Prometheus 6

Mark Shields has long been a cool camper as far as pundits go, but I was surprised to see David Brooks joining in him with here to express their joint revulsion at the KKKlintons for their tactics. Ah, darn it, I hate it when I mix up the C and K keys.

But I was psyched to see Shields especially not just hit Hillary but hit her so hard for this. Rather than some warmed-over, watered-down tut-tutting, damn the guy laid into her.

I'll tell you, what really ticks me off more than the racial crap-dredging (and even more than the thinly-veiled voter-disenfranchisement and fraud efforts the Clintons have been pushing in places like Nevada)-- it's that even when Obama is cool as a cucumber and too smart and chill to take the bait, even when he refuses to play the race card, the KKKlintons still accuse him of playing the race card.

It's like, just because a candidate is Black or Latino, automatically, they're playing the race card-- doesn't matter what they say, the fact they're people of color and wham, they're playing the race card. IOW the KKKlintons are relying on the public being too stupid to pay attention and realize that it's the KKKlinton campaign that's pushing the race bullshit all the way, not the Obama campaign even in the slightest.

If Hillary Clinton gets the nomination, there is no way I'm casting a vote for her, never. It'd be too damaging a message to Black and Latino candidates in the future, that white candidates like Hillary could race-bait, push all the bullshit innuendoes and then be forgiven for it-- why would any minority candidate ever run in the future knowing they'd almost be certain to face this crap, and their opponent not be penalized for it? I don't exactly know what I'd do on Election Day. Cynthia McKinney might be on the ballot for the Greens, or I might write in a name for President (and still vote Democrat for state, Congressional, local offices), or stay home.

It means that John McCain will be President but I don't care-- he's not nearly as nuts as the other Repuglicans and you can at least kinda work with the guy, plus as long as we still have Democrats controlling Congress, we'll be cool. We'll probably even gain in Congress in 2010 and especially in the Senate, which gives us effective control over the courts. Then prepare to take the Presidency in 2012. But the absolute red line is if Hillary is on the Democratic ballot, and she is never getting a vote from me or anyone in my household or neighborhood.

FWIW, the most important thing to do right now IMHO is to promote outreach to build up support hand-in-hand with the Latino community for Obama. Latinos are affected by this as much as we are, even more-- Browns are stereotyped and race-baited just as Blacks are, and they're vulnerable to the same bullshit, i.e. some white candidate's campaign making the insinuations about drug-dealing and "scary dark-skinned people in high places" (especially the drug-dealing), then even if they're clever enough to avoid taking the bait, they'll still get slammed for playing the race card. Blacks and Browns need to stand together here in absolutely rejecting these tactics and rejecting the Hillary Clinton campaign in general. If people see that these groups have turned against Hillary, and especially if Hillary Clinton loses by a landslide in the general election against someone like McCain due to severe losses of African-American and Latino support, then candidates in the future will get the message loud and clear that there's a nasty price to pay for trying to pull that crap.

For the sake of protecting our people and ensuring that Black and Latino candidates can be viable in the future, that's our only alternative.

I'm seeing some encouraging indications that most Latinos are spurning the divisive crap that the KKKlintons are trying to push, not only scaring white voters but also trying to divide Black and Latino voters. Let's just be as active as we can in further building our bridges together, supporting Obama and rejecting the Hillary Clinton campaign.

Also just to make things unequivocal-- Mark Shields is worlds above David Brooks as a pundit, a commentator, a thinker and everything else. Some of Brooks' comments later on suggested that Shields was finally getting to him. I was ticked off to hear Brooks initially trying to allege that it was the Obama campaign doing the race-card thing, but Shields effectively called bullshit on him late in the segment, and that's when Brooks finally started to wise up a bit.

Shields has been the most effective bullshit-caller and truth-spotter among the pundit class. Without him, too many gullible viewers would stupidly get things confused and assume that the Obama campaign was stirring up this crap. But Shields and a few others like him (I'll give some props to Matt Bai at the NYT recently as well) have been parsing things out and pointing out that this filth is all the Hillary Clinton campaign and only the KKKlinton campaign. Another reason that we will never support them, and actively work against them.

And when I mean work against the Clinton campaign, I mean-- we need to hit them hard. Obama and his inner circle have to rise above the fray, but we in the trenches can fight hard for him, and that's what we need to do. We have to be subtle and smart, but we have to hit the Clinton campaign hard.

Those of you there at the polling stations, don't let the KKKlintons try any of the voter obstruction and GOTV interference crap they've been using elsewhere-- bring in video cameras on cell phones and elsewhere, bust them when try shit, and post it up on Youtube to humiliate them and destroy their careers. Jar the Clinton campaign a bit, get in their space, make them uncomfortable, screw with their minds if you're good at that thing. If they try to go anywhere near the campaign workers and/or voters and try their obstruction thing, then shout at them, boo Hillary and her campaign staff, and intimidate them at every opportunity.

The KKKlintons want war, and we need to be ruthless with them in return. Not just tough, I mean ruthless, be rough with them.

You want the truth, Mark Shields is weak in my view. And I am not campaigning for Obama. If the Clintons hadn't gone all Southern Strategy, all the candidates would be catching fire from me.

the drug thing. That it couldn't be coincidental.