Race Is All the Clintons Have Left

Sitting there on the set, listening to the endless wrap-ups and explanation of the exit polls, I was on the verge of faking my own death on national TV in order to go talk to myself about the obvious, unspoken equation in the little there is left to this fight between Obama and Clinton. The beast that is nearly always there in American life, the danger that rustles the shrubs at the edge of our daily existence -- race -- was routinely ignored in the recitation of numbers pouring out of North Carolina and Indiana.

Now, faced with a mathematical mountain climb that even Stephen Hawking could not ascend, the Clintons -- and it is indeed both of them -- are just about to paste a bumper sticker on the rear of the collapsing vehicle that carries her campaign. It reads: VOTE WHITE.

That's the underlying message propping up a failed candidate. Check it out, you superdelegates: the buttoned down black guy is having trouble with blue collar white guys so cast your vote with the white chick who has transformed herself into an arm-wrestling, shot and a beer, kitchen table advocate for the working class and now it's on to West Virginia and Kentucky where she'll prove it.

So, after all the years they have been with us, after all the triumph and tastelessness, the accomplishments and embarrassments, we're about to watch them act out an updated, mixed gender re-make of Thelma and Louise with Bill behind the wheel, the two of them sharing a knowing look, a wink, in the front seat as they take the Democrat party right off the cliff, the whole thing crashing and burning in a racial divide both he and she sought to heal all those years ago in Little Rock and then Washington.

Look at the numbers, the Clintons say: Your son didn't get into the college that was his first choice but the black kid with lower SATs did? Your brother didn't get the civil service slot on the fire department because he was white and there is an unspoken quota? You didn't get the promotion because corporate diversity policy mutely suggested a person of color get it? Your kid is being bused an hour and half a day to a public school with low reading scores?

Scratch a sore, baby. Vote for Clinton.

Her campaign began -- When? Last year? Last century? It moved across the landscape a summer ago like a cash cow, arriving at each stop surrounded by an air of incumbent expectancy, never sensing, never seeing the black guy who had the audacity to get in her way.

It was a campaign run and dominated by a fat, arrogant pollster, this Penn who once conspired to concoct a question in order to figure out where the Clintons would swim one summer. Martha's Vineyard or Wyoming? In the past few weeks, Geoff Garin has turned Hillary Clinton into a very formidable candidate by doing something that apparently never occurred to the numbers cruncher Penn: Having her behave like a human being. Clearly, if Garin had been in the driver's seat from the start of this spectacle, Obama would have a lot more time to watch White Sox home games.

But presidential politics does not exist in the land of 'what if.' It is an exhausting, seemingly endless process, fueled by money and ego and an ability to withstand mistakes of commission or omission as well as hands coming out of the recent past, like the strangling grip of Jeremiah Wright, a racist himself, who still might inhibit any chance of an Obama success.

It's been an amazing ride, this whole campaign. It has three actors left on the stage, all with compelling personal stories to tell in this land of ours, itself the greatest story ever told. Everyone knows McCain's history, an epic of the age. And more and more are getting to know Obama's; a black guy from Chicago who, two, three years ago, would have had difficulty hailing a cab on a rainy afternoon in midtown Manhattan because of his skin color, suddenly within striking distance of being nominated for president by one of our two major political parties.

And Hillary Clinton, always ambitious, an over-achiever, tough, smart and resilient. And now on the edge of writing a truly ugly chapter for all to see.

Read more reactions from Huffington Post bloggers to the Indiana and North Carolina primary results


Comments

[bakersdozen]

The unmitigated hubris of claiming that America is "the greatest story ever told!"

[2farnorth]

The unmitigated hubris of contending that America is NOT the greatest story ever told. Whether you like it or not we are the most successful society on historical record. We have accomplished many things no other society could. And while social progress may be slow it has always been steady in our country. It's actually amazing to think how far this nation has progressed in the last century.

Whether Obama wins or not he is without question ahead of his time and a precursor of what we can expect for the future of the USA. The age of racism in America is slowly but surely being degraded as each generation comes to pass.

[kamenwati]

American exceptionalism is hogwash. America is no different or better than any other country that has come before it or that is currently constituted. It doesn't have the best educational system, health care system or political system. No other major democracy would waste two years and a billion dollars electing a leader. This country is full of gullible fools who have accepted second class leadership and government because they have been convinced by politicians and pundits that America is better than everywhere else. It's that false sense of superiority that leads to stupid wars like the invasion of Iraq.

