it's now officially desperation time and the clinton campaign is playing the final, scorch-the-earth card left left in their meager deck: scare the white people.
i knew this was coming--the only question i had was, how exactly were they gonna dabble in that kinda shit without getting it on 'em? their answer, apparently, was to circulate a photo that, on its face, is nothing more than that of yet one more american politician donning the native garb of whatever third-world country he happens to be visiting--i mean, we've seen it a million times, right?
the difference with this particular photo, of course, is that it's not of a lame-ass white politician looking ridiculous in some exotic get-up--this one is of a black politician with a funny african name looking not-so-ridiculous in his somali-elder outfit. and the unspoken message to white texas and ohio voters is unmistakably clear: he may clean up nice when he puts on a suit, but this is what you're really getting.
now if the obama camp had been smart, they would've simply acknowledged the photo, made some innocuous statement about the senator's fond memories of his somalia trip and moved on. but nooooo, they did exactly what the clinton folks hoped they'd do: they reflexively took the bait and went apeshit, thus giving hillary's people the opportunity to exercise their deniability ("why's he getting so upset? it's just a picture, isn't it?") and accuse him of bringing race into the deal.
a political ploy almost rovian in its brilliance, one might say. problem is, shit like this isn't gonna help hillary, especially at this point--it just makes her look bad. but, by playing on the unease felt by many about his roots and bona fides, this could still hurt obama--in other words, the clinton campaign is now effectively doing the republicans' dirty work for them.
[and please understand, i'm no idiot: having researched this story far and wide, i'm totally willing to grant that this whole thing maybe could be nothing more than yet another of matt drudge's seemingly endless anti-hillary assaults--except that (1) had that been the case, the squawks of outrage from the clinton campaign woulda been infinitely louder and more convincing than they actually were; and (b) again, i'm no idiot.]
4 comments:
Wow, hadn't thought about it that way! At first I believed Hillary when she said she had nothing to do with it, but I bet you're right.
Of course the Hillary campaign put it out there.
And if I were Obama, I'd be sending her flowers 'cause I would rather have it out there now than in October when it really might make a difference.
For now, the pundits are just going to call the Clintons racist -- see South Carolina...and everyone is going to tip toe around the enormity of the issue that Obama is African-American (in the truest sense of the phrase).
I'm not particularly proud of the Hillary campaign to date. It has been inept.
But, having said that, I am amazed that these same commentators who call use the race card on Clinton are so unaware of their own sexism. Chris Matthews, in my opinion, has been nothing short of misogynist in his coverage of Clinton. In general, Clinton has been held to different standards that a man ever would be. So, if you want to talk changing the power structure, it seems like a woman in a pantsuit is a whole lot more threatening to a whole lot of people than a black MAN with even if that man if wearing Somali garb instead of a suit.
proudlyhillary: so obama should be thanking hillary like mccain should be thanking the ny times? somehow i doubt he's gonna be able to muster sufficient gratitude to send her flowers--in fact, i would imagine that, with this little stunt, the clintons have pretty much burned their bridges where it comes to mr. obama.
Well, as it turns out, no one seems to care about Barak Hussein Obama wearing the traditionally Somali elder garb...so there. Perhaps the lesson to this story is just how much teflon Obama has -- nothing the Clintons have thrown at him (including some punches in the groin) have really worked.
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