Bill Clinton and other Clinton surrogates and supporters are insisting, incredibly, that Barack Obama is the one color-arousing the presidential race, even though it was the head of Clinton's New Hampshire campaign who suggested, based on no evidence whatever, that Barack Obama might have been a drug dealer. One syndicated columnist observed at the time,
But could it be that this story is even worse than many in the national press will say? Isn't it interesting that Shaheen, or whoever is behind this, opted to invoke the image of a drug dealer in referencing the first top-tier black candidate for president? That's quite a coincidence. This wouldn't be an ugly Willie Horton-type tactic intended to harvest fear and play on stereotypes about who is a criminal and who isn't, or -- in this case -- who uses drugs and who sells them?Nah. Liberal Democrats would never sink that low. Why if they did, how could they continue to package themselves as a kinder and gentler -- and more enlightened -- alternative to Republicans? Certainly not with a straight face. Drug rumors about Obama playing on stereotypes?
If Hillary Clinton had won even half of the Black vote, she would be ahead in the presidential race, and she'd probably be the nominee right now. However, even before the first Black voters voted, when only Iowa and New Hampshire were voting, Hillary Clinton made stupid comments about the significance of Martin Luther King, Jr. and then her New Hampshire campaign manager suggested that America would believe Barack Obama had once been a drug dealer. (As is turned out, the Clintons were utterly unable to convince America that that was true.)
As Rubin Navarrette, Jr. observed in a CNN commentary,
The harder Team Clinton tries to destroy Obama, the more damage they wind up doing -- to Hillary and her campaign. Just when you thought that the former first lady couldn't come across any more unlikable, desperate, and vindictive, the floor collapses and we find ourselves on a new level.Last week, Billy Shaheen, Clinton's co-chairman in New Hampshire, resigned from the campaign after floating the rumor that Obama, in his youth, may have been not just a drug user but a drug dealer. CNN
In retrospect, is there anyone who still believes that Billy Shaheen was acting alone when he made these accusations? Wasn't Clinton afraid that if she didn't accuse Obama of being a drug dealer, then she would lose the race in New Hampshire and her candidacy would be over? Wasn't there anything NOT based on skin-color that Clinton could say to convince America not to vote for Barack Obama? And isn't there any act of color-aroused politicking which the Clintons now wish they had done differently, having lost 90% of the Black vote to Barack Obama? Or will they go to their political graves insisting that 90% of Blacks are wrong, and the Clinton's are right?
Could Clinton win without Blacks votes in the fall? (Are you kidding?!) Could Clinton somehow get an enthusiastic turnout from a constituency that has come, over just four short months, to regard the Clinton politics as an abomination? Clinton's superdelegates can't help her to convince their constituents, obviously. In fact, many of them will have difficulty being reelected in districts with significant numbers of Obama supporters, particularly Black Obama supporters.
I've heard some whites suggest ruefully that Blacks are holding the Democratic Party hostage. Although I don't like this formulation, at least it shows an understanding of the power Black voters have in determining both the nominee and whether the Party's nominee is elected in the fall. 20% is a great big voting block that, in all logic, ought to have a veto power over the nominee. The party should nominate someone whom none of its major constituencies wants to veto. If that's not possible, then we should simply be realistic and prepare ourselves for defeat.
The author is the editor of the Truth About McCain Blog and the American Journal of Color Arousal (AMJCA).
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