Make no mistake about it ~ the Clinton's are purposely playing the race card in the Democratic Presidential Primary ~ which explains why Obama is finding it hard to attract the low income, white, blue-collar voter without a college degree: Allen L Roland
Pennsylvania was a wake up call to Barack Obama. He must stop thinking about November and McCain, roll up his sleeves, sharpen his message and concentrate on upcoming victories against the Clinton's in North Carolina and Indiana ~ which won't be easy with the race card in full evidence.
The race card is the not so subtle effort to paint Obama as an angry, black, Muslim, through association , and then let the angry white racists and bigots take it from there.
The Race card is fully in evidence on the web as witness these words from ExposeObama.com http://www.cfourstrategies.com/ObamaImages/obamamast9.gif"
" Make no mistake, there are people in the United States who despise America.. hate America .. and hate our way of life. Barrack Hussein Obama is THEIR CANDIDATE and will do everything in their power to make sure that patriotic Americans do not understand exactly how dangerous Barrack Hussein Obama really is. They'll hide his record of the past and they'll tar-and-feather his opposition."
Bill Clinton first showed the race card in South Carolina with remarks comparing Obama's victory to civil right's activist Jesse Jackson ~ knowingly tapping into a racist vein that still lies barely below the surface with low income, white, blue-collar voters without a college degree.
The Clinton's know that there is a percentage of the American electorate who will simply not vote for a black person no matter what his qualities or qualifications ~ and they have demonstrated that they will use that knowledge to their benefit.
Why do you think Hillary told Bill Richardson that " Barrack can't win in November " Her non verbalized rationale was " because he's black "
In the remarks that sparked the furor, Clinton compared Obama’s campaign to that of civil rights activist Jesse Jackson.
“Jesse Jackson won in South Carolina twice in ‘84 and’88, and he ran a good campaign, and Senator Obama has run a good campaign. He has run a good campaign everywhere. He’s got a good ~ He is a good candidate with a good organization,” Clinton said.
Obama supporters said the remarks were meant to belittle Obama by comparing him with a black candidate whose appeal was more narrow. Obama rightfully called the remarks hallmarks of the politics of racism.
Asked Monday if he regretted the comment, Clinton responded: “No, I think that they played the race card on me, and we now know from memos in the campaign and everything that they planned to do it all along.
“Do I regret saying it? No. Do I regret that it was used that way? I certainly do. But you’ve really got to go some (distance) to portray me as a racist,” Clinton said, adding that he has an office in Harlem, and Jesse Jackson told him personally he was not offended.
“I called him and asked him if he found anything offensive. And he just laughed and he said, ‘Of course I don’t. We all know what’s going on,’ ” Clinton said .
Clinton told WHYY that he has “conceded that this was used against me, but this was a conversation that occurred early in the morning. We didn’t even know what the vote was going to be at the time. We were all sitting around, drinking coffee ~ just finished breakfast ~ and we were starting, we were talking about South Carolina political history."
“And this was used out of context, and this was twisted for political purposes by the Obama campaign to try to breed resentment elsewhere.”
The former president added a more colorful remark at the end of an interview when he appeared to think he was off-mic .
“I don’t think I should take any sh** from anybody on that, do you?” he apparently asked someone in the room.
A reporter on Tuesday asked Clinton what he meant when he said the Obama campaign was playing the race card on him.
Clinton responded : “No, no, no, that’s not what I said. … You always follow me around and play these little games. And I am not going to play your games today. This is a day about Election Day. Go back and see what the question was, and what my answer was. You have mischaracterized it just to get another cheap story to divert the American people from the real urgent issues before us, and I choose not to play your game today.”
Faced with questions about the former president’s remarks, Obama said he simply didn’t understand Clinton’s point.
“So hold on a second,” Obama told reporters with a chuckle. “So former President Clinton dismissed my victory in South Carolina as being similar to Jesse Jackson and he is suggesting that somehow I had something to do with it? OK, well, you better ask him what he meant by that.”
His campaign spokesman dismissed it with more glee.
“The secret memo? Where we put the idea in his head to say what he said so he can blame us for having said it?” spokesman Robert Gibbs said with a wink . “That would be pretty good if we could do that.”
Hillary Clinton sidestepped questions at a campaign stop in Pennsylvania about her husband’s remarks.
“I think we’re going to stay focused on what voters are focused on,” she said.
Clinton’s recollection of the Jan. 26 comment is a problem his wife has had to deal with throughout her campaign. While Clinton recalls the comments coming over coffee, the specific remark most people refer to came during an impromptu television interview with an ABC reporter. No breakfast or coffee was immediately visible in video of the interview that was given outdoors.
Allen L Roland http://blogs.salon.com/0002255/2008/04/23.html
