MyDD :: The Speech I Wanted to Hear

The Speech I Wanted to Hear

by oh puhleeze, Tue Mar 18, 2008 at 02:46:16 PM EST

If Obama wanted to confess, unite and heal, this is how he could have taken a much bigger step.

He could have started by apologizing to the Clintons and the voters, by admitting it was HE who racialized the campaign. That it was he and his supporters who mined every syllable of anyone associated with Hillary's campaign to turn it into a race reference. That he planned it, supported it and acquiesced in the media drumbeat to turn the Clinton's into racists, or, if not racists, to turn Hillary into someone so deeply divisive and unscrupulous that she would do stoop this low to win. That he did it because he wanted to cut into her well-deserved African American vote before South Carolina, and to discredit her with party leaders. That he used his race not to create "a more perfect union", but to create a deep division in the party. And it is not race or racisim itself that caused this division, that caused many of us to find his candidacy disingenuous at best, but rather his willingness to stoop so low to win.

No, Senator Obama, it is not just "in the last couple of weeks that the discussion of race in this campaign has taken a particularly divisive turn." We who do not support you believe it began after Senator Clinton's stunning upset in New Hampshire, when you launched the race-bait campaign with your Bradley-effect talking points. When you continued to benefit from the damage this cynical and dangerous tactic caused her campaign. When you failed to take the podium then as you did today to decry the media's non-stop propagandizing her "playing the race card." When you waited to take this stand on racial division until you needed it for damage control to your own campaign, and not when the damage was being done to the party, to democratic voters, and to the civil rights legacy of the only two-term Democratic president since Franklin Roosevelt.

Yes, I would have liked to hear you talk about that.

Tags: Obama, Clinton, Race, Speech (all tags)

Permalink :: 26 Comments :: Post a Comment

Re: The Speech I Wanted to Hear (none / 0)

Don't you realise how silly this reads.
His race ???
His mother was white, his father black. He cannot be anything else than beyond the racial divide.

by hebi on Tue Mar 18, 2008 at 02:50:07 PM EST

Re: Amazing Self-delusion (none / 0)

Your views are completely one-sided and factually challenged.

Almost every objective commentator has agreed that the Clintons are the one who raised the issue of race. Ask yourself a simple question: Why would a candidate who is trying to become the first AA President choose to make race an issue when AAs have been on the loosing side of the race issue for the last 400 years, and when AAs are only 12% of the population? Ask yourself "who benefits" from making race an issue? Is it Obama? Of course not.

This mythology you all have cooked up to excuse your candidate's bad behavior is unpersuasive to objective commentators and the majority of the voters in our party.

by upper left on Tue Mar 18, 2008 at 02:55:20 PM EST

Re: Amazing Self-delusion (2.00 / 1)

Obama benefits by playing the race card to make Hillary look racist. D'uh.

by JustJennifer on Tue Mar 18, 2008 at 03:00:28 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Amazing Self-delusion (none / 0)

It has never been in Obama's interest to play the race card.

Don't confuse being racist with being willing to use race for political gain. The Clintons are not racist, but they have clearly shown a willingness to use whatever tactics are available to try to slow down Obama's march to the nomination.

I could go through the entire list of comments by HRC surrogates, but I get the sense that your mind is made up. and not prone to be changed by mere facts.

by upper left on Tue Mar 18, 2008 at 08:24:09 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Amazing Self-delusion (2.00 / 1)

Ok, ask yourself a simple question: how did it actually work out?
Did Obama's support from the AA community, previously appreciative and loyal to the Clintons, jump into the 90% range?
Did Democratic leaders use it to withdraw their support for her?
Did the media echo chamber it to support their view of her as unscrupulous, devious, amoral, ambitious, do-any-thing-to win?
Did the so-called progressive community leap on their high horse and pillory her on this subject since South Carolina?
Mythology? Yes, indeed, who actually did benefit?

On to the Convention Floor!

by oh puhleeze on Tue Mar 18, 2008 at 03:04:35 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Amazing Self-delusion (none / 0)

Ohio, Pennsylvania, Hispanics everywhere?

