First “Black” President Plays Race Card Against African-American Candidate
That’s the headline I would like to see scream across above the fold front page of major American newspapers, but I best not hold my breath.
Ex-president Bill Clinton has been at his best playing “bad cop” in his barrage against the fairytale candidacy of Barack Obama that has the former/future First Couple seeing spots.
The former president’s “candid” analysis about how South Carolina was going to lean towards Obama due to black voters getting behind one of their own wasn’t just an exercise of the expectations game, it was Mr. Clinton’s attempt to remind white Americans that his wife’s eloquent, café au lait complexioned rival, or should I say as Bill and Hillary see him, threat, is indeed a black man.
This Machiavellian race-baiting isn’t new with the MLK controversy serving as the opening salvo of the Clinton camp’s attempt to paint Barack black.And to a degree, it’s working.
Take for example the Nevada presidential caucuses.Having personally surveyed the scene at a Las Vegas suburb caucus location, a cursory profiling of the three campaign’s supporters were apparent: Edwards’s “select” group were middle-aged, white union-types; Obama’s were a combination of blacks, aged flower children, the espresso sipping upper class and young people (people motivated by “feelings” and inspiration and not so much charts, statistics and policy papers).
It was Hillary’s supporters that really said it all: white middle-aged couples and senior citizens.All that was missing was a Carroll O’Connor look-alike to serve as their mascot.
At that very moment it was pretty clear what was going to happen: the chronic over 40 white voters were going to save Hillary from the calloused hands of those Spanish-speaking casino hotel workers, whose ability to cast a convenient ballot was found objectionable by Clinton allies not long after the Culinary Workers’ Union cast their lot with Obama.
Funny how Hillary has found it so expedient to engage in tactics that her fellow travelers on the Left would deem Nixonian while her husband employs devices that would be more fitting of George Wallace than our nation’s first black president.
Obama Knighted by Camelot
Caroline and Ted Kennedy’s recent endorsement of Obama is perhaps the biggest and most potent pick-up by the insurgent Democrat candidate in the primaries.In addition to kicking a pinch of “magic” from America’s “fairy tale” political family, the endorsement of the Camelot princess and the poster-boy for unfettered liberalism (amongst other things) indicates exactly how unpopular the junior senator from New York is with her Capitol Hill colleagues, who has been snubbed by six senators who have spent more time with her than with the first-termer from Illinois.
For What It’s Worth
John Edwards, touted as a potential Attorney General by Obama supporters (since his value as a running mate was determined in 2004), plans to remain in the race through Typhoon Tuesday (February 5th) despite losing big in his birth-state of South Carolina.
Like Linus’s vigil for the appearance of the Great Pumpkin, Edwards is holding out for an implosion by one of the two other candidates.Whether Obama or Hillary would benefit the most from his departure from the race is yet to be determined, though having interviewed attendees at an Edwards event in Las Vegas, I am inclined to believe that Obama would pick up the lion share for two reasons: 1) the “Archie Bunker” wing of the Democratic Party is already with Hillary and 2) those still standing by Edwards at this late juncture most have a soft-spot for fairy-tales.
This writer has argued that Edwards could have folded his tent after failing to finish first in Iowa, which was his only hope of eclipsing his two celebrity opponents.So far, the voters have proven me accurate.
Will Nader’s Raiders Ride Again?
While traveling from Washington, I encountered consumer advocate and perennial presidential candidate Ralph Nader at a book signing in the BWI airport.When I queried if he would yet again seek the White House, Nader replied he was still thinking about it and would make a decision in a month.If Hillary is the Democratic nominee, the GOP probably won’t need his valuable assistance this November.
Mike Bayham is a political consultant and his weekly column is carried on a number of news and politics web sites. He can be reached at MikeBayham@yahoo.com.
Hillary Rodham Nixon vs. The Ghost of JF
