IM BLACK. I AM A WOMAN. I CAMPAIGNED ACTIVELY FOR HILLARY CLINTON. I supported her because I just god damn like the woman, despite any of her flaws. (And YES, candidates are flawed and a segment of supporters of BOTH Obama and Hillary are equally cultish.) And I also supported her because I interned for 2 years in her DC office. So my support is insanely loyal and genuine.

Anyhow, here is my experience campaigning for Hillary08:

I would be in a campaign office, or at a town hall and I had a few instances where I would walk into a room and sometimes fellow hillary campaigners would hush up or pretend they were talking about something else, because they thought I would hear what they were saying about the racial aspects of the primaries, or when they were saying racially insensitive things about Obama. I once had some old guy in a car stick his finger at me and say FUCK OBAMA. People I would approach when I campaigned assumed I was from the Obama camp just because I was black, and sometimes reacted with glares or outright hostility to me.

This is just to tell you where im coming from.

When i campaigned, there were A LOT of racist comments made regularly in the campaign offices where I worked (Indiana and Pennsylvania) and at the rallys and town halls she did. I would hear "nigger" or "uppity" thrown around about Obama. Did it deter my loyalty or support for her? NO.

Sexism is a LOT harder to detect and people can be mysoginistic without knowing it. Frankly I thought it was mysoginistic when the men in the MSM praised Hillary for having "testicular fortitude" as if she needed to have aspects of masculinity to be a good president. Like Bernie Mac, it was a JOKE right?

But like you feel about the Bernie Mac joke, I thought the mere implications quotes like that are seriously more damaging to the idea that a WOMAN could be a strong leader in the US. No one here said anything about that, in fact I saw people here praising that. Same with the idea that being an intellectual is being "effete" as the media calls Obama. Or the idea that for the white male dominated media, he's not black enough for them but sometimes too black! It smacks of white paternalism, most people here however didnt see that. Both Hillary and Obama had to tip-toe around this messy and obscure lines of race and gender, and both sometimes had some missteps.

So onto Bernie Mac's sexist and racist jokes, I dont think Obama realized the sexist extent of the joke as he realized the racial aspect of it. A slip up. I forgive him. But while Obama made none of the comments himself, it seemed that he was giving tacit approval. He wasnt, at least not intentionally.

Out of all the racial slip ups i've had to endure while working for the Clintons, and seeing some of the tactics which came from above which I do think were racially divisive and disappointing to me, I still was intensely loyal to her. In NO WAY do i think the Clintons are in any way shape or form, racist! The "southern strategy" can be used without one being a racist. Another example: Karl Rove's father is gay and he has a very close relationship with him, so obviously he is not homophobic. But he created a religious right backlash against gays, using gay marriage as a wedge issue. One can use these divisive tactics because they work, not because thats their hidden homophobia, racism, or mysoginy. I stood silent when I saw Clinton using racially divisive tactics. I know the code words. Dont tell me i didnt hear them.

But trying to push the idea that Obama is a sexist is just false and wrong.  He is a little absentminded when it comes to gender issues, and of course he doesnt see the line as clearly as women do. He's a man. But that fact doesnt excuse anything. But I can understand it. I also understand that Obama is probably better at seeing the faultlines on race better than Clinton. Does it mean Clinton was a racist and doesnt care about issues regarding racial disparities economically just because she said something divisive, at times, unknowingly? Absolutely not.

I dont expect pure political correctness from him as I didnt with the many instances of political incorrectness coming from Hillary's campaign with regards to race was foregone by the Hillary herself, the Clinton campaign, its surrogates, supporters, and the media.  I only supported Hillary because I once worked for her and liked her all my life, and oh yeah, I actually care about keeping her legacy intact and getting healthcare passed, and getting my 3 brothers out of Iraq (they're on their 3rd deployment), and my aunt lost her house from the mortgage crisis...so I think I kinda want that solved...

I wouldn't defend the other guy unless an obvious falsehood was being told about him.

John McCain was asked when was the last time he personally pumped his own gas. This could have been 1979 for all we know.

McCain answered that he did not know (when he pumped his own gas, since he is driven around by the Secret Service, and that it mattered little.

McCain was not asked about the current price of gas. At any rate, let's examine the question: Does McCain know what the price of gas is?

On June 18th, McCain said in an interview:

"The price of a gallon of gas in America stands at more than four dollars. Yesterday, a barrel of oil cost about 134 dollarsm" said McCain.

I don't think the diary that's currently at the top of his website originated due to a deliberate attempt to discredit McCain. It was just carelessness.

Andrew Sullivan and John Cole have both issued corrections, and we should follow suit.

