Clinton’s Racist Strategy

The New York Times, of all places, has an article on how the Clinton campaign continues to use racial politics to divide people in an attempt to weaken Obama’s momentum. Instead, it’s shooting Clinton in both feet.

Mrs. Clinton did pile up her expected large margin among Latino voters in California. But her tight grip on that electorate is loosening. Mr. Obama, who captured only 26 percent of Hispanic voters in Nevada last month, did better than that in every state on Tuesday, reaching 41 percent in Arizona and 53 percent in Connecticut. Meanwhile, the Clinton campaign’s attempt to drive white voters away from Mr. Obama by playing the race card has backfired. His white vote tally rises every week. Though Mrs. Clinton won California by almost 10 percentage points, among whites she beat Mr. Obama by only 3 points.

The question now is how much more racial friction the Clinton campaign will gin up if its Hispanic support starts to erode in Texas, whose March 4 vote it sees as its latest firewall. Clearly it will stop at little. That’s why you now hear Clinton operatives talk ever more brazenly about trying to reverse party rulings so that they can hijack 366 ghost delegates from Florida and the other rogue primary, Michigan, where Mr. Obama wasn’t even on the ballot. So much for Mrs. Clinton’s assurance on New Hampshire Public Radio last fall that it didn’t matter if she alone kept her name on the Michigan ballot because the vote “is not going to count for anything.”

She got her head handed to her this weekend by Obama. The next few states will probably be more of the same. So she replaced her Hispanic campaign manager with an “African-American” one. Pandering like that isn’t going to win her any black votes at this stage. That ship has sailed. 

My guess is she’s done. Unless she can get he Super-Delegates to all go her way. But it seems a lot of Dems really don’t like the Clintons. And they have left a bad taste in many people’s mouths over the years. (pun intended)

Obama is kind of a blank slate. We haven’t really seen how he will be as a leader. But he’s good at presenting a certain image and he comes off a lot more appealing then the Clintons who are a known quantity. Hillary hasn’t distinguished herself as a senator, other than voting to give Bush whatever he’s wanted. Not exactly a way to win over your base. People are sick of establishment types. The corrupt politics as usual crowd that has driven the polls for Congress to record lows. Whether or not Obama is a fresh change, he seems to be something new and that’s appealing to a lot of people.

It’s also why McCain and Huckabee have done as well as they have. McCain is a very independent senator, and Huckabee is a fresh face who seems to be offering a change of a different kind.

Personally, none of these candidates appeals to me. But I understand why some find them attractive.

I think it’ll be an Obama vs McCain race. Maybe with Huckabee as McCain’s VP.

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