Hillary using race card to bolster support....

[Mike Johnson]

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/

(CNN) — In what appear to be the New York senator's most blunt comments to date regarding a racial division in the Democratic presidential race, Hillary Clinton suggested Wednesday that "White Americans" are increasingly turning away from Barack Obama’s candidacy.

"I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on," Clinton said in an interview with USA TODAY.

Clinton cited an Associated Press poll "that found how Senator Obama's support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me."

"There's a pattern emerging here," she said.

Exit polls from Tuesday's primaries in Indiana and North Carolina show Clinton won about 60 percent of the white vote in both states. That percentage is down from the Ohio primary on March 4, in which Clinton won upwards of 65 percent of the white vote. Meanwhile, Clinton garnered 63 percent of the white vote in Pennsylvania on April 22.

Speaking with the paper, Clinton rejected the notion her comments were racially divisive in any way.

"These are the people you have to win if you're a Democrat in sufficient numbers to actually win the election," she said. "Everybody knows that."

Obama spokesman Bill Burton called Clinton's statements "not true and frankly disappointing

[Mike Johnson]

Why doesn't she also acknowledge the flip side of the coin - she can't win without the minority vote.

[Daniel, Grand Duke of Stony Island]

Why doesn't she also acknowledge the flip side of the coin - she can't win without the minority vote.Why don't you acknowledge the flip side of her coin - which is OBVIOUS: Obama needs white votes more than she requires black votes.

Supporting something doesn't mean throwing reality out the window. She could be right.

[dj-chefron]

Why don't you acknowledge the flip side of her coin - which is OBVIOUS: Obama needs white votes more than she requires black votes.

Supporting something doesn't mean throwing reality out the window. She could be right.
The country is about 65% majority white so the question is with why is she getting her ass kick by a first time senator with a funny name.

[RAS]

From the yahoo home page:

For all her talk about "full speed on to the White House," there was an unmistakably elegiac tone to Hillary Clinton's primary-night speech in Indianapolis. And if one needed further confirmation that the undaunted, never-say-die Clintons realize their bid might be at an end, all it took was a look at the wistful faces of the husband and the daughter who stood behind the candidate as she talked of all the people she has met in a journey "that has been a blessing for me."

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It was also a journey she had begun with what appeared to be insurmountable advantages, which evaporated one by one as the campaign dragged on far longer than anyone could have anticipated. She made at least five big mistakes, each of which compounded the others:


1. She misjudged the mood
That was probably her biggest blunder. In a cycle that has been all about change, Clinton chose an incumbent's strategy, running on experience, preparedness, inevitability - and the power of the strongest brand name in Democratic politics. It made sense, given who she is and the additional doubts that some voters might have about making a woman Commander in Chief. But in putting her focus on positioning herself to win the general election in November, Clinton completely misread the mood of Democratic-primary voters, who were desperate to turn the page. "Being the consummate Washington insider is not where you want to be in a year when people want change," says Barack Obama's chief strategist, David Axelrod. Clinton's "initial strategic positioning was wrong and kind of played into our hands." But other miscalculations made it worse:


2. She didn't master the rules
Clinton picked people for her team primarily for their loyalty to her, instead of their mastery of the game. That became abundantly clear in a strategy session last year, according to two people who were there. As aides looked over the campaign calendar, chief strategist Mark Penn confidently predicted that an early win in California would put her over the top because she would pick up all the state's 370 delegates. It sounded smart, but as every high school civics student now knows, Penn was wrong: Democrats, unlike the Republicans, apportion their delegates according to vote totals, rather than allowing any state to award them winner-take-all. Sitting nearby, veteran Democratic insider Harold M. Ickes, who had helped write those rules, was horrified - and let Penn know it. "How can it possibly be," Ickes asked, "that the much vaunted chief strategist doesn't understand proportional allocation?" And yet the strategy remained the same, with the campaign making its bet on big-state victories. Even now, it can seem as if they don't get it. Both Bill and Hillary have noted plaintively that if Democrats had the same winner-take-all rules as Republicans, she'd be the nominee. Meanwhile, the Clinton campaign now acknowledges privately:


3. She underestimated the caucus states
While Clinton based her strategy on the big contests, she seemed to virtually overlook states like Minnesota, Nebraska and Kansas, which choose their delegates through caucuses. She had a reason: the Clintons decided, says an adviser, that "caucus states were not really their thing." Her core supporters - women, the elderly, those with blue-collar jobs - were less likely to be able to commit an evening of the week, as the process requires. But it was a little like unilateral disarmament in states worth 12% of the pledged delegates. Indeed, it was in the caucus states that Obama piled up his lead among pledged delegates. "For all the talent and the money they had over there," says Axelrod, "they - bewilderingly - seemed to have little understanding for the caucuses and how important they would become."


By the time Clinton's lieutenants realized the grave nature of their error, they lacked the resources to do anything about it - in part because:


4. She relied on old money
For a decade or more, the Clintons set the standard for political fund-raising in the Democratic Party, and nearly all Bill's old donors had re-upped for Hillary's bid. Her 2006 Senate campaign had raised an astonishing $51.6 million against token opposition, in what everyone assumed was merely a dry run for a far bigger contest. But something had happened to fund-raising that Team Clinton didn't fully grasp: the Internet. Though Clinton's totals from working the shrimp-cocktail circuit remained impressive by every historic measure, her donors were typically big-check writers. And once they had ponied up the $2,300 allowed by law, they were forbidden to give more. The once bottomless Clinton well was drying up.


Obama relied instead on a different model: the 800,000-plus people who had signed up on his website and could continue sending money his way $5, $10 and $50 at a time. (The campaign has raised more than $100 million online, better than half its total.) Meanwhile, the Clintons were forced to tap the $100 million - plus fortune they had acquired since he left the White House - first for $5 million in January to make it to Super Tuesday and then $6.4 million to get her through Indiana and North Carolina. And that reflects one final mistake:


5. She never counted on a long haul
Clinton's strategy had been premised on delivering a knockout blow early. If she could win Iowa, she believed, the race would be over. Clinton spent lavishly there yet finished a disappointing third. What surprised the Obama forces was how long it took her campaign to retool. She fought him to a tie in the Feb. 5 Super Tuesday contests but didn't have any troops in place for the states that followed. Obama, on the other hand, was a train running hard on two or three tracks. Whatever the Chicago headquarters was unveiling to win immediate contests, it always had a separate operation setting up organizations in the states that were next. As far back as Feb. 21, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe was spotted in Raleigh, N.C. He told the News & Observer that the state's primary, then more than 10 weeks away, "could end up being very important in the nomination fight." At the time, the idea seemed laughable.


Now, of course, the question seems not whether Clinton will exit the race but when. She continues to load her schedule with campaign stops, even as calls for her to concede grow louder. But the voice she is listening to now is the one inside her head, explains a longtime aide. Clinton's calculation is as much about history as it is about politics. As the first woman to have come this far, Clinton has told those close to her, she wants people who invested their hopes in her to see that she has given it her best. And then? As she said in Indianapolis, "No matter what happens, I will work for the nominee of the Democratic Party because we must win in November." When the task at hand is healing divisions in the Democratic Party, the loser can have as much influence as the winner. View this article on Time.com

[Daniel, Grand Duke of Stony Island]

The country is about 65% majority white so the question is with why is she getting her ass kick by a first time senator with a funny name.Politics is 80% male Harvard graduates, so why isn't Obama a shoe-in? Women outnumber men in overall population but not voting population, so why hasn't it been a landslide?

"Woman is the nigger of the world" - John Lennon

[Bill Blake]

If Obama got predominately white working class votes she’d be saying they are not the total make up of the party.

Never have I ever heard this dividing within the party as politic save the rainbow coalition and that was for blacks and gays? Why? Because the white whatever members weren’t meeting their demands.

The reality probably is that she hardly has working class people as a priority for squat.

[Bill Blake]

Politics is 80% male Harvard graduates, so why isn't Obama a shoe-in? Women outnumber men in overall population but not voting population, so why hasn't it been a landslide?

"Woman is the nigger of the world" - John Lennon


Sure, but if there's anyhoo who's holding white female ivy-jiveys down it ain't no black man...

[Bill Blake]

And just MAYBE the problem with the democratic party is that both it’s leadership and white working class folks (ones voting for Hillary) aren’t progressive or that liberal. And IF that’s the case, then Obama’s advisors were right…we DON’T need their asses.