Let's hammer him on the tax debt, his flip flops and other legitimate issues.

p.s.: I wouldn't expect a guy who had his right arm repeatedly fractured by torturers, and both his legs, to have driven a lot.

We're up against 3 formidable independent forces in this election: a complacent (or complicit) media pushing pro-McCain, anti-Obama stories, 527 groups that are waiting to attack, and voting machine problems.

We tell ourselves "never again" about 2000 and 2004 - these three forces were in large part to blame for the losses in those years.  What are we willing to do to ensure that "never again" do we repeat 2000 or 2004?  In other words, how can we, independent of the Obama campaign's machinery, overcome these forces?  How much of a vote margin do we need to give Obama to overcome these 3 forces?

Read on to see why I believe we must recruit 198,000 new volunteers who will garner 9.9 million new votes.

Maureen Dowd, under fire from her own newspaper for her "endless assault" against Hillary Clinton, made three interesting points in tonight's column:

1) There was no unity in "Unity" because a lady named Carmella yelled "We want Hillary!"

"We want Hillary!" screamed the 57-year-old retired ad saleswoman and Clinton delegate.

2) Bill Clinton, according to Dowd's evidence-free mind-reading skills, is "trying to shake down Obama for more -- more apologies for perceived snubs and more help paying off the $22 million Clinton debt."  

Endless hours were spent analyzing the shade of her pantsuit and his matching tie. Was it powder blue? Cornflower blue? Peacock blue? Cerulean?

3) The media overhyped the Unity gathering. Dowd even criticizes the media for over-stressing Clinton's pantsuit color and Obama's tie. The hypocrite pretends never having scrutinized with microscopic precision the clothes worn by Al Gore, Howard Dean's wife, etc.

Remember this?

In worn jeans and old sneakers, the shy and retiring Dr. Judith Steinberg Dean looked like a crunchy Vermont hippie, blithely uncoiffed, unadorned, unstyled and unconcerned about not being at her husband's side -- the anti-Laura.

Dowd's modus operandi consists of one anti-Republican piece followed by 10 anti-Democratic ones, of which 9 are anti-Clinton. She is that predictable. But it's an effective strategy, in that it makes some state, "See, she hates everybody!"

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/29/opinio n/29dowd.html?hp

Don Imus is in the middle of a controversy over remarks that are being interpreted by some as racist. When his co-worker spoke about an African American Dallas Cowboys player being arrested, Imus asked, "what color is he?" "African American", he was told. Imus said, "oh, ok there you go".

Taken without context this remark may seem racist, but once you read Imus (in my view plausible) clarification, you may have second thoughts. The AP quotes Imus as saying:

"I meant that he was being picked on because he's black," Imus said in a statement released by his spokesman.

There is no way to know whether or not Imus meant this as an anti-black remark, or if he indeed sought to point out the fact that blacks are disproportionally targeted by police.

He has done it before, you might argue, but that raises the question:"Why would Imus do it again, knowing that this would probably mark the end of his career?

Furthermore, Imus is not heard uttering any racially sensitive remarks before or after the "what color was he" phrase. This is a sign that he was being cautious rather than reckless.

I don't know about you, but I find no strong evidence that Imus was trying to be racist this time around; I tend to believe he was trying to achievethe opposite therefore, I give him the benefit of the doubt, despite his history.

cross-posted at Bleeding Heartland

NBC announced today that Tom Brokaw will host the Sunday morning show "Meet the Press" at least through the November election. That was a very shrewd decision.

A former longtime evening news anchor, Brokaw has more than enough stature for the job.

Equally important, Brokaw can help the network repair some of the damage that was done by MSNBC commentators who were biased against Hillary Clinton during the primaries.

Some thing we can agreed to disagree because we are mostly unity. Let's see if are unified behind who we would toss of the Island and out of The Village. (I saw this as a most excellent question w/o poll on Sadly, No and had to bring it here. )

If you could kick one villager off the island who would it be? Now I am assuming that Judith Miller is, for all intents and purposes, off the island. So she is not here. And because alot of people did get furious at Olbermann I am including him, but I expect him to get few votes.

Ideally include a pointer with a comment on why your person deserves to be booted off the island. If you add a comment I will (assuming I can as I have never done so) edit the poll to include the Islander you most love to hate.

David Paterson (D-NY), Governor of all New Yorkers, is being smeared by The New York Post, which on June 16th had a front-page, anonymously-sourced rumor disguised as news, claiming without evidence that Paterson once called mayor Bloomberg "a liar" and "nasty".

Paterson immediately denied it, yet Murdoch's rag still had the balls to scold Paterson in a second article by the same author, for denying what Mr. Anonymous supposedly said.

Indeed, even Mayor Bloomberg, the alleged target of Paterson's angry discharge, is skeptical about the allegations, reports the New York Sun: