The Race Card

Eugene Robinson's column in today's Washington Post takes looks headon at the fairly blatant race baiting that has become an increasingly significant tactic of team Hillary Clinton. While anyone not suffering from significant delusions has more or less figured out that Hillary's gig is up, the Democratic Party as a whole should be raising Hell with this racist nastiness that started with Bill Clinton down in South Carolina. As a recent article in the Newport News Daily Press quoted from below indicates, the GOP in Virginia is salivating at the opening the anti-black rhetoric coming from team Clinton may give to the Repubicans if Obama's nomination is hijacked somehow.

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Yes, it is true that some white Americans are racists and will not vote for a black man - or in Obama's case a half black man. But no major candidate or political party at this late date should be engaged in these gutter tactics. I truly believe that until this country puts racial bias behind it, we are never going to achieve a just society or reach are full potential as a nation. A successful Obama presidency would cut race baiters - both black and white - off at the knees. Moreover, it would help set the stage where never again could one's skin color be used as an excuse by non-achievers or a penalty against those with merit. I believe of in that kind of America. Hopefully, the coming campaign through to November will not sicken me by the baseness of what Hillary and the GOP may attempt to use to divide the citizenry. Here are highlights from Robinson's column:

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From the beginning, Hillary Clinton has campaigned as if the Democratic nomination were hers by divine right. That's why she is falling short -- and that's why she should be persuaded to quit now, rather than later, before her majestic sense of entitlement splits the party along racial lines.
If that sounds harsh, look at the argument she made Wednesday, in an interview with USA Today, as to why she should be the nominee instead of Barack Obama. She cited an Associated Press article "that found how Senator Obama's support . . . among working, hardworking Americans, white Americans, is weakening again. I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on."

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As a statement of fact, that's debatable at best. As a rationale for why Democratic Party superdelegates should pick her over Obama, it's a slap in the face to the party's most loyal constituency -- African Americans -- and a repudiation of principles the party claims to stand for. Here's what she's really saying to party leaders: There's no way that white people are going to vote for the black guy. Come November, you'll be sorry. How silly of me. I thought the Democratic Party believed in a colorblind America.

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Let's examine those premises. These are white Democrats we're talking about, voters who generally share the party's philosophy. So why would these Democrats refuse to vote for a nominee running on Democratic principles against a self-described conservative Republican? The answer, which Clinton implies but doesn't quite come out and say, is that Obama is black -- and that white people who are not wealthy are irredeemably racist.

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The other notion -- that Clinton could position herself as some kind of Great White Hope and still expect African American voters to give her their enthusiastic support in the fall -- is just nuts. . . Only in Camp Clinton does anyone believe that his supporters will be happy if party leaders tell him, in effect, "Nice job, kid, but we can't give you the nomination because, well, you're black. White people might not like that." At some level, she seems to believe the nomination is hers. Somebody had better tell her the truth before she burns the house down.

Here's what Virginia balcks are saying (and Virginia is a state I believe Obama will carry if he's the nominee) per the Daily Press:

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The 2008 presidential campaign is turning out to be a pivotal moment for black Republicans in Hampton Roads. On the one hand, a number of black political leaders previously aligned with the GOP say they will support Democrat Barack Obama should he win the nomination. His candidacy, they say, represents a "chance of a lifetime" for a black to compete for the nation's highest office. On the other hand, should Hillary Clinton win the Democratic nomination, many say it would be a rare opportunity to recruit disillusioned black voters who have been Democratic loyalists since the 1960s, when lifelong Republican Martin Luther King Sr. pushed nationwide black support toward John F. Kennedy.

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"If Barack Obama is not the nominee, the good thing is that black folks will finally realize that the Democrats don't love them," says Quash, of Suffolk. "I have always told black folks that the Democrats are far more racist, far more elitist, far more sexist and far more anti-Christian than the Republicans ever were."

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Don Scoggins, president of the Washington-based Republicans for Black Empowerment, agrees that if Obama loses the nomination, "that will be the best opportunity" to recruit blacks. Scoggins concedes, however, that as long as Obama is in the race, he will get lots of support from black Republicans. . . . At least two local black leaders usually associated with the Republican Party have shed the label; others are re-examining their party affiliation.Newport News Sheriff Gabriel Morgan formally resigned from the party about a month ago.

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Of course, none of this means anything to Hillary since it's all about her and her sense of entitlement.