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Clinton’s Race-Baiting Continues

Started by baratunde aka jack turner · 11 months ago

Apparently not satisfied with her plummeting approval ratings among black voters, Hillary Clinton decided to remind us again that our votes don’t actually count:
“I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on,” she said in an interview with USA TODAY. As evidence, Clinton cited an Associated Press article “that ... Continue reading »

52 comments

  • andyfrombrooklyn

    1 year ago

    classic! i just saw this quote at talking points memo and was about to share it but have been beaten to the punch. she is disgusting. question. how did she lose blacks and progressive democrats? answer. with quotes like this. this does not seem like a candidate who is going to ease off the stage. rather a candidate who is determined to flame the BITTERNESS of her uneducated and racist appalachian supporters.
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  • andyfrombrooklyn

    1 year ago

    will she be content to coast to victory in w.v. and ky.? no way! push the margins as much as possible using that noble tool of race baiting. this woman is a real cancer. she still thinks she can win.
    reply
  • Lolo

    1 year ago

    It's making my jaw ache, the clenching. It's so racist, both ways and there seems to be the implication that black voters not choosing her is all their fault, the whole bogey of the "reverse racism" meme.


    I am beyond sick to fuck of repeating "racism is a feature of the dominant culture" etc. People that don't get it either won't ever get it or just don't want to.
    reply
  • golden star

    1 year ago

    In her own crass world, at least banjo pluckers and watermelon eaters know how to invite others into the tent to enjoy the party. (sigh).


    I am listening to all these folks on tv state that she's not going after Obama since Tuesday. Maybe not in their world, but in the world that the rest of reside, she's up to the same stuff: the black guy just doesn't have enough of the right stuff nor do his peeps.
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  • andyfrombrooklyn

    1 year ago

    one thing about the he said she said formula of punditry. it equates two opponents in a dispute 100 % of the time. sometimes there is a right and wrong. sometimes one side has merits and the other does not. that is the case here. she has run a nasty and divisive campaign. obama has not. it should be recognized, however, that this is why she has lost. this is why she squandered her political inheritance. the justice is in the results. she has been her own worst enemy and barack has let her hang herself beautifully.
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  • andyfrombrooklyn

    1 year ago

    another thought is the punditry is ignoring what she is saying and ascribing her a conciliatory stance. but does this not become truth? maybe they are imposing their will on her. saying, be nice, wasn't that nice? isn't she nice? bye bye now hillary.
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  • rikyrah

    1 year ago

    I'm glad you took this on, because I was going to do it today.
    reply
  • Admiral Komack

    1 year ago

    Meanwhile the DNC sits on their hands...


    Remember this when they tell you "We're fighting for YOU!"
    reply
  • Ronnie B

    1 year ago

    I've said it before, and I'll say it forever: Barack has no business courting the white-bigot-vote.


    He has every responsibility to court the free-thinking, reasonably educated, reachable white vote, but never the "under-no-circumstance" white vote to which the Clintons are so obviously pandering.



    Moreover, it's Barack who needs to remind the predominantly-white media that Black people are "working-class ethnics" as well. That there are plenty of Filipino, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Puerto Rican Americans who are also "working-class ethnics".



    Now that he's pretty much shown Hillary the door, he needs to beging taking a firm position with the media, and do his part to change the ignorant and benign racist dialog that's been going on.



    As a citizen of color, I work hard for my right to vote. Don't you?
    reply
  • khia213

    1 year ago

    The only strategy she's got left is for her and Bill to stand by the side of the road and pass out bumperstickers that read "Vote white." And that's pretty much what she is arguing with this electability theory.
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  • Anonymous

    1 year ago

    "Meanwhile the DNC sits on their hands..."


    yup. and the uncommitted supers say they have no problem with this going on forever as long as it doesn't get nasty. within 24 hours that is thrown out the window, and there's nothing but silence in all the usual 'liberal' corners.
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  • Ronnie B

    1 year ago

    Word has it that John Edwards will "officially" endorse SBO.


