Has Obama Resorted To Playing The Race Card?

First there was the scene with Oprah in SC and so I overlooked that, but I truly felt the whole thing was racial more than anything else. Not to mention that Oprah has NEVER endorsed ANY candidate in her decades as a public figure with loads of money, but she was suddenly inspired - it really appears she was motivated this time because we have a black candidate.





As if that wasn't enough, now we have Michelle Obama reading from written speeches jumping on this nonsense that Bill and Hillary made race an issue.





The shoe is on the other foot. Obama is desperate that he lost to Hillary in NH; SC has a large black population, is the world so stupid not to know when someone is exploited his race for gain?





It sure seems like Obama is timing this one well.





But I wonder, what happened to his talk of uniting the world and now suddenly we're seeing something else. I guess his words are just talk, he doesn't mean anything he says.

Has Obama Resorted To Playing The Race Card?
I think that the only person who is running a clean campaign is Hillary. I respected Obama and liked what he had to say up until recently. He has taken a comment so insignificant and made the biggest mess out of it. No one... not Hillary or Bill or anyone else in that campaign... made a comment even close to being constrewed as racist or racially insensitive. Obama's playing the race card just before the SC primary in hopes that he will win the black vote. I think this speaks volumes about his integrity and his desire to unify our nation. He's willing to scream racism just to win a primary.





What kills me is that the average voter is just dumb enough to fall for this kind of crap.
Reply:yes, he is a racist and he is dangerous to our country, the USA.
Reply:No it's the Clinton campaign bringing race into this. Obama and his camp didn't even respond to the comments that Hitlery made about LBJ and MLK nor did they respond to Bill's comment about Obama's campaign being a "fairytale" until Clinton attacked him and his supporters claiming they are bringing race into the campaign.





Never once in this campaign has Obama made race an issue. It's Hitlery and her supporters doing that.
Reply:Obama never played the race card. It was all a setup by the Hillary camp. She is very smart, which is why people like you fell for it. Hillary is no racist by any means, but she will do anything to win!
Reply:No. Hillary started this charade.
Reply:I think Oprah played the race card first. The only reason she is endorsing Obama is because he is black and she is black. Obama doesn't even stand for anything, except "change" How vague!
Reply:yes and he isnt even black come on this guy is a joke
Reply:I think they are being realistic. No one has to play the race card, it is out there for all to see. If nothing racial was said then there would be no race issue. I think they both want to win. Hillary was so desperate she played the sympathy Card with her fake crying to win NH.


This country was never united in regards to race and probably never will be. Obama was talking about uniting the parties the red and blue states. And bringing Americans together for one common cause. He has to know he can't make people love people.
Reply:GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT!!!


The Clintons were the ones who initially made the controversial statement about MLK. People felt offended by it and retaliated. The Obama campaign made no mention of her statement until Hillary accused him of stirring racial tension today.


This is complete and utter bullsh*t. I am an undecided voter who is really not appreciating the kind mud-slinging that is taking place. Why is Hillary trying to tear down this man's character. This has gone way past politics.





HILLARY AND OBAMA GET TO THE ISSUES!!!!
Reply:Obama did warn her,he said he was from chicago and could handle rough and tumble politics
Reply:Thank you for laying this out.





While this is the man who's supposed to unite the nation, he's breaking us apart by falsely throwing the race card around.





It's sad, regardless if you're black, brown, or white.
Reply:So it seems from the following news item





Obama


African-Americans here fear issue of race, or worse, will stop his quest for presidency





By HELEN COLWELL ADAMS, Staff writer


Sunday News





Published: Jan 13, 2008 12:21 AM EST





LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa - The Rev. Kevin Brown would love to see Barack Obama in the White House.





But even after Obama came from behind to win the Iowa caucuses, Brown, the pastor of Rays Temple Community Church of God in Christ, was worrying.





Maybe it's just his own painful experience, Brown said right after the Iowa vote, but he's convinced something will propel one of the white Democrats past Obama in the race for the party's presidential nomination.





And that was before Hillary Clinton stunned pollsters by beating Obama in New Hampshire on Tuesday.





With an African-American as one of the two frontrunners for the Democratic nomination, white Americans might think black Americans would be excited about the best prospects yet of cracking the racial barrier in the White House.





But among some African-Americans in Lancaster County, particularly those of a certain age, enthusiasm for Obama is tempered with fatalism.





They expect something to go wrong, something to block Obama's path to the presidency.





Whether it's a white candidate derailing Obama, or worse, some African-Americans, with history as their guide, aren't so sure America is ready for a black president.





What happened in New Hampshire reinforced that feeling.





"I just don't think the time is right," said city Councilman Nelson Polite Sr., a veteran of the civil rights movement who supports Obama.





Cheryl Holland-Jones, executive director of the Crispus Attucks Community Center, understands the concern but is trying to stay positive.





"There's always something that makes you feel ... it's almost too good to be true," she said.





Dr. G. Terry Madonna of Franklin %26amp; Marshall College agreed that racism is still a problem in politics, and Obama faces a racial hurdle with white voters.





Still, he said, "Notwithstanding the fact that you don't know what some whack-job will do, America in 2008 is not America in 1958."





