The Race Card
EmailDespite calls from both Sens. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, and Hillary Clinton, D-NY, to chill on all this race stuff, the surrogates are continuing to be quite outspoken.
Clinton ally and House Ways and Means Chairman Rep. Charles Rangel, D-NY, on NY1 yesterday said Obama was "absolutely stupid."
Watch it HERE.
"How race got into this thing is because Obama said ‘race,’" Rangel said. "But there is nothing that Hillary Clinton has said that baffles me. I would challenge anybody to belittle the contribution that Dr. King has made to the world, to our country, to civil rights, and the Voting Rights Act. But for him to suggest that Dr. King could have signed that act is absolutely stupid. It’s absolutely dumb to infer that Doctor King, alone, passed the legislation and signed it into law."
(That was a response to Obama reacting to Clinton’s comments on Martin Luther King, saying he was "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.")
Rangel also said, of Obama’s youthful drug use as chronicled in his book, "I assume that the book was not written for political purposes. It was honest … For him to be honest enough to write about it, I guess he thought it might sell books."
Other surrogates weighed in in this morning’s Washington Post.
Rep. William Lacy Clay, D-Missouri, an Obama campaign co-chairman, said Clinton was "trying to score cheap political points on the back of Martin Luther King’s legacy."
Clinton backer Rep. John Lewis, D-Georgia, said Obama "is no Martin Luther King Jr. I knew Martin Luther King. I knew Bobby Kennedy. I knew President Kennedy. You need more than speech-making. You need someone who is prepared to provide bold leadership."
Said Clinton backer Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II, D-Missouri, "Instead of the Democratic Party celebrating and wallowing in euphoria over the fact that our party will in all probability nominate a woman or an African American, we have engaged in ‘Swift boat’ actions that we all say we deplore. …The Clintons have been Swift-boated in this thing."
What do you think?
- jpt
USS Gabrielle Giffords Honors Courage 
Mitt Romney's Full Speech at CPAC 2012
When the Obama camp distorts issues involving race with intellectually dishonest arguements they are no better than Jesse Jackson and Al Sharton. I think most White Democrats believed that Obama was above this type of pandering. I’ve got a news flash for him – that are large numbers of White Democrats that suffer from “Race Card Fatigue” and will not support him in the general election if this continues.
Posted by: demfromphilly | January 15, 2008, 9:29 am 9:29 am
Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929–April 4, 1968), was one of the main leaders of the American civil rights movement. A Baptist minister by training, King became a civil rights activist early in his career, leading the Montgomery Bus Boycott and helping to found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. His efforts led to the 1963 March on Washington, where King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech, raising public consciousness of the civil rights movement and establishing King as one of the greatest orators in American history. In 1964, King became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end segregation and racial discrimination through civil disobedience and other non-violent means.
King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Jimmy Carter in 1977. Martin Luther King Day was established as a national holiday in the United States in 1986. In 2004, King was posthumously awarded a Congressional Gold Medal.
Posted by: BROOKE TEAL ROBBINS | January 15, 2008, 9:38 am 9:38 am
Lyndon B. Johnson
“A Great Society” for the American people and their fellow men elsewhere was the vision of Lyndon B. Johnson. In his first years of office he obtained passage of one of the most extensive legislative programs in the Nation’s history. Maintaining collective security, he carried on the rapidly growing struggle to restrain Communist encroachment in Viet Nam.
Johnson was born on August 27, 1908, in central Texas, not far from Johnson City, which his family had helped settle. He felt the pinch of rural poverty as he grew up, working his way through Southwest Texas State Teachers College (now known as Texas State University-San Marcos); he learned compassion for the poverty of others when he taught students of Mexican descent.
In 1937 he campaigned successfully for the House of Representatives on a New Deal platform, effectively aided by his wife, the former Claudia “Lady Bird” Taylor, whom he had married in 1934
During World War II he served briefly in the Navy as a lieutenant commander, winning a Silver Star in the South Pacific. After six terms in the House, Johnson was elected to the Senate in 1948. In 1953, he became the youngest Minority Leader in Senate history, and the following year, when the Democrats won control, Majority Leader. With rare skill he obtained passage of a number of key Eisenhower measures.