[Daniel, Grand Duke of Stony Island]

Sure, but if there's anyhoo who's holding white female ivy-jiveys down it ain't no black man...Dwelling in absolutes while decisioning keeps one from being burned by possibilities.

Ifs, however, are like walking through Chelsea asking for directions wearing ass-less chaps.

I deal in probabilities and leave possibilities to fiction writers.

[dj-chefron]

And just MAYBE the problem with the democratic party is that both it’s leadership and white working class folks (ones voting for Hillary) aren’t progressive or that liberal. And IF that’s the case, then Obama’s advisors were right…we DON’T need their asses.Totally agree they are a dinosaur whos time has come to get out of the way

[Huey P. Freeman]

Why don't you acknowledge the flip side of her coin - which is OBVIOUS: Obama needs white votes more than she requires black votes.

Supporting something doesn't mean throwing reality out the window. She could be right.I disagree. She can't win without the black vote. No way no how. The need on both sides is equal.

[Mike Johnson]

Why don't you acknowledge the flip side of her coin - which is OBVIOUS: Obama needs white votes more than she requires black votes.

Supporting something doesn't mean throwing reality out the window. She could be right.

That's debatable. But here's the real deal. Once the others (all white men, save Richardson) got out of the crowd, it's been down to only two candidates - Hillary and Obama. Who leads in popular vote by shear numbers? It ain't Hillary -- and there are far more white voters than black, hispanic, or any other minority. If she hasn't been able to get the majority of them on her train by now (since she claims that he can't and won't be able to), then that suggests not all of them want HER as their candidate (that's dems I'm talking about). And spare me the notion that they're all saving up for McCain. By comparison, he's had a poorer showing garnering white votes than Obama has.

[Daniel, Grand Duke of Stony Island]

I disagree. She can't win without the black vote. No way no how. The need on both sides is equal.Exactly how does one disagree with mathematics?

There are actual numbers provided by the US Census Bureau and local election boards that can provide the x and y values in order to grid, district by district, who needs which race's votes more.

If Clinton broke that math today, there is less of a chance it was derived of conjecture than the political analysts on her team who get paid to research and report on it.

[Huey P. Freeman]

Exactly how does one disagree with mathematics?

There are actual numbers provided by the US Census Bureau and local election boards that can provide the x and y values in order to grid, district by district, who needs which race's votes more.

If Clinton broke that math today, there is less of a chance it was derived of conjecture than the political analysts on her team who get paid to research and report on it.I'm from Missouri. Show me. Show me the racial breakdown of democratic voters in the last few presidential election cycles. Show me the number sans the black vote. Show me the republican vote for the last few cycles against that number. Is the dem vote total higher? The mere fact that a dem has not won in the last two cycles with the black vote proves that notion false. I don't want to hear population numbers. Show me raw votes. Like I said the need goes both ways.

[AD]

she needs to give it a rest. she's grasping for anything at this point and should just bail out now with whatever credibility she has left (if any).

[djmarbll]

Realistically speaking, there is no mathematical possibility for Hillary to get the democratic nomination, even if she wins every state from here on out. She's only staying in to sway the superdelegates, three of which gave their support to Obama this week. In addition, George McGovern, who was a Hillary supporter inititally, switched to Obama's side this week. Its getting to the point where Hillary's pride is overshadowing her ability to make rational decisions for herself and the future of the democratic party.

[The Buddy Love Show]

This thread is a tad funny considering Obama has gotten 95% of the black vote

This country was built on identity politics - if we as black folk are just realizing this then shame on us

[AD]

Its getting to the point where Hillary's pride is overshadowing her ability to make rational decisions for herself and the future of the democratic party.


Bingo!

[Huey P. Freeman]

This thread is a tad funny considering Obama has gotten 95% of the black vote

This country was built on identity politics - if we as black folk are just realizing this then shame on usTrust I get where you are coming from. But the constant bombardment of the "he can't get the white vote" rhetoric(which is completely false given he has won the majority of the total vote thus far and it ain't all black) is tiresome and can't be good for the party or his presidential run(because hers is over).

[mhd]

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/

(CNN) — In what appear to be the New York senator's most blunt comments to date regarding a racial division in the Democratic presidential race, Hillary Clinton suggested Wednesday that "White Americans" are increasingly turning away from Barack Obama’s candidacy.

"I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on," Clinton said in an interview with USA TODAY.

Clinton cited an Associated Press poll "that found how Senator Obama's support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me."

"There's a pattern emerging here," she said.

Exit polls from Tuesday's primaries in Indiana and North Carolina show Clinton won about 60 percent of the white vote in both states. That percentage is down from the Ohio primary on March 4, in which Clinton won upwards of 65 percent of the white vote. Meanwhile, Clinton garnered 63 percent of the white vote in Pennsylvania on April 22.

Speaking with the paper, Clinton rejected the notion her comments were racially divisive in any way.

"These are the people you have to win if you're a Democrat in sufficient numbers to actually win the election," she said. "Everybody knows that."

Obama spokesman Bill Burton called Clinton's statements "not true and frankly disappointing

so, by hilary's logic, she only got 6% of the black vote in north carolina, therefore, she can only expect 6% of the black vote in the general election....

[The Buddy Love Show]

Trust I get where you are coming from. But the constant bombardment of the "he can't get the white vote" rhetoric(which is completely false given he has won the majority of the total vote thus far and it ain't all black) is tiresome and can't be good for the party or his presidential run(because hers is over).

Not good at all

Hillary is toast as far as the nomination is concerned

She keeps this up and she'll be an ex-senator as well

[Daniel, Grand Duke of Stony Island]

Ah...so Hillary Clinton's responsibilities are to proceed along with her campaign while protecting and maintaining the good of the National Democratic party and all while ensuring she doesn't step on the dream of black people to see a black president.

And all Obama has to do is make speeches and spend other people's money on television ads.

Sometimes its shocking how stupid men can be. If you can't see the deck is stacked against her three to one, you're either ignorant, lying to yourself or you haven't tried accomplishing anything behind making it to your next paycheck.

I'm actually kind of sad folks can't see she was starting from -10 from day one. One thing that is telling is, in all of this, its plain to see how intolerant black folk are toward white WOMEN.

Black man can get away with murder. White man can get away with genocide. White woman can't step outside her front door without the world screaming, "Bitch, back in your place!"

Its some sad and evil shit. Voting for her won't do one thing to fix it, but its sad and frightening.

[mhd]

Why don't you acknowledge the flip side of her coin - which is OBVIOUS: Obama needs white votes more than she requires black votes.

Supporting something doesn't mean throwing reality out the window. She could be right.

could be, the question is for those democratic voters, who is their second choice? is it mccain or obama? will those voters listen to hilary's endorsement of obama? personally, i'm confident that he could win over working class white voters

[Mike Johnson]

This thread is a tad funny considering Obama has gotten 95% of the black vote

This country was built on identity politics - if we as black folk are just realizing this then shame on us

No argument. She's trying to sell the super delegates that she can win on the basis that there is a broader white vote who would favor her in a general election, than (I thinK) a non-white vote that wouldn't be enough for Obama to win the general election. From her perspective, this is a sound argument. But the fact is that Obama has not been riding this tidal wave of the popular vote based on the black vote alone -- we don't have those kind of numbers. And to suggest that white dems wouldn't turn out for him in numbers that could get him a win in November doesn't fully fly, because she hasn't been able to get those same votes for her to overtake him in the primaries.

[david_mancuso]

Politics is 80% male Harvard graduates, so why isn't Obama a shoe-in? Women outnumber men in overall population but not voting population, so why hasn't it been a landslide?

"Woman is the nigger of the world" - John Lennon



Stats: Women were 22.4 percent of the 118 million people who voted in 2004

[Daniel, Grand Duke of Stony Island]

could be, the question is for those democratic voters, who is their second choice? is it mccain or obama? will those voters listen to hilary's endorsement of obama? personally, i'm confident that he could win over working class white votersI'm confident of that as well. He's done it before, and it wouldn't be the first time a black politician has carried a huge percentage of white working class votes to remain in office. Jesse Jackson, Jr. has that ace up his sleeve every election.

I'm sayin' I see a deep pathos of misogyny in the postmortem. Makes me fear for my daughters its that deep.

