Legal Commentary

The Race Card

By Big Tent Democrat

I want to be perfectly clear about my previous post, I think John McCain and Republicans ARE playing the race card, as they have for decades. But I believe Barack Obama is in a difficult position to combat it BECAUSE of the outrageous and disgraceful accusations that were hurled at Bill and Hillary Clinton during the primaries by many of his supporters. Jim Clyburn in particular was egregious in his smears of the Clintons. More . . .

But it was not just Jim Clyburn. Look at what Eugene Robinson writes today:

It's awfully early for John McCain to be running such a desperate, ugly campaign against Barack Obama. . . . The latest bit of snarling, mean-spirited nonsense to come out of the McCain camp was the accusation, leveled by campaign manager Rick Davis, that Obama had "played the race card." He did so, apparently, by being black.

I think that is a fair point. Here is the problem - on May 9, Robinson wrote:

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.

By disgracefully smearing Hillary Clinton in May, Robinson's reasonable point today about the McCain campaign is hopelessly lost. As I wrote earlier, the fairy tale has come to roost. And it was Obama supporters likes Robinson, Clyburn, Jesse Jackson, Jr. and bloggers like Josh Marshall who have given McCain this opening. Their willingness to say and do anything about the Clintons in support of Obama's candidacy now creates a situation where McCain can race bait, and get away with it.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

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