Posted by: BROOKE TEAL ROBBINS | January 15, 2008, 9:55 am 9:55 am
Please, I’ve voted both sides and will continue to vote for the best person for the job. What I noticed about this election is that we’ve had 8 years of the Clintons and all their baggage and 12 years of the Bush family. The Clintons couldn’t pull this country together then and Hillarys bulldog approach can’t pull it together now. I fear that Hillary will split this country apart even further, it’s the same old politics. We need to close the book on both the Bushes and Clintons and start with a new voice for the country and not the same old rethoric, wise up.
Posted by: djmarie | January 15, 2008, 9:56 am 9:56 am
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MLK… Martin Luther King, Jr. -(January 15, 1929–April 4, 1968) may you and Lyndon B. Johnson (August 27, 1908 – January 22, 1973) R.I.P. as well as any kind of discrimination in our world and beyond.
Posted by: BROOKE TEAL ROBBINS | January 15, 2008, 10:08 am 10:08 am
The Clinton MLK remark has been blown so out of proportion, that it has become a deafening noise that is drowning out the real issues at hand. The Clintons are not racists. The remark does however, highlight that the Clintons have a stronger affinity with the Washington establishment, then with the voters who preserve their positions of power.
Posted by: Katherine | January 15, 2008, 10:49 am 10:49 am
First of all, this is ALL coming from the CLINTON campaign. I challenge anyone to find anything that Senator Obama has said that has fueled this debate.
-Senator Obama did not compare himself to Martin Luther King.
-Senator Obama did not comment on Senator Clinton’s tortured analogy about LBJ and MLK.
-Senator Obama has never condoned his surrogates going after Hillary Clinton the way the Clintons have CLEARLY and CONSISTENTLY had her surrogates attack Senator Obama.
This is clearly an attempt by the Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, and their friends to smear Senator Obama. To then use the willing media in an attempt to portray Senator Obama as the one doing the spinning is just as evil as it is brilliant.
Simply put – this whole thing is a big stink created by the Clintons to benefit the Clintons. Period.
Posted by: Nobodys fool | January 15, 2008, 10:58 am 10:58 am
Now, THIS is EXACTLY what the Clintons want.
They want to get all these embarrassing figures form the old guard black establishment (Rangel, Jesse Jackson, Sharpton, et al) to start going on television and shooting their mouths off.
They want to painting him as being in the tradition of clowns like Sharpton and company.
White voters will cringe when they see these little clips popping up on CNN or online. And they will subliminally turned off of Obama.
The Clintons are evil.
Posted by: James | January 15, 2008, 11:01 am 11:01 am
James.
What is evil by exposing the racist Obama supporters?
Posted by: geevill | January 15, 2008, 11:43 am 11:43 am
NEWS FLASH ! (SPREAD THE WORD)
Hillary Was AGAINST the Civil Rights Act of 1964
While a Republican and “Goldwater Girl”
A March 12, 2007 article written by acclaimed Washington columnist Robert Novak sheds a very revealing light on the true sentiment of Hillary Clinton during the peak of the Civil Rights Movement. Clinton recently was found to have minimized the great and monumental strides taken by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by stating that it was Lyndon B. Johnson, then president, who should receive the credit for the civil rights progress including the Civil Rights Act of 196 4.
In an attempt to attract black support Hillary Clinton regularly shares her ‘civil rights experience’ during every speech given to black audiences. Novak writes of one such speech at Selma’s First Baptist Church on the 42nd anniversary of the “bloody Sunday” freedom march there, where Sen. Clinton declared: “As a young woman, I had the great privilege of hearing Dr. King speak in Chicago. The year was 1963. My youth minister from our church took a few of us down on a cold January night to hear [King]. . . . And he called on us, he challenged us that evening to stay awake during the great revolution that the civil rights pioneers were waging on behalf of a more p erfect union.” But Novak’s article states that there’s a big problem with her statement.
