Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Clinton Playing The Race Card Again? If So, She Is NOT Worthy to Be President

Both Daily Kos (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/3/3/14550/75567/858/467989) and America Blog (http://www.americablog.com/2008/03/why-is-obamas-skin-blacker-than-normal.html) are reporting what, if true, has to be the lowest and nastiest stunt used by Hillary's campaign yet: ads that suggest they were intentionally darkened so as to show Barack Obama's skin significantly darker than it has ever appeared in any debate and other video footage I have seen. Having seen Obama in person, I can attest that the skin tone in the new Clinton ad is MUCH darker than his skin in real life. The Clintons have shown that they have utterly NO SHAME other occasions, so it is unfortunately all too easy to assume that once again they are showing themselves to be utter dirt bags. If this stunt is true, obviously, Hillary thinks black voters are so stupid they will vote for her in November even after she has resorted to disgusting tactics like this to try to win the primary. I'm truly beginning to believe she has Karl Rove secretly on her payroll. This stunt has made her even more unelectable against McCain. Here are highlights from Kos:

Call me crazy, but it certainly appears to me that Sen. Obama's skin tone is significantly darker in the Clinton campaign commercial. Watch it again and see if you agree. Now, as most of us know, one of the ways in which to demonize a person of color is to make them appear darker than they are. By this twisted logic, somehow being more black makes you more threatening. One of the first times I distinctly recall this issue being brought to the forefront was the Time Magazine cover picture of O.J. Simpson after his arrest. Time was heavily criticized for darkening the shade of Simpson's skin in the cover photograph. Whether intentional or not, the message was that a darker skinned Mr. Simpson somehow was more threatening or frightening than a lighter skinned Juice. Notwithstanding the ridiculousness of this notion, it attempts to exploit stereotypes concerning race--specifically, to dredge up fear of black men. IF the Clinton campaign has deliberately doctored the footage of Sen. Obama to exploit racist fears, she should be banished from American political life--along with anyone else involved.

Here are John Aravosis' remarks:

I went and got the original footage from the Clinton ad, and then compared it to 3 different video clips of the same debate from 3 different sources. I did this so as to take into account any editing, or quality issues, that might have accounted for Obama having darker skin in any particular video. None of the 3 video sources I found showed Obama nearly as black as the Hillary ad does. Click the image above to see a larger version. Look at his lips. Look at his eyebrows. Look at how the red MSNBC background has turned more purple. Clearly the image was darkened. The question is "why."

It just keeps happening again and again and again. The Clintons keeps doing things, saying things, that sound awfully racist. And we're to believe that this, the - what? 8th, 10th time? - this has happened is again just a coincidence. The first half a dozen times you launch seemingly racist attacks on your black opponent, maybe - maybe - we can write it off as "boy you're really dumb not to get it." But having a seemingly-racist attack from the Clinton folks on Obama every single week, after a while, you don't get to play the "I had no idea!" card anymore. After that many times, you're race-baiting. You're using racism to win. And you're destroying your legacy and your husband's. Enough already.

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