January 14, 2008
Hillary: "I Don't Think Either of Us Want to Inject Race or Gender in this Campaign."
That's what Senator Hillary Clinton told Tim Russert on Meet the Press yesterday, but no matter what anyone says, race and gender are obviously factors in the hotly contested Democratic primary race.
After criticism over her remarks about Martin Luther King ("Dr. King’s dream began to be realized when President Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act...It took a president to get it done.”) and her husband's remarks about Barack Obama's fairy tale Iraq stance, Clinton came out swinging, saying that Obama's campaign had been distorting her remarks. She said, "This is an unfortunate story line the Obama campaign has pushed very successfully. I don't think this campaign is about gender, and I sure hope it's not about race."
In turn, Obama told reporters in a conference call, per the NY Post:
"I think what we saw this morning is why the American people are tired of Washington politicians and the games they play...Look, Senator Clinton made an unfortunate remark, an ill-advised remark, about Dr. King and Lyndon Johnson. I didn't make the statement. I haven't remarked on it, and she, I think, offended some folks who felt that it somehow diminished King's role in bringing about the Civil Rights Act...Both Clinton and Obama are hoping to appeal to black voters; one third of South Carolina's population is black, and the South Carolina primary is on January 26. Both candidates have been emphasizing the historical firsts, that a woman and a black man are each mounting viable campaigns for presidency. The evolving race issue is making both campaigns uneasy, as the "black credentials" of each candidate are being discussed or criticized.
She is free to explain that, but the notion that somehow this is our doing is ludicrous."
The Daily News' Errol Louis has a column about the nonstop "racially-tinged mud" Clinton's campaign is throwing at Obama: "Sadly, the victim is not just Obama himself, but the broader public, especially Obama's most important target constituency – people grown cynical or apathetic about politics who don't normally vote." And last week Maureen Dowd's Times column, Can Hillary Cry Her Way Back to the White House, (the day after Gloria Steinem had an op-ed, Women are Never Frontrunners) wondered about the gender card. Some tried to discredit Dowd because she filed the column from Jerusalem with a "Derry, N.H." dateline; Times editorial-page editor Andy Rosenthal says the nit-picking is "driving me out of my fucking mind."
Photograph of Hillary Clinton with church-goers after services at the Northminster Presbyterian Church in Columbia, SC yesterday by Elise Amendola/AP
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Great piece in the New Republic on this... shows how far off base Errol Lewis and Maureen Dowd (both of whom I usually love) are on this. Check it out:
http://tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=a383df9e-9d33-4b57-b832-a75b7c4d0d0c
BTW, that TNR piece quotes Jim Clyburn as saying "we have to be very, very careful about how we speak..."
Last person I heard say something like that was Ari Fleisher. I didn't like it then, and I don't like it now.
"i did not have relations with that woman miss lewinsky"
impeach clinton campaign '08
end of nepotism
maybe she should take a page outta Angelina's book and adopt that cute little kid. It may help her street cred going forword...
Hey, suepart:
Two words: "Mission Accomplished."
Who's the real dumbass?
obama 08!
Nixon. Now more than ever.
Nixon. Now more than ever.
How about the candidates and the pundits focus on strategies for winning. This crap will only alienate voters.
How about the candidates and the pundits focus on strategies for winning. This crap will only alienate voters.
Go Giuliano! We's so proud of ya! Paisano!
Goldwater in'08.
In your heart you know he's right.
In your gut you know he's nuts.
A paisano in the White House? Don Corleone would've been proud!
Go Rudolfo!
It's too bad that Ari Fleischer will best be remembered for the misinterpretation or distortion of his rebuke to a knucklehead Republican legislator who suggested that every person "with a diaper on his head" should be pulled over and questioned by law enforcement--a statement that greatly upset the Sikh community. Fleischer was calling for calm in a time when some people were getting hysterical.
Whatever people's problems with Fleischer are, this particular incident and how it is remembered 'chilling' is apocryphal.
cf. http://www.slate.com/id/2149377/
And I may have to vote for her in 11 months. I hate that.
As your Slate link clearly states, the rebuke was to Bill Maher, not the GOP legislator. He did reference the legislator in his rebuke, but the comment was not made in response to the "diaper" incident. That is the deliberate distortion here.
It's just amazing to me that someone like Mike D could spew so much hate about a person he's never met and who he might still vote for. You might not like the lady, but have some respect. You're acting like an ignorant fool.
Suepart and MT are both idiots.
Obama FTW
How do you know I never met her?
Thanks MaiaW!
MaiaW: An ignorant fool is someone who is unaware of the issues and bases their opinions on scripted emotional appeals that tug at their heartstrings while ignoring logic and the facts.
Nixon. Now more than ever.
Nixon. Now more than ever.
hey MT
nice initials, "empty"
"mission accomplished" is also a buffoon, end that nepotism too
Nixon. Now more than ever.
I just saw this press release on AFP stating , 'For General Release: In Lieu of a general election, as is traditionally held in the US, the leading candidates from each party will meet at Floyd Bennet Field,a decommissioned air strip turned park in Brooklyn New York, to decide who will be the next president of the United States. Upon arrival, each candidate will be stripped of their clothing, and asked to participate in a 'kumate', or fight to the death, as popularised by the Stevan Segal film Bloodsport. The candidates will be informed that various martial weapons, including swords, axes, lead pipes and fish bats will be hidden throughout Floyd Bennet field. The last person standing alive will be declared President of the United States. The least badly beaten corpse will be named Vice President, which will signal quite an improvement over current US second in command Richard 'Dick' Cheney, who many Americans suspect actually passed away sometime in the late 1990's. Mike Bloomberg will ring the ceremonial bell to start the proceedings, and Jay-Z is expected to sing the national anthem beforehand.'
The question she was asked was specifically about gender and whether being a woman made her a victim. Hillary was one that injected race in her answer.
And check out the video on my blog. Russert specifically edits out the words "after Monica" from Maureen Dowd's quote. Who's dowdifying now?
I apologize if you met the lady, but to call her "a monster" is really inappropriate.
MaiaW: I think we need to look at our leaders realistically and critically. Anyone who would send our young and disadvantaged military men to die in order to secure her political future and STILL hasn't expressed regret pretty much defines monster for me.