Man how many errors can there be on one post.

Jerome writes:

"The most plausible reason why I've seen Obama lost Iowa was ...."

Now Obama lost Iowa?????

Thank you Jerome.  Finally some unbiased commentary from the front pagers. I love your candor. Hillary should hire you and Taylor Marsh as her WH Bloggers when she takes the WH in 2009.

Why is Michele Obama drawing a distinction between white voters and black voters? I thought her husband's campaign was supposed to be color-blind?

was a fluke. Obama's gonna win this thing.

Obama is killing his candidacy. Michelle seems to be helping it along.

It'll be the most spectacular crash since the Hindenburg went down. I'm gonna buy a new popcorn popper.

As a Clinton supporter, I am finding Obama's charges of racism and deliberate misunderstanding of quotes taken out of context increasingly irritating.

For a while, I was able to ignore it. But after all the holier-than-thou criticisms of Clinton playing the "gender card" from the silver-tongued golden boy, it is really aggravating to see him playing the  "race card."

Does he really need to do this to win South Carolina? If so, it shows a desperation level that the polls simply don't reflect.

This bashing on character and identity issues from both sides is going to hurt Democratic chances in November, and I wish someone would find a way to call a truce. The candidates need to focus on issues like the war, the economy, and health care. Or is that just too dull?

can we all now admit his this the Obama "sothern strategy"?

Heres is the [UPDATED AS OF 12:08 PM]list of Democrats that are racist according to the obama campiagn and obama surrogates.

[and please remember that the scoundrel Robert Gibbs and his boss, David Axelrod, and HIS boss Pete Rouse are all as white as winter flounder]

Joe Biden
Bob Kerry
Bill Shaheen
Andrew Cuomo
Hillary Clinton
Bill Clinton
Founder of BET Robert Johnson (wha?)
LBJ
and me

who's next?  Its like Joe McCarthy time redux with Obamaland.

Have they no shame? Have they no sense of decency?

This is going to help him somewhat with the black vote which shows increasing signs of becoming his base from these couple of recent polls. Now Obama fans will no doubt have a different take but maneuvering yourself into a situation where you are the "black" candidate is suicidal in the rest of the country. Quite honestly I wouldn't put it past the Clintons to have come up with the perfectly justifiable Johnson comment which after all is entirely true in the sure knowledge that Obama's attack dogs would rise to the bait. And haven't they. There's no way ultimately this works to Obama's benefit because it becomes a he said she said argument a bit like the Plame debate but Obama "looks" as if he's talking up race. Now Michelle's chimed in it just reinforces the perception. So go right on Obama but you and your campaign must be nuts assuming the mantle of Sharpton and Jackson.      

Ok so she is lying that's pretty clear. The context of the quote is crystal clear--however, let's pretend for a second that she's right, and that Bill Clinton said the Obama candidacy as a whole was a fairy tale. How the hell would that even have anything racial to it? Why would calling his campaign a fairy tale be racist?

For God's sake, if this is the game the Obama campaign is going to start to play from now on, we can kiss a November victory good bye. The only reason Obama, as a black candidate, has been so successful is because he has been incredibly adept at running a color blind campaign that doesn't make him into a Jesse Jackson caricature. If he or his surrogates are going to start crying racism over everything they can get their hands on then we are going to lose. Playing the race card to win votes does the opposite, as does the gender card which Hillary Clinton seemed to have finally learned.

Enough of this bullshit already!

Do we need any more proof that the Obama campaign is purposfully misleading black voters what Bill and Hillary really said? It's political opportunism at its saddest. Obama needs to ask himself a few things with this strategy. One: Is this going to hurt him with white voters, which is what will be a majority of Democratic primary voters nation wide? And Two: Is this really going to have the kind of significant effect with black voters that he obviously expects? This may help him win South Carolina, but it could hurt him in Florida, California, and Texas if it goes that far. What's worse is he's creating a rift in the Democratic party potentially that shouldn't be there.

nothing is "changing" between the two leading candidates.

Both campaigns are taking statements out of context.

All I know is that a year ago...
Clinton "was inevitable"
Obama "isn't black enough"

Clinton does not have to play the gender card, she is a woman.
Obama does not have to play the racial card, he is African-American.
These cards are already on the table. Did anyone expect them not to be the shiny thing to distract us from..ah say real things like what they stand for,  and specific plans that reveal this stand?

(note: I am ignoring JRE out of the NEW tradition)

So, Michelle Obama said:

Ain't no black people in Iowa!

Jerome added:

There are black people in Iowa (about 2%), but you get the point.