The nomination would already be Obama's, if it where not for the racial tensions that have effected down-scale whites and Hispanics.

by upper left on Tue Mar 18, 2008 at 08:26:35 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: objective commentator? (none / 0)

are there any??
who???

by jentwisl on Tue Mar 18, 2008 at 03:05:49 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Amazing Self-delusion (2.00 / 1)

This is total nonsense. This was all started with the LBJ comment that per BO himself made a point of discussing. LBJ was an equal partner in civil rights????? It was BO's and his campaign that started this.

AND the day after super Tuesday and BO's big loses in TX, OH, and RI it was dkos that had multiple threads about HRC is a racist and this was also pushed by his people. Lets look back. The racist darkening of the clip? The 3 am ad was really racist from the NYT editoral?? Then suggesting that HRC put Ferraro up to making those statments and KO does nuclear on HRC. etc.

So let me get this everyone agrees that HRC rasied the issue of race. PLEASE.

The truth is the BO campaign used race to attack HRC and now it is coming back to bite them and still his supporters blame HRC.

The really is no cure for CDS (clinton Derangement Syndrome). The BO campaign used race and now it is killiing them with white and older Latino middle class working voters and it is HRC fing fault and not BO?????? PLEASE.

david

by giusd on Tue Mar 18, 2008 at 03:08:43 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Correct me if I'm wrong but (none / 0)

The sequence of events that I remember began on Feb 24, 2007:

1. David Geffen (Obama campaign) accused the Clinton's of being facile liars.

2. Sen. Kerry responded with his "madrassa" comment and Billy Shaheen with his "shuk'n and jiv'n" comment.

3. Next, the day before (or after?) the NH primary, Jesse Jackson Jr. questioned whether Hillary had ever shed tears for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

After that, the whole situation broke out into a full scale "to do."

So, if I'm remembering right, it was the Obama campaign that started the personal attacks and it was the Clinton campaign that specifically turned the personal attacks to race.

by dbrown04 on Tue Mar 18, 2008 at 03:27:09 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Correct me if I'm wrong but (none / 0)

Please, do be specific. What was the first "specifically turned the personal attacks to race" event?

On to the Convention Floor!

by oh puhleeze on Tue Mar 18, 2008 at 03:35:37 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Well, this is what I remember (none / 0)

Bill Shaheen raised the issue of Obama's drug use, Sen. Kerrey raised the issue of the secular Madrassa and Andrew Cuomo referenced "shuck and jive."

The Cuomo comment occurred at the same time as the Jesse Jackson Jr. comment about Hillary's tears. Here's a link:

http://www.pamshouseblend.com/showDiary. do?diaryId=4126

Of course, there are other people who follow the timetable of these events more closely than I do. To me, it looks like we just kind of slid into the racist overtones a little step at a time.

by dbrown04 on Tue Mar 18, 2008 at 04:03:28 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Correct me if I'm wrong but (2.00 / 1)

No,your not remembering right.It started when Obama got all worked up about the LBJ thing.He then sent out a memo to reporters on the night of the NH upset saying it was the Bradly effect[NH voters are racist]Now going into SC he went into full race baiting mode Jessie JR. Didn't cry for Katrina victims,and a memo to his campaign staff to play anything from the Clinton campaign as racist.His excuse after the press got it,it wasn't meant for the press.So Obama is a died in the wool race baiter just like Sharpton and Jessie Jackson.

I've fallen and I can get up

by grab1 on Tue Mar 18, 2008 at 03:44:30 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Obama's GE Problem (2.00 / 3)

This is why I believe Obama is now unelectable. He will never survive the GE. Too many people are now completely turned off or don't believe Obama. This goes right at the core of his campaign. A potentially fatal blow.

Hillary can still win this, no matter what Obama supporters and the MSM want us to believe. She can win the pledged delegates still, but she needs to win by large, but possible margins. The Wright disaster is exactly what can push her over the top and retake the delegate lead. This and MONEY. She is already up by 12 points in PA, let's now give her the funds to increase the lead to 20 and beyond. With this story and a few more 3am phone call ads in PA, we will win back the White House! I just donated $25.