The fact is, in 1963, not only was Hillary Clinton a republican, but she was also a staunch supporter of republican Senator Barry Goldwater, well known as a segregationist and one of the most vocal senators adamently against the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which is why he lost in his presidential bid to Lyndon B. Johnson. Novak writes “…how then could she be a ‘Goldwater Girl’ in the next year’s presidential election?” He continues, “…she described herself in her memoirs as ‘an active Young Republican’ and ‘a Goldwater girl, right down to my cowgirl outfit.’
on.
By: Greg Jones
To Read Novak’s original article simply Google ‘ Hillary, King, Goldwater ‘. His article is everywhere.
Posted by: Greg Jones | January 15, 2008, 12:36 pm 12:36 pm
Greg Jones,
In case that you don’t know, Robert Novak is a jerk. He is the one who blow the cover of that CIA lady. He damaged our national security and should be called a traitor.
Posted by: Josh | January 15, 2008, 1:16 pm 1:16 pm
HILARY PULLED THE RACE CARD NOT OBAMA.
It’s fact no matter how easy it is for some people to believe the other way around.
Just because Hilary said he did this or that, you’re going to believe her without getting all the facts.
It’s believing in sound-bites and knee-jerk reactions that got us the stellar presidential experience we’ve been subject to for the past 7 or so years. Wake up folks.
A fresh start with Edwards and/or Obama is welcome. A smarter, less divisive, better crop of decision-makers.
Posted by: Marcia | January 15, 2008, 4:30 pm 4:30 pm
Absolutely, positively, as chronicled in the hard print press that will be around for historians to check, long after we’re gone, Hillary started the race baiting. Sorry, Clinton supporters, but it’s there to read. You are welcome to join the real political world any time. Hillary is welcome to join the 21st century, and abandon her 1992-style racial politics any time. She will be valuable as a Senator, if she stops writing puff-ball bills to name a post office after a favorite football team, or whatever. Clinton started this to speak in code to Southern whites, contrary to everything her party proclaims and contrary to all the lies she tells about her motives and her morals. If any one can’t see that, they should start the write-in drive to elect Laura Bush plresident now. As one who has worked hard, and long to bypass old racial stereotypes and biases, I am ashamed that a person of my generation and race can do what she did. You want to vote for her???? You deserve what you get. And if so, you, and Clinton, are part of the problem. Take that to bed. Hope you sleep well.
Posted by: SteveW | January 15, 2008, 9:00 pm 9:00 pm
allot of americans do not vote any more simply because there are no canadites worth voting for.”the almighty race card”is everyones ace in the hole,it changes the subject,diverts attention,or keeps others at bay.in all,it keeps america divided.no one talks about americas poor,homeless or sick.everyone talks about martin luther king.he united all.he included all.he had the ability to see the bigger picture.there is not a single canadite that can fill his shoes.so obama,if you want to keep america divided,keep looking at the smaller picture and keep playing the race card.
Posted by: rebreb | January 16, 2008, 4:03 pm 4:03 pm
americas poor have heard alot of hollow promises for way to long.during election years,we hear promisesof hire wages,lower taxs,better healthcare,better schools,ect…we have had both republican and democrates in the officeand nothing has ever changed.any one that says any different makes over 20,000 a year.an average american(the ones politics dont count)makesabout 7.00 an hour.7times80=560 dollars bi-weekly,1120 monthly,before taxes.average rent500 a month.electric,120 a month.water,30 amonth.gas,150 a month groceries,300 amonth.gas for work,160 a month.llets say this is for a family of three.do you see a problem.this problem is color blind.it cant play a race card.im not sure,but i have traveled all over the country.from my observance,id guess this is about 60 percent of america.everything is usually figured off of the middle class and up.so i guess you couldsay 60 percent of america dont count.how can you count the poor?this is a real issue that a real leader needs to address.not just a president,but the peoples president.remeber,this is for the people by the people.not the middle class,not the upper class,not the “elite”nor to one single indivdual.race cards should not excist.united we stand divided we fall.
Posted by: rebreb | January 16, 2008, 5:13 pm 5:13 pm
I totally agree with BROOKE TEAL ROBBINS. We need a change.
Posted by: Jim | June 11, 2008, 7:47 am 7:47 am