Democrats Fear Clinton's Attacks May Cause Racial Backlash

The protracted and increasingly acrimonious fight for the Democratic presidential nomination is unnerving core constituencies -- African Americans and wealthy liberals -- who are becoming convinced that the party could suffer irreversible harm if Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton maintains her sharp line of attack against Sen. Barack Obama.

Clinton's solid win in the Pennsylvania primary exposed a quandary for the party. Her backers may be convinced that only she can win the white, working-class voters that the Democratic nominee will need in the general election, but many African American leaders say a Clinton nomination -- handed to her by superdelegates -- would result in a disastrous breach with black voters.

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Comments

[musselmanm]

That is quite a photo! Almost shows her desperation and determination. It also kind of reminds me of a photo of Adolph, and I don;t mean Coors!
Sorry, I know she cannot be equated to him. Its just the erieness of the photo of her shouting our with her arm extended to be heard over the rain. Almost would inspire people if they were tended to support her. Sorry again but I do not.
Obama'08

[butchie65]

I am listening to Hillary in a speech from Saturday. She is telling how she was a Brownie and girl scout. She's just a jack of all trades ! She had to go traveling with her dad to make ends meet.He had a small business. Her grandfather had to go to work at the age of 11. Yada, yada, yada ! Wonder where that hunting trip came in ! This woman must lay awake at night trying to dream up these stories. She's trying to make it look like she came from a poor background like Obama. God, why am I listening to this crock ????

[HopeGirl]

By noon tomorrow it will have been proved that she was never a Brownie or a Girl Scout. That the only place she traveled with her dad was to the driving range at the country club. And that her Grandfather went to work at 14 not 11. For god sake I went to work at 11, babysitting and house cleaning, Vote for me???

Hillary needs some psychological help. Now.

[BigBagel]

She slopped the hogs and plucked the chickens.

[JackNasty]

I'm no longer merely tired of the Clintons' lies and triangulations. I'm sick of them. Please, make them go away.

[DrZee]

OH, I am soooo tired of them. Are they back to running for the Co-Presidency again. Yech. I'm with you... MAKE THEM GO AWAY... please!

[HopeGirl]

I am with you Jack. I feel like I am being tortured, I can't take it anymore.

[BigBagel]

"In the next 10 years, during which they might foolishly consider launching an attack on Israel, we would be able to totally obliterate them"........ Hillary Clinton on frying the men, women and children of Iran.

[marijam]

Especially in rural white America, but also among black americans who are supporting Hillary.

[JAsonMA]

You know what... I've been thinking alot and have come to the conclusion that everybody just needs to chill out.

At the end of the day we all want the same thing, to change the course of this country and elect a democrat to office.

I am an Obama supporter and believe everybody just needs to sit back and relax a little bit. This drawn out process has got everybody going crazy with the built up stress.

Let them duke it out and let the winner win regardless, it toughens them both up and readies them for the general while bringing in new voters.

Everything will be fine as long as we all come together at the end of the process to do what we have to do.

Go out smile enjoy the good weather and just know that in november if we all do what we know is right George Bush's people we no longer be in the White House, any change is an improvement on that.

God Bless

[bsworld]

I feel that you have given some very good advice. However, I do not believe that everyone will come together because a very high percentage of white people said they will not vote for Obama when he becomes the nominee. Which I feel is really sad and shows just how divisive Hillary Clinton is for our country!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is exactly why she does not deseerve to be our next president.

[TheSecularist]

WE are not coming together if Hillary wins (fair or not). Hillary is not an improvement over Bush or McCain. Look at her dangerous remark about obliterating Iran. Where were her "35 years of foreign policy experience" when she came up with that one? That kind of cowboy bravado is what got us into the Iraq quagmire.

[jojojo]

"cowGIRL bravado."

This boy wants no part of that statement.

[CTmom13]

I am an Independent Obama suppoerter and will NEVER vote for Hillary

[mesuki]

Me too!....I will not settle for her if she steals the nomination,she has done poorly from my standpoint and if she cannot acknowledge that fact..it's really not a good sign of things to come if God forbids she ended up in the whitehouse.If Hillary was really interested in what was good for this country,she would stop causing so much division in the party and instead try to unify the party so that we would have a better chance in November. But not Hillary.!...this campaign is all about her!

