Race becomes a factor
Obama finally made race a factor in the the Dem debate tonight — as laugh lines:
Question: Was Bill Clinton the first black president?
Obama: ‘I’d have to investigate Bill’s dancing abilities to judge whether he’s a brotha…’
· · · · · Obama: ‘In a race where you have an African-American, a woman, and John…’ [Edwards looks disgruntled.]
· · · · · Edwards: ‘It’s amazing, now that I’m the white man on the stage…’
Obama: ‘Gettin’ all defensive about it. [Puts a hand on his shoulder] John, it’s all right, man…’
Hillary Clinton savaged Obama tonight. She was sharp, wasted no words, and was willing to distort. He had trouble boiling down responses into something biting and concise. At one point he was double-teamed by Clinton and Edwards and on the ropes.
They weren’t even playing the same game. Obama did LD, Clinton muay thai. He was an orator, not a debater — he knew how to rise above, not how to attack and defend. She seemed to be smirking through his replies, thinking how far ahead she was on speaks.
on Monday, January 21st, 2008, 10:21 pm in Barack Obama, Debate, Politics, TV, Video clips, video › 
Email this
› 
Facebook this
› 
Reddit this
› Link
› Reader links
billary is a strong combination. got to hand it to them. much as i started liking obama , I am in awe of the tag team in place here. With bill doing the dirty work obama is always on the backfoot. He cant ignore an exPrez and Hillary keeps her hands clean. Despicable. But genius.
ps. here’s an excerpt from the G&M article i refernced above.
This looks so interesting and fun..thanks manish..I missed the debate….
I hope to read cnn transcripts on this one..
Wheere’s Johnny?!!
smackdown at 7:10 sure. but the initial smackdown was at 4:35. “while i was on the streets… you were a corporate lawyer sitting on the board of wallmart.” SNAP!
i missed the entire debate too! when are these things airing! although nytimes has it all on their web site afterwards, i like seeing it as it happens.
“Obama finally made race a factor in the the Dem debate tonight ”
You are either living in a vacuum this past couple of weeks, or you are willfully distorting. Race was introduced by the Clintons long time ago. When Hillary stumbled into the comment about Lyndon Johnson, she and Bill realized the potential and used it full advantage. I will spare you the details, suffice to say they brought up race in a way that essentially painted Obama as just another black candidate running for the office — not the race transcending figure he was portrayed to be. The subtle race baiting, starting from New Hampshire, and in full display in Nevada, was enough to instill discomfort about Obama in the minds of hispanics and whites. The strategy worked and Obama is pushed into a corner. All Obama is doing now is covering his behind from the Clinton smear machine — they distorted his positions enough so as to force him to talk about race merely in order to defend his positions.
… but Obama’s by and large avoided making this about race.
I’m British. Can anyone tell me if anybody in America is concerned that if Clinton wins, America will have been ruled by just two families for at least a quarter of a century?
Absolutely. But right now I’m rather more concerned about living under another King George. We overthrew the first one because of disappearances and secret prisons too.
How come the “family name” issue did not make such an impact when our current ,beloved President stood for election twice?
What is hilarious is that Hillary was a Rodham all her professional life ,till Bill stood for President and she had to change her name to “Rodham Clinton” and then just “Clinton” :-)
If Rahul Gandhi becomes PM, India would have been ruled by ONE family for more than half a century :-) . Given that context, nope, does not bother me :-) ( kidding)
I saw the debate in the beginning when the sparks were really flying. I think the “slum-lord” comment was a low blow. Hillary has shown that with her its politics as usual. The politics of personal destruction. But then in the end that is what might be what is needed to win. (Who can forget the “swift boat” low blows. It added a “verb” to the English dictionary)
Hillary sometimes seems too eager to imbibe Rovianism.
Runa, I think the Gandhi- Nehru family dynasty is very disturbing and detrimental to Indian democracy.
speaking of race… bill clinton ‘has a dream’ …
http://www.connietalk.com/bill_clinton_012208.html
“the dynasty is disturbing, detrimental to democracy”
say that three time really fast!
Why can’t Edwards stop piping up from his corner, and just let the candidates speak? :)
Bobby,
Agree .I don’t understand whether it is greed that drives them or hubris or a misplaced sense of noblesse oblige
Runa, I suspect a combination of all three, although the noblesse oblige is less a noble obligation than an arrogant sense that they have a divine right for their bloodline to rule India in perpetuity. Add a supine and spineless political machine which has proven itself capable of commiting genocidal violence in the cause of the family and things look even bleaker with them in charge.
Running a country can be very good for the family pocketbook.
I missed the debate but saw bits and pieces of it on cnn videos and read some transcripts..I thought this was the most boring debate I saw in recent times..since I didnot see everything my judgement might be wrong..But from what I saw I thought Hillary was not letting obama speak pouncing on him even when it was his turn to speak…it was too aggressive for me..in a debate while one person speaks , other person should not stop his or her speech or thought process inbetween..I would blame the CNN moderator for not stopping that..
obama I think is trying hard not to bring in the race factor…he wants white votes too..so he is trying hard not to make the race a big factor…but in south carolina he might benefit tomorrow bec. of race factor.. oprahs support adds up to the race factor too and is bringing in a lot of race vote for obama…
hillary keeps reminding people of gender issue and that she will be the first women president and a lot of american women friends support her bec. she is a woman and dont agree much to her policies so gender might benefit her a lot on the whole plus she has the double clinton factor working for her..hubby and her..two presidents in one house for buying/voting one that also helps her get the vote..
Debate was just bitter and aggressive rather than rational intellectual dissection of each others policies..too much dirt thrown at each other and not so much of real substance…
Interesting race..
I read somewhere today hillary and mccain are supposed to be very good friends.. If they both get nominated as candidates from respective parties , it would be interesting to see how they will through dirt on each other being good friends..
yet another article in a national paper to gush about the Obamas - it’s real cute read. (I’m trying to be cynical and say something dry and biting but cant :-)
Just hoping that the nice guys do come out ahead.
Well, all that gushing really makes me “hope” that the Obamas win.
It’s going to be so much harder now that Bill has thrown his hat in the ring.
Khoof, that’s hilarious: