Category: The Dish

Commenters on the Democratic race at TPM:

"I am coming to the grim realization that Billary will likely win the nomination (all the while laughing at myself for ever thinking that that was in doubt). I – (a lifelong liberal Democrat who luuurved Bill Clinton in the 1990s) am now relishing the thought of voting for McCain or, hopefully, Bloomberg in November. Like Larry David said, "Just for spite." (I do not vote for racebaiters as a matter of principle.)"

"I’m not sure if this a smart move. That kind of talk might hurt him with African-American voters in South Carolina. I can guarantee you Hillary will avoid using the word "gay" for the next week."

"Reagan loving Obama is such a hypocrite. Like as if he has any part of the Southern Black Experience."

"Obama featured anti-gay Donnie McClurkin in his gospel tour in South Carolina in the fall, but now he’s denouncing homophobia? Once again, Obama is all talk, no action."

This race is tearing the Democrats apart. But if that’s what it takes to put the Clintons back into the White House, they’ll manage.

Just who exactly is running for president again?

A fun blast from the past from P.J. O’Rourke. Money quote:

There could be a more concrete reason for Bill’s appeal to black voters. I felt as if I’d been at this gala before, forty or forty-five years ago. The women wore important hats and serious dresses. The men’s dinner jackets were shaped at the shoulders and nipped at the waists. Their dress shirts and bow ties were splendid in color and form. This was very different from going to, for instance, a political-wife-in-a-sack and bag-o-tuxedo event on Capitol Hill. But it was not very different from going to a party with a family full of harps. My uncle Mikey-Mike, my cousin Slats, my Aunt Bridget, and her husband, Louie, who once ran the local pinball rackets in Toledo, had more "flava," as they say today, than their egg-salad-sandwich-with-the-crusts-cut-off neighbors. Grandpa J.J. was one generation away from illiteracy and, I suspect, not as distant as that from running booze during Prohibition.

But by 1960 O’Rourkes had marched up the social stairs into the world of "some white Rotary Club." Like contemporary middle-class African-Americans, Irish-Americans had to find a palatable way to edge to the right. Casting ballots for Bill Clinton allowed blacks to vote Republican without throwing up.

An Atlantic archive classic from 1902 for MLK Day:

Slower of growth, and devoid altogether of the many brilliant qualities which his rival possessed, Lincoln nevertheless outreached him by the measure of two gifts which Douglas lacked,—the twin gifts of humor and of brooding melancholy. Bottomed by the one in homeliness, his character was by the other drawn upward to the height of human nobility and aspiration. His great capacity for pain, which but for his buffoonery would no doubt have made him mad, was the source of his rarest excellencies. Familiar with squalor and hospitable to vulgarity, his mind was yet tenanted by sorrow, a place of midnight wrestlings. In him, as never before in any other man, were high and low things mated, and awkwardness and ungainliness and uncouthness justified in their uses. At once coarser than his rival and infinitely more refined and gentle, he had mastered lessons which the other had never found the need of learning, or else had learned too readily and then dismissed. He had thoroughness for the other’s competence; insight into human nature and a vast sympathy for the others’ facile handling of men; a deep devotion to the right for the other’s loyalty to party platforms. The very core of his nature was truth, and he himself is reported to have said of Douglas that he cared less for the truth, than any other man he knew.

A helpful column from a year ago on Latino-black tension, especially in Los Angeles:

Although some commentators have attributed the Latino hostility to African Americans to the stress of competition in the job market, a 1996 sociological study of racial group competition suggests otherwise. In a study of 477 Latinos from the 1992 Los Angeles County Social Survey, professors Lawrence Bobo, then of Harvard, and Vincent Hutchings of the University of Michigan found that underlying prejudices and existing animosities contribute to the perception that African Americans pose an economic threat — not the other way around.

It is certainly true that the acrimony between African Americans and Latinos cannot be resolved until both sides address their own unconscious biases about one another. But it would be a mistake to ignore the Latino side of the equation as some observers have done — particularly now, when the recent violence in Los Angeles has involved Latinos targeting peaceful African American citizens.

Michael Gordon helpfully reminds us today that the views of most Americans and the views of most commanders in Iraq could scarcely be further apart. The reason is that the American public has essentially written off the war; but Washington has only just begun to buy into it. The Bush administration plans on committing over 100,000 troops there for the indefinite future – certainly an occupation that will endure for the rest of our lives. Ever since the Democrats lost their nerve last spring, commanders have assumed that they’re in it for the very long haul. Was that actually the whole point of the surge? Andy Bacevich thinks so:

In only one respect has the surge achieved undeniable success: It has ensured that U.S. troops won’t be coming home anytime soon. This was one of the main points of the exercise in the first place. As AEI military analyst Thomas Donnelly has acknowledged with admirable candor, "part of the purpose of the surge was to redefine the Washington narrative," thereby deflecting calls for a complete withdrawal of U.S. combat forces.