    WTF took so long?
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  • Anonymous

    1 year ago

    And you still have the CBC members, a group that should be banned for being totally useless, behind her after this? And, all those other blacks, who have a right to support her, but, they must have some really low self esteems and want the crumbs she is offering them for support.
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  • N. Mahana

    1 year ago

    Personally...no disrespect to dna but I am sick of this obsession with white people, whose racist and who will not vote for Senator Obama, because of that fact.


    I believe that most people who comment here on JJP know that their are indeed some out there who will not vote for SBO because of hidden and not so hidden prejudice. However, why should we care to go on about it.



    Since laws have passed in this country allowing people of color and women the freedom to exercise their rights to vote...we have and yet the truth that is also evident is that, many hearts and minds may not have changed.



    Laws changed, that doesn't me opinions, beliefs and bias has.



    In my opinion, to continue to stress out about this fact and whether Clinton and her surrogates are using it divisively, is counter-productive.



    I'd rather discuss SBO proposed policies. What his plans are to move this country forward. He does have policy out there to discuss and for those that are open to learning and possibly voting for him based on those things it's important to highlight, dicuss and debate them.



    It's exhausting to do otherwise and if we cannot accept the truth and move forward by empowering ourselves to help make the change Barack is talking about (one policy and politician at a time), then we will continue to wallow and fail at every crossroad and bump in the road.



    So SBO has (or will have) the nomination, well now the games begin. Clinton is playing hop-scotch compared to what's coming.



    Let's start really dissecting the policy differences between he and McCain. As much as I'd like Clinton to drop out, let her fight to the bitter end, she only hurts herself which each word and action she takes tha's questionable.



    However for me, I'm done talking about the Clinton's tactics. At this point, the more we elevate them as evil the more of a victim she looks and the less substance is being discussed in regards to SBO.



    I don't know if you all get what I mean but I'm just tired of this issue. I'm ready to move on.
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  • Dave

    1 year ago

    "Hard-working Americans = white Americans. Right. The rest of us sit on our porches eating watermelon and plucking banjos."


    It looks like us college-educated white men have to hang out on the porch with you. That's cool, I like watermelon and banjo. And the White House has a mighty big porch for us to hang out on.
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  • rikyrah

    1 year ago

    oh dave,


    You latte-drinking arugula eaters don't count either.
    reply
  • dday

    1 year ago

    Shorter Clinton: If we were still operating under the Constitution's 3/5 compromise, I'd be the nominee!
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  • Craig Hickman

    1 year ago

    I disagree that Obama needs to do better among white working class voters.


    That is to buy into the media spin and ignore reality.



    Obama won white working class voters in Virginia, Wisconsin, Illinois, Maine, Vermont, Wyoming, Utah, Washington, Colorado, Minnesota, North Dakota, Nebraska, etc., etc., etc.,



    I'd bet he'd also win them in Michigan. Michigan is Wisconsin with more Black people.



    Just because the caucus states where he battered Clinton don't conduct exit polls doesn't mean Obama wasn't cleaning her clock among every demographic.



    Maine is a POOR WHITE state. The median income is $40,000 and it is 96.7% white. Obama won the caucus by 20 points. He couldn't have done that without a huge mandate from poor white voters. Period.



    He does poorly with white voters Appalachia, people. Bigots in Appalachia aren't going to vote for Obama. That's why in Ohio, Pennsylvania, KY, West VA, and other states that have regions in Appalachia, Obama does poorly with the overal white working class vote.



    KY and West VA are smack dab in the middle of Appalachia and he will be trounced in both states. He knows it, too.



    Obama doesn't have a problem with white working class voters. He has a problem with bigots.