DONATE TO HILLARY NOW

Click the link above and donate today!

by Scope441 on Tue Mar 18, 2008 at 02:55:39 PM EST

Re: Obama's GE Problem (none / 0)

Yay! More negative ads that damage both candidates! Hope you enjoy paying Mark Penn for whatever he does around there.

by NewOaklandDem on Tue Mar 18, 2008 at 03:06:15 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: The Speech I Wanted to Hear (2.00 / 0)

Well, admittedly me too would have liked to hear him talk about that. However, I somehow don't think it would have been the strategic thing to do for him. Would've been a blast though. :-)

Grumpy, reluctant, sore-losing, unhappy, irritable Hillary supporter for Barack Obama 2008

by DemAC on Tue Mar 18, 2008 at 02:59:36 PM EST

Re: The Speech I Wanted to Hear (2.00 / 1)

"Well, admittedly me too would have liked to hear him talk about that."

And how. It would be refreshing to hear some real truth out of him, instead of the flowery verbiage, and distractions.

by 07rescue on Tue Mar 18, 2008 at 03:09:18 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: The Speech I Wanted to Hear (2.00 / 1)

The most overlooked part of this whole Rev wright thing is the reaction to his assault on Hillary Clinton by women especially white women.

Hillary Clinton ain't never been call the n.... , the whole diatribe on Hillary Clinton was so disturbing .

If you look at the PPP poll and the quinnipiac poll her lead with women is at 60% .

When I speak I have a southern drawl.. When you come down here Stop and say hello I'm an American from south of the Mason Dixon line

by lori on Tue Mar 18, 2008 at 03:06:14 PM EST

Re: The Speech I Wanted to Hear (none / 0)

It's been a pretty clear message from camp Obama for a long time that women don't count. Only men are important enough to be taken seriously and whatever Neanderthal prejudice on women that is let out in the open is dutifully accepted and excused by big media.

The campaign so far has been a shocker. I honestly thought we had advanced more with regards to mainstreaming and gender equality. This year saw a rude awakening to a sexist and forbidding reality.

I don't think that the males supporting Obama understand for a minute what their campaign has done to women.

Grumpy, reluctant, sore-losing, unhappy, irritable Hillary supporter for Barack Obama 2008

by DemAC on Tue Mar 18, 2008 at 03:13:50 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: The Speech I Wanted to Hear (none / 0)

With all due respect, your view points are simply ill-formed.

by ArkansasLib on Tue Mar 18, 2008 at 04:16:11 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: The Speech I Wanted to Hear (none / 0)

Well, congrats for finding yourself such an immensely well-formed counter argument...

Grumpy, reluctant, sore-losing, unhappy, irritable Hillary supporter for Barack Obama 2008

by DemAC on Tue Mar 18, 2008 at 05:03:48 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: The Speech (2.00 / 1)

You are speaking the truth, but Obama's people have a hard time handling the truth.

by moevaughn on Tue Mar 18, 2008 at 03:10:08 PM EST

Re: The Speech I Wanted to Hear (none / 0)

Funny what was the SNL skit. Black will be the next president, bitch. Funny how this is not on the front page of dkos. I think we can all agree that was intended to HRC, right.

david

by giusd on Tue Mar 18, 2008 at 03:10:30 PM EST

Re: The Speech I Wanted to Hear (none / 0)

I don't agree. Morgan was addressing Tina Fey, and he obviously wasn't trying to hurt her feelings. They are good friends and have worked/are working together on projects all the time.

Who puts gum on a roof?!

by thatpurplestuff on Tue Mar 18, 2008 at 04:16:53 PM EST
[ Parent ]

This whole situation makes me want to cry (none / 0)

Obama's speech exhibits the same cognitive dissonance that has plagued so much of our history. One minute we're all moral authority and the next minute we'll do anything to win and the next we're all moral authority again.

I agree that it would have been a lot more honest to have admitted that many of the members of Obama's campaign have attempted to inject viciousness of all sorts be it racial, gender, personality, etc. For me personally, acknowledging the ugly way in which sexism has entered this race would have made Obama's speech more compelling.

I was watching Samantha Powers on Colbert last night. She's obviously a scholar who cares a great deal about doing good. But then she's the political operator who calls another accomplished women an "monster."

Of course, everyone's guilty of the double standard. Not just Obama and not just politicians and their campaigns.

by dbrown04 on Tue Mar 18, 2008 at 03:13:38 PM EST

Re: The Speech I Wanted to Hear (none / 0)

This post is really well written. It's a marvel.

by Sinbad Sinbad on Tue Mar 18, 2008 at 03:26:57 PM EST

Re: The Speech I Wanted to Hear (none / 0)

Well said.

by environmentally blue on Tue Mar 18, 2008 at 03:57:11 PM EST

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