African-Americans like the Rev. Ed Bailey, senior pastor of Bethel AME Church in Lancaster, wonder about that.





"If we're not ready for an African-American president now," Bailey asked, "when will America be ready?"





A long way from Iowa


After Iowa, people were starting to think America was ready.





Obama, the U.S. senator from Illinois, had pulled out a victory over John Edwards and Clinton in an overwhelmingly white state.





And as the Democratic hopefuls rolled into New Hampshire, polls showed Obama leading Clinton by as many as 13 points.





Yet Clinton startled pundits by beating Obama, 39 percent to 36 percent.





African-Americans were disappointed, but not necessarily surprised.





"When you start hearing questions, 'is America ready for a black man?' — those kind of things," Bailey said, "... now race has become an issue in this whole race."





He and others in the African-American community here suspect that white voters in New Hampshire weren't honest with pollsters about their plans in the Tuesday primary, for fear of being seen as racist.





"There's not a scintilla of evidence that that took place," Madonna objected. If white voters were lying to pollsters, he noted, the same discrepancy should have turned up in exit polls as in pre-primary polls, but "the exit polls were spot-on."





"I'm not saying it couldn't happen," Madonna added. "I'm just saying there's no evidence."





Martin Dees, the Democrats' district leader in Hempfield, said the chatter of "talking heads" after New Hampshire created an issue that may not be based in fact.





Before Iowa, he noted, many polls showed Clinton with a lead of 8-10 points.





"To expect that a change of something in the 20 percent range just does not seem real to me, in politics as we know them," he said, suggesting the real story might be how close Obama came to Clinton in New Hampshire.





"One of the fears of many African-Americans," Bailey said, is "that African-Americans will not be accepted into higher office. There's always going to be something."





Experience, for instance — one of the criticisms leveled against Obama.





"None of the persons running have had experience being president," Bailey said. "We've heard those things before, that you don't have enough experience. ...





" 'I just don't know if he's ready' — what the heck does that mean?"





Polite said younger voters don't seem to have as much of a problem crossing the racial divide.





Older people? "I don't know if they're really ready for a black president. ... They may publicly speak a good game, but in the voting booth, it's a different story."





Bailey pointed out that black voters will cross over — black leaders have supported Clinton, for instance.





"We have shown that we can be fair in our voting and vote for a white person," he said. "What has not been proven in America yet is that whites nationally can vote for a black man."





"We're not a monolithic group of people," Dees said, and "historically, people in the black community do look at candidates and say, 'Does this candidate have a chance to win?'





"They're not in the business of just throwing their votes away. At least I'm not."





Holland-Jones said she chooses "not take the negative approach and just be positive and just continue to try to see where the whole election process is going to go."





"I'm certainly trying to be optimistic," she said. "... I'm hopeful."





Long memories


Some African-Americans, like the Rev. Brown, worry that a white candidate will be catapulted ahead of Obama.





Others, like the Rev. Bailey, raise questions about vote tampering to deny Obama the nomination.





"I saw myself who had the crowds" in New Hampshire, Bailey said. "... I can't imagine those people coming out to see Barack Obama and the enthusiasm in those crowds, and those people didn't like Barack Obama.





"... Smaller precincts, anything can happen. We've seen that in Florida."





Many fear for Obama's life. Forty years after the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose birthday is celebrated Monday, Jan. 21, the possibility that something similar could happen to another high-profile African-American isn't so farfetched.





"There is a general fear among African-Americans that you can get killed running for office," Bailey said bluntly. "... It's not a fear so much as a reality."





"I'm really afraid for his life," Polite said. "It may not be a gunshot, but there might be some other way of doing it.





"It's unfortunate that that's the way things are in this country, but that's a fact of life."





Obama has been the target of threats, although his campaign doesn't discuss those in detail.





"The fear we have for Barack Obama, I think, is real," Bailey said.





So are the hopes, even if it's a matter of hoping against hope.





"I've been around a long time," said Polite, who remembers segregated swimming pools in Lancaster. "I certainly would like to see him in there."





Bailey, an independent voter, said he's "seriously thinking" about re-registering Democrat for Pennsylvania's April 22 primary, so he can vote for Obama.





"It's almost, how could I not be supportive of him?" Holland-Jones said. "... It's a time not just for people of color but for all people to embrace something really big here."





Bill Sheaffer, the Democratic district leader in Ephrata, a self-described "62-year-old white male," is organizing a first meeting of the Lancaster County for Obama Committee on Wednesday, Jan. 16.





"He's the only candidate, I feel, that has a willingness to sit down and talk and listen to both sides and come to a solution to the problems that are facing the country right now," Sheaffer said.





"The country has been so polarized. ... I feel he's the only hope to get things done."





Dees said Obama needs to be "someone who can relate to all of us," not just one group of Americans.





Polite said he gets the sense from others in the African-American community that they want Obama to succeed, yet "they've got that reservation in the back of their minds —are we ready for it?





"I am," he said, but "we're not the majority."





"If you take our brightest and our best and they can't measure up," Bailey asked, "who can?"
Reply:Yes. I still haven't heard about the changes he's proposing. We need to stay focused on him.
Reply:guess if hillary can play feminine card by tearing up on tv...then turn round is fair play....



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