    That won't change if he drinks beers in dirty glass, throws back shots, tokes on reefer, hunts, bowls, or spits tobacco.
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  • Anonymous

    1 year ago

    bang on analysis.


    the clinton campaign is now running on white supremacy.



    her only path to the nomination is to get super delegates to overturn the election results on the idea that she is more "electable", a code term for white. hence the "elitist" bullshit, the Rev Wright saga, and all the other race baiting earlier on.



    this is the only path left -- to win on basis of whiteness.



    the unwritten story of this primary process is the way in which HRC has played race against Obama.
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  • brendancalling

    1 year ago

    This elitist college-educated white guy who voted for Obama is in a bluegrass band and I have watermelons growing in my backyard, so you can count on me to bring the entertainment while we all vote for Mr. Obama.


    The Clintoons piss me off.
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  • NMP

    1 year ago

    It's about time the MSM picked up on her Dixicrat '08 strategy. If John McCain's campaign said this, they would be blasting him, as much as they love him. It's time for the Democratic leadership to stand up and stay enough, unless they subscribe to this racist bull shit!
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  • RhondaCoca

    1 year ago

    She is desperate, plain and simple. She needs to fall back right about now.


    "hard-working Americans=white Americans. Right. The rest of us sit on our porches eating watermelon and plucking banjos"



    Oh yea, you didn't get the memo, they have been saying this for years. When blacks are anyhting less than middle class or upper class then they are just lazy.



    Poor and working class white Americans are hard working who have to deal with the rough modern world. They are the "backbone of this nation".



    Listen, this is the racism of this country plain and simple. The media is serving it up and people are eating it up.



    Who ever is the democratic nominee needs the black vote to win. Period.



    I agree with Craig and Ronnie B.,



    Obama has won the voters who will vote for him, there is no need to try and get the bigot vote.



    Also, as Craig pointed out, Obama did make great inroads into the white working class demographic in many of the states that he won so this is obviously just hype.



    Clinton cannot believe that she got beaten by a black man.



    And I said BEATEN.



    She beat him by a toenail in Indiana, the home of the KKK. Let's get real. He wiped her in NC. He is like 150 delegates away from clinching the nomination. Why is the media acting as if it is closer than it is?



    You see, I haven't watched not an ounce of mainstream news media in over a week (since last Monday morning). I am boycotting them. No ratings until they get their act together.
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  • RhondaCoca

    1 year ago

    Interesting, my white neighbors were telling my parents that they hate watching CNN, MSNBC and Fox because they distort things so much. "They act as if all whites in America are racist and ignorant." They find that to be insulting.


    I found that to be interesting.



    They got into a convo with my parents about Obama (they are supporters with a big sign on their lawn). My parents had a little backyard get together because the weather was nice yesterday so I drove up there.



    I was telling them that I found the media to be prejudice and condescending towards black voters.



    They agreed. They are seeing the exact same thing as we are here.



    This election is bringing out all our underlying prejudices....All of them.
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  • marc

    1 year ago

    but, what kind of country is this?! first those botched elections eight years ago, which should have put the usa on the list for international election supervision. now one of the main candidates, who's got roughly -but not quite- half the dems behind her will not accept even the one man, one vote principle anymore.


    that's so south africa in the seventies.



    wiki her!
    reply
  • hot in texas

    1 year ago

    In regards to what n.mahana said, I'm in total agreement with you. Obama's supporters see Hilary for what she really is, and the rest, well fuck 'em. She reminds me of those stories of evil spirits, who don't know their dead and wreak havoc on the living until someone leads them to the other side, hopefully she will impode soon enough. Let's move on from that evil spirit and focus on an even bigger event and get Obama's policies into to play because as bad as Hilary is, WE AINT SEEN NOTHING YET. The Republican party is full of whites that wouldnt vote for Obama if he was the only candidate on the ticket AND they had a gun pointed at their heads. So, let's take a page from Obama's NC speech and start focusing on the primaries.
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  • The Christian Progressive Libe

    1 year ago

    Hillary badly needs an Intervention, and the party leaders are being derelict in their duty to continue ignoring it and sending her messages to drop out.


    McGovern, Feinstein and all other "elders" of the party needs to get her in a room and tell her to drop out or they cut her off from any and all access to the Democratic Party, beginning with her re-election to the U. S. Senate.



