Afternoon Update: Obama–Clinton Racial Tiff Continues

14.01.2008

Obama Responds [Sam Stein, Huffington Post]: "Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign has prepared a detailed memo listing various instances in which it perceived Sen. Hillary Clinton's campaign to have deliberately played the race card in the Democratic primary."

McCain Goes Negative [Jonathan Martin, Politico]: "For the second day in a row, [McCain] was asked about mail pieces he sent to voters in Michigan and South Carolina going after Mitt Romney on taxes and abortion. McCain defended his decision to go [negative] after Romney by citing his rival's heavy spending on negative messaging."

Great Lakes Gamesmanship [Marc Ambinder, The Atlantic]: "Supporters of Mitt Romney in Michigan report receiving negative messaging calls this weekend. After a 45-second 'survey,' the calls turn into an advertisement for Mike Huckabee's campaign."

Preparing for His Next Career? [Associated Press]: "Mitt Romney assumed the role of motivational speaker Monday, as the Republican presidential contender tried to inspire high school students to make the right choices in life."

Enough With the Governors! [Thomas Ferraro, Reuters]: "For the first time since a young and charismatic John F. Kennedy reached the political summit nearly half a century ago, a sitting member of Congress may be elected president this year."

--Josh Patashnik

Posted: Monday, January 14, 2008 2:33 PM with 3 comment(s)

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rozenson said:

Ah, things are really getting negative now. This is campaigning!

January 14, 2008 4:49 PM

huntlib said:

Wow. Hillary's rep is getting destroyed among blacks. It's kind of unfair, because the charges are weak.

It's like, ok, some of the Clintons' statements can be construed as racist if we are so inclined to read them that way.

This could hurt Obama among whites. Obama is appealing because he seems like an uber-Leader -- a man who can short-circuit any kind of polarization, whether it's racial, political, or religious. He somehow seems above it all, occupying a 3rd-person to the back-and-forth between Rush Limbaugh and Al sharpton. The traditional, hyper-emotional symbolic talk about whites vs. blacks, about whether this or that race is getting the short end of the stick, somehow seems to be irrelevant when he speaks.

But this kind of a debate throws it back in voters' faces. It's like, "vote for Obama -- because when you use the word 'fairytale' to describe a black candidate, you're being racist." Not gonna fly.

January 14, 2008 6:07 PM

Eos said:

What is the name of the rhetorical device wherein one denies that one is saying or doing something while in the very act of saying or doing it? Obama is a master of this kind of doublespeak. Consider the following example:

"I am baffled by that statement by the Senator. She made an ill-advised statement about Dr. King, suggesting that Lyndon Johnson had more to do with the Civil Rights Act. For them to somehow suggest that we're interjecting race as a consequence of a statement she made, that we haven't commented on, is pretty hard to figure out."

Get the "that we haven't commented on"? What is he doing if not commenting on it, while at the same time denying that he is commenting on it? Obama pulls this stunt all the time.

January 15, 2008 7:32 AM