So is this belittling? Race-baiting? Delegitimizing? Or what?
For more on this general area, Jack and Jill Politics has posts up on "The Clintons, Black Folk and America" and "The Media's Three-Fifths Compromise". The latter deals with the tendency in some quarters to downplay an Obama victory in South Carolina, given his race and the racial composition of the electorate of that state. Though given the size of Obama's win tonight I think that "argument" (which would seem to be Bill Clinton's argument) will be rather harder to justify.
Posted by armand at January 26, 2008 07:58 PM | TrackBack | Posted to PoliticsI find it really unfortunate that Bill has been demeaning himself so nakedly in service of HRC's candidacy the last couple of weeks. I don't know whether his unseemly tactics will work or not, but I know they're unseemly, and collectively with the broader work of HRC's campaign, are coming more and more to resemble the sort of ugly tactics associated with Bush's win over McCain in 2000. Herbert and an academic both had interesting columns in today's Times that, from different angles, came down rather harshly on a) the Clintons' campaigning and b) the notion of the likely plural presidency in the event of an HRC overall win, noting the Framers' rejection of a plural presidency for fear of a lack of accountability, and the recent precedent of Bush-Cheney as bearing out the Framers' fears (most notably in Cheney's claim that he wasn't in the executive branch for purposes of accountability). Both are worthy reads, and both did an impressive job of undermining my recent softening of my views with respect to HRC.
Posted by: moon at January 26, 2008 08:40 PM | PERMALINKI find it truly bizarre that there's been next to know coverage or examination of the role that Bill Clinton would play in a Hillary Clinton White House. I suppose that's going to change soon - as we see more pieces like those you mention. But given the importance of the matter it seems really weird it's been such a minor matter in the race this far.
Posted by: Armand at January 26, 2008 08:51 PM | PERMALINKObama thinks he is Lincoln, MLK, JFK and Reagan. Now Obama and the race baiters are ashamed of Jesse Jackson. Why. I think the real racist are Obama and his supporters to go looking for racism in every word anybody makes. What about the racist statement Obama made about saying I want to see Clinton dance before he is a brother. Or calling white man Clinton a black president. Now thats racist to. Grow up blacks or you will always be sports players dependent on Affirmative Action. Elections don't mean nothing/ Lobbyist will always run things. Ask Rezko
Posted by: Bungler OOPS at January 27, 2008 05:03 AM | PERMALINKWow, that's the first time I've ever been tempted to use the disemvowelling function.
Posted by: binky at January 27, 2008 11:59 AM | PERMALINKYeah, that comment wasn't good in any way. But, hey, it takes all kinds to make a blog.
Oh, and to Mr. Bungler OOPS, racism isn't pretty whether one sees it in a former President, or in a blog comment. Grow up.
Posted by: baltar at January 27, 2008 02:26 PM | PERMALINK