Clinton: Whites Like Me Better
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in 2008 Election, Barack, Hillary, RaceOkay, somebody has to stop this woman.
I thought she’d get a clue after Indiana, I thought she’d actually realize that the math was literally impossible at this point, but she’s apparently going to stick with this thing until every single last vote is counted and maybe even beyond that.
Hillary Rodham Clinton vowed Wednesday to continue her quest for the Democratic nomination, arguing she would be the stronger nominee because she appeals to a wider coalition of voters — including whites who have not supported Barack Obama in recent contests.“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.
Oh, there’s a pattern emerging here all right. It started when she said Martin Luther King Jr. needed LBJ to get anything done and then in South Carolina when Bill dismissed Obama’s big win as being akin to Jesse Jackson’s win in 1984.
But hey, this is the last card she has left. “Psst…poor whites won’t vote for him. Pass it on.”
How disappointing indeed…
Obama spokesman Bill Burton said that in Indiana, Obama split working-class voters with Clinton and won a higher percentage of white voters than in Ohio in March. He said Obama will be the strongest nominee because he appeals “to Americans from every background and all walks of life. These statements from Sen. Clinton are not true and frankly disappointing.”
And by the way…as if that’s a broad coalition? Poor, uneducated whites? And older white women? I think she forgets that Bill won by bringing in a ton of new young voters into the process, as well as the African-American vote. Think she can do that in November?
UPDATE:
Here’s the audio:
Again, whites ARE supporting Obama. But not all whites. But if she thinks she has a much broader base, then why is she continuing to lose?
This entry was posted on Thursday, May 8th, 2008 and is filed under 2008 Election, Barack, Hillary, Race. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
May 8th, 2008 at 8:42 am
A friend of mine has been saying for months that it’s not the racists in the Republican party who’ll undermine Obama… it’s the racists in his own, in general, and in the Clinton camp specifically.
May 8th, 2008 at 10:40 am
She is still in because she actually believes Obama cannot win in Nov. She believes that there is no way a black man can be elected Pres - its a fairy tale.
So now she goes for the nuclear option - to play the race card every way possible to show everyone that white america will not elect him - the fear factor, stirring up hatred, stirring up violence.
Of course she will fail because the party will eventually come to its senses and eject her - but she will do untold damage in the process.
Only the Superdels can prevent this final madness by backing Obama now.
May 8th, 2008 at 11:55 am
while i am not a supporter of hers, i like(d) Hillary. but she seems hell-bent on Democratic destruction, and by doing so, she’s becoming unlikable, making it virtually impossible that she could ever run again. i’m fed up with the whole thing. aren’t most of the run-of-the-mill democrats just tuning out right now?
May 8th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
She’s hoping that it will rocket her to massive victories in WV and Kentucky
She’s going to keep hammering this until the convention at this point I feel. She knows she’s finished, she’s hoping to leave Obama unable to win in november at this point.
May 8th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
There are plenty of parses of “working, hard working Americans, white Americans” that are not meant to imply that blacks do not work.
Plenty. Really. And I’m sure that the Senator meant one of those.
Of course, it might not sound that way in a McCain attack ad in three months if she gets the nomination…
May 8th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
It should come as no suprise, but you Obamamites are some first rate race baiters. Hillary did not say that blue-collar white Americans will not vote for Obama **because** he was black. She merely pointed out that her coalition includes white, blue-collar Americans and that his does not. Thus, she is more electable.
However, if she had said that white, blue-collar Americans will not vote for Obama **because** he is black, she would just be parroting the exact thing that Obama said to his San Fran friends. I guess what is good for the goose is not good for the gander.
I don’t see anyone attempting to answer the 3 most important questions: 1) is she right and 2) if she is right, why? and 3) if it is right and can figure out why, then how can Obama correct that situation?
