Monday, August 4, 2008

Bill Clinton: I am a racist.

Cross Posted to MyDD

These are apparently the words that many purity trolls and Obama supporters would have wanted the Big Dog to say in his GMA interview.

At the risk of restarting the "primary war", there was an interesting diary on MyDD about the Big Dog's interview on GMA.

Apparently, Bill is now aligning with McCain, because of his response about accusations of racism:

When asked, "Do you personally have any regrets about what you did, campaigning for your wife?" Clinton, at first, answered, "Yes, but not the ones you think. And it would be counterproductive for me to talk about."


But then he added, "There are things that I wish I'd urged her to do. Things I wish I'd said. Things I wish I hadn't said.


"But I am not a racist," he continued. "I've never made a racist comment and I never attacked him [Obama] personally."


Of course, the games that the Obama campaign (especally pre-South Carolina primary) played with race are fairly well known and documented, which are not limited too:

-Releasing a memo just days before the primary painting one the greatest Presidential champions for African Americans as a filthy racist.

-Obama campaign co chair going on national television and telling us how "Hillary Clinton did not cry for Katrina"

Even outside the campaign, not so undeclared Obama supporters trashed Bill and Hillary, like James Clyburn, accusing the Clintons of nothing less than racism, an entire effort that was in ways, at least aided by some mid level players in the Obama campaign, with the full knowledge that Senator Obama would not have been able to win the Democratic primary carrying only 60% of the African American vote, which was around the percentage he was carrying pre Super Tuesday.

But I digress. The main point of this diary is to note, albiet extremely shockingly, that some people are amazed that Bill Clinton would have the NERVE to defend himself against scurrious attacks about his feelings over race!

Let's take a look:
http://www.mydd.com/story/2008/8/4/14336/72291


[new] Bill is doing his part to help (1.00 / 1)


get McCain elected, so he can go to hell.

The timing of him talking about how unfairly Obama supporters painted him as a racist is NOT a coincidence, coming right after McCain made the same charge about Obama.

Hillary is trying to get Barack elected, but Bill is John's BFF.



by Geekesque on Mon Aug 04, 2008 at 11:36:13 AM PST


Oh, and this one is hilarious:
new] Well, if Bill wants to be a party leader (none / 0)


he needs to weigh what effect his words will have.

This seems to me to indicate that Bill no longer considers himself an active Democrat.



by Geekesque on Mon Aug 04, 2008 at 12:14:04 PM PST
[ Parent | Reply to This | none0- hide1- troll2- mojo


Indeed. After all, what "active Democrat" would actively try to disspell notions of racism?

He's certainly not a racist, but he is acting like a petulant child. Politics is a contact sport. The primary got overheated on both sides. Senator Clinton and Bill lost.

And instead of being graceful in defeat, as Senator Clinton has been, Bill pops off in a way that reinforces the McCain camps talking points. Pitiful and absolutely indefensible for anyone that actually gives a damn about the course of this country, which cannot afford four more years of the Bush/McCain camps policies.



by HSTruman on Mon Aug 04, 2008 at 11:43:45 AM PST
[ Parent | Reply to This | none0- hide1- troll2- mojo


Very petulant, indeed. Because if I was accused of being a filthy racist, I totally wouldn't ever want to dissaude that notion. That'd be childish and wrong.

Here's the deal folks: alot of the parts of the interview were taken out of context. But on these messages, I'm standing behind the Big Dog. There's alot of kveching about how these comments seemed to back up McCain's talking points on the race card.

You want to know what?

I guess maybe people shouldn't have called Bill Clinton racist, or insinuated that Bill was a racist back then. Then we wouldn't be having this situation. Instead, the netroots, MSM, and even some parts of the Obama campaign embraced this meme as a chance to get Barack nominated, and it worked. Well, now you have to deal with the consequences. Bill Clinton, a great Democratic President and a great person in general, has every right to defend himself.

And if you don't like that, maybe you should bitch at the other half of the party, because they went there in the first place.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is there a typo in your header?

Anonymous said...

Read the first paragraph. It's not a typo.

hootie4170 said...

Bill is not a racist.

He did make some controversial remarks during the primary and the Obama campaign did improperly use them to inject race.

Obama, with Bill's permission, should make some sort of public statement regarding Bill's outstanding record in regards to the AA community.

Bill did defend himself against the racist accusations the other day (and rightfully so), however it was just bad timing in regards to the current meme pushed by the GOP. It was in no way intended to undermine Obama, IMO.

Many outlandish remarks were used by both sides in the primary. It was a hard-fought campaign and both sides wanted to win very badly, and when that happens the tendancy is to do whatever you need to do to get to the next round. I'm sure there are many apologies being circulated far from the public eye.

Abhinav Agarwal said...

Actually some of the comments that you linked make some sense. The interviewer didn't ask Clinton if he was a racist, he brought that up on his own. Pres. Clinton could simply have said that yes comparing Obama south carolina win to Jesse jackon's was inartful, wrongly interpreted, whatever. And even if he didnt want to go over these things again, why did he bring racism up at all? I have not heard a single Obama spokesman since the primary campaign got over say anything, zilch, remotely unflattering about Bill. By bringing the primary wounds up again, he is certainly not helping the Democratic nominee.

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