[geneven]

I can think of one backlash that really had a dramatic effect on US political life. That was the backlash that turned the "Solid South" into a solid block for the Republican Party. If Obama is not nominated, I am afraid that the solid support that Blacks have given the Democratic Party may melt away.

I personally find the behavior of Hillary Clinton quite offensive, and I supported her for President for years until about six months ago. I am not completely sure myself that I will support her if she wins the nomination. In Pennsylvania a high percentage of White voters said that they would not support Obama if he won the Democratic nomination. I have never voted for a Republican for any office, but depending on how things go, I might sit this election out. I don't feel that Obama has responded to the nastiness of the Clinton forces with equal nastiness.

[marijam]

Absolutely! At the end of the day, we are all on the same team and we cannot afford to let the Republican operatives drive a wedge between us. Any democrat will be better than W. If Obama voters refuse to vote if Hillary is nominated, that will be a vote for McCain. If Hillary voters refuse to vote if Obama is nominated, that will be a vote for McCain. We are all on the same team and we cannot let the corruption of the Republican party continue.

[TheSecularist]

We're not on the same team. Hill and Bill are on their team and no one else's.

[MadelineL]

That's just it. Hillary and Bill are not on the same team as your average Joe American. They are on the side of Corp America and what is in it for them.

Enough.

[mspiglet]

The Leftists of the Democratic Party have been under fire from the Repubs and the Con-Dems.....
I'm finished with the triangulators. Senator Nelson... Nebraska... has good cause to be a centrist Dem.... he's representing Nebraska...
Hillary has no reason to be centrist as a New York senator... other than this whole fiasco has been triangulated for thirty years.

I argued passionately against the Nader voters for years, but I'm beginning to see their point. It is time to stop with the "lesser-of-two-evils" crap. I'm no Nader fan... I think he is a supreme egocentric-sociopath, and so won't vote for him... but I can easily stay home.

I will go to my grave without ever casting a Republican vote... but with this current Democratic battle, I will be on the correct side of history... and will "not" be counted among the many who will settle for a Neo-Con-Hillary (settling whether they are aware of it or not). When the time comes to say, "I told you so", I will be able to say it with the clear conscience of having boycotted the Coronation. We don't need a Dynasty.

I have a feeling I would like Hillary the person... but Hillary the calculating rot-catalyst... no thanks. If she could campaign on what she "really" holds dear... OK... but when she compulsively fabricates every aspect of herself, then there is no "there there" to vote for. I'd be casting a vote for an apparition.

[freemann]

DO NOT dance to the tune Hillary Clinton campaign has been playing for us.

She is trying distract the American people from the very important issue: THE IRAQ WAR, a war that is not only immoral, it is illegal. And she supported then and still is supporting it now - secretly.

Why doesn't HRC confront the Iraq war issue but instead pounding on the racial issue and fear?

It looks like Karl Rove has been secretly advising HRC: she has been using the 'scare tactic' - just like the evil Rove has done under the umbrella of the most moronic and incompetent leadership: the Bush regime.

BUSH + HILLARY CLINTON = TOTAL ANNIHILATION to the nation.

[freemann]

Hillary Clinton is "W".

This means Hillary and Bush are the same. HRC's voracious appetite for power would corrupt the integrity of a government, which has been traditionally under the control of corporate America like Exxon Mobil, a global company that is destroying us - globally. All because of their greed.

Make no mistake. Hillary Clinton has proved that she has no wisdom or common sense to lead the nation: HILLARY CLINTON VOTED FOR THE ILLEGAL WAR IN IRAQ - TWICE!

Hillary Clinton should not only be removed from the ballot but also held accountable for her destruction power that added to the destruction of many lives and the suffering of thousands.

The United States of America has been a moral-starving nation. They profess their God of love and spread hatred and cast cruelty all over the world - especially where there's oil!

Americans need to wake up and think straight. The evil corporate power has been doing a good job at confusing people with their very sophisticated schemes and manipulating game plans. They have law makers and armies of crooked lawyers to serve their interests at the expense of fairness, well-being, health, and security of the rest of us ordinary people.

Hillary Clinton CANNOT BE TRUSTED. Period!

[marijam]

No. The only "W" is "W". McCain would however, be "W" 3. If you don't vote for Hillary during the general, then you will be voting for McCain.