[mhd]

I'm confident of that as well. He's done it before, and it wouldn't be the first time a black politician has carried a huge percentage of white working class votes to remain in office. Jesse Jackson, Jr. has that ace up his sleeve every election.

I'm sayin' I see a deep pathos of misogyny in the postmortem. Makes me fear for my daughters its that deep.

i feel you...

[Daniel, Grand Duke of Stony Island]

Stats: Women were 22.4 percent of the 118 million people who voted in 2004Frightening. Even more, traditionally, its women who vote on behalf of their children.

22.4 percent of America's children have political representation. The rest are at risk in the political system.

I'm feeling sick. I'm goin' to get a bagel or something.

[Huey P. Freeman]

Ah...so Hillary Clinton's responsibilities are to proceed along with her campaign while protecting and maintaining the good of the National Democratic party and all while ensuring she doesn't step on the dream of black people to see a black president.

And all Obama has to do is make speeches and spend other people's money on television ads.

Sometimes its shocking how stupid men can be. If you can't see the deck is stacked against her three to one, you're either ignorant, lying to yourself or you haven't tried accomplishing anything behind making it to your next paycheck.

I'm actually kind of sad folks can't see she was starting from -10 from day one. One thing that is telling is, in all of this, its plain to see how intolerant black folk are toward white WOMEN.

Black man can get away with murder. White man can get away with genocide. White woman can't step outside her front door without the world screaming, "Bitch, back in your place!"

Its some sad and evil shit. Voting for her won't do one thing to fix it, but its sad and frightening.Do you really believe the above? It doesn't quite jibe with reality. If there is a gender/race hierarchy, white women definitely don't rank below black men.

[Daniel, Grand Duke of Stony Island]

Do you really believe the above? It doesn't quite jibe with reality. If there is a gender/race hierarchy, white women definitely don't rank below black men.Man, I don't deal in belief. You know that.

[Bill Blake]

Black man can get away with murder. White man can get away with genocide. White woman can't step outside her front door without the world screaming, "Bitch, back in your place!"

Its some sad and evil shit. Voting for her won't do one thing to fix it, but its sad and frightening.

So white working class men are feminists now?

Somebody call The Times!

[Rom]

Ah...so Hillary Clinton's responsibilities are to proceed along with her campaign while protecting and maintaining the good of the National Democratic party and all while ensuring she doesn't step on the dream of black people to see a black president.

And all Obama has to do is make speeches and spend other people's money on television ads.

Sometimes its shocking how stupid men can be. If you can't see the deck is stacked against her three to one, you're either ignorant, lying to yourself or you haven't tried accomplishing anything behind making it to your next paycheck.

I'm actually kind of sad folks can't see she was starting from -10 from day one. One thing that is telling is, in all of this, its plain to see how intolerant black folk are toward white WOMEN.

Black man can get away with murder. White man can get away with genocide. White woman can't step outside her front door without the world screaming, "Bitch, back in your place!"

Its some sad and evil shit. Voting for her won't do one thing to fix it, but its sad and frightening.

I dont know about this man vs women stuff yer speaking on here bro, I'm sure it has merit, Im just not sure its completely relevant to this discussion...but on the point at hand, this is some divisive arse race bait pandering that not even 'white men' can do in this day and hope to win a general election. Now she's alienated all other races except white folk...and a good portion of white folk too, liberal, young and colege educated. I'd like to hear how the latinos feel about these statements, and the asians and all the other races as well. How are you going to carry Cali and TX having thrown the latinos under the bus? I really cant believe she said Obamas "support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again". Wait for it...oh I guess only white Americans are the hard working Americans. lol.

At best, she's pandering to Kentucky in an attempt to garner a double digit win over Obama there to futher this electibility argument with the supers.

Ultimately though, she's just played right into Obama's main theme...divided we fail. I see Her national poll numbers taking a nose dive over this dawg. This is at least as controversial as bitter and pastorgate. Lets see how the MSM plays this one.

[djdub63]

http://z.about.com/d/politicalhumor/1/0/F/C/hillary_closer.jpg

[Daniel, Grand Duke of Stony Island]

I dont know about this man vs women stuff yer speaking on here bro, I'm sure it has merit, Im just not sure its completely relevant to this discussion.This race is about economics. Who has less economic parity - black men to white men or women to men? Who carries a disproportionate burden of the expense of child rearing - black men to white men or women to men?

Its relevant, pertinent and telling. Also, only someone who doesn't already support Clinton could hear her statement as a slight to her non-white supporters. She doing numbers and numbers are unbiased.

[djmarbll]

could be, the question is for those democratic voters, who is their second choice? is it mccain or obama? will those voters listen to hilary's endorsement of obama? personally, i'm confident that he could win over working class white voters

Hillary will endorse Obama eventually, and maybe even have a position in Obama's cabinet. Her loyal followers will turn around then, at least I hope.

[Daniel, Grand Duke of Stony Island]

Hillary will endorse Obama eventually, and maybe even have a position in Obama's cabinet. Her loyal followers will turn around then, at least I hope.Hillary Clinton will reign in her supporters and unite them with Obamas. She isn't going to deliver them, and she isn't going to abandon them.

I told y'all - Hillary Clinton does not lose. Never. She'll surrender...conditionally, but outright lose. Na.

BTW - does anyone know where the hell is John Edwards? :mwink:

Mmmm hm. There is most definitely a game afoot. Y'all know how democrats do? They live for the round table hash-out discussion in the smoky back room of a budget hotel at 3am. Republicans have the most fun in office. Democrats have the most fun campaigning.

One thing I can say for near-certain is, unless I am an idiot or something goes horribly wrong, we are in for eight years of the most colorful and dynamic action we've seen in a democratic White House since the FDR years. It could really lead to the end of the politics of morality.

I'm excited to see it either way.

[Rom]

This race is about economics. Who has less economic parity - black men to white men or women to men? Who carries a disproportionate burden of the expense of child rearing - black men to white men or women to men?

Its relevant, pertinent and telling. Also, only someone who doesn't already support Clinton could hear her statement as a slight to her non-white supporters. She doing numbers and numbers are unbiased.

I dont know about this unbiased stuff bro. Whats up with her statement about the really real hard working Americans?

[Daniel, Grand Duke of Stony Island]

I dont know about this unbiased stuff bro. Whats up with her statement about the really real hard working Americans?Elements of style. She said real hard working Americans. Not true hard working Americans. Not hard working real Americans or hard working true Americans.

The differential in her statement isn't "real" but "hard", as in those who toil.

There's no risk of alienation in her statement since no one would admit they aren't a hard working American. Ain't no base for the lazy and proud of it. :rofl:

[Bill Blake]

This race is about economics. Who has less economic parity - black men to white men or women to men? Who carries a disproportionate burden of the expense of child rearing - black men to white men or women to men?

Its relevant, pertinent and telling. Also, only someone who doesn't already support Clinton could hear her statement as a slight to her non-white supporters. She doing numbers and numbers are unbiased.

Brown women to white women because the white women in the work force at HER WHITE WOMAN LEVEL HIRE BROWN WOMEN TO RAISE THEIR RATS while they're out making bank.

[Daniel, Grand Duke of Stony Island]

Brown women to white women because the white women in the work force at HER WHITE WOMAN LEVEL HIRE BROWN WOMEN TO RAISE THEIR RATS while they're out making bank.That's not contextual to the contrast of Obama v. Clinton. Candidates are the personification of their bases, thus white men see Obama as a man before black and Clinton as a woman before white. The economy has a far greater bearing on women and children than men and it is the most critical issue in this election.

Women and children should, by logic, feel more in line with Clinton, and yet she isn't able to get past this small hump against a man who, on paper, has a similar agenda and a sketchier record of service.

Obama is mighty holding his own, but he isn't trouncing her. So, if women outnumber men and economic issues are more important to women than all other issues combined, why can't she clear that last handful of delegates?

This is about NUMBERS, and the numbers show women, and by extension their children, still not truly franchised by our political system.

[AK]

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/

(CNN) — In what appear to be the New York senator's most blunt comments to date regarding a racial division in the Democratic presidential race, Hillary Clinton suggested Wednesday that "White Americans" are increasingly turning away from Barack Obama’s candidacy.

"I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on," Clinton said in an interview with USA TODAY.

Clinton cited an Associated Press poll "that found how Senator Obama's support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me."

"There's a pattern emerging here," she said.

