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Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Great advice for Hillary Clinton

I thought this was the best piece of punditry of the 2008 campaign season, offered last night by David Gergen, who mainly served Republicans but who worked briefly in the Clinton White House. It came last night on CNN with Anderson Cooper (via Nexis):

GERGEN: And it also raises the question in my judgment of whether she shouldn't say, you know, if you want to vote against him because he's black, I don't want your vote. I don't want to win that way. This has no place in this primary.

COOPER: Do you see her saying that?

GERGEN: Well, she has been a champion -- she's been a champion of civil rights for a long, long time. She and her husband both have I think well-earned reputations in the civil rights front. She's never had redneck votes before in her life.

I see no reason why she couldn't take the high road here in the closing days of his campaign and try to take this on and take on the Reverend Wright issue to say, "Look, I campaigned with this fellow for 15 months. I know a lot of you people don't think he shares your values that somehow Barack thinks like Reverend Wright. Not true. I know him. I have been with him. And race should come out of this."

I think she could do a lot by taking a high road.

Barring a late scandal, I don't see how Clinton gains the nomination, so why not play for the history books, and create some goodwill that might lead somewhere a couple years down the road? Such a speech would go a long way toward that.

Posted by Will Bunch @ 1:40 PM  Permalink | 32 comments
Comments   
Posted 01:48 PM, 05/21/2008
Molly
High road, low road, country road.... I thik Hillary will take any vote she can get right now. The press has written her chances off, but I don't think she has written anything off just yet.
Posted 02:07 PM, 05/21/2008
SteveMG
She can't afford to give an inch to Obama now, he's too close to the nomination. She cannot afford to let him win in November. She knows what waiting eight years did to George H. Bush and John McCain. The heck with what happens to the country, she's supposed to be the President.
Posted 02:29 PM, 05/21/2008
legatus
Should Obama give a similar speech to the black populace saying (in effect), "don't vote for me simply due to racial preferences, vote for me because you agree with the policy positions that I hold. If you're going to vote for me simply because my father was of the same race as your father, I don't want your vote. I don't want to win that way. This has no place in this primary?"
Posted 02:32 PM, 05/21/2008
Captain Awesome
Legatus is right--that stance goes both ways.
Posted 02:37 PM, 05/21/2008
montani semper liberi
Jeez, how can you be so dense, Will? Just as all the media-driven nonsense about race is beginning to die down, you'd join (get suckered by) Gergen in begging Hillary to resurrect it to a whole new level, poisoning what is yet a fertile battleground for Obama, the white working class vote, by having Hillary insult the bunch as racist for voting for her? Seriously, are you serious?
Posted 02:38 PM, 05/21/2008
SteveMG
Does anybody remember how Lynn Swann did with the black vote against Ed Rendell?
Posted 02:44 PM, 05/21/2008
Talking point sleuth
That's pretty funny, legatus, since that's basically the message that he's given his entire campaign. Try reading the speech that he gave in Philly.
Posted 02:44 PM, 05/21/2008
Talking point sleuth
That's pretty funny, legatus, since that's basically the message that he's given his entire campaign. Try reading the speech that he gave in Philly.
Posted 02:46 PM, 05/21/2008
CB
It hard to imagine Gergin actually refering to the "Red Neck" vote, and it's content within the Democratic party. That's the type stereotyping that can lose you a lot of votes.
Posted 02:50 PM, 05/21/2008
legatus
"since that's basically the message that he's given his entire campaign. Try reading the speech that he gave in Philly. Posted by Talking point sleuth" If that's the message that he gave, it apparently hasn't resonated with its intended recipients. Numbers don't lie.
Posted 03:02 PM, 05/21/2008
hikikomori
and you do everything every politician tells you to do, right legatus?
Posted 03:22 PM, 05/21/2008
RG
It's nto her responsibility to give this type of speech. All she can do is campaign for him, if he secures the nomination. Those who won't vote for him because of his color can't be convinced.
Posted 03:22 PM, 05/21/2008
RG
It's nto her responsibility to give this type of speech. All she can do is campaign for him, if he secures the nomination. Those who won't vote for him because of his color can't be convinced.
Posted 03:48 PM, 05/21/2008
what is truth?
Bad advice, Will. Even mentioning Rev. Wrong is the worst thing she could do to Obama. There will be enough people who will do plenty to keep that alive; she would do her party no service by helping them out. And saying "don't vote for me for racial reasons" is the worst kind of two-edged sword. I do think there is a difference between blacks who would vote for Obama because it is a chance for a historic first and whites who would vote against him just because "they don't want no (you know what word goes here) President" - it's the difference between positive pride in a unique achievment and negative old-fashioned racist hatred - but it is still a dicey situation to bring up. (And in saying this, I am not implying at all that every white person who votes against Obama is racist. It is totally respectable to vote against someone because you don't agree with their positions, and just as with white conservatives, there are black conservatives who will not vote for Obama because they simply do not agree with liberal policies.) She should stay in until the day after the last primary (I believe June 3?) then gracefully bow out. I hope she has it in her to do that.
Posted 04:06 PM, 05/21/2008
atp2007
Kind of late to take the high road isn't it, after all she and Bill have done to pander to white racist votes and since there are essentially no important primaries left (Puerto Rico doesn't even get an electoral vote in the Fall). All of her last primary wins have been suspect because it's so hard to tell how many of the voters were actually republicans and right leaning Independents who were voting for Hillary as part of the Republican Create Chaos plan and wouldn't vote for Hillary even if she got the nomination (which 6% of her voters actually admitted in Indiana, more than her "winning margin"). Don't expect much class from the "Me First" Clinton contingent.
Posted 04:09 PM, 05/21/2008
paul_lukasiak
its a shame that Obama shills like Bunch can't read election returns. Since February 19th, when the pundits declared that Obama "couldn't be beat" based on "the math", Clinton has outpolled Obama 51.2% to 47.2% -- that's about 500,000 more votes out of 12.7 million cast. Democrats everywhere have been sending the message "DO NOT WANT" -- and the best thing that Clinton could do would be to stay in the race, challenge Obama's "caucus" delegates (THE RULES require that states enforce their caucus rules -- most states didn't do that, and according to THE RULES those delegates cannot be seated) and threaten a third party run if she is not the nominee.

