The Drudge Report is a right-wing site that is used to drive right-wing propaganda into the large, corporate media outlets. When a story is featured at the Drudge Report, you always have to ask why, and ask what is the right's intent behind getting this story into circulation.
Today Drudge points us to a story, Wilder Still Sore Over Clinton Comment. This story is obviously an effort to drive a wedge between supporters of Senators Obama and Clinton. It uses out-of-context, incomplete quotes and mischaracterizes the intent and meaning of the quotes to drive up tensions.
The nation's first elected black governor said Saturday he is not ready to excuse comments former President Bill Clinton made about Barack Obama.This is propaganda at its best.In campaigning for his wife last month on the eve of the New Hampshire primary, Clinton called Obama's opposition to the Iraq war "a fairy tale." Clinton suggested Obama had toned down his early anti-war fervor during his 2004 Senate campaign.
. . . Clinton also implied that an Obama victory in South Carolina would amount to a reward based on race, like the Rev. Jesse Jackson's 20 years earlier.
Wilder said the former president's comments stung him and other black voters and diminished their respect for Clinton.
"It's not just me (who) feels that; any number of people feel that," Wilder said. "A time comes and a time goes. The president has had his time."
Readers know that I do not favor one candidate over the other. I think they are both great candidates who would make excellent presidents, but neither offers the transformational, progressive change I believe would most benefit the country and world. I defend BOTH of them from attacks -- and wish they would defend each other and us from attacks.
This is an attack. It is an obvious attempt to split the Democratic Party and its supporters, going into the elections. Duh!
Are you going to let them play you like a fiddle? Keep in mind who the enemy is here. The stakes are high: If we let the primary contest divide us how many hundred thousand Iraqis or Iranians will be killed before the 2012 elections, how much more will corporations take over our democracy, how much more concentration of wealth at the top will we see? Please do not be fooled by this stuff! If it appears at DRUDGE, you KNOW something is going on.
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Ignore it.
Too many people at this site are drinking the Drudge koolaid.
Once again the left wing is doing what it does best, forming the circular firing squad.
What a bunch of dumb, dumb, dumb self-destructive idealogues.
Their candidates have so little difference between them, in terms of policy, yet the supporters of each are letting the reichwing do what it always does: divide and conquer.
Idiots.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections08/hillaryclinton/story/0,,2197220,00.html
I think what Bill said is being deliberately misinterpreted so that it will serve as the excuse for the massive desertion of black voters from Hillary.
Through zillions of TV replays of what Clinton actually said, how on earth could Wilder and others have concluded that it was Obama, not his Iraq policies, that was described as the fairy tale? It is sad that folks can be so cynical. readerK.
Oh brother. Another 8 years??
Let's just hope they don't end up giving the next election to the Rs.
Bill has to own his words. Thats just the way it is.
It is this aspect of the Obama campaign that has led many Clinton supporters to question his very worthiness to be a representative of the Democratic party.
Obama's basic premise is that if you are white then you cannot mention race. i.e. the fact that Obama has raised Afro-American voting totals and that the vote is going 80-90% his way, and that the 2 candidates are so close on so many "issues", makes it obvious that this Afro-American vote is race-based and not an objective review of the candidates' capabilities. Again, that is their right to vote as they choose. But to then claim that the Clintons are playing the race card is the height of hypocrisy.
In my years of experience, Obama is developing into the most divisive candidate the Democratic party has ever seen. The fact that the Democratic leadership is backing this is very troubling as to the long term future of the party.
http://cdn.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/01/18/MNSNUH7GC.DTL
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On the issue of race, Obama also said key differences in outlook and experience define the two campaigns.
"I actually don't think that the comment that Sen. Clinton made about Dr. King was a racial comment," he said, referring to a recent flareup in which she noted that President Lyndon Johnson had pushed the 1964 Civil Rights Act through Congress, a comment that some African American leaders took as downplaying contributions of Dr. Martin Luther King.
"I think it was illustrative of how she thinks change happens," he said. "She was arguing that Lyndon Johnson, his skill set was what was critical to getting the Civil Rights Act done - as opposed to a movement on the streets. And that indicates a difference in emphasis on how change occurs. But I don't think the comments were racial."
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Iowa
Missouri
Connecticut
Delaware
Kansas
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Washington
Minnesota
Colorado
Utah
Alaska
North Dakota
Idaho
Yes, the black vote is destroying the country.
I'm shocked, shocked I tell you!!
What a race-baiting joke your post is.
There are plenty of comments here on HuffPo pretending to be from supporters of either Clinton or Obama but are actually intended to divide us.
