Race and the Race

Booman discusses the latest NYT article on the race debate that now seems to consume the Clinton/Obama battle. He says its failure to mention the Bill Shaheen, Bob Kerrey, Andrew Cuomo or "anonymous Clinton advisers" who have made a variety of statements ranging from racially insensitive to outright racist all accrues to the benefit of the Clintons. True. The lack of context is unfair and galling.

He goes on:

Here is how it works. The Clintons push some racially sensitive buttons and elicit an emotional response. Then they go apologize explain themselves on the Al Sharpton radio show. The New York Times only covers the most innocuous of their comments. The result is that they remind voters that Barack Obama is not the post-racial uniter, but a typical black candidate, supported by serial whiners Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Nothing could undermine Obama’s campaign more among the white vote, and the Clintons know it. And there is nothing, nothing, that Obama can do about it. If he complains, he only makes it worse. If he doesn’t complain, these subtle allegations that he is a lazy, drug-dealing Muslim do damage all on their own.

I don’t think that’s the whole story, though. For one thing, Jesse L. Jackson is more than just an "Obama supporter" as he was described in the article — he’s the national co-chair of Obama’s campaign. You really can’t get much more "official" than that. This story is one that the Obama campaign has been pushing for days through a variety of surrogates, and it’s clear they want to publicly take on this fight now.

Perhaps they feel it’s inevitable, and best to air it now when it’s most likely to accrue favorably to Obama with South Carolina on the horizon. And perhaps it’s a way to throw a few elbows into the Clinton campaign and say that there’s going to be a price exacted for the Bob Kerreys of the world. But to say, as Mark Ambinder does, that "Obama has not accused the Clintons of racism and an Obama campaign aide said that campaign does not believe that the Clintons themselves were attempting to sow racial discord" does, I think, misrepresent what’s going on.

Jesse Jackson Jr. said that Hillary Clinton cried in response to questions over her appearance, and not about the victims of Hurricane Katrina (something that implied would be important to the voters of South Carolina). It’s clear that both sides are actively engaged in this battle now.

For better or worse, it’s not’s not a one-sided confrontation.

Talk Left, Kevin Hayden, Joe Klein, Oliver Willis and Paul Rosenberg have varying takes on the subject.

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4. Early Morning Swim: Maddow on the GOP Playing the Race Card
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