[DinOhio]

I agree with nearly everything you say. However, I think the "VOTE WHITE" message was a bit more subtle than your proverbial bumper sticker. I picked up on that message from the Clintons going into the South Carolina primary when they were talking about the large AA vote there. That is the first mention I recall that pointed out the obvious - race - and began the marginalization of Obama and the AA voting bloc. Bill's Jesse Jackson comparison clearly was intended to do that - and it worked - in spite of his protestations. His raising this issue later before PA was intended as a reminder. Rev. Wright was a gift to the Clintons - much like Hillary's gas tax holiday was to Obama - that provided a larger wedge weapon to use. Interesting that Bill, the so-called "first black president" campaigned almost exclusively in white rural communities in North Carolina. The whole Clinton campaign has been a huge disappointment in the way it was meant to divide and marginalize groups from within our Party. Her campaign plan was insidious in this respect and arrogant in ignoring the potential outcome.

[tbone99]

You really think white people in S.C. didn't notice Obama was the black candidate before Bill mentioned it? Political people live and speak in demographics -women, hispanics, blacks, working class, rural.....you just did it. Jesse is a friend of Bill's , doubtful he usedJesse's name as an insult- . Jesse ran a very progressive campaign in the 80's and came in third frontrunner for the Dems. So where's the insult with that?

Bill probably campaigned where he did in N.Carolina because African Americans had closed ranks against the Clintons by then.

Rev Wright - now thats Obama's own shortsightedness , not Clintonian politics.( and not even near the magnitude of the tax holiday) Talk about a a huge disappointment in his judgement,- because that one could very likely cost the Dems the election

[JackLivigni]

Of course they realized Obama was Black. But when an authority figure like Bill Clinton says things like he did, then the mind finds more justification in entertaining concepts that normally conscience and good sense would block. I don't think I should have to spell out how race baiting works...

[mikekev58]

The ginned-up claim that Bill Clinton was race-baiting when he mentioned Jackson provided the media - and many Obamanistas - with a bogus wedge issue that would introduce melodrama into the campaign.

And, ask Obama about the talking points his campaign was going to use, accusing Bill Clinton of race-baiting, BEFORE Clinton said anything about Jesse Jackson. To his credit, Obama rejected that tactic, but it's telling that his campaign was willing to use it.

[mikekev58]

If the Clintons mentioning the black vote in SC - something which I don't recall - was the first mention of it, then you are obviously a HuffPo-only political observer. Every network, every newspaper was pointing to SC as being the first state where the black vote could make a significant difference. At that time, the question was, would blacks who might be reluctant to vote for Obama because he could not win the general, be swayed by his victory in white Iowa and his strong showing in white NH.

Does anyone really believe that Obama would not have pulled the lion's share of the black vote, irrespective of whether that segment had been mentioned by anyone?

It galls me that Hillary and Bill Clinton are accused of playing the race card, when the black vote was a deciding factor in SC, and in some other states. Obama is black..he is getting (and always would've pulled) 85%+ of the black vote.

What constituency, then, is left for Hillary Clinton? It's not the racist constituency, it's the blue collar Democrat who is put off by generalities and a wave of Obama supporters who denigrate them, as did Obama, as gun-toting, God-loving, uneducated, racist rubes.

[savethecountry]

Well, let's see, mikekev58. Before Iowa Clinton actually had MORE Black support than Obama. Clinton could have cultivated that support and kept her numbers there at least respectable, but CHOSE instead to lose it.

No, it was SC that began to turn the tide for Blacks and others who still find repugnant the politics of race. Blacks only make up approximately 12% of the US population (less of the national voting electorate and less than a majority of the voting electorate in SC), yet Obama has won more states, popular votes, pledged delegates and superdelegates (per yesterdays AP story) during this primary season? How does that math compute?

Ultimately the constituency to which Clinton should have appealed is the DEMOCRATIC PARTY constituency, perhaps the most diverse group of people in the world. Her campaign could have done that without alienating any of them. She CHOSE not to do that.

I once heard someone say that its not about being racist. We're all racist. What it's about is WHAT WE DO ABOUT IT. Wise words. Comes back to making choices, doesn't it?

Obama, because of his campaign's message and invitation to America to franchise EVERYBODY, has been able to garner NON-BLACK votes, which the Clinton campaign apparently thought would not happen, certainly not in the numbers that it has happened. Clinton could have chosen to run a similar campaign but instead CHOSE not to do so.

[irishgawdess]

You had me until you brought Rev. Wright into the conversation, calling him a racist.

