Legal Commentary

The "Fairy Tale" Comes Home To Roost

By Big Tent Democrat

McCain Camp Says Obama Playing The Race Card:

Senator John McCain’s campaign accused Senator Barack Obama on Thursday of playing “the race card,” citing his remarks that Republicans would try to scare voters by pointing out that he “doesn’t look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills.” The exchange injected racial politics front and center into the general election campaign for the first time, after it became a subtext in the primary between Mr. Obama and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.

After Obama supporters disgracefully smeared Bill and Hillary Clinton as race baiters in the Democratic primary, the fairy tale has come home to roost. Now, the McCain camp gets to race bait and get away with it. More . . .

Steve Schmidt, who runs the day-to-day operations of the McCain campaign, said the campaign had been moved to issue the statement in part because it saw the damage done during the Democratic primary when Obama supporters made accusations that former President Bill Clinton had been racially insensitive, or worse.

“The McCain campaign was compelled to respond to this outrageous attack because we will not allow John McCain to be smeared by Senator Obama as a racist for offering legitimate criticism,” he said. “We have waited for months with a sick feeling knowing this moment would come because we watched it incur with President Clinton. Say whatever you want about President Clinton, his record on this issue is above reproach.”

In the Democratic primary campaign, Mr. Obama’s supporters at several occasions accused the Clinton campaign of using racially charged tactics, particularly after Mr. Clinton equated Mr. Obama’s victory in the South Carolina primary with the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s victory in the nominating contest there in 1988. Mr. Clinton himself then complained in a radio interview in April that the Obama campaign had “played the race card on me.”

So McCain has played the ultimate race card - the Jesse Helms "they" play the "victim" to keep "us" down. And it worked. But it only worked because of what was done by Obama supporters in the primary. And, oh by the way, you think this does not appeal to Clinton supporters? Think again. The fairy tale comes home to roost.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

Full post as published by TalkLeft on August 01, 2008 (boomark / email).