Exit polls from Tuesday's primaries in Indiana and North Carolina show Clinton won about 60 percent of the white vote in both states. That percentage is down from the Ohio primary on March 4, in which Clinton won upwards of 65 percent of the white vote. Meanwhile, Clinton garnered 63 percent of the white vote in Pennsylvania on April 22.

Speaking with the paper, Clinton rejected the notion her comments were racially divisive in any way.

"These are the people you have to win if you're a Democrat in sufficient numbers to actually win the election," she said. "Everybody knows that."

Obama spokesman Bill Burton called Clinton's statements "not true and frankly disappointing

The most disappointing thing about her comments is her use of 'hard-working Americans' and 'white Americans' as synonyms.

How sad it is to watch the Clintons discount African-Americans and the black vote. Truly sad.

[AK]

Why don't you acknowledge the flip side of her coin - which is OBVIOUS: Obama needs white votes more than she requires black votes.



Perhaps, but thank goodness he has them. Save for Pennsylvania, he has received roughly 40-55 percent of the white vote in every contest. And over 1,000,000 people voted for him in Pennsylvania.

Add to that 90-95 percent of the black vote, and I like his chances. She's got a bigger problem than he does. Hence, the reason this ball game is over. Her last gasp race-baiting notwithstanding.

[AK]

And does this battle cry really resound for people, 'let's be the party of less educated white people'...

[AK]

Was just reading an article about the West Virginia primary. All you can do is laugh at this stuff...

"Obama rubs the Hortons the wrong way because they think he's arrogant. It's the same thing you hear from voters in a lot of the parts of the country where Obama's infamous remarks about bitterness would probably also apply. But that's not his only problem in rural West Virginia. "They won't go for a black man, that's just it," R.K. Horton, a retired heating and air conditioning business owner, said of his neighbors. "I don't think it's being racist necessarily, they just don't like black people that well." For that matter, it's not just his neighbors. "The arrogance and all that bothers me more than black, but black is a close second," he said. "Our generation was back when blacks were the back of the bus, and it's hard to change that outlook. I just feel like I couldn't vote for him."

[fred da warrior]

And does this battle cry really resound for people, 'let's be the party of less educated white people'...

The more you think about it, the stupider it sounds, don't it?

When is the white Dr. Cosby personal responsibility tour coming through West Virginia?

[Rom]

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[DeesKo]

Was just reading an article about the West Virginia primary. All you can do is laugh at this stuff...

"They won't go for a black man, that's just it," R.K. Horton, a retired heating and air conditioning business owner, said of his neighbors. "I don't think it's being racist necessarily, they just don't like black people that well."



You sure there wasn't a line somewhere in there about "I have black friends" ?

[Bill Blake]

The more you think about it, the stupider it sounds, don't it?

When is the white Dr. Cosby personal responsibility tour coming through West Virginia?

Well to be fair, they are the majority...

[TonyB]

You sure there wasn't a line somewhere in there about "I have black friends" ?

^^^Bwuhahahahahahaha!!! I'm quite sure there was! That usually what follows such idiotic remarks.

"I hate dem damn rabble-rousin' niggras, but my best friend Leroy --- he's different. He works hard, keeps his mouth shut, and stays in his place. His family been making a good livin' shinin' our shoes and working odd jobs for us for years. Yassuh, he's a good colored boy! Why can't they all be like dat?"

[Mike Johnson]

Was just reading an article about the West Virginia primary. All you can do is laugh at this stuff...

"Our generation was back when blacks were the back of the bus, and it's hard to change that outlook. I just feel like I couldn't vote for him."

Older, blue collar, "hard working white" Americans. This is the demographic that she's counting on to get her the popular vote -- and the ones she believes won't vote for Obama in the general election. She probably believes that there are far more of them than there are of younger whites who are chosing to overlook race and vote for Obama.

[dj-chefron]

Older, blue collar, "hard working white" Americans. This is the demographic that she's counting on to get her the popular vote -- and the ones she believes won't vote for Obama in the general election. She probably believes that there are far more of them than there are of younger whites who are choosing to overlook race and vote for Obama.The tv talking heads are pushing this point.I wish someone would tell them the so call Reagan democrats that they are a non item,this is not 1980 but I think the main reason is they know a tidal wave is coming. With Clinton at least 47% of the country will never vote for her and they have a chance to maintain their power if she is the nominee, but with what happen in the IL.14 district and the 6district in La. if Democrats run on what they believe in and dont try to be more republican they will run the table because Obama changes the map. Remember less than 50% of the people bother to vote,Obama will increase turnout to at least 60% and thats what scares them.Old people,Baby Boomers, Reagan Democrats whatever you chose to call them Know their time is up it is now our time .

[AK]

Some perspective on the thumping Obama will get tonight and what this campaign has had to endure. I won't even get into some of the things that have come Barack's and Michelle's way...

By KEVIN MERIDA
The Washington Post
Published on: 05/13/08

Danielle Ross was alone in an empty room at the Obama campaign headquarters in Kokomo, Ind., a cellphone in one hand, a voter call list in the other. She was stretched out on the carpeted floor wearing laceless sky-blue Converses, stories from the trail on her mind. It was the day before Indiana's primary, and she had just been chased by dogs while canvassing in a Kokomo suburb. But that was not the worst thing to occur since she postponed her sophomore year at Middle Tennessee State University, in part to hopscotch America stumping for Barack Obama.

Here's the worst: In Muncie, a factory town in the east-central part of Indiana, Ross and her cohorts were soliciting support for Obama at malls, on street corners and in a Wal-Mart parking lot, and they ran into "a horrible response," as Ross put it, a level of anti-black sentiment that none of them had anticipated.

"The first person I encountered was like, 'I'll never vote for a black person,' " recalled Ross, who is white and just turned 20. "People just weren't receptive."

For all the hope and excitement Obama's candidacy is generating, some of his field workers, phone-bank volunteers and campaign surrogates are encountering a raw racism and hostility that have gone largely unnoticed — and unreported — this election season.

Doors have been slammed in their faces. They've been called racially derogatory names (including the white volunteers). And they've endured malicious rants and ugly stereotyping from people who can't fathom that the senator from Illinois could become the first African American president.
The contrast between the large, adoring crowds Obama draws at public events and the gritty street-level work to win votes is stark. The candidate is largely insulated from the mean-spiritedness that some of his foot soldiers deal with away from the media spotlight.

Victoria Switzer, a retired social studies teacher, was on phone-bank duty one night during the Pennsylvania primary campaign. One night was all she could take: "It wasn't pretty." She made 60 calls to prospective voters in Susquehanna County, her home county, which is 98 percent white. The responses were dispiriting. One caller, Switzer remembers, said he couldn't possibly vote for Obama and concluded: "Hang that darky from a tree!"
Documentary filmmaker Rory Kennedy, the daughter of the late Robert F. Kennedy, said she, too, came across "a lot of racism" when campaigning for Obama in Pennsylvania. One Pittsburgh union organizer told her he would not vote for Obama because he is black, and a white voter, she said, offered this frank reason for not backing Obama: "White people look out for white people, and black people look out for black people."
Obama campaign officials say such incidents are isolated, that the experience of most volunteers and staffers has been overwhelmingly positive.

The campaign released this statement in response to questions about encounters with racism: "After campaigning for 15 months in nearly all 50 states, Barack Obama and our entire campaign have been nothing but impressed and encouraged by the core decency, kindness, and generosity of Americans from all walks of life. The last year has only reinforced Senator Obama's view that this country is not as divided as our politics suggest."

Campaign field work can be an exercise in confronting the fears, anxieties and prejudices of voters. Veterans of the civil rights movement know what this feels like, as do those who have been involved in battles over busing, immigration or abortion. But through the Obama campaign, some young people are having their first experience joining a cause and meeting cruel reaction.

On Election Day in Kokomo, a group of black high school students were holding up Obama signs along U.S. 31, a major thoroughfare. As drivers cruised by, a number of them rolled down their windows and yelled out a common racial slur for African Americans, according to Obama campaign staffers.

Frederick Murrell, a black Kokomo High School senior, was not there but heard what happened. He was more disappointed than surprised. During his own canvassing for Obama, Murrell said, he had "a lot of doors slammed" in his face. But taunting teen-agers on a busy commercial strip in broad daylight? "I was very shocked at first," Murrell said. "Then again, I wasn't, because we have a lot of racism here."