We should all criticize (and perhaps flag) nasty comments especially when they seem to be in favor of the candidate we support.
However, I'm beyond fed up with the demonizing of Hillary Clinton by people in her own party. It was bad enough when the rightwing did it. The zealousness with which some of Obama's supporters attack her is making it harder for me to vote for Obama--even though rationally I know it's what I should do if he's the nominee.
I'm also embarrassed by those wacko Hillary supporters who belittle Obama. And I'm sure those remarks only further alienate Obama supporters from the Hillary camp.
This is why I want this nomination decided as soon as possible--hopefully by March 4. Otherwise, half the party will be so pissed off at the nominee that they will either sit home on election day or vote for McCain. I fear that degree of alienation has already happened to more than a few.
There must be a Democratic President elected and either of the candidates are way better than the alternative. Do African Americans think that they should slit the throats of fellow Democrats because they see some sort of racism within the party. WELL, THEY SHOULD TRY THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. The African-American community has been savaged by the Bush administration and the Republican-controlled Congress predating Bush and during the Bush administration.
As for Clinton, she needs to concentrate on attacking McCain and Huckabee and the Republicans, as well. The Democrats, and the Clinton campaign, need to refocus on the enemy...and that IS THE REPUBLICANS AND THEIR PARTY.
From the beginning of this campaign cycle, I have reiterated and screamed at all sides within the Democratic Party to FOCUS ON THE PUKES, AND I DID NOT WANT TO SEE DEMOCRATIC BLOOD IN THE WATER, BUT THAT IS HAPPENING.
We need to close ranks and both candidates need to make it fully and completely known that the other will support whomever the candidate is, and FOCUS ON THE PUKES.
Folks, the really big money has already been diversified so far across the globe (and that's not all negative, but the positive aspects need to wait for a different subject) that they no longer even need to do well in the U.S. to keep their gravy train chugging on track. Give them a way to steal our wealth and sell our blood off for even more and it would be a done deal in a heartbeat. Their main strategy now is to weaken the Democrats on our way to the Whitehouse this year so thet they can hold as much ground as possible before they get it back in four or eight years. And then, oh baby, what they're ready, able, and willing to unleash!!!
I'm not a Democratic loyalist. I'm an American sick of Bush and not nostalgic for the Clintons. I don't need Matt Drudge to remind me of how much I dislike the Clintons. They did it for me in January, especially in South Carolina.
I've seen the Clintons in action for 8 years and never once liked it. Bush made them seem better by comparison, but that isn't saying much.
Either I vote for Obama in the fall or for someone else, but McCain and Clinton both make me ill.
#2 - Lot of people considered Clinton's remarks as veiled racism in that "good ol' boy" kinda way of patronizing "Daddy Knows Best" way. (It's a Southern thing, what can you say.....prove me wrong)
#3 - I'm not overly jazzed about the selections (I'm an Independent), but I know ONE of the candidates is after this little prize for one reason: PERSONAL BENEFIT AND FORTUNE...won't even mention the fact of the DLC..nope...won't go THERE.
#4 - If you look around at this very moment, the Democratic Party couldn't be MORE divided.
It is DLC versus DNC.
Herding Cats #111:
Alpha Cat look really really silly when the kittens start playing with it's tail.
1.) Bob Kerrey calling Obama a Muslim
2.) Cuomo's 'shuck & jive' comment
3.) BET Founder Robert Johnson's implication that Obama is a drug dealer?! Come on!
4.) The whole Rezko controversy - dozens of Democrats have taken campaign contributions from Rezko - including Bill Clinton for his POTUS races in the 90s. The height of hypocrisy for the Clintons.
5.) Clinton implying in NH that if Obama's in office the terrorists will get us.
6.) That the civil rights movement owes it's success to whites like LBJ. Racist revisionist history. LBJ's hand was forced by the movement, he was hardly a civil rights activist.
I met several Democratic leaders of my city at an Obama event weeks ago, most of them white, who said the Clintons really pissed them off.
Nobody put words in the mouths of the Clintons and their surrogates. That was their campaign style - very Rovian. They were the first to use the 'wedge' and it backfired on them. They can't put the toothpaste back in the tube.
This is an example of what I am talking about.
Been a while since I've dropped in on ya, I must say this is a spot-on report, thanks for bringing it to point. Kudos!
Agape.
If your criteria are 1) great candidate, 2) excellent president, 3) transformational, and 4) progressive, then there is only one candidate worthy of your support.
I don't even have to say who that candidate is, it's so freakin' obvious.
This is an example of my point. The AP will be doing this to Obama as well, if he is the nominee. It might be a good idea for Obama to be cultivating allies instead of making enemies.