A cease-fire initiated by Obama was formalized into a peace agreement during a love fest at the debate. And why not? For Clinton's campaign, it was Mission Accomplished, intentional or not. Obama was now the black candidate. There had been minimal blowback and only a minor casualty (Shaheen resigned).
For Obama, he lost the essence of his candidacy as the first black man to run as himself. Once the race card is on the table, no matter who puts it there, it's impossible to put it back up anyone's sleeve. Obama may look back on the first two weeks of 2008 as the time when he lost the nomination to Clinton.
Hillary Pulls Race Card and Obama May Fold: Margaret Carlson
By Margaret Carlson
Jan. 17 (Bloomberg) -- At approximately 6 p.m. on Jan. 15, three hours before a Kumbaya interlude at the Democratic presidential debate in Las Vegas, I saw Al Sharpton defending Senator Barack Obama from charges of youthful drug abuse.
As we all know by now, the accusation arises from Obama's own admission in his modern Horatio Alger tale, ``Dreams From My Father,'' published long before he became a presidential candidate, that he tried cocaine as a teenager.
The hoopla over this has validated the judgment of George W. Bush eight years ago to refuse to answer questions about his own alleged drug use, which many believe continued well beyond his teen years. This is why honesty isn't considered the best policy by political consultants. But I digress.
Sharpton has done things to redeem himself in recent years, but his presence is a one-way ticket back to Tawana Brawley, boycotts, shakedowns and good old-fashioned, in-your-face confrontational race-based politics. Seeing him in that box on TV, I realized that the Clintons had done what they needed to do to stop Obama's historic surge in its tracks.
From the start of his career, Obama wanted, and needed, to remove the race card from the political deck. While it isn't clear from whose sleeve the card was pulled, it is likely it wasn't from the person with the most to lose. [P6: Grow some metaphorical balls, woman]
If Hillary Clinton's campaign had taken only one shot at Obama, it might have been blown off as a mistake. But four shots constitutes a pattern, with Clinton's former New Hampshire chairman, Bill Shaheen, Representative Charles Rangel, Clinton pollster Mark Penn and Black Entertainment Television founder Bob Johnson all getting into the act.
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Carlson has written a solid
Carlson has written a solid indictment of the Clintons. When the "experience" attack narrative didn't work--the notion that Obama is too inexperienced for the job and needs to wait his turn asserted with full awareness of the history of such rhetoric as "code"--they sent out their squads of Negrobots to powder his nose and to proclaim him "absolutely stupid." This the only conclusion to draw from the facts.
I also conclude from the facts that the psychology of oppressed people is an amazing thing. How low must your self-esteem be if you're a black billionaire and you allow Bill and Hillary to pimp your ho ass out to do a rhetorical drive-by on a man who's only crime is that he wants to be president? How low must your self-esteem be Congressman Rangel to spin a lie of Clintonian proportions in accusing Obama of injecting race into the campaign? How pathetic to see these political stooges supporting a Clinton agenda of divide and conquer, and lawn jockeying for positions on the bridge of the titanic.
The race cards have been dealt, no doubt, and the Negrobots have played the jokers. The question now is: What can the Obama campaign do to deal with it? Can he deal with it? What will america do? Will america continue to march backwards into the future? It's like watching a tv drama: Ugly America. I can't wait for the next episode.
It's not about self-esteem.
It's not about self-esteem. It's about maintenance. That's all.
It Worked
It worked.
Negrobots? Hadn't heard that one before.
But, it's on the money.