Now, I don't know the reverend, never attended one of his services, but I agree with what he said in the now famous sermon we've seen ad nauseum. America *does* have a history of genocide and terrorism: the Native Americans, the African slave trade, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, IRAQ! It's America's dirty little secret that we don't like to talk about since it's counter to every piece of propaganda we've ever been taught about American history. Wright's words turned "us white folk" upside down, drop kicked our world view, and left it in tatters. America's pride in itself must be defended at all costs.

The media did that by marginalizing Wright without comparing him to the white Christian crusaders Hagee, Robertson, Parsley, et al. They've said hateful things about Catholics, gays, and Jews. There's enough guilt by association to go around, yet we eviscerate the black guy while the white dudes get a pass. WTF??

Race is a social construct, used to keep certain groups outside the sphere of influence. Regardless the color of our skin, white, black, brown, we are all members of the HUMAN RACE! How has this detail managed to elude the punditocracy? It's not sexy enough, right?

Weren't you a member of the panel after MSNBC aired “Meeting David Wilson?” Shame on you Barnicle for perpetuating this crap in the media.

[SayonaraSnot]

Agreed. Wright's no racist.

[Horst]

He's a race hustler..not a racist. There is a difference.

[Isaiah40j]

Irishgawdess you are a very smart poster and I agee with you 100%

[AlphaDoc]

Good post, Irish.

[lucky54]

Thank you, I read your post with a real pleasure, is so rear to find a person who knows american history and talks about. I have seen Reverend Wright interview on PBS with Bill Moyer and it was a big eye opening. Jeremiah Wright is a real patriot who loves this country not with a blind love and pride, but sees its faults and wants to improve. It takes a humble person to tell the truth, too bad we don't have humble people in our goverments.

[DTGB]

i respectfully disagree, he is bigoted. he and many AA churches fight against gay rights WITH the Robertson's and Hagee's. they work to deny civil unions or any rights at all. they have aimed their hateful rhetoric at gays for years now. I agree that Wright does make me question Obama's judgement, he's a bad choice period. That said so are the other "agents of intolerance" that McCain-GOP embrace, but having a double standard for Obama b/c you support him doesnt make it right.
about 48%+ of the Dem electorate supports HRC, out of 35 million votes the 2 are seperated by a tiny %. Obama supporters will continue to fire their hateful shots over the bow at Clinton supporters and continue their insulting tirade and overwhelming sense of entitlement to this nomination fogetting about the need for healing and bringing the coilition back together. Many seem to have an absolute refusal to acknowledge any shortcoming or flaw in their candidate, sorta like the people who have supported Bush for the last 7 years. i'll vote for Obama in the general, but i wont turn a blind eye to his flaws, they are a part of who he is and i believe that you have accept those flaws to truly be able to fight on his behalf. and trust me, neither he nor you have had to fight yet, Rove is has been sharpening his claws all this time. strap yourself in.

[aftershock]

TUCC had, until he passed away, an openly gay choir director. There are openly gay members in the church, and Jeremiah Wright supports equal civil marriage rights gays. Try again, you do not know the man or his church obviously.

[savethecountry]

What I'm most disappointed in, from reading some of the posts here, is the acquiescence of some Dems to the Repub playbook, which sells this nation short with its cynicism, divisiveness and complete failure to truly address this nation's challenges in ways that will improve the lives of us all. Bill Maher said that it's time the Dems stop fishing in Repub waters for votes and find new votes. The same thing applies to running campaigns, too.

Haven't you read the data, DTGB? Over 80% of the American public thinks the nation's on the wrong track. Obama's candidacy is part and parcel of that. The nation has reached its limit on Rovian politics. We have a chance to run a different campaign this year. At least a million donors and volunteers from every walk of life stand at the ready to do just that. We'd love to have you come aboard, DTGB.

As for hateful shots, they're STILL coming from over the Clinton bow, too. What do YOU propose we do about THAT? Be specific.

[passthesewords]

From Yahoo:
Clinton pointed to her own strength among Hispanics and white, working-class voters, especially women. She noted they are the swing voters Democrats need to win a general election.
"What we have not been able to count on in the last elections are the voters that I'm getting," she said.
This is Hillary rationale today, she has officially discounted 15 million African American voters, in this message. She has just put blue states in play where there is a significant African American electorate. That's rejecting the most loyal voting block the Democrats had since 1960. Can she win the presidency without the African American vote? Hillary will not be re-elected to the Senate without the African American vote.

[keriheb]

Talking about the HISPANIC GROUP is racist even though most people are not consciously doing it. Identifying people by their language absurd. It would be like GROUPING all people who speak English together in one pot and calling them a collective ENGLOTS!

Visualize it - think about all of the people who speak English - from birth - regardless of the dialect. There are Africans, Canadians, Australians, Americans, West Indians, Indians from India, Asians, and a whole host of people who speak English but who would run past my 250 word limit to list.

