The First Obama Race Card

Many have wondered exactly when race was first injected into Barack Obama’s campaign.  Was it the “race memo,” that whiny release sent to the Huffington Post complaining that the Clintons and their surrogates were deliberately using racially insensitive language against him?  No.  Was it when Jesse Jackson, Jr. asked “how does an African American candidate attack a white woman,” on January 4, 2008?   Uh-uh.  How about when Jesse Jackson, Jr. (same guy) four days later questioned Hillary Clinton’s motivations for crying at an appearance before the New Hampshire primary?  As reported at the time:

…there were tears that melted the Granite State. And those are tears that Mrs. Clinton cried on that day, clearly moved voters. She somehow connected with those voters.

But those tears also have to be analyzed. They have to be looked at very, very carefully in light of Katrina, in light of other things that Mrs. Clinton did not cry for, particularly as we head to South Carolina where 45% of African-Americans who participate in the Democratic contest, and they see real hope in Barack Obama.

While that certainly is an example of intentionally, and inappropriately, bringing race into a situation where it doesn’t belong, it is not the first one either.  Nor was Michell Obama’s “black people will wake up and get it” statement during a MSNBC interview in November of 07.  Neither was Roland Martin’s CNN on-air entreaty for Obama to blacken up in October of that year.

Long before Hillary Clinton was accused of minimizing Martin Luther King’s Civil Rights efforts, or Bill Clinton was accused of insulting Obama by comparing him to the only other “viable black candidate for president” in history, or James Clyburn called Bill Clinton’s behavior racially “bizarre,” Camp O slipped the race card out of it’s sleeve, slammed it on the table, and from then on, let it ride.

The date was May 03, 2007, the day it was announced that Barack Obama would be placed under Secret Service protection, though no credible threat had been received.  CNN quoted Dick Durbin:

Illinois’ senior senator, Democrat Dick Durbin, told reporters Thursday night that he relayed concerns about the size of the crowds Obama was drawing and other issues to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Reid decided to take the matter to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff as an issue for a congressional advisory board, Durbin said.

“I knew the crowds were large … but some of the other information given to us, unfortunately I think, raised a concern among many of [Obama's] friends,” Durbin said.

“Unfortunately, some of the information we found was racially motivated. It is a sad reality in this day and age that Mr. Obama’s African-American heritage is a cause for very violent and hatred, hated reactions among some people.”

Durbin would not elaborate. “I’ve been advised not to talk about any specific security problems or any threats,” he said. He also would not say how he received the information, only that it was from “credible sources.”

This dispicable plan has been woven into the fabric of Obama’s presidential campaign since it’s inception.  Unfortunately, it worked against his Democratic rival, which is unsurprising given the degree of Democratic complicity in the plot.  Campaign memos and stupid statements by surrogates is one thing, Harry Reid and Dick Durbin enlisting an unwitting government agency is something altogether different.  Hopefully, the Republican party will continue to thwart Obama’s similar attempts against them.  However, they will have to be ever-vigilant against  his “I don’t look like all the other candidates” statements, his surrogates, like Joe Biden’s “he will be transformational for America because he’s black” comments, as well as all the willing co-conspirators in the press.

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McCain’s Outside Attacks

Last night, I put up a post about outside groups doing ads against John McCain on behalf of Barack Obama. To be sure, one of the groups involved in the pro-Obama push, Democracy For America, is not an “outside” group at all.  Founded by Howard Dean almost immediately after his famous scream ended his presidential hopes, it is currently chaired by his brother, and also tagged Barack Obama as one of the first of Dean’s Dozen politicians to watch.  That’s about as “inside” as you can get.

Today, we look at the other side of that coin.  Groups and individuals supporting McCain have produced two videos worth looking at.  The first, tying Obama to William Ayers, an association previously documented in numerous venues, was produced by The American Issues Project, a 501(c)4 group which was announced by Ben Smith of Politico, August 21.

From the American Issues Project website:

The American Issues Project was founded to champion the conservative values that have made the United States of America a blessed nation: smaller government, a strong and ready national defense, lower taxes, and a government that encourages entrepreneurship and new job creation in America.  We also know how critical it is for America to win the war against the radical Islamic extremists abroad so we do not have to fight them here on American soil.

“Do You Know Enough To Elect Barack Obama?” seems to be the group’s first effort.  Not so for the second, more enigmatic entity with a provocative video.  This one is not even technically an “ad,” it’s more of a “viral video” posted on You Tube and the creator’s website.  “weneedmccain” says this, in his You Tube profile:

Dedicated to promoting the McCain/Palin 08 Campaign and exercising my freedom of speech to speak my mind over matters critical to the future of this nation.