Me: Yes, only 2%-3% of Iowans are black, but given that it's a caucus, if black Iowans (assuming they conform to the national trend of black voters being overwhelmingly Democratic) turned out in large numbers, couldn't they, in essence, punch radically "above their weight?"

There are roughly 88,000 African-American Iowans. If 75% of these are eligible to vote, 80% of those eligible are actually registered, and a 50% turnout rate, and a 95% rate of participation in the Democratic caucuses (superior motivation due targeted Obama mobilization effort and Obama's status as an African-American), then, potentially, over 25,000 black Iowans participated in the Democratic Caucuses. That would mean that they constituted over 10% of the Democratic caucus participants. Couldn't that at least partially  account for Obama's blowout #s in Iowa's most populated counties?

Anyway, my theory: black people mattered a great deal in Iowa.

Playing the race card will benefit Obama in South Carolina.  However, He can kiss a sizable chunk of the Reagan Democrats, Hispanics, and Asian voters goodbye.

We are justified in making a little hay out of Bill's "fairy tale" line because the Clintons have tried to equate Obama's 2002 Iraq War position as the basis of his entire campaign (which is, of course, ridiculous).  By calling Obama's position on Iraq a fairy tale, they are saying that the rationale or foundation of his entire campaign is a fairy tale.

Hillary's own words yesterday on MTP:

"Look, if you are running for president based primarily on a speech you gave in 2002 and speeches you have given since, most notably at the Democratic convention, then I think it is fair to say we need to know more beyond the words..."  

and

"The story of his campaign is premised on that speech"  referring to the rally speech that Obama gave in Chicago in October, 2002 against the war.

Even though Bill's remarks were made out of frustration in anticipation of a New Hampshire  loss, they still reveal a condescention toward Obama borne out of their own insecurity that maybe Obama really is the right candidate with the right message for 2008.  They are also trying to deflect attention from HRC's own politically motivated vote and speeches in 2002/2003 on the Iraq war, one of her greatest vulnerabilities.  

Some are totally accepting the Clintons after the fact, cover their ass spin.  Typical Clinton tactics.  Attack provocatively with language that can be interpreted different ways although really meant to be directed one way and then say: Oh, we didn't mean that, we meant the other way.  Yeah, right.  

I can appreciate the Clintons' political gamesmanship and hardball, but we are right to throw it back in their face with a little spin of our own.
   

...people said Obama could never win because black people won't vote for him.

Now they say only black people will vote for him.

Either way, of course, Hillary always wins.

Both Bill and Hillary have said many times that Obama was raising false hopes - so the fairy tale quote is right in line with what they really think.

Honestly, I cannot figure out what the Obama campaign is doing or why.  Clinton supporters have made a number of clumsy, dumb statements and that should benefit Obama and his campaign.  

I was very frustrated by Robert Johnson's remarks.  Why couldn't he have just said, "Hillary Clinton was working to make sure African Americans got a fair shake when Barack Obama was in grade school"?  True and it leaves the entire drug crap out of it.  For whatever reason he couldn't just say that.

But instead of just letting the Clinton folks shoot themselves in the foot, they've decided to try to up the ante by trying to paint Bill and Hillary Clinton as personally racist or at least racially insensitive.  I heard John Edwards do the same thing this morning about Hillary's MLK quote.  Yeah, good luck with that, guys.  

I can't believe making this campaign about race is going to help Obama beyond South Carolina.  This seems like a very dangerous game that the Obama camp is playing and I don't understand why.  Clinton's win in NH hurt him, but it hardly knocked him out of contention.

The one thing I think the Obama campaign may succeed in doing with all of this is to make any mention of his drug use be seen, on its face, as a racist attack.  That would definitely benefit him in the general election campaign by ensuring that it stays a non-issue (which is fine by me).

Michele Obama has made curious comments before - only seeing our family on the inaugural stage will send a message of change, and the comment about how she knew  better how to keep her family together - race and women's devisive comments when I heard them - but it is politics.

Where is the link to Michelle Obama's quote?

I like both the Clintons and the Obamas. But wouldn't a brilliant politician like Bill Clinton expect a line like "This whole thing is the biggest fairy tale I've ever seen" to be quoted out of context? Isn't it possible that he intended for it to be taken out of context and heard as confirmation of the fear that an African American still can't be elected as President?

When it's likely that a speaker's words will be taken out of context in a predictable and harmful way, isn't that speaker responsible for the effects of those words?

