Oh Oh, POLITCO has got a 3 page report: Racial tensions roil Democratic race

Racial tensions roil Democratic race

By: Ben Smith
Jan 11, 2008 03:04 PM EST


A series of comments from Senator Hillary Clinton, her husband, and her supporters are spurring a racial backlash and adding a divisive edge to the presidential primary as the candidates head south to heavily African-American South Carolina.

The comments, which ranged from the New York Senator appearing to diminish the role of Martin Luther King Jr. in the civil rights movement – an aide later said she misspoke – to Bill Clinton dismissing Sen. Barack Obama’s image in the media as a “fairy tale” –generated outrage on black radio, black blogs, and cable television. And now they've drawn the attention of prominent African-American politicians.

“A cross-section of voters are alarmed at the tenor of some of these statements,” said a Obama spokeswoman Candice Tolliver, who said that Clinton would have to decide whether or not she owed anyone an apology.

“There’s a groundswell of reaction to these comments – and not just these latest comments but really a pattern, or a series of comments that we’ve heard for several months,” she said. “Folks are beginning to wonder: Is this really an isolated situation or is there something bigger behind all of this?”
-snip-

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0108/7845.html

eom

I wish that the Obama people would quit crying racism and that Clinton people would quite crying sexism.

Can we please talk about real issues for a change? Of course, both sexism and racism exist, but I don't think that Clinton is a racist just like I don't think Obama is a sexist.

And the media will take the bait every time, in the interest of a juicy story. We can either jump on the outrage bandwagon fueled by rags like Politico, or ignore it.

I don't care what Ben Smith's "credentials" are, he's a hit man.

I am in a weakened state today :popcorn:

It's the first time the MSM has said such things, but many of us have seen it for years.

The Clintons aren't happy about the state of the plantation.

See video

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x83084

that was despicable, and I'm sorry that Obama didn't step up to the plate and say he disagrees with Jackson. On the other hand, Clinton hasn't distanced herself from a number of questionable remarks by surrogates or the fact that her campaign sent out an email in NH that lied about Obama's record on choice.

Sorry to burst your illusory bubble about Obama supporters.

Let's stop the venom, or at least save it for the GE and the Republicans. Please.

Way to go combatting accusations of sexism!

RACISM VS. SEXISM

Now there's a battle!

And what a great way to attract votes from the Hispanic and Asian communities, too, I'm sure.

Maybe it is a part of the vast right wing conspiracy to alienate these two from mainstream voters----in the deep south their is a bias against women and African Americans(for public office)---no matter if they are qualified or not----For the record I support Obama,My Mom,72 years old,Hillary.
She says a lot of women in her retirement village want to see how a Woman will serve as President in their lifetimes----
My nickels worth
Lastout

I have no use for these people anymore. The Democratic Party had better do some real soul searching over these issues and quickly.

I'm thinking someone...is not understanding that this is 2008...while I see the commentary here on DU, espoused by some, I am confident that those sentiments are not reflective of the American populace. They are just 'highlighted'

a small article next to a big article about Kerry's endorsement of Obama. I forgot the name of the particular person that was rethinking his support of Hillary due to these comments, but it's real. And it's deserved.

and the chickens may be coming home to roost.

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/politics/blog/2008/01/south_carolinas_big_dog_threat.html

I HOPE the chickens come home to roost. :D

Spot on. And that applies to more than just this discussion.

these accusations are Ludicrus!

Politico will be spreading the rumor that Obama wants to legalize rape, and that Edwards studied under Pol Pot.

And we'll believe every word.

--p!

doesn't go according to the way some people think it should they start screaming racism, or sexism, or some other ism.

This just plain sucks.

What's so hard to understand?

something is a "fairy tale" is racist?That's quite a stretch IMO.

as much as they love "F'U"

I hope this backfires big time on the fake Hope and Change crowd

What a bunch of hypocrites

Trashing MLK, linking Obama to drug dealers, the shuck and jive comment-- that's all Clinton campaign. It's the Clintons who are splitting our party, not the Obama campaign.

The fairy tale complaints are BS since Bill was only talking about Obama's Iraq record and the media's coverage, or lack thereof, of it. The rest is legitimate and reflect badly on the Hillary campaign. If Obama's people keep bringing it up that will hurt Obama with the white vote. I don't see why they are escalating this. They are mortagaging their future for South Carolina.

Obama is not pure on race either. Jesse Jackson Jr. implied Hillary is a racist and Obama endorser Chris Rock called Hillary an "old white lady."

Still, Hillary was at best tactless, at worst downright stupid in marginalizing MLK's legacy like that. Whatever the words of her surrogates, those were Hillary's own words, and they're more damaging than we could imagine for the movement.

who are flinging this rascist poo every other day and saying "oops" I don't know how that got out and then apologizing for it. Obama is staying above the fray on this except to defend himself.

Not just one incident, this has been a pattern for weeks-- the drug-dealing attacks, madrassahs, Bill Clinton using racial code words (kid and so on) which have roots deep in the Jim Crow era, Hillary's trashing of MLK and then Andrew Cuomo's. The Obama campaign has done nothing of the sort-- there were idiot hecklers from WBCN, no affiliation with the Obama campaign whatsoever.

Also, the history of African-Americans in this country is worlds apart in its misery and brutality from any other group except Native Americans, who suffered outright genocide.

Men and women are both about 50% of the population all the time, and centuries ago, all societies had the same basic arrangement of men going out to work and women staying at home-- this was a commonly evolved aspect of virtually all human societies that took centuries to overcome with major restructurings of the way societies worked and ran their economies. And, well, men and women need each other to survive and have children for the next generation-- whatever the male/female conflicts in the past, we ultimately need to get along just to survive.

OTOH, most societies did not have Black slaves to anything approaching the degree of the United States, and the African-American story in the USA is uniquely horrible and especially specific to our society and a few others, such as South Africa-- Africans being brought over on cramped slave ships, dying by the millions, being worked to death on American fields, then even after the Civil War being denied basic rights, brutalized by Jim Crow, lynched, convicted by racist juries, and suffering all kinds of other indignities whose toxic effects are still with us. Whites and African-Americans became two separate societies in bitter conflict with each other. And since Blacks constitute only about 12% of the population, this has long limited their ability to redress grievances and gain the political representation that is necessary after so many centuries of brutal treatment here.

as per the manual
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=4030582&mesg_id=4030582

For one thing, the HC camgaign is being accused unjustly in my opinion. Obama campaign is playing
the race card everytime they accuse HC campaign of doing so. Doesn't anyone else see this?

It would do well for the three of these candidates to hold a joint press conf. and give the media hell. They should do this until the media get the message to go back to "reporting" the news instead of "making" it. It is so sad. We are destroying ourselves from within.

if they did something like that. Nice idea.

If everytime someone criticizes him he shouts racism, he will be in a world of hurt.

It's the 'black community' at large. And apparently the narrative is building that the Clintons are saying some none-to-friendly stuff about Obama, and it's not being received well. I heard Bill in damage control mode on the radio today.

He just has his guys behind the scenes do it for him.