BTW, Bunch, why didn't you suggest that Obama tell his male supporters not to vote for him because he's a male. In the states that Obama won, men voted overwhelmingly for Obama, while the women's vote was much closr. Obama is truly the "identity" candidate -- he can only win when African Americans vote for him solely because he's black, and when men vote for him because he doesn't have a vagina.

Posted 04:10 PM, 05/21/2008
db_cooper
"Barring a late scandal, I don't see how Clinton gains the nomination," Why do you think Clinton won't take the high road? The only way for her to win is to try and gain superdelagate back because of a scandal against Obama.
Posted 04:12 PM, 05/21/2008
paul_lukasiak
Does anybody remember how Lynn Swann did with the black vote against Ed Rendell? Does anyone remember that 92% of African Americans voters in North Carolina who said that race was not a factor voted for Barack Obama?
Comment removed.
Comment removed.
Posted 05:00 PM, 05/21/2008
Raiderfan
Why was it okay when 90 percent of black voters went for Hillary Clinton, but it's not when they're going for Barack Obama?
Comment removed.
Posted 05:13 PM, 05/21/2008
Talking point sleuth
If that's the message that he gave, it apparently hasn't resonated with its intended recipients. Numbers don't lie.

You've got a problem with your logic there, legatus. You are assuming that a significant number of blacks voting for Obama are doing so simply due to racial preferences, and irrespective of his policy perspectives. Where do you get that from? Once again, hundreds of millions of times in the country, blacks have voted for white presidential candidates. Obviously, they were not voting then irrespective of policy perspectives. How many blacks voted for Swann against a white candidate, legatus? Clinton actually had more support among blacks than Obama when the campaign started. There is absolutely no basis to assume that a significant number of blacks are voting for him simply because of racial preferences.

There seem to be a fair number of whites who are refusing to vote for Obama because he's black. Voting history of black people show that it is completely unsubstantiated to say that a significant number of blacks won't vote for a white candidate.