Spanish speaking people are no less diverse and their politics are as diverse. Mexicans don't have the same political issues within the United States as do Puerto Ricans, or even Dominicans. Racially they are diverse from Europeans from Spain to African to Indian. The Indian blood is not the same tribe either. There were the Carib Indian and Tiano Indians among others in the Caribbean and other tribes in Mexico and South America. These are different peoples.

Hillary and Bill just lump them into one pot and say they have the HISPANIC vote.

Yeah right, just like they have the English Vote!

Pandering to one Spanish speaking group does not buy one vote with another Spanish speaking group.

[MoxieGurl]

Barnicle is right we are now on a sad and dangerous road trip with Billary and the clif is just over the horizon. Read it and weep for America kids....

"I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on," she said in an interview with USA TODAY. As evidence, Clinton cited an Associated Press article "that found how Sen. Obama's support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me."

"There's a pattern emerging here," she said.

Clinton rejected any idea that her emphasis on white voters could be interpreted as racially divisive. "These are the people you have to win if you're a Democrat in sufficient numbers to actually win the election. Everybody knows that."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-05-07-clintoninterview_N.htm

[TRYKER]

as hands coming out of the recent past, like the strangling grip of Jeremiah Wright, a racist himself, who still might inhibit any chance of an Obama success."

...like the STRANGLING GRIP...a RACIST ...inhibit chance...any chance ..Obama success.

My gosh Mike, did you buy all that boogie man trash about the Rev?

Out here in the real world, we Loved that guy, hes got rhythm !
We aren't afraid of him.

Its just that we NEVER get to hear anything but old white men spouting talking points like parrots on our airways...and we are more disappointed in THEM than in Rev Wright, he's different and refreshing.
So your dream that he'll still be used to derail Obama will fall flat.

[Igglesbee]

Mr Barnicle,

I interviewed you for a term paper in 1986. I was 16 years old. I walked into the front desk of the Boston Globe, with my mom waiting impatiently in our powder blue Chevy Malibu, and begged the receptionist until I was in your office. I don't recall asking what kind of tree you'd be, but do recall this much; I thought you were cool for talking to me like I was an adult. You see, I had walked in there expecting to find Jim Dial.

I was struck by how much your comments mimicked your columns. I could almost see the words float out of your mouth and lay down on the left column of the metro section. I knew right then this was what made your writing so good. If I were to become a "real" journalist, I wanted people to actually see my honesty like that.

And now, more than twenty years later, I find myself reluctantly agreeing with you. The thing is, as much as I want to see a woman president, I could never see Hillary's words float onto a page she'd stand by without question. Obama, on the other hand, positively oozes with integrity. That's why so many believe in him, and just don't trust her.

But please, just this once, be wrong Mr Barnicle. Please, Hillary, it's time to let go. Please!

[Jazzcomedian]

You guys are doing way too much thinking and analyzing. After fifteen months, it's really very simple: Barack wears tailored, sharp suits with nice ties, and Hillary doesn't look good in that pink/red shit female politicians feel they have to wear. That killed her with the aesthetically oriented fashion voters. A much neglected demographic that gets very little respect from the political punditocracy. But their stealth vote can and has changed elections.

[clevelandchick]

Keep working on that satire JC.

[tbone99]

These are certainly a lot of good reasons not to support the Clintons that would persuade people why Obama is the better candidate.On the other hand calling them racists and their supporters racist will probably not make many inroads , in fact it will turn people away.

As someone who voted for Obama I wonder if these kind of accusations will be the first
thing out of people's mouth when conflicts occur. Frankly ,It makes the next four years seem anything but hopeful.

[SethBullock]

Hey--sometimes you gotta call it like you see it.

Accusing Obama of being inexperienced is not racism or race-baiting.

Saying "he's only where he is because he is black" IS.

[Daisy1111]

Barnicle:

You have stooped to race baiting and have lost any credibility of journalistic integrity.

While no one questions why Obama gets 95% of the African American vote (could it be his wonderful policies on urban issues that attract AAs to Obama, or is it the color of his skin), you have stooped to proclaiming that Hilary supporters are racist.

Check your adjectives Barnicle, they reveal your discomfort with a woman candidate and your barely disguised sexism. Add to that you have been anti-Clinton in the past. You would have found a way to downgrade them no matter who Hillary ran against.

And please don't tell me no sexism exists in this primary campaign.