[bsworld]

Well, I will be voting for McCain, because I am damn sure never voting for Hillary!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[jojojo]

actually, no.

if i don't vote for HRC in the general, I won't be voting for McCain, i'll not be voting for prez at all.

[TheSecularist]

McCain, Hillary, George W.... all the same. All liars, all untrustworthy.

[ThunderclapNewman]

Hillary won't be a candidate in the general.

Deal with it.

[freemann]

"W" stood for wrong in Bush's campaign. And now "W" stand - stronger - FOR WRONG in Hillary Clinton's campaign.

THE NATION CANNOT AFFORD ANOTHER BUSH! REMOVE CLINTON FROM ANY OFFICE that is supported by taxpayers' dollars. She works for corporate American - not the American people!

[prattvictory]

Hillary is doing what her financial backers want her to do. They raised millions and want a result. They don't care about the Democratic voter, the party or anything but their own interests. They own her and she and Bill are doing what they are told.

Her campaign lays bare the depravity our political system.

[nclayla]

I think you are right on the money there, prattvictory.

I hope voters here in NC (and Indiana too) will ask themselves if they prefer to vote for a candidate deeply entrenched in all the nuances of a corrupt political system or the candidate who will work across party lines to bring a new sense of intergrity to the system.

I also think it worth mentioning that it is not only AA voters who will be alienated if the supers go against the candidate having the most delegates and popular vote. The new voters brought into the political process by Obama will also be there - along with many of us who have found something/someone we can believe in for the first time in many, many years.

[osage]

Hillary Clinton is destroying the Democratic Party's chances of winning the 2008 presidential election. That is a political reality, not hyperbole. Anyone who can't see that is stupidly playing directly into the hands of Republicans. Anyone who doesn't understand the depth of the divide the Clinton's negative campaigning is creating within the Democratic Party isn't being rational......or they are just as myopic, arrogant and unconcerned about electing a Democrat president as Hilliary Clinton is. If you want to argue that she should continue until after the results of NC and IN are in, I can accept that. But if you want her to continue her candidacy all the way to the convention, you are complicit in her kamikaze assault on the viability of the Democratic Party. Right now, the best thing that ever happened to John McCain is Hilliary Clinton's inability to accept defeat. She is doing McCain's job for him. She is doing more damage to the Democratic Party single-handedly than the entire Republican Party is capable of doing. Whose side is she really on?

[FZliveson]

Hillary cannot destroy the party without the party's participation.
So far, Hillary has done a great job of defining Obama's platform by being sneaky, sadistic, disingenuous, two-faced and inept. The longer she stays at it, the better Obama will look.
Americans are impatient. And, with no decision being necessary, no decision is being made.
When it comes time to nominate and there is a nominee, then the "party" will jell and things will happen. The longer McCain has time to play with his lasso, the more liklihood exists that he will make a noose and stumble with it around his neck.
Chill and smile...it is a drama unfolding and unless people will act, the outcome will be the same...more of the same, yet again.

[TheAdviceWeAllNeed]

You have just answered are questions.

Hillary is willing to destroy the Democratic Party and the nation. If ever there were a selfish political family it is the Clintons. She can not win, we know it, they know it and so do the Superdelegates. Does she honestly believe that the manufacture controversy created against Senator Obama is more relevant than the actual controversy and sandal that existed and continue to exist in the Clinton Family?

[TheAdviceWeAllNeed]

And also, there are many of those who are naïve about the Clinton Legacy; they are nostalgically reminiscing about the jobs that were plentiful in the Clinton Administration; but their heads are in the clouds, they cherry pick what is good and never focus on what he created that was bad "NAFTA".

It"s amazing with all that this woman has done, that she would actually still have people who are supporting her. How can they truly believe that she can make them more financially successful when she is basically running a bankrupt campaign?

And the women who are supporting her simply because she is a woman, makes you wonder how much they really love their country; a woman whose has run a completely incompetent campaign and the only reason you are supporting her is simply because she is a woman? Then imagine how hard you and symbolizing chose would make it for the next woman who is actually truly qualified, she won"t be given a chance because of your poor and emotional judgment. I recently had a conversation with a relative of mind who said they were voting for Hillary for this exact same reason and my question to her was "Name one thing she has done for women" Do you actually know her accomplishments? And she simply had no answer but eventually ended the conversation with I don"t care who wins as long as it"s a Democrat.

There will BACKLASH of all kind if we are not careful