The bigotry has gone beyond words. In Vincennes, the Obama campaign office was vandalized at 2 a.m. on the eve of the primary, according to police. A large plate-glass window was smashed, an American flag stolen. Other windows were spray-painted with references to Obama's controversial former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and other political messages: "Hamas votes BHO" and "We don't cling to guns or religion. Goddamn Wright."

Ray McCormick was notified of the incident at about 2:45 a.m. A farmer and conservationist, McCormick had erected a giant billboard on a major highway on behalf of Farmers for Obama. He also was housing the Obama campaign worker manning the office. When McCormick arrived at the office, about two hours before he was due out of bed to plant corn, he grabbed his camera and wanted to alert the media. "I thought, this is a big deal." But he was told Obama campaign officials didn't want to make a big deal of the incident. McCormick took photos anyway and distributed some.

"The pictures represent what we are breaking through and overcoming," he said. As McCormick, who is white, sees it, Obama is succeeding despite these incidents. Later, there would be bomb threats to three Obama campaign offices in Indiana, including the one in Vincennes, according to campaign sources.

Obama has not spoken much about racism during this campaign. He has sought to emphasize connections among Americans rather than divisions. He shrugged off safety concerns that led to early Secret Service protection and has told black senior citizens who worry that racists will do him harm: Don't fret. Earlier in the campaign, a 68-year-old woman in Carson City, Nev., voiced concern that the country was not ready to elect an African American president.

"Will there be some folks who probably won't vote for me because I am black? Of course," Obama said, "just like there may be somebody who won't vote for Hillary because she's a woman or wouldn't vote for John Edwards because they don't like his accent. But the question is, 'Can we get a majority of the American people to give us a fair hearing?' "

Obama has won 30 of 50 Democratic contests so far, the kind of nationwide electoral triumph no black candidate has ever realized. That he is on the brink of capturing the Democratic nomination, some say, is a testament to how far the country has progressed in overcoming racism and evidence of Obama's skill at bridging divides.

Obama has won five of 12 primaries in which black voters made up less than 10 percent of the electorate, and caucuses in states such as Idaho and Wyoming that are overwhelmingly white. But exit polls show he has struggled to attract white voters who didn't attend college and earn less than $50,000 a year. Tuesday, he and Hillary Clinton square off in West Virginia, a state where she is favored and where the votes of working-class whites will again be closely watched.

For the most part, Obama campaign workers say, the 2008 election cycle has been exhilarating. On the ground, the Obama campaign is being driven by youngsters, many of whom are imbued with an optimism undeterred by racial intolerance. "We've grown up in a different world," says Danielle Ross. Field offices are staffed by 20-somethings who hold positions — state director, regional field director, field organizer — that are typically off limits to newcomers to presidential politics.

Gillian Bergeron, 23, was in charge of a five-county regional operation in northeastern Pennsylvania. The oldest member of her team was 27. At Scranton's annual Saint Patrick's Day parade, some of the green Obama signs distributed by staffers were burned along the parade route. That was the first signal that this wasn't exactly Obama country. There would be others.

In a letter to the editor published in a local paper, Tunkhannock Borough Mayor Norm Ball explained his support of Hillary Clinton this way: "Barack Hussein Obama and all of his talk will do nothing for our country. There is so much that people don't know about his upbringing in the Muslim world. His stepfather was a radical Muslim and the ranting of his minister against the white America, you can't convince me that some of that didn't rub off on him.

"No, I want a president that will salute our flag, and put their hand on the Bible when they take the oath of office."

Obama's campaign workers have grown wearily accustomed to the lies about the candidate's supposed radical Muslim ties and lack of patriotism. But they are sometimes astonished when public officials such as Ball or others representing the campaign of their opponent traffic in these falsehoods.

Karen Seifert, a volunteer from New York, was outside of the largest polling location in Lackawanna County, Pa., on primary day when she was pressed by a Clinton volunteer to explain her backing of Obama. "I trust him," Seifert replied. According to Seifert, the woman pointed to Obama's face on Seifert's T-shirt and said: "He's a half-breed and he's a Muslim. How can you trust that?"

Pollsters have found it difficult to accurately measure racial attitudes, as some voters are unwilling to acknowledge the role that race plays in their thinking. But some are not. Susan Dzimian, a Clinton supporter who owns residential properties, said outside a polling location in Kokomo that race was a factor in how she viewed Obama. "I think if it was somebody other than him, I'd accept it," she said of a black candidate. "If Colin Powell had run, I would be willing to accept him."

The previous evening, Dondra Ewing was driving the neighborhoods of Kokomo, looking to turn around voters like Dzimian. Ewing, 47, is a chain-smoking middle school guidance counselor, a black single mother of two and one of the most fiercely vigilant Obama volunteers in Kokomo, which was once a Ku Klux Klan stronghold. On July 4, 1923, Kokomo hosted the largest Klan gathering in history — an estimated 200,000 followers flocked to a local park. But these are not the 1920s, and Ewing believes she can persuade anybody to back Obama. Her mother, after all, was the first African American elected at-large to the school board in a community that is 10 percent black.

Kokomo, population 46,000, is another hard-hit Midwestern industrial town stung by layoffs. Longtimers wistfully remember the glory years of Continental Steel and speak mournfully about the jobs shipped overseas. Kokomo Sanitary Pottery, which made bathroom sinks and toilets, shut down a couple of months ago and took with it 150 jobs.

Aaron Roe, 23, was mowing lawns at a local cemetery recently, lamenting his $8-an-hour job with no benefits. He had earned a community college degree as an industrial electrician, but learned there was no electrical work to be found for someone with his experience, which is to say none. Politics wasn't on his mind; frustration was. If he were to vote, it would not be for Obama, he said. "I just got a funny feeling about him," Roe said, a feeling he couldn't specify, except to say race wasn't a part of it. "Race ain't nothing," said Roe, who is white. "It's how they're going to help the country."

The Aaron Roes are exactly who Dondra Ewing was after: people with funny feelings.

At the Bradford Run Apartments, she found Robert Cox, a retiree who spent 30 years working for an electronics manufacturer making computer chips. He was in his suspenders, grilling shish kebab, which he had never eaten. "Something new," Cox said, recommended by his son who was visiting from Colorado.

Ewing was selling him hard on Obama. "There are more than two families that can run the United States of America," she said, "and their names aren't Bush and Clinton."

"Yeah, I know, I know," Cox said, remaining noncommittal.
He opened the grill and peeked at the kebabs. "It's not his race, because I got real good friends and all that," Cox continued. "If anything would keep him from getting elected, it would be his name. It might turn off some older people."

Like him?

"No, older than me," said Cox, 66.
Ewing kept talking, until finally Cox said, "Probably Obama," when asked directly how he would vote.

As she walked away, Ewing said: "I think we got him."
But truthfully, she wasn't feeling so sure.

[AK]

Chris Matthews just called Hillary Clinton the "Al Sharpton of white people." :rofl5:

[Mike Johnson]

By KEVIN MERIDA
The Washington Post
Published on: 05/13/08

Danielle Ross was alone in an empty room at the Obama campaign headquarters in Kokomo, Ind., a cellphone in one hand, a voter call list in the other. She was stretched out on the carpeted floor wearing laceless sky-blue Converses, stories from the trail on her mind. It was the day before Indiana's primary, and she had just been chased by dogs while canvassing in a Kokomo suburb. But that was not the worst thing to occur since she postponed her sophomore year at Middle Tennessee State University, in part to hopscotch America stumping for Barack Obama.

Here's the worst: In Muncie, a factory town in the east-central part of Indiana, Ross and her cohorts were soliciting support for Obama at malls, on street corners and in a Wal-Mart parking lot, and they ran into "a horrible response," as Ross put it, a level of anti-black sentiment that none of them had anticipated.

"The first person I encountered was like, 'I'll never vote for a black person,' " recalled Ross, who is white and just turned 20. "People just weren't receptive."

For all the hope and excitement Obama's candidacy is generating, some of his field workers, phone-bank volunteers and campaign surrogates are encountering a raw racism and hostility that have gone largely unnoticed — and unreported — this election season.

Doors have been slammed in their faces. They've been called racially derogatory names (including the white volunteers). And they've endured malicious rants and ugly stereotyping from people who can't fathom that the senator from Illinois could become the first African American president.
The contrast between the large, adoring crowds Obama draws at public events and the gritty street-level work to win votes is stark. The candidate is largely insulated from the mean-spiritedness that some of his foot soldiers deal with away from the media spotlight.

