Friday, January 25, 2008

Obama and Race

Yesterday I posted a blog entry on voter suppression and also added a sentence or two on why I thought the Clinton's chose to play the race card, especially puzzling since Bill is generally revered in the black community. The gist of it was that they're attempting to win by provoking a response from Obama, which may trigger a response from the white community via a backlash. They know that their margin of victory could be very slim, and they're attermpting to peel off Obama's white supporters one at a time if needed. The Chicago Daily Observer has a piece today on the exact same topic, saying it much better than I could. The money quotes:

The more the conversation gets to be about race, the better the Clintons think they will do. It’s as simple as that.
They want to nudge—even provoke—Barack Obama into becoming the “black” candidate rather than the healing, unity candidate. They want black supporters to raise their voices on his behalf—preferably the Al Sharpton types who will shrilly cry “racism” and thus exacerbate the divide.

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