Hillary Clinton jumps the fucking shark.

[rivka]

Apparently we aren't even bothering to use codewords for race anymore:

Clinton cited an Associated Press article "that found how Sen. Obama's support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me."

"Working, hard-working Americans, white Americans." As opposed, apparently, to the shiftless welfare queens of color who support Barack Obama. That's as naked a play of the race card as anyone ever pinned on Al Sharpton. Hillary Clinton, supposedly a Democrat, is pinning the last desperate hopes of her campaign on white racists.

This is not her pastor speaking. This is not a guy in her neighborhood who did bad things forty years ago. This is not a random white guy she's tenuously connected to. This is Hillary Clinton herself taking a page out of the John Birch Society's playbook: "working, hard-working Americans, white Americans."

I've never been a Hillary Clinton fan, but at the beginning of this campaign I admired her historic candidacy and was delighted to be able to say that I'd be happy to throw my full support behind whichever Democratic candidate won the nomination. That was before Clinton refused to say, when asked, that Barack Obama was not a Muslim. That was before she justified her ridiculous bread-and-circuses pandering about a gas tax repeal by sneering that "I'm not going to put my lot in with economists," and "We've got to get out of this mind-set where somehow elite opinion is always on the side of doing things that really disadvantage the vast majority of Americans."

"Elite opinion" is a Newt Gingrich phrase. It's part of the frame that the Republicans have successfully used to marginalize Democrats for the past 14 years. It's all one piece with the race-baiting attempts to position "hard-working Americans" and African-Americans on opposite sides: both are strategies that could've come right out of the hard right wing playbook. Hillary Clinton is deliberately making use of these strategies. There is no question - none - that she doesn't know what she's doing. And by doing so, she is reinforcing themes and frames which benefit the hard right wing and hurt the Democratic Party.

Obviously no matter what happens I'm not going to vote for McCain. But if Hillary Clinton somehow manages to come out of this disgusting, ugly mess with the nomination, I won't be donating one penny to her campaign, making one phone call, or handing out one campaign flyer.

I am so. Utterly. Disgusted.

Via Atrios.

Comments

[chargirlgenius.livejournal.com]

She seems to be desperately grasping at straws.

There was a point in the race where I could support either one. Then, though, I just didn’t believe that she could carry the general election. While she might have had decent support, I strongly believe that she would bring the most right-wing part of the Republican party out to the polls just to vote against her.

Now, I’m less thrilled with her, her tactics, and what she says. I believe even less that she could carry the general. Were it to come down to it, I would still vote for her over McCain, but I wouldn’t feel good about it.

I’m not entirely certain that Obama can carry the general either, but I’m more willing to take the gamble than the sure loss I’m sure that Clinton would provide. I’m not sure that it’s even possible to tell, considering that McCain has been able to sit quietly on the sidelines.

I’ve heard many a news story trot out the stat that 17%-33% of Clinton supporters wouldn’t vote for Obama. I’m not sure who they interviewed – people in exit polls? People who claim to have voted for her in the primary? Registered democrats? I think there’s strong evidence to suggest that many people voting for her in the primaries have been Republicans trying to get the most unelectable candidate nominated (“Operation Chaos”). If these are the people who wouldn’t vote for Obama, who cares?

[rivka.livejournal.com]

15% of the people who voted for Clinton in Indiana said in exit polls that they wouldn't vote for HER if she was the nominee. (a href="http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1738215,00.html?xid=rss-politics-cnn">Source.)So yeah, I think there was a Limbaugh effect. I'm surprised that statistic isn't getting more play in the media.

[chargirlgenius.livejournal.com]

Y’know, I’m not at all surprised by the number or by the fact that the so-called liberal media isn’t covering it. I’m a little surprised that somebody bothered asking the question.

If there’s one thing that I trust neo-cons to do right, it’s manipulate and spin. Seems to me a pretty safe bet that the candidate they would prefer is not the best candidate for the dems.

Maybe I’m cutting off my nose to spite my face, but they’re working awfully hard to get Hillary in there.