    I know they can see her dogged determination to not give up the fight, not to mention the fact that every day she stays in this mess, she further alienates all of her base except for the rural Appalachian voters, she risks destroying the party.



    And once she succeeds in destroying the Democratic party, she'll return to her ReThug roots.
    reply
  • Anonymous

    1 year ago

    "It's time for the Democratic leadership to stand up and stay enough, unless they subscribe to this racist bull shit!"




    Hi, first time poster here. Maybe the Democrat leadership is letting Hillary melt down so they can be rid of the Clintons for once and for all. I mean, is she really gonna win her re-election to the Senate after all of this? Maybe the Democrat leadership is giving Hillary a rope so she can hang herself.
    reply
  • Outer-Borough Princess

    1 year ago

    One can debate whether the white, blue-collar voters who have turned out for Hillary will break for McCain or Obama in the fall. What is not debatable is the fact that NO Democratic nominee can win without overwhelming black support (oh, and turnout). Can. Not. Stand. Her.
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  • Ms.Martin

    1 year ago

    I think it's time to start emailing the DNC again and tell them we won't stand for Hillary's obvious racism and the fact that they are is indicative of how they feel.
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  • drowsy

    1 year ago

    She's a race-baiter, but probably not a racist, for all we know. These two things are not the same!


    This comment is designed like a pitch spun to force a pop-up. Yeah we hit it but it ends up in her glove.



    The pattern is there: a Clinton utters a race-baiting 'gaffe', Obama supporters cry foul, HRC claims Obama is 'polarizing' based on race.



    I think the voters in OR and maybe even PR will see this for what it is and react well. I heard what Bill had to say earlier and voted appropriately here in CT.



    But Obama can't hit this one too hard without HRC gaining mileage. So I'm pleased with the Obama camp response thus far. Keep it moving!
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  • Sophie in VA

    1 year ago

    Thanks--this is an encouraging post to read, regarding Obama's GE chances.


    I'm a 60-yr-old white woman, who started out supporting "the sister"--until both Clintons ended up channeling Lee Atwater. Am just sick to death of the poison and cynicism -- so Obama got my vote in Virginia. . . . Hope he (and the rest of us) can go all the way.
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  • Anonymous

    1 year ago

    Obama and Clinton are running on essentially identical platforms — and yet, she crushed him among white Democrats in the OH, PA and IN, with upwards of 20% of all voters in Texas and Ohio admitting that race was an “important factor” in their vote (the majority in each case broke for her). It’s not just policy preferences that are giving Obama 90% of the black vote either. So what’s so shocking about what she said? That it’s horribly inaccurate, or that it’s horribly candid in acknowledging that race might affect electability even among the virtuous, transcendent left — a point the superdelegates are already keenly aware of thanks to the endless media speculation about what black voters will do if they hand her the nomination?
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  • Anne U.

    1 year ago

    Latte drinker here. I wrote Stephanie Tubbs Jones, my congresswoman, to express my disgust with Clinton's comments and imply she has a responsibility to stand up for her constituents, white and black, in this wonderfully racially mixed district. I doubt it will work, but I have to wonder what she and some of the other CBC Hillary-endorsers are thinking these days.
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  • Anonymous

    1 year ago

    I seriously doubt that race is NOT a major factor in the huge base of support Obama enjoys among the balck community.


    I also seriously doubt the white guilt is NOT a major factor in the huge base of support Obama enjoys among liberal, educated whites.



    Oh no. Is this race-baiting? Or merely speaking the truth?
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  • andyfrombrooklyn

    1 year ago

    minnesata, wisconsin, iowa, colorado, washington. that is five not so small states that look like they will be in our column. that have small black populations. where she got her ass kicked. they were white voters. but maybe they don't "work"? oh what the hell...she is crazy...time to move on...bye, bye hillary!
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  • Anonymous

    1 year ago

    What if the 'typical white person' feels that Obama's just too inexperienced or too liberal for their liking?


    If white, blue collar voters find McCain to be an acceptable alternative, because he is a more moderate, center-right politician, who shares more of their values, and he just happens to be white, will dems say most voters are bigoted?



