I sent what follows to the columnists of the Washington Post--Richard Cohen, Harold Meyerson, David Broder, E. J. Dionne, David Ignatius, Eugene Robinson, and Colbert King, George Will, Anne Applebaum and Ruth Marcus (no use fiddling with Gerson and Novak), editorial page editor, Fred Hiatt, and the Post Ombudsman on Sunday. So far, no response. Since I sent this, Maureen Dowd did break the color line, slapping Hillary for the comment in her Sunday New York Times column.
I think it amazing and appalling that Hillary's amazing and appalling "hard-working Americans, white Americans" comment has received so little attention in the Post. Indeed, in the MSM generally. The only MSM reactions I've seen were from Eugene Robinson in the Post, Bob Herbert in the NYTimes, and Derrick Jackson in the Boston Globe. All black guys. You white guys on this list were all over the Jeremiah Wright thing--too much, actually, as was most of the MSM. Is that because Wright and Obama are black? And is the neglect of Hillary's Southern Strategy--she actually outdid Nixon with her comment--because she is white? Hmmm.
The numbers that the Clinton campaign points to were not statistics that magically appeared, but represent the result of intentional targeting and nurturing. That the campaign believed that they could then use those skewed stats to reach any valid conclusions of real support... and have that tactic go unobserved, was a compounded mistake. That they then used those stats for baiting was despicable.
Clinton's choices for her team of strategists left only the spinners at the top of the heap, in a desperate and failed attempt at damage control. That as a last gasp, they now depend entirely on division and destruction of the cohesion and harmony that once proudly defined the Democratic party, is not just sad... it is unforgivable.
Decades of effort to join a diverse constituency together to address real concerns and affect positive change, have been damaged to the extent of disrepair by those who only have self-serving interests at heart. The Clinton legacy is darker than tarnish.
Obama GAINED among these voters between Pennsylvania and Indiana/North Carolina!
Stunning.
This coverage vacuum happens at the same time that the same pundits speculate that she might reduce her negativity as she "softly lands."
It's happening at the same time that they speculate about her on the ticket.
And it happens in tandem with a similar vacuum on the incredibly relevant fact that she seems FAR less capable of winning black voters... what are they?... chopped liver?
She will richly deserve her oblivion.
Her supporters deserved better.