Comment removed.
Comment removed.
Posted 08:43 PM, 05/21/2008
legatus
Racism works in both directions as does sexism. Otherwise, why would we be making such an issue of the possible 1st black or woman president? Clinton has gathered votes because she is female. Obama has, and will continue to gather votes because he is black. But both are where they are because they are very strong candidates for the office of president. It is silly to deny the racial and sexual element of this election. Ageism is a factor for McCain. How much these biases play into the 2008 elections is news and should be discussed. Lynn Swann is not an apt comparison, as he was never a ~viable~ candidate. When presented with a choice between two viable candidates, one of whom is black, the white vote will be split within a normal distribution, but the black vote usually leans heavily to the black candidate...outside of statistical standard deviations. Does anyone really believe that, if Obama were white but everything else remained the same, that 92% of blacks would have voted for him? It is ludicrous to take the position that race hasn't affected the black vote. I'm not saying that it is right or wrong for people to vote for someone with whom they have some commonality, only that you'd have to be blind to not see the factor that race is in this campaign.
Posted 09:33 PM, 05/21/2008
Talking point sleuth
Does anyone really believe that, if Obama were white but everything else remained the same, that 92% of blacks would have voted for him?

You keep making the same mistake, legatus. No one said that if Obama were white, he would get 92% of the black vote. But you said that blacks were voting for him simply because he's black. An absurd statement. I'll remind you yet again that at the beginning of the campaign, Clinton had considerably more support among blacks. Omama has run a campaign which has changed those percentages, and so has Clinton. She has driven many of her blacks supporters away.

I haven't said that race isn't a factor. Surely it is. But you equated blacks voting in overwhelming percentages for Obama with whites not voting for Obama simply> because he is black. That is a specious equation. On the one hand, you have people who use race as the determinative criterion in not voting for Obama. On the other hand, you have people using race as one criterion among other criteria in voting for Obama.

And would you mind explaining how you determine what candidates are viable and what candidates aren't viable?

Posted 09:35 PM, 05/21/2008
mike l
xi, you are an idiot. Keep dreaming that Obama won't win in Nov. Let's see. The repubs have lost three straight long-held congressional seats. The RNC campaign leader has told their candidates that they are on their own, there is no money. Obama's campaign has more money than Clinton and McCain put together. He is making McCain look foolish even as McCain makes himself look foolish. McCain has no platform other than Iraq-Iran, no economic plan. He trails Obama and Clinton in head-to-head polls even before the primaries end. Republicans are abandoning ship with even congressmen saying their party stinks right now. When the debates between Obama and McCain start, Obama will make McCain look like a tired old man who is having, as Fox's Britt Hume says, senior moments. So keep dreaming and being ignorant of the facts.
Posted 09:36 PM, 05/21/2008
Talking point sleuth
oops. bold off?
Posted 10:31 PM, 05/21/2008
Archimedes
Our buddy Rachel Maddow thinks that Hillary and Bill expect to keep the argument over Florida and Michigan alive right up to the Convention, where they have allies heading the committee that will decide on which delegates to seat. Then it will be thrown into chaos from which no one knows whom will win. And as a result, McCain will be our next president. Thus sayeth Rachel. She could even be right. I never know when I hear Hillary making a speech whether it will be the good Hillary who just might bow out gracefully for the sake of the party if for no other reason or the evil Hillary who will do anything to be nominated, even if she has to make it impossible for her to win by the tactics she uses to get the nomination.
Posted 07:53 AM, 05/22/2008
RG
"if a Black wasn't running as a Democrat they've voted for a white...." Oh Xi, you crack me up. Keep moving the goalposts, so now blacks are only racist in Democratic primaries. Gee, I clearly remember THAT carrying Jesse Jackson to the nomination in '84 and '88.
Posted 09:53 AM, 05/22/2008
Politburo
RG: Exactly.. the goalposts always move. See also the use of the subjective term "viable candidate". Swann wasn't "viable" so he simply doesn't count. Ignoring the facts that don't fit your policy: classic GOPism.
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About Will Bunch
Will's book: Learn about it here and purchase it here.

Will Bunch, a senior writer at the Philadelphia Daily News, blogs about his obsessions, including national and local politics and world affairs, the media, pop music, the Philadelphia Phillies, soccer and other sports, not necessarily in that order.

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