Victoria Switzer, a retired social studies teacher, was on phone-bank duty one night during the Pennsylvania primary campaign. One night was all she could take: "It wasn't pretty." She made 60 calls to prospective voters in Susquehanna County, her home county, which is 98 percent white. The responses were dispiriting. One caller, Switzer remembers, said he couldn't possibly vote for Obama and concluded: "Hang that darky from a tree!"
Documentary filmmaker Rory Kennedy, the daughter of the late Robert F. Kennedy, said she, too, came across "a lot of racism" when campaigning for Obama in Pennsylvania. One Pittsburgh union organizer told her he would not vote for Obama because he is black, and a white voter, she said, offered this frank reason for not backing Obama: "White people look out for white people, and black people look out for black people."
Obama campaign officials say such incidents are isolated, that the experience of most volunteers and staffers has been overwhelmingly positive.

The campaign released this statement in response to questions about encounters with racism: "After campaigning for 15 months in nearly all 50 states, Barack Obama and our entire campaign have been nothing but impressed and encouraged by the core decency, kindness, and generosity of Americans from all walks of life. The last year has only reinforced Senator Obama's view that this country is not as divided as our politics suggest."

Campaign field work can be an exercise in confronting the fears, anxieties and prejudices of voters. Veterans of the civil rights movement know what this feels like, as do those who have been involved in battles over busing, immigration or abortion. But through the Obama campaign, some young people are having their first experience joining a cause and meeting cruel reaction.

On Election Day in Kokomo, a group of black high school students were holding up Obama signs along U.S. 31, a major thoroughfare. As drivers cruised by, a number of them rolled down their windows and yelled out a common racial slur for African Americans, according to Obama campaign staffers.

Frederick Murrell, a black Kokomo High School senior, was not there but heard what happened. He was more disappointed than surprised. During his own canvassing for Obama, Murrell said, he had "a lot of doors slammed" in his face. But taunting teen-agers on a busy commercial strip in broad daylight? "I was very shocked at first," Murrell said. "Then again, I wasn't, because we have a lot of racism here."

The bigotry has gone beyond words. In Vincennes, the Obama campaign office was vandalized at 2 a.m. on the eve of the primary, according to police. A large plate-glass window was smashed, an American flag stolen. Other windows were spray-painted with references to Obama's controversial former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and other political messages: "Hamas votes BHO" and "We don't cling to guns or religion. Goddamn Wright."

Ray McCormick was notified of the incident at about 2:45 a.m. A farmer and conservationist, McCormick had erected a giant billboard on a major highway on behalf of Farmers for Obama. He also was housing the Obama campaign worker manning the office. When McCormick arrived at the office, about two hours before he was due out of bed to plant corn, he grabbed his camera and wanted to alert the media. "I thought, this is a big deal." But he was told Obama campaign officials didn't want to make a big deal of the incident. McCormick took photos anyway and distributed some.

"The pictures represent what we are breaking through and overcoming," he said. As McCormick, who is white, sees it, Obama is succeeding despite these incidents. Later, there would be bomb threats to three Obama campaign offices in Indiana, including the one in Vincennes, according to campaign sources.

Obama has not spoken much about racism during this campaign. He has sought to emphasize connections among Americans rather than divisions. He shrugged off safety concerns that led to early Secret Service protection and has told black senior citizens who worry that racists will do him harm: Don't fret. Earlier in the campaign, a 68-year-old woman in Carson City, Nev., voiced concern that the country was not ready to elect an African American president.

"Will there be some folks who probably won't vote for me because I am black? Of course," Obama said, "just like there may be somebody who won't vote for Hillary because she's a woman or wouldn't vote for John Edwards because they don't like his accent. But the question is, 'Can we get a majority of the American people to give us a fair hearing?' "

Obama has won 30 of 50 Democratic contests so far, the kind of nationwide electoral triumph no black candidate has ever realized. That he is on the brink of capturing the Democratic nomination, some say, is a testament to how far the country has progressed in overcoming racism and evidence of Obama's skill at bridging divides.

Obama has won five of 12 primaries in which black voters made up less than 10 percent of the electorate, and caucuses in states such as Idaho and Wyoming that are overwhelmingly white. But exit polls show he has struggled to attract white voters who didn't attend college and earn less than $50,000 a year. Tuesday, he and Hillary Clinton square off in West Virginia, a state where she is favored and where the votes of working-class whites will again be closely watched.

For the most part, Obama campaign workers say, the 2008 election cycle has been exhilarating. On the ground, the Obama campaign is being driven by youngsters, many of whom are imbued with an optimism undeterred by racial intolerance. "We've grown up in a different world," says Danielle Ross. Field offices are staffed by 20-somethings who hold positions — state director, regional field director, field organizer — that are typically off limits to newcomers to presidential politics.

Gillian Bergeron, 23, was in charge of a five-county regional operation in northeastern Pennsylvania. The oldest member of her team was 27. At Scranton's annual Saint Patrick's Day parade, some of the green Obama signs distributed by staffers were burned along the parade route. That was the first signal that this wasn't exactly Obama country. There would be others.

In a letter to the editor published in a local paper, Tunkhannock Borough Mayor Norm Ball explained his support of Hillary Clinton this way: "Barack Hussein Obama and all of his talk will do nothing for our country. There is so much that people don't know about his upbringing in the Muslim world. His stepfather was a radical Muslim and the ranting of his minister against the white America, you can't convince me that some of that didn't rub off on him.

"No, I want a president that will salute our flag, and put their hand on the Bible when they take the oath of office."

Obama's campaign workers have grown wearily accustomed to the lies about the candidate's supposed radical Muslim ties and lack of patriotism. But they are sometimes astonished when public officials such as Ball or others representing the campaign of their opponent traffic in these falsehoods.

Karen Seifert, a volunteer from New York, was outside of the largest polling location in Lackawanna County, Pa., on primary day when she was pressed by a Clinton volunteer to explain her backing of Obama. "I trust him," Seifert replied. According to Seifert, the woman pointed to Obama's face on Seifert's T-shirt and said: "He's a half-breed and he's a Muslim. How can you trust that?"

Pollsters have found it difficult to accurately measure racial attitudes, as some voters are unwilling to acknowledge the role that race plays in their thinking. But some are not. Susan Dzimian, a Clinton supporter who owns residential properties, said outside a polling location in Kokomo that race was a factor in how she viewed Obama. "I think if it was somebody other than him, I'd accept it," she said of a black candidate. "If Colin Powell had run, I would be willing to accept him."

The previous evening, Dondra Ewing was driving the neighborhoods of Kokomo, looking to turn around voters like Dzimian. Ewing, 47, is a chain-smoking middle school guidance counselor, a black single mother of two and one of the most fiercely vigilant Obama volunteers in Kokomo, which was once a Ku Klux Klan stronghold. On July 4, 1923, Kokomo hosted the largest Klan gathering in history — an estimated 200,000 followers flocked to a local park. But these are not the 1920s, and Ewing believes she can persuade anybody to back Obama. Her mother, after all, was the first African American elected at-large to the school board in a community that is 10 percent black.

Kokomo, population 46,000, is another hard-hit Midwestern industrial town stung by layoffs. Longtimers wistfully remember the glory years of Continental Steel and speak mournfully about the jobs shipped overseas. Kokomo Sanitary Pottery, which made bathroom sinks and toilets, shut down a couple of months ago and took with it 150 jobs.

Aaron Roe, 23, was mowing lawns at a local cemetery recently, lamenting his $8-an-hour job with no benefits. He had earned a community college degree as an industrial electrician, but learned there was no electrical work to be found for someone with his experience, which is to say none. Politics wasn't on his mind; frustration was. If he were to vote, it would not be for Obama, he said. "I just got a funny feeling about him," Roe said, a feeling he couldn't specify, except to say race wasn't a part of it. "Race ain't nothing," said Roe, who is white. "It's how they're going to help the country."

The Aaron Roes are exactly who Dondra Ewing was after: people with funny feelings.

At the Bradford Run Apartments, she found Robert Cox, a retiree who spent 30 years working for an electronics manufacturer making computer chips. He was in his suspenders, grilling shish kebab, which he had never eaten. "Something new," Cox said, recommended by his son who was visiting from Colorado.

