2008 Primaries Thread 2: THE QUICKENING

i started one, sorry for the dismal pun d00ds

Yeah, I wondered if Ned had stopped the precious tradition of the 'It's [month/year] in Iraq'. Shame.

It's February 2008 in Iraq

Ah, that's good to see!

There's not been as much to report on the rolling months thread this month because while there's been a lot of ugly business, a lot of it is in undercurrents. So far.

I have a question for you Americans : does Obama's personal history merely give racists a sort of an easy excuse, so they can attack his "cultural background" or "religious background" instead of coming with explicitly racist comments ("we don't want a black president")? If he was a regular, descended-from-slaves African-American without an Arabic middle name and a childhood in Indonesia, would the racists find other "cultural" excuses to attack him without speaking of race explicitly? Or would American people then accept him more easily?

would the racists find other "cultural" excuses to attack him without speaking of race explicitly?

^yes

What sort of attacks would a regular African-American candidate have to face then?

not being authentically black by virute of middle class upbringing

that wouldn't work though.

Depends on the candidate. Might get painted as too "angry" or "divisive," or as not being as "qualified" without real justification for the claim; might face sexual innuendos (Harold Ford Jr.). Hard to say because there have been so few in national races.

yeah that Harold Ford Jr. smear campaign was pretty awful...

yah associating him w/traditional stereotypes by saying hes not that kinda like bidens clean articulate routine. or saying plainly racist shit in the vaguest of terms. or having your more fringe surrogates in radio and the internet push racist messages to create a stir in the mainstream media where even if its being condemned the message is still circulating.

all of which is happening now - just not as grandly as the muslim angle.

even stuff like bill clinton comparing him to jesse jackson - which is just basically pointing out the fact that hes black (and therefor not a serious candidate).

I don't think most white voters would attack a black candidate for lacking *authenticity* (if anything they'd have more problem with a candidate that DID seem *authentically black*) and I don't see much evidence that black voters would either as long as the candidate had the right politics

oh yeah also you might see attacks implying that people ONLY like the candidate because of his race -- a lot of this is already happening with Obama, btw

but who does the "clean, articulate"/ "not 'authentically' black" line-of-attack alienate? if anything it helps him in a weird, messed-up way.. paints him as a "safe"/"good negro" to majority of the electorate...

the point of attacking his authenticity is to associate him w/the culture hes supposedly unlike - theyre tricky like that.

like just as long as obama and black have appeared in an argument where blackness is derided their job is done.

yeah exactly. You hear defensive conservatives posit some *alternative* black candidate all the time to make themselves feel less racist. Hillary + Barack in primary = "Now if only Condi were running! She's so intelligent!"

(exactly was xpost)

search: rove, trash talking, lazy, pickup basketball

barackobamaembarassedyouinthreeonthree.com

http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/rids/20080228/i/r315812455.jpg?x=400&y=307&sig=8rYHTMnbyW0zvTfAYVf_hw--

muuuaaahhhhaaaaahhaaaaaa

endorsement today? Richardson for Hillary? Edwards for Obama?

is that the rumor? richardson didn't sound like he'd be endorsing the clintons in some quote I read yesterday

haha "the clintons" i didn't even mean that consciously

With either endorsement, does it really make a difference at this point? I could see where it might have been helpful a little bit earlier in the game, but it seems a little too late now.

endorsement today? Richardson for Hillary? Edwards for Obama?

is that the rumor?

links?

i have a hard time thinking a richardson endorsement means anything now, NM already voted and no-one else cares (maybe texas? dunno)

i could easily see both going the other way, but the richardson quote i saw sounded hillary-friendly

obv TX, and Edwards in OH

both candidates are in TX

lol who would endorse hillary now

I am so grateful for this thread keeping me as low as 20th on the monthly #posts toteboard. I almost feel like I have a life!

hillary takes roves advice http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M70emIFxETs

http://www.hddvdprg.com/ endorses Hillary

(j/k)

lol who would endorse hillary now

improbable, sure, but someone whose constituency by and large supports her and someone who has a much better shot at getting a good position in her administration than in his might do so, if say their endorsement might be sufficient to keep both states in her column. i'm not saying there is such a person, necessarily.

john mccain?

<A HREF="http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/02/28/donohue/index.html";>So this 'McCain loves a bigot' story</A>.

Fuxor.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/02/28/donohue/index.html

Click on the sponsor logo: to read this article and all of Salon for free

I already turned on my javascript, I'm not turning off my adblocker. Bye, Salon.

Just google search 'mccain hagee donohue.' You'll find more than you'll want to know.

whoa mccain couldve stepped in something here

Donohue was particularly insistent that McCain's behavior would severely harm his standing with Catholic voters -- the group of voters which Karl Rove maintains is the key group for enabling the GOP to win: "This thing seems to be to be blowing up in his face. McCain has stepped in it big time." And Donohue further vowed:

He's not going to get away with this with the Catholic community. . . . We're going to get this out to the Catholic community and Catholic press around the country. . . . We're going to ride this out and see how far he wants to talk about this.

For Catholics, McCain's association with someone like Hagee is simply intolerable: "At that point, Catholics cannot join with evangelicals. To the extent you're going to insult my religion, all bets are off."

k thx (xpost)

this the guy - nice poster buddy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uViQ0hVV57Q

Keep in mind Donohue's a grandstanding blowhard to the nth degree; still, Hagee is his own piece of work.

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c219/talk2action/Pope_Donohue.png

haha see shit like this makes me glad McCain is the Republican nominee. He can't go a week without sticking his foot in his mouth/pissing off somebody

so polls have obama up in texas and w/in margin of error in ohio

there are apparently huge numbers of early voters on both states - not sure who this is going to help more, but i do know that the obama camp has really been pushing that (i imagine clinton's camp has been doing the same)