, 2008 8:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Am I the only one who remembers those stories about how reticent black people were to vote for Obama because they didn't think he understood their experiences?
The fact of the matter is that Obama put in the effort to show that he understood the problems faced by the S.E.S. which the largest portion of blacks inhabit while Clinton has not.
May 14, 2008 10:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Otto, black people are voting FOR Obama not against Hillary. It's not racism because black people would probably be supporting Hillary 90% if the race was between her and another white candidate.
May 14, 2008 7:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Perhaps it is not Obama's blackness (which by the way is an American racial construction that asserted one drop would make someone black, eliminating the legacy of his mother), that draws 90% of the African American vote to him. Do not forget that the vote was virtually split between the two when the primaries began. The point has already been beaten to death that the AA's are one of the most consistently democratic voting demographics in the US.
If Clinton had campaigned differently, I would tend to believe that the AA vote would not have swung so heavily for Obama, although my opinion is based only on what I've seen, read, and experienced. We'll never know what might have been had Clinton not gone for the character assassination strategy.
May 14, 2008 7:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
None of her surrogates have ever said that if people are voting for her out of racism, they don't want their votes.
Wow! I think you're right? I don't think she has said that. I'm changing my vote right now. Wait! I don't think Obama's said it either so...
Never mind.
May 14, 2008 7:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, Indiex, because Obama's surrogates have gone on tv and mused about how black Americans won't vote for the white candidate. And his supporters have admitted that race was a factor in not voting for Clinton. And in Harlem (nee Kentucky), his supporters said, I am just not comfortable voting for a white person, you see how they stick together, if the whites get in charge, the black race will have problems.
You got me there.
May 15, 2008 9:11 AM | Reply | Permalink
Edwards said that at a debate in Jan. IIRC, it was the SC debate. He said that if you're voting him because you don't want to vote for a black man or a woman, that he didn't need, nor want the vote. The only thing of substance Edwards said in almost a decade.
May 14, 2008 7:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
From reading many other posting sites (ABC, Wash Post, RealClearPolitics), those who like to bring and use Obama middle name as some sort of pejorative, SHAME ON YOU and you can rightly be called a BIGOT, a RACIST, and a FEAR MONGER. If it wasn't Obama's name, it would be his skin color. If it wasn't his race, it would be his skin color - JUST ADMIT THE PREJUDICE rather than passing if off as some sort of "fact".
Johnny (Edwards) came lately but still an important endorsement towards bringing the Democratic Party "together". Vetting out from the short list of Democratic running mates, the best possible V.P. outcome may be Gov Kathleen Sebelius, of Kansas - her being the most aligned with Obama's message, winnable demographics for the fall, and they're compatible (friends).
Mariann (White, Christ-loving Christian & Fearless)
May 14, 2008 8:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks for the comment, Mariann, I agree with you.
May 19, 2008 11:36 AM | Reply | Permalink