Obama-Clinton Race

Happy MLK day: truly a great man

The race issue is certainly not going anywhere even though Clinton and Obama have called truce. Robert Johnson of BET is not backing off his comments basically calling Obama a crackhead. Now Rangel, chief boss in Harlem has called Obama stupid (via TPM).

I think the divide between many Black leaders and the community is going split wide open. Many of these leaders are corrupt. I'd be interested in what financial arrangements or political favors have been made between the Clintons and these leaders.

I have to agree with Scarborough and Tony Blankley (I shudder), who were on MSNBC this morning. Their point was that in national campaigns, message coordination is critical and campaigns, especially with people like the Clintons, you do not have these type of message mistakes. The Clintons are without doubt coordinating the messages of their surrogates and I think people will see through this. They seem to think that using so-called Black leaders as attack dogs provides a firewall and innoculates them from criticism. The Black community is quite simply not that stupid.

Kerry has some good remarks in defense of Obama.

He also ripped into comments made by Clinton surrogates hinting at Obama's
past drug use, calling the remarks "negative in the worst, petty way,"
especially in the light of Bill Clinton's admitted use of marijuana.

"That kind of discussion," Kerry said, "from a campaign where the former president
made famous the words 'I did not inhale' is to make something an issue that they
themselves acknowledged shouldn't be."

Most recently the issue of Obama's past drug use has resurfaced, with BET founder and Clinton supporter Robert L. Johnson alluding to it during a Sunday campaign stop. Johnson insisted he was referring to Obama's work as a community organizer.

But Kerry was clearly upset with the tone and implication of the remark.
"I thought that was uncalled for," said Kerry, not even waiting for the question to be finished. "I thought it was negative in the worst, petty way. I thought it was unfortunate. And if it is done in surrogacy for the campaign itself then it is really wrong... I think [Obama's] proven record as a public person stands as a significant knock down to whatever youthful transgressions somebody might have had. And who in the world hasn't had some transgression of some kind?"