I personally think that Obama is going to have a hard time getting the white blue-collar vote and that is going to make it very difficult for him to get elected. I do think that part of it stems from racism, but not all. A large part comes from the fact that a steel-mill worker is having a hard time relating to a Harvard-educated black attorney from Chicago that goes to a church with racist pastor.
Obama needs to stop trying to appeal to egg-heads. The libby professor class is already in the bag. You had them since “hello.” He now needs to put on some flannel/blue jeans/boots, grap a gun and Bud and put some callouses on his hands — or is he too good for that, too good to lower himself into the trailer park, too good to do what he needs to politically. All this frigg’in basketball playing doesn’t help him either. Bubba don’t play basketball
May 8th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
The Obamites need to get off of Clinton’s case if they want Obama to win in the fall. The race is over, she knows it, and she is likely working on an exit strategy now. Her campaign is probably working in concert with the Obama campaign, so she can get her campaign debt paid off, and finish gracefully from a position of strength. It is in Obama and the Dems interest to continue a Kabuki Theater primary season to drive registrations and organization.
The biggest risk to Obama winning in the fall is the continuous carping about Clinton by paranoid Obama supporters infected with the epidemic of Clinotn Derangement Syndrome and working actively to drive Clinton supporters away.
Obamites need to decide whether it is more important to them for Clintonians to support Obama, or whether it is really required everyone despise Clinton as much as the Obamaites. If they keep up the relentless attacks on Clinton, Obama may very well have to figure out how to win the White House without a significant portion of the Democratic base - driven away by his supporters.
May 8th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
Um, I am not and have never been an “Obamamite.” Frankly I can take or leave (preferably leave) any of these folks.
May 8th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
[...] have some sort of “Clinton Derangement Syndrome,” but between emails like this and Clinton’s “Whites like me better” comments, what exactly are voters on either side supposed to [...]
May 8th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
I’m not an Obamite, either. I’m a registered Independent who’s likely going to vote Libertarian… again. But if you look at — and listen to — the way Hill phrased her words, there’s an implication there:
“… that found how Sen. Obama’s support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again …”
Slip of the tongue? Perhaps. If you ask me, this is her “bitter” moment.
May 8th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
I agree to an extent to mw. Obamaites need to chill a little. That doesn’t mean kowtowing or accepting Clinton is the greatest thing since sliced bread, or excusing the dark places her campaign is gone. Just keep in mind that self righteous indignation rarely wins people over. If you want to convince people, instead of just making yourself feel good through superior arguing skillz and moral righteousness, it helps to speak softly and listen.
We need to remember that we all have common goals: improving the way this country is governed and recovering from the past years of Republican mismanagement. Right now, the situation is a little like the Hatfields and the McCoys - I sense we’ve gotten so caught up in the slings and arrows of campaign indignities that we’ve forgotten just what the original fight was about, anyway. This is politics, and not even Obama can transcend it. People get emotionally invested in their choice and say rash things. It doesn’t make us bad people, just human.
So chill. It will be over soon. Clinton is getting pretty desperate now, so it wont be pretty. Just put yourself in her shoes, if you will. She’s got a personal vendetta against the RWNM and would very much like a chance to bury it, I imagine. And being President was her lifelong ambition, and her chances of another shot are slim just due to age, and the fact that we’re unlikely to see such a perfect electoral storm again for another generation. Yeah, I think in that position I’d go off the deep end too.
Relax. It’ll be over soon. Either cold reality will finally intrude over at team Clinton (if it hasn’t already), or the party elders will finally step in. There’s virtually no way this goes to a floor fight unless new damaging info comes out about Obama.
Finally, remember that not everyone is going to be passionate about Obama. For all his strengths, to many people he is still a cypher. It’s not irrational to find him a problematic candidate, or to think he’s overhyped. He looks good, from what little evidence we have, and says all the right things, but that’s not going to be enough for everyone. Our job as Obama supporters is to respect where other people are coming from while conveying why we think he’d make a good POTUS.
Or not. It’s your call. But I know this is how I’ll approach things.