Ewing was selling him hard on Obama. "There are more than two families that can run the United States of America," she said, "and their names aren't Bush and Clinton."

"Yeah, I know, I know," Cox said, remaining noncommittal.
He opened the grill and peeked at the kebabs. "It's not his race, because I got real good friends and all that," Cox continued. "If anything would keep him from getting elected, it would be his name. It might turn off some older people."

Like him?

"No, older than me," said Cox, 66.
Ewing kept talking, until finally Cox said, "Probably Obama," when asked directly how he would vote.

As she walked away, Ewing said: "I think we got him."
But truthfully, she wasn't feeling so sure.

Why doesn't Hillary just come out and say it: "hard working, white, racists" won't vote for Obama, but they'll vote for me, and there's too many of them to ignore..."

[Daniel, Grand Duke of Stony Island]

Was just reading an article about the West Virginia primary. All you can do is laugh at this stuff...

"Obama rubs the Hortons the wrong way because they think he's arrogant. It's the same thing you hear from voters in a lot of the parts of the country where Obama's infamous remarks about bitterness would probably also apply. But that's not his only problem in rural West Virginia. "They won't go for a black man, that's just it," R.K. Horton, a retired heating and air conditioning business owner, said of his neighbors. "I don't think it's being racist necessarily, they just don't like black people that well." For that matter, it's not just his neighbors. "The arrogance and all that bothers me more than black, but black is a close second," he said. "Our generation was back when blacks were the back of the bus, and it's hard to change that outlook. I just feel like I couldn't vote for him."Its hard to deal with on its face but this is the sentiment of a heavy contingent of voters. I'll even go as far as risk a lynching on tha P and suggest it has less to do with race than class.

They don't notice he's arrogant because he's black. They notice he's black because of his perceived arrogance.

When folks feel marginalized and patronized, they begin to look at differences. Its just human psychology. You look around at differences to gain an edge or minimize the sting and you suggest and amplify that difference to evade shame.

Not to play political analyst but I seriously feel Sen. Obama's campaign arrived far too late to America's poor and disenfranchised working class. And before anyone replies, "Yeah, but when did Clinton connect with them," or some other comparative, it is by that logic she is still around to possibly be a convention spoiler.

I said all along to gain the widest margin between he and Clinton, he needed to first build a base out of America's working poor. He had a chance to take the edge off of the comparison and he didn't. The Clinton's are cunning, man.

[S&S]

Chris Matthews just called Hillary Clinton the "Al Sharpton of white people." :rofl5:

Now thats a good one :rofl5:

[AK]

Its hard to deal with on its face but this is the sentiment of a heavy contingent of voters. I'll even go as far as risk a lynching on tha P and suggest it has less to do with race than class.

They don't notice he's arrogant because he's black. They notice he's black because of his perceived arrogance.

When folks feel marginalized and patronized, they begin to look at differences. Its just human psychology. You look around at differences to gain an edge or minimize the sting and you suggest and amplify that difference to evade shame.

Not to play political analyst but I seriously feel Sen. Obama's campaign arrived far too late to America's poor and disenfranchised working class. And before anyone replies, "Yeah, but when did Clinton connect with them," or some other comparative, it is by that logic she is still around to possibly be a convention spoiler.

I said all along to gain the widest margin between he and Clinton, he needed to first build a base out of America's working poor. He had a chance to take the edge off of the comparison and he didn't. The Clinton's are cunning, man.

I don't disagree that he could've done a better job reaching these voters and the "bitter" gaffe certainly didn't help. However, I would suggest that it's naive to lay total blame at his feet for some of the voting patters we're seeing among the infamous "white working class" voting block. I'm sorry, but I can't so easily separate his perceived arrogance from his race (and uppitiness to boot). Many have extreme discomfort voting for a black man for president, even one with a white mother. Let's not over think this.

Hillary Clinton, friend of the working man? Please. Ever the opportunist and the skillful politician, she has merely stepped into the breach.

[E-Phi]

Chris Matthews just called Hillary Clinton the "Al Sharpton of white people." :rofl5:

Gov. Huckabee said that her speech is so great that she's gonna appear on stage with two stone tablets :rofl5:

[older&wiser]

I don't disagree that he could've done a better job reaching these voters and the "bitter" gaffe certainly didn't help. However, I would suggest that it's naive to lay total blame at his feet for some of the voting patters we're seeing among the infamous "white working class" voting block. I'm sorry, but I can't so easily separate his perceived arrogance from his race (and uppitiness to boot). Many have extreme discomfort voting for a black man for president, even one with a white mother. Let's not over think this.


i totally agree with you Alan about their discomfort in voting for a black man for pres. i'm sure Barack could do better with white working class " so called" voters in the general election. this is the Clintons last leg and they are holding on for dear life. these states give racist white folk an excuse to be racist, and it's easier to be racist when your own candidate subliminally encourages you to stick with the white candidate.....

[older&wiser]

wassup with that one black guy strategic-ly placed behind her. he's the only black guy in WV they could find.

[older&wiser]

somebody found that black guy at a bus stop and paid him to stand behind her.
he's got the crackish sway about him.

[dj-chefron]

Hillary Clinton, friend of the working man? Please. Ever the opportunist and the skillful politician, she has merely stepped into the breach. West Virginia will vote for the white women over the black man and come November they will vote for the white man over the white women.Its a reason that they are in the bottom of all quality of life stats in the US, and till they let go of their hangups they can keep starring on Jerry Springer

[Daniel, Grand Duke of Stony Island]

I don't disagree that he could've done a better job reaching these voters and the "bitter" gaffe certainly didn't help. However, I would suggest that it's naive to lay total blame at his feet for some of the voting patters we're seeing among the infamous "white working class" voting block. I'm sorry, but I can't so easily separate his perceived arrogance from his race (and uppitiness to boot). Many have extreme discomfort voting for a black man for president, even one with a white mother. Let's not over think this.

Hillary Clinton, friend of the working man? Please. Ever the opportunist and the skillful politician, she has merely stepped into the breach.I thought I took care not to overreach with my comments. In my view, I don't really see any distinctive ofay working stiff voting patterns. The media seemed not to be interested until Bittergate. :rolleyes: I'm speaking more of strategy and, were this chess, Clinton's pandering to the working poor is akin to her reclaiming a captured bishop toward the end of a long chess match - if that makes sense. She should've been off the board by now and the longer her loss takes, the more it will weigh down on Sen. Obama's mental game. When that occurs, the media seizes upon him with that annoying barrage of personal character arguments that produce TestyObama. Its too close to November for that.

I'll counter your point over voter discomfort and risk speculating that it works on more levels than race, i.e. gender, religion. Am I overly optimistic about the nation's readiness to see past race in this election? Not while gas is upwards of $4.00 per gallon, our victory in Iraq continues to escalate, and our food bills are twice what they were last year because of both these issues. A lot of these white working class voters were burned by the Republican party this past eight years. I do believe that pain is enough to make race a distant third in their consideration. I think the Clinton 2 for 1 deal means more to them than race.

I just wish she hadn't taken back that bishop this late in the round, if for no other reason than the risk of voter burn-out in November. It feels like I'm watching Fisher v. Spassky.

[AK]

somebody found that black guy at a bus stop and paid him to stand behind her.
he's got the crackish sway about him.

:rofl5: I think he fell off the bleacher one time.

[E-Phi]

somebody found that black guy at a bus stop and paid him to stand behind her.
he's got the crackish sway about him.

What's up with the brother with the boxing gloves on a few rows back? :rofl:

[Daniel, Grand Duke of Stony Island]

:rofl5: I think he fell off the bleacher one time.He looks like he's hiding from the authorities. Hell, in W. VA no one would look for a black man standing directly behind Clinton. For all intents and purposes, he's invisible.

[AK]

I thought I took care not to overreach with my comments. In my view, I don't really see any distinctive ofay working stiff voting patterns. The media seemed not to be interested until Bittergate. :rolleyes: I'm speaking more of strategy and, were this chess, Clinton's pandering to the working poor is akin to her reclaiming a captured bishop toward the end of a long chess match - if that makes sense. She should've been off the board by now and the longer her loss takes, the more it will weigh down on Sen. Obama's mental game.