“Dear Mr. Obama: Who Are You?” is his latest video, preceded by “Dear Mr. Obama: Economics 101″ and the first, entitled simply, “Dear Mr. Obama.”  Though not much is known about the videos’ producer, a Google search of “weneedmccain” does lead one to some info, however.  techPresident.com’s, Micah L. Sifry, whoever he is, appears to have tried to dig up something on whoever “weneedmccain” is, with mixed results.

“Dear Mr. Obama” was posted on YouTube by someone using the handle “weneedmccain.” When I emailed that person asking for information about the making of the video, I got this reply:

“I wish I could currently spend some time with you, but this can’t be about me right now. Too much going on.

I may be doing an interview with the soldier, who he is, what he believes, some Iraq stories and his parents views in the near future.”

More e-mail correspondence gave techPresident the filmmaker’s name: Michael Brown.  His piece is worth a read, but does not defeinitively answer the questions, “who is Michael Brown?  who does he work for?  Is he a Mccain campaign GOP sanctioned operative, or a staunch Republican with video studio access and time on his hands?”  techPresident has a follow-up article on the subject, suspiciously dated the same day as his first, which seems to lead Sifry, after a phone conversation with “Michael Brown” to the gut-feeling conclusion that the video is voter-generated.

Whoever produced and distributed these ads, here they are:

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Obama Gettin’ Out The Vote

Obama’s people.

They want change.

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Hillary Makes Barack Look Bad

Every time Hillary Clinton makes an appearance on behalf of Barack Obama, she makes him look bad.  She doesn’t do it on purpose.  It’s not even her fault; she says and does all the right things, with much more sincerity evident in her demeanor than one might imagine possible.  The problem for Barack is, she just looks so damned impressively presidential doing it.

Every time she offers a suggestion about how a Democratic presidential candidate should handle an issue, it highlights another Obama deficiency.  Those rabidly suffering wretches infected with virulent cases of Clinton Derangement Syndrome will, of course, suggest that she’s doing it on purpose, just to make Obama look bad.  Once again, the Obama Delusionally Faithful give their Messiah way too much credit.

Hillary Clinton is the superior candidate.  To Barack Obama.  To John McCain.  To Bill Clinton.  That’s what her supporters saw, and what made us vote for her.  That’s what made the sexism and downright mysogyny directed at her so infuriating.  That’s what made the bogus racial exploitation by her opponent, with the blessings of the greedy, misguided Democratic leadership, so egregious.

While Obama flounders in the waters of his own political undoing, further fouling his prospects for rescue by pissing in the pool, he might want to consider that deploying Hillary Clinton to do his dirty work is like asking someone to throw you a cement lifeline.  Even a sincere desire to fulfill your request puts you down.

Hillary’s GMA interview this morning was bittersweet.  She looked relaxed and comfortable, sounded poised and composed, and, as always, had a firm grasp of the issues.  She handled the questions easily, even the attempted “gotcha” ones about Sarah Palin and Joe Biden.  She expressed her disappointment with the outcome of the primaries while imploring her supporters to vote Democratic.  She said she was excited to work for an Obama/Biden ticket, and in the process of doing her very best to make them both look good, made them both look pitiful.

The DeaNC, Obama, Biden, Pelosi, et al, should have remembered something I’m sure Donna Brazile’s mama taught her:

Be careful what you ask for, you just might get stuck with it.

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Have TelePrompTer, Will Travel

Well, it looks like somebody in the Barack Obama campaign finally woke up and realized that, “uh…umm…ya know…what I mean is,” is not exactly the most compelling use of language for a clean, bright articulate, history-making, transformational candidate to repeatedly employ in a stump speech.  So, these amazingly talented consultants, surrogates and staff who have mounted the most organized and efficient campaign in the history of American politics have hit upon a truly  revolutionary idea; simplistic, yet, brilliant: TelePrompter-To-Go.  The skinny from CNN:

It appears Barack Obama’s teleprompter is hitting the campaign trail.

The Democratic presidential nominee has never tried to hide the fact he delivers speeches off the device, though normally he doesn’t use one at standard campaign rallies and town hall events.

But the Illinois senator used a teleprompter at both his Colorado events Monday — making for a particularly peculiar scene in Pueblo, where the prompter was set up in the middle of what is normally a rodeo ring.

Makes you wonder, though, how come these political geniuses didn’t come up with this after “57 states” and before “lipstick on a pig” if they’re so damned smart?

What’s next, lip-syncing speeches to track?

Then he could be Milli Vanilli and a modern day Paladin.

*Check out the great snark on Obama’s economic response originally posted on his website.

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