The key to this strategy is the Clinton Restoration. If the Bush family can get the other dynasty to buy into the occupation, the empire expands – as the republic hollows out from within. With $1 trillion gone, this Mesopotamian province will continue suck $3 billion a week from what’s left of the treasury. You can see why Greenwald is hyper-ventilating. If you think the Clintons will withdraw, you probably think they’ve had nothing to do with the slime covering Obama right now. Good times.

(Photo: Baquba by Gianluigi Guercia/AFP/Getty.)

A Democrat proposes.

The tactics of the Clintons in this primary season have some striking resemblances to those used by the other dynasty when challenged from below:

My own sense is that Hillary Clinton’s initial gaffe – implicitly analogising herself to Lyndon Johnson and Obama to Martin Luther King – was an accident. She meant to make the point that she is a doer and he is merely a speaker. But inevitably it came off as condescending – as if black people always need white leaders to gain their own rights.

But once this was out of the bag, the Clintons decided to run with it. Their calculation was that simply by forcing Obama to become the “black candidate” they would neutralise his postracial appeal. They would polarise the base electorate into blacks and whites, make Obama look more like Jesse Jackson, and so pick up enough white and especially Hispanic votes to win.

The Hispanic vote is particularly important to Clinton. The campaign may be decided in California. If she can gain antiblack Latino votes, she wins.

The Chicago columnist Don Rose explained the logic clearly enough: “They’re not really racists, they just want to stress that Obama hasn’t really transcended race and that a person of colour may not be electable. Think about it, folks. Over and over again.”

(Photo: Bill Pugliano/Getty.)

Just one story of many out there today:

I’ve just finished talking on the phone with my husband, Samuel Bartmess, about his experience today in the Nevada caucus in a town called Pahrump. He was in charge of one precinct; however, three other precincts were placed in the same cafeteria. Thus, four precincts (about 600 people) were all in one room. In this cafeteria he witnessed voter fraud and slime politics at its worst from the Clinton organizers and precinct captains.

The doors officially opened at 11 a.m., but by 10 a.m. Clinton voters swarmed the place.  They had been told to arrive early because there were not going to be enough ballots to go around for everyone; thus, first come first served.   By the time 11:20 rolled around Clinton organizers were shutting the doors even though this was not supposed to happen until noon.  Samuel ran back and forth from his precinct to the door trying to make sure it stayed open and, thus, started the war of words between him and the Clinton people.   Cheating followed.  Obama supporters were told that there were no more ballots even though extras were around. Clinton voters were counted more than once in differing precincts. Temp chairs refused to register Obama voters.  Undecided voters got their preference box marked for them as "Clinton" by Clinton people even though the undecided did not express a preference for the Senator.   Overall, the four precincts were taken advantage of by the Clinton team because everything was so disorganized. 

When Samuel tried to make things fair and organized he was told time and again that he didn’t get to have an opinion because he was not from Nevada.   He took the topic up with his Obama precinct captain who was unable to sway others into having a fair count.  He had a number of arguments with those who were causing chaos and those who did nothing to stop the chaos.   Overall, Samuel does admit that if the Clinton organizers had played fair that they probably would have won the precinct in the first place.  However, they disenfranchised voters and out maneuvered the other campaigns by playing dirty politics.  It was a Mob-ocracy of ruthless Clinton organizers.   For Clinton’s team, today was not a day about respect, it was not a day about uniting a country, it was not a day about people working together as one, it was a day of winning for the Clinton team.   This mob intimidated and pushed their neighbors around.  Samuel firmly believes more than ever that our campaign is about bringing the country together and the Clinton camp is for division.   

A reader writes:

After years of loyal reading I finally understand your distaste for all things Clinton.

I live in Las Vegas, Saturday was my first caucus. I went to support Obama, requiring changing registration from independent to Democrat. I brought 18 voters including friends and family. All Obama supporters. Early in the campaign most of us thought we’d hope for Obama now and still vote for Hillary in November if she wins the nomination. Not now. No chance. We got the Barack-bashing phone calls. We got bullied by out-of-state Hillary workers at the caucus site telling us we were "on the dark side of the party". We’ve seen Bill Clinton all over the local news looking more like a Karl Rove political hack than a distinguished former president. We’ve seen them try to destroy the local party and unions. In the fall if she’s on the ballot it’s not just blacks who will stay home. I know 19 white people who showed up today but won’t be there in the general election. And if we do it’ll be for McCain or Bloomberg.

And I just thought you were so excitable about the Clintons. Maybe you were only a Diva-hater. I should’ve known better. You must get tired of telling people "I told you so".