[DinOhio]

Again - here we go. Criticisms of the Clinton campaign are sexist while its tactics meant to divide are considered a matter of course. If you check the numbers of AA voters before these divisive tactics were employed, you would see that Hillary enjoyed a fairly substantial AA voter support. That support was decimated as time went on - as lately exhibitied in Indiana and North Carolina. Obama, on the other hand, has consistantly enjoyed a significant percentage of support from women of all races, even though much of Hillary's support has been cultivated from that voting bloc - throughout the campaign. I've seen or heard little from Clinton supporters that would indicate that the Obama campaign sought a sexist divide in the election, yet the race card used by the Clinton campaign was an obvious tactic.

[VSamuels]

But, you don't seem to conversely note that the 247 men and women in the republican party are all-white, yes all-white and win with a predominate amount of white vote each cycle. Rather you choose to selectively focus on the black voters who vote for Obama. This is telling and explainable since the MSM considers in its format produced by its executives that 'republicans' won't be asked to come on and explain why they get a large bloc of whites every election, nor will they be asked to explain why they do not attract black or Hispanic voters.

The republicans then are the de facto standard bearer, they rarely are exposed as having no persons of color in Congress; yet they are fully assumed to be a legitimate political organization which is capable of representing the interest of all American citizens. And, then of course, there is the right wing talking heads pushing daily the narrative that the republicans are 'good' and being a Democrat is 'bad', the party of course which happens to the only one which has a reason mix of non-whites.

[Hadok]

Your premise is that white blue collar workers are not voting for Obama because of racism, and that Clinton attracts this demographic because she is appealing to this racism. And, with a sneer, you jest "now it's on to West Virginia and Kentucky where she'll prove it." (Oh, those stupid racist hillbillies).

This is race mongering.

I suppose Kerry lost West Virginia in 2004 because he was, er, um, white?
I suppose Gore lost West Virginia in 2000 because he was, er, um, white?

How about this: Kerry, Gore, Dukakis, McGovern, et al, lost the center of the Democratic Party because they, like Obama, are rather left leaning liberals.

Yes, Obama is the first African American to be in serious contention for the White House. But now, all of a sudden, if the center of the Democratic Party rejects a left leaning liberal, it is all about race?

You, sir, are the one playing the race card. You are the race mongerer. And the race mongering is coming from the Obama camp ... "In South Carolina, where the Confederate flag still flies..."

[RichLiberal]

Save your breath. Barnicle is only here to stir up trouble. The Obama people sense they are on the verge of victory and are trying to suck the Clinton supporters into a race-baiting vortex. It won't work. Hillary is too smart to fall into this trap. Obama is desperate to shed the reverse race-baiting done by his campaign and dump it on someone else. Barnicle may be an Obama operative to play exactly this role.

You've got the right list: add Kennedy, Pelosi, Daschle, Hart, and a bunch of other Democratic rejects that were shown up in the 90s by the Clinton administration and you have the backside of the Obama campaign that is desparately trying to keep Hillary from the nomination, because if she had a successful Presidency their dreams of resurrecting the long lost Camelot would be forever lost.

"Camelot" was successfully restored by Bill Clinton, but Kennedy could never accept it. The result: Obama.

[SethBullock]

Sorry, Rich. Clinton is finished. And the lasting legacy of Bill Clinton was a Republican House, a Republican Senate, and ultimately: George Bush.

[truthynesslover]

CLINTON SIGNED N>A>F>T>A>and still thinks its worked.Also the deregulation{among other industies} of the housing industy started under clinton.CHAMELOT INDEED!

[Donk]

Jesse Helms would be proud

[KiwisCanFly]

Culturally conservative is the PC term.

[leftofliberal01]

thank you for having the courage to say what needed to be said.

totally agree.

[moda31]

the larger point behind this piece is true, but you sure went about making it in the stupidest way possible. if you listen to the statements coming out of the clinton camp in recent days it's clear that they've been pushing the idea that hillary is the better candidate because white people are voting for her, and that obama shouldn't be the nominee because come november the party will see what they see, which is parts of this electorate in all its racist glory. today mrs. clinton was asked about her inability to win over black voters, and she responded by essentially saying they'd come back around to her in the fall no matter what, and that her supporters (WHITE working class voters) are what is really needed to win (apparently blacks aren't regular working folks anymore). the media has helped her in making this case with their incessant focus on so called white ethnic voters in the recent contests. however, they're making a potentially dangerous assumption, because democrats up and down the ticket simply do not win without the voting block that has been most loyal to the party for years; black voters. democrats haven't won the majority of white working class voters in years, and chances are they won't do it this year either. the simple fact is they need their most loyal base; blacks. so far it just happens to be that this same block of voters is incredibly loyal to barack obama as well.