Honestly, the first time I heard the clip, I heard it in context, but I still wondered if the former president intended to imply more than he was literally saying--the phrase "this whole thing" seemed to call for a broad interpretation.

Mrs. Fraud, Michelle Obama.

"Ain't no black people in Iowa," she says?

Is that how she talks in the board rooms as she plays wealthy attorney?  Ain't no way we lose this lawsuit, she might say?  I think not.

I think is how Mrs. Fraud speaks when she is pandering for votes, talking down to South Carolina voters, and knowingly lying about the meaning of Bill Clinton's remarks.

She is no better than her husband.  Both of them are frauds and should be ashamed of themselves.

Obama came out strong against the war in 2002 before the AUMF vote as documented by interviews and anti-war rally speeches.

In 2004 when he was asked about kerry/edwards ticket at the 2004 convention he said he was not privy to the intel but added that in his opinion the case had not been made for the invasion.

When Obama came into the senate in 2005, he challenged Condi Rice publically to come up with a withdrawal timetable.

In 2006 he again requested that Rice and Rummy come up with plans for withdrawal.

In 2007 he introduced his own legislation to force a withdrawal timetable and when it was clear bush was going to veto any bill with a timetable, Obama voted against funding.

This is why Bill Clintons fairy tale comments were dead wrong. As Dick Durbin and John Kerry have said this week, everyone knows that Obama has been against this debacle from the begginning.

So Bill Clinton is lying about Obama's iraq war stance.  Which means it is irrelevant what Bill meant by
'' this whole thing is such a fairy tale..give me a break''

he was dead wrong.

Obama has never once brought the race or MLK element into this discussion.. now, black leaders unaffiliated with his campaign have taken offense and are commenting...they are not Obama. Obama cannot control what black leaders or voters feel...HRC's campaign has clearly determined that by injecting race into this they cannot lose. As a Clinton pollster said...''hispanics are our firewall as they do not like black leaders..''
HRC and Bill are willing to stoop to anything to win but it will be a scorched earth they leave behind and it will destroy their chances in November.

Republicans WILL be racist.  Republicans WILL use face as a weapon against Barack Hussein Obama.   They will use religion.  They will GLEEFULLY use every dirty trick, every whispered slur, every white mega church across the country will be talking about the dangers.

That won't make it right.  That won't make it fair.  But reality isn't fair.  The Obama are destroying any chance they have to win a general.  The Repulicans are watching and licking their chops.  Obama no longer transcends race they are seeing, instead he uses it as a crutch.

They will beat him over the head with that crutch if they get to the chance to in the general.

I'm sorry, how is Michelle Obama race baiting or "playing the race card"?  I don't even understand the arguments going on on this thread.  She is distorting (slightly) what Clinton said ("fairy tale" quote) and arguing that it's bullshit.  The racial element on either side is where?

The words themselves don't tell the whole story -- you have to watch the footage.

After Bill Clinton's rant about Obama's Iraq record, he drops in a beat or two for dramatic effect, then, speaking
very slowly and punctuating each word with utter contempt, says "Give. Me. A. Break."

It's only after an even longer dramatic pause that Clinton says: "This whole thing is the biggest fairy tale I've ever
seen." (emphasis mine)

What Clinton meant by "fairy tale" hinges on what he meant by "this whole thing" -- and that hinges on the immediate
context of his comment.

Had Obama been, at that moment in the campaign, hammering Hillary Clinton on her Iraq record -- had Bill Clinton been
defending her against against an attack from Obama, on this point -- one could argue that Bill Clinton's "fairy tale" dig,
and the outsized anger and frustration with which he delivered it, was mostly about Obama's Iraq record.

But that wasn't the case. The Clintons were raising the issue themselves, as part of a larger offensive attack on Obama.

This; the lashing-out tone from Bill Clinton; the fact, indeed, that Bill Clinton was fighting for his political life; and the fact
that Hillary Clinton yesterday pushed the absurd argument that Obama's 2002 speech is the "premise" of his campaign --
what all of these things make "very clear" is that the "whole thing" to which Bill Clinton was referring was Obama's
position in the campaign.

This is not to say that "fairy tale" was racist. The problem for the Clintons is that the many comments by her staff
and surrogates that have been racially charged exert a gravitational pull on "fairy tale" that draws it into that
objectionable orbit.

That includes Bill Clinton's more-objectionable-than-"fairy tale" reference to Obama as a "kid" -- a word that
"shuck and jive" and "imaginary hip black friend" draw into the rhetorical atmosphere of "boy."

That's nice Michelle!  Dumb down the English language.  What a good role model you are.