My Deep Thoughts on the Dem Primary

Obama has it tough because Americans are more racist than sexist. There are just more white women than blacks. At the same time, Hillary gets a bigger benefit in the form of backlash against sexist attacks on her (like this) because sexism can be overt, while racism must be coded.

Other hand, Hillary's got it tough because any attack on Obama can be interpreted as coded racism. She's got to knock the halo off his head in order to disrupt his appeal to black Christians, but putting surrogates out to talk about his drug use blew up in her face. She's got to play to her supposed strength on experience, so Bill went out and played attack dog and quickly found out how shallow black support for him was. Who cares where you have an office, Bubba? Some people who usually talk sense are already saying they'd rather see a Republican win than Hillary.

Somewhere, Karl Rove cackles.

Comments

[Caged Lion]

"Other hand, Hillary's got it tough because any attack on Obama can be interpreted as coded racism."

That's not having it tough. That's the whole premise of her strategy: to play into divisive racial feelings of the electorate. And it's working well, too.

P6 is talking more sense than usual. You can't play the southern strategy (http://clintonattacksobama.pbwiki.com/) and then get surprised at a backlash from the black electorate.

[Mithras]

See, I just don't buy the kumbayah bit when that's the response to any criticism. "Oh, he called him a kid, we all know what that means!" Seriously, what the fuck. It can't be brought up that he's the youngest person in the race and he's spent all of 3 years in the U.S. Senate?

[Caged Lion]

If every attack on the linked wiki is just the imagination of of overly sensitive black folk to you, then what can I say?

I will just let my vote (or non-vote) speak for me. If Hillary gets the nomination, I will actively campaign against her in my community.

[P6]

See, I just don't buy the kumbayah bit when that's the response to any criticism.

What kumbayah bit?

It can't be brought up that he's the youngest person in the race and he's spent all of 3 years in the U.S. Senate?

Come on, man...do you think that's what the complaint is?

It is a physical fact that The Clintons went hugely negative. You don't have to take my word for it either, it's all through the press.

And here's another physical fact: Black folks are going to reject anyone that sets up a Black vs White contest in the mainstream. I thought that was obvious, but maybe it wasn't.

It should be now, though.

[Mithras]

P6-
Sometimes I am slow on the uptake, but I think I get it now. I thought the point was that the Clintons were engaging in dog-whistle politics, and I just wasn't seeing it (at least based on the statements from them personally). But it's not about using code speech to play on white racism, it's about baiting black voters by going extremely negative on Obama, knowing that those voters would rally around him. This lets the Clintons portray Obama's support as "only" black voters, which feeds the media narrative that it's a black v. white thing in primary states down the road.