    I think Obama would win in a landslide if he were a moderate conservative.



    He will lose the general election, not because he's a man of color, but because he's too green and too liberal.
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  • Anonymous

    1 year ago

    minnesata, wisconsin, iowa, colorado, washington = white guilt vote.
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  • Michelle

    1 year ago

    Last night, I emailed Nancy Pelosi and also sent a message through the democrats.org website about this newest in the line of ugly -- quoting this comment and asking when they are just plain going to step up and say that what Clinton is doing is not what the Democratic Party stands for (frankly I am much more cynical than this and feel that their lack of denouncing and rejecting Clinton says with action that what she is doing is enough of what the party is about that they are allowing this to continue. Not surprising, seeing as how this country is well ... built on racism and they are one of the two major political parties in it)


    But still. Such hypocrisy that they have all these groups of people under the "People" menu on their site, and when you click on African-American for example it's all about the GOP's badness. But their own (yes, their OWN til they publicly officially as a party disown her) resident blatant racist candidate? Standards are diferent for her, see.



    All that focus on how Senator Obama should denounce and reject various people -- why isn't the Democratic Party publicly and collectively denouncing and rejecting Hillary Clinton's actions, words and tactics?



    PS the comment from dday: Shorter Clinton: If we were still operating under the Constitution's 3/5 compromise, I'd be the nominee!



    This exact thing came up during dinner at my house the other night.
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  • Craig Hickman

    1 year ago

    This elitist college-educated white guy who voted for Obama is in a bluegrass band and I have watermelons growing in my backyard, so you can count on me to bring the entertainment while we all vote for Mr. Obama.


    The Clintoons piss me off.



    This has got to be one of the funniest comments I've read lately.



    Thanks for the laugh.
    reply
  • Anonymous

    1 year ago

    I caught a fascinating echo of the 1952 campaign today. Paul Begala, a Clinton supporter promoting the line that Senator Obama's electoral base is too narrow to sustain a winning general election campaign, stated that Democrats could not win in November with just "eggheads and African-Americans." The term "egghead" in this negative context entered the political lexicon during the 1952 presidential campaign of another Illinois politician, Adlai Stevenson, who was also seen as appealing to a too-select, too-intellectually-inclined slice of the electorate, and unable to energize the working class. It was applied to Stevenson supporters in September 1952, in a column by Stewart Alsop. After hearing a particularly cerebral Stevenson speech on atomic energy in Hartford Connecticut, Alsop mentioned to "a rising young Connecticut Republican" (later identified as his brother John) that "a good many intelligent people who would be considered normally Republican, obviously admired Stevenson." "Sure," John replied, "all the eggheads love Stevenson. But how many eggheads do you think there are?" Stevenson lost the race to war hero Dwight Eisenhower 55 percent to 44 percent. During the 1956 campaign, a replay of the 1952 match-up, a woman called out to him at an event, "You have the vote of every thinking person!" Stevenson called back, "That's not enough, madam, we need a majority!" Stevenson lost that round to Ike 57 percent to 42 percent.
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  • Oldnovice

    1 year ago

    I'm with Sophie in VA; this OWW4O doesn't fit the demographic.
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  • Craig Hickman

    1 year ago

    1952, 1956. 1972.


    The war against Obama from ALL sides uses old, warn-out artillery.



    And that's why it's not working.



    Obama isn't Adlai Stevenson or George McGovern or anybody else.



    He's Barack Obama and he's winning.
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  • Felicia

    1 year ago

    You guys--we need to do some sort of virtual demonstration to let the media and the DNC know we're not cool with this overtly racist language. I was more insulted with what Paul Begala said than what Clinton said. The guy said Obama can't win with just eggheads and African Americans as his base. That was so offensive. He's really diminishing blacks. And if you're black and an egghead, you're worthless to him. And MSM let these people go on the air and stoke the fire of racism.
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  • Craig Hickman

    1 year ago

    I'm tempted to say that we should do what Obama has decided to do: IGNORE HILLARY RODHAM NIXON.