I'll counter your point over voter discomfort and risk speculating that it works on more levels than race, i.e. gender, religion. Am I overly optimistic about the nation's readiness to see past race in this election? Not while gas is upwards of $4.00 per gallon, our victory in Iraq continues to escalate, and our food bills are twice what they were last year because of both these issues. A lot of these white working class voters were burned by the Republican party this past eight years. I do believe that pain is enough to make race a distant third in their consideration. I think the Clinton 2 for 1 deal means more to them than race.

I just wish she hadn't taken back that bishop this late in the round, if for not other reason than the risk of voter burn-out in November. It feels like I'm watching Fisher v. Spassky.

They have been burned badly by the repubs, which is why I'm very comfortable and confident about the fall. More war, more tax breaks for the wealthy, etc. The choice will be striking. The past vs the future. It will be a good test for America.

[older&wiser]

oh snap she said some dumbass kid sold his video games to support her dying campaign....lol..
keith olberman just called her supporters delirious..........lol

[dj-chefron]

Listening to her speech she is going all the way to Denver.I understand the reasons Obama didn't bring up her skeletons, but He should have ground her ass in the ground and then put his boot up her ass

[Daniel, Grand Duke of Stony Island]

Keith Olbermann is ill, man. Second to the sermon on the mount. He ain't right. :rofl:

[older&wiser]

damn, did she just wipe her jacket after touching the strategic-ly placed black guy?

[Daniel, Grand Duke of Stony Island]

They have been burned badly by the repubs, which is why I'm very comfortable and confident about the fall. More war, more tax breaks for the wealthy, etc. The choice will be striking. The past vs the future. It will be a good test for America.Man, the Iraq war butterfly effect grew into a DOMINO effect in January and is now a full-fledged economic chain reaction.

Feeding your family costs twice what it had three months ago because of the energy industry. You have less money to pay for it because of the lending industry. Both industries installed the Bush Administration. If tomorrow you could get your job back with twice the salary, you still would be in bad shape. These are simple terms and I'm not hearing anyone speak to them.

Thing is, the economy is receiving lip service from all three candidates. I think its out of sincerity (in Sen. Obama's case) or cautiousness (Sen. McCain), because, most likely, we're screwed until our foreign policy changes. That's going to take one term at the least.

[AK]

Listening to her speech she is going all the way to Denver.I understand the reasons Obama didn't bring up her skeletons, but He should have ground her ass in the ground and then put his boot up her ass

Don't worry, he will in his own way. She ain't gettin' nowhere near the ticket.

[Daniel, Grand Duke of Stony Island]

Don't worry, he will in his own way.Most definitely he's been playing his own game the entire campaign. He's been off his own game at times, but he's still the same cat. That's wisdom right there.

[Daniel, Grand Duke of Stony Island]

Chris Matthews forgot to take his ginkgo. He seems testy.

[older&wiser]

Chris Matthews forgot to take his ginkgo. He seems testy.


Terry McAuliffe can bring the testy -ness out of anybody.
he's an annoying pointy head fucker..........

[dj-chefron]

Hillary I think is like 3 day old fish ,throw it out.Watch the congressional race in Miss. right now its looking real good for dems.Democrats win this game over in Nov.

[dj-chefron]

Hillary I think is like 3 day old fish ,throw it out.Watch the congressional race in Miss. right now its looking real good for dems.Democrats win this game over in Nov.
Update the Democrat win a seat that went 65% Bush.LOOKING GOOD!!!!!

[older&wiser]

Update the Democrat win a seat that went 65% Bush.LOOKING GOOD!!!!!

yeah, in a state where the republicans ran negative ads tying Childers to Obama.....

[AK]

yeah, in a state where the republicans ran negative ads tying Childers to Obama.....

Yep, very big. The 3rd "Obama-democratic" to win in a republican district in recent weeks. This is huge for superdelegates who worry about coattails and their own races.

[Daniel, Grand Duke of Stony Island]

Man, before today, she was just putting up the fight she deserved to fight. Now exit polls reveal race at the top of the list of deciding factors for voters. What messages went out via phone calls and street-beating to create this sentiment? One can't lead folks to the polls to punch white without using derisive language. Folks went to the polls to vote for the white lady. Thing is, the white lady is the wife of a guy whom she herself remarked as "the first black president." This woman all but said "a vote for me is a vote for white folks," and with nary a peep from party leadership.

So my question is thus: Are the remaining delegates playin' Pontius Pilate because they hope she loses by the popular vote?

That way, they would be safe from a Classic Clinton Get-Back?

I mean, last week I scoffed at the notion her continued campaign would damage the party. That was before her campaign found a way to reach the minds of racist voters. If I don't wake up tomorrow am to find mass repudiation and defected delegates, the only thing I can think is her and Bill are straight gangsta and have everyone shook.

I do believe an independent can rise next election, because the Democratic party is no longer a party for liberals and moderates. This took the cake and the youth is going to remember this nonsense.

What irony we would see opportunistic bigotry from the likes of a Clinton. Its so surreal it seems scripted.

[Dolemite73]

This was huge. The dems had no business winning this seat (or Hastert's seat or the one in Louisiana). The repubs are shitting blood right now. They see the writing on the wall. Obama has huge coattails IMO. They tried to merge the dem candidate in MS with Obama and just like LA, the repub LOST.

[AK]

Man, before today, she was just putting up the fight she deserved to fight. Now exit polls reveal race at the top of the list of deciding factors for voters. What messages went out via phone calls and street-beating to create this sentiment? One can't lead folks to the polls to punch white without using derisive language. Folks went to the polls to vote for the white lady. Thing is, the white lady is the wife of a guy whom she herself remarked as "the first black president." This woman all but said "a vote for me is a vote for white folks," and with nary a peep from party leadership.

So my question is thus: Are the remaining delegates playin' Pontius Pilate because they hope she loses by the popular vote?

That way, they would be safe from a Classic Clinton Get-Back?

I mean, last week I scoffed at the notion her continued campaign would damage the party. That was before her campaign found a way to reach the minds of racist voters. If I don't wake up tomorrow am to find mass repudiation and defected delegates, the only thing I can think is her and Bill are straight gangsta and have everyone shook.

I do believe an independent can rise next election, because the Democratic party is no longer a party for liberals and moderates. This took the cake and the youth is going to remember this nonsense.

What irony we would see opportunistic bigotry from the likes of a Clinton. Its so surreal it seems scripted.

I think what we're seeing boils down to the Dem party giving the Clintons some space and showing them some well-earned respect in their final hour. The party would like to see them go out on their own terms if at all possible. They will let them play out the string in the final contests until June 3, but almost immediately thereafter she will either need to concede or the supers will act quickly to carry Obama over the finish line. The steady flow of supers to Obama will also continue until then. My guess is the party doesn't really like what Billary is doing now, but figures they can't do too much harm to the party or its nominee over the next three weeks.

[dj-chefron]

Man, before today, she was just putting up the fight she deserved to fight. Now exit polls reveal race at the top of the list of deciding factors for voters. What messages went out via phone calls and street-beating to create this sentiment? One can't lead folks to the polls to punch white without using derisive language. Folks went to the polls to vote for the white lady. Thing is, the white lady is the wife of a guy whom she herself remarked as "the first black president." This woman all but said "a vote for me is a vote for white folks," and with nary a peep from party leadership.

So my question is thus: Are the remaining delegates playin' Pontius Pilate because they hope she loses by the popular vote?

That way, they would be safe from a Classic Clinton Get-Back?

I mean, last week I scoffed at the notion her continued campaign would damage the party. That was before her campaign found a way to reach the minds of racist voters. If I don't wake up tomorrow am to find mass repudiation and defected delegates, the only thing I can think is her and Bill are straight gangsta and have everyone shook.

I do believe an independent can rise next election, because the Democratic party is no longer a party for liberals and moderates. This took the cake and the youth is going to remember this nonsense.

What irony we would see opportunistic bigotry from the likes of a Clinton. Its so surreal it seems scripted.The Clinton's have been playing the bigotry card since 92 when Bill went back to Ark. to execute a retarded blackman and dont forget more black people went to prison under the Clinton Administration than any other.I do believe the remaining super delegates will look at the map that Obama is proposing.He wants to change to a 50 state strategy so Democrats can have a overwhelming majority in the congress then yes we can will be more than a slogan but a new way of governing.Clinton is trying to win with the old ,take the blue states and fight for Ohio or Florida.That is a losing deal and it wont fly.