I have to admit that it's always fun to watch Democrats cat-fight with each other over racial discrimination. The headlines say it all:
Racial Tensions Roil Democratic Race
Clinton, Obama Clash Over Race Issue
Hillary Clinton says that Barak Obama has been given a "free ride" by the press, and Bill says that the softball handling of Obama's Iraq war record by the press is "the biggest fairy tale I've ever seen." Hillary also implied that Lyndon Johnson (i.e., the President /federal government) was actually responsible for the Civil Rights Act, not Rev. Martin Luther King; in other words, only the right kind of President can make real progress for blacks. Hillary has also been appearing regularly among Hispanic groups, presumably to show support for illegal immigrants from Mexico and elsewhere:
Clinton and her busload of traveling press moved from there to the popular local Mexican restaurant Lindo Michoacan, where a "roundtable" that was actually square passed a microphone around to tell her people's concerns about the mortgage crisis and foreclosures. She took notes and munched on tortilla chips.
In broken English, one woman told Clinton how she wasn't making money as a broker anymore.
"I have no income at all," she said. "So how will I survive?"
Choking up with emotion, the woman said, "In my neighborhood, there are brand-new homes, but the value is nothing. I'm glad you are here so I can tell you, because you're going to be the president, I know."
A man shouted through an opening in the wall that his wife was illegal.
"No woman is illegal," Clinton said, to cheers.
Rasumssen Reports: "[A]mong white voters, Clinton leads 41% to 27%. Among African-American voters, Obama leads 66% to 16%."
And now, the Nevada teacher's union is challenging their state's caucus rules, which allow shift workers employed on The Strip to vote in special "at-large" polling stations in the casinos. The culinary union, which organizes the majority of Strip employees, has endorsed Barak Obama. The teacher's union is arguing that the culinary union has an unfair voting advantage. Culinary union officials accused the Hillary Clinton campaign of organizing the lawsuit in order to keep poor minorities and women from voting.
Rush Limbaugh says that the Clintons have had "multiple 'macaca moments'." It just doesn't get any better than this.
This whole thing has to be troubling for Bill and Hillary, because the Clintons have received nothing but big, wet, sloppy French-kisses from the "Black Leadership" over the last fifteen years. Really? Yes -- I believe that such hyperbole is warranted by any number of things: Toni Morrison's pronouncement that Bill Clinton was "our first black President"; upper-crust Manhattan blacks swooning as Bill Clinton moved his "office" into Harlem; Andrew Young's light-hearted comments that Bill Clinton was "every bit as black as Barak" and that Clinton had "probably gone with more black women" than Barak. And so on.
Perhaps we will finally get to see the rubber meet the road, so to speak, with respect to the Democratic party's true commitment to "affirmative action." Think about it -- have any modern politicians worked the corrupt system of American politics more thoroughly than Bill and Hillary Clinton? And isn't the corrupt machine of American politics the same "system" that has, according to the voices of conscience and justice within the contemporary civil rights movement, continually kept the black man down in order to preserve a "whites only" leadership structure? It's easy to support lofty principles such as fairness and justice when your own future is not on the line. But will Bill and Hillary really be willing to "take one for the team" in order to elevate the first real black Presidential contender to the White House?
Younger blacks who are disconnected from the Civil Rights generation of Andrew Young and Jesse Jackson will be watching this race to see what Bill and Hillary Clinton finally decide to do. They are not part of the political system that came out of the wedding of the civil rights leadership and the Democratic party forty years ago. They don't owe Bill and Hillary anything; in fact, they seem to be supporting Barak Obama in droves.
Will Bill Clinton's lust for political power and relevancy lead Hillary's campaign onto a path that tries to trample Barak Obama and regain control of the Democratic party? Could Bill Clinton's ego finally be the force that starts to unravel the unquestioning allegience of blacks to the Democrats?
Perhaps, but my gut tells me that this whole affair will be nothing but a vague memory after the Democratic convention has chosen a candidate, and once again the Democrats can concentrate on scaring minority voters with wild tales about Republicans -- and only the Republicans -- being bigots and racists.
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