    She's a sociopath and she wants attention.
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  • Diana

    1 year ago

    The first time the race-baiting really hit me was before the South Carolina vote. Hillary said that Barack was "a young African-American man with so much to contribute". Innocuous on it's face but she sounded like she was referring to the neighbor boy. I went from calm to boil in less than a second & have never really gotten over it.
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  • Diana

    1 year ago

    This gave me a laugh. It's from today's email from www.buzzflash.com:


    "When     Will She Start Campaigning in a White Sheet? "Clinton Touts White Support... 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." It's not even true based on Tuesday's exit polls. So Hillary's a Liar and the Ghost of George Wallace. 5/9"
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  • Bliss

    1 year ago

    I do hope there's room on the porch for an over 50's thoroughly disgusted white woman in a very red county in Texas that went for Obama. I don't know where Hillary was during the caucus, but the Obama contingent (67% in my precinct) was rainbow city. I think some of the whites there might even have worked for a living.
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  • Anonymous

    1 year ago

    According to Gallup Kerry got 41% of the white vote compared to Obama's 37%.
    I don't remember if it was Indiana or NC.

    Either way, Obama is getting about the average white vote as most other democrats - especially those blue collar.

    But, it's sad to see the Clintons treating the AA voters this way. In their effort to tarnish Obama anyway possible they are turning their backs on the most reliable voters they had in the 90s.

    And they are attempting to stir the subconscience of white people who may harbor some race feelings underneath they may not be totally aware of but, are planted with the seed of feeling negative towards Sen. Obama by going into a type of psychological warfare that is stirring the subconscience.

    That is indeed the dog whistle.

    I am white and I find this disgusting.

    Especially used against the best democratic candidate in generations. The man has the potential to be on the same level as an FDR and it's painful to see what the Clintons are trying to do to stir up race warfare.

    The opposite of what Obama is about which is unity.
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  • collegegrad

    1 year ago

    Good ole Southern strategy!! Its clear she is trying to make sure Obama won't win the general. So she can come back and try again in 2012.
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  • Beth Budwig

    1 year ago

    What a great blog post! Found it on Booman Tribune.


    I just wanted to say - I've come to expect this from HRC. She has no shame and no sense of decency to get in the way of her self-interest. However, CNN & all other mainstream reporting of Tuesday's elections were the same BS! "Clinton pulls out a narrow victory" in Indiana while "Obama does very well among black voters but only gets 31% of white votes" in North Carolina. Right, because clearly a f*cking landslide doesn't count if the hands filling out the ballots are darker. UGH.
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  • Anonymous

    1 year ago

    Arugula-eating, college-educated, white chick and first-time reader of this blog (thanks, Democratic Underground, for the link!)


    We will NEVER create the change we want for this country by trying to win over the closed-minded, so I say GOOD RIDDANCE to the HRC bigots who won't vote for Barrack. Let them vote for McCain and confirm their stupidity.



    Sadly, they will continue to vote their prejudices over their finacial interests and we just have to wait for them to die off.



    We need to spend our time, energy and money on motivating more young people of ALL skin colors to get involved and exercise their precious right to vote.
    reply
  • trickledown

    1 year ago

    "Hillary Clinton has a law degree from Yale Law School and worked for many years as a corporate lawyer, representing major corporate clients such as Wal-Mart. Surely she is familar with the "canons of construction," especially ejusdem generis."


    "By ejusdem generis, her statement is read thus: "working, hard-working" are very general terms which can be applied to anyone in America, relative to the term "white Americans" which constitutes a specific racial class...thus by ejusdem generis "working" and "hard working" only apply to "white Americans," with the implication that only white Americans work and are hard working. By omission...that leads us to another canon of construction Hillary is surely aware of: expressio unius est exclusio alterius..."



    http://trickledown.wordpress.com/2008/05/10/hillary-clinton-race-white-americans-comment-3am-ad-and-canons-of-construction/
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