Posts with the tag race card

Discrimination on this website.

Jason M. Christos — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 12:34:49 EDT

So this morning I go to create a group. And as I am browsing through the categories i find this:

People African Americans Americans Abroad Asian American/Pacific Islander Disability Community Faith Labor Latinos LGBT Community Military and Veterans Native Americans Professionals Seniors Small Business Students Women Young People

Do you see something wrong with this picture. Under the category people it lists blacks and asians but no other races. Wow what a racist website. Very discriminatory. Yet another example of racism exhibited by supposed ant-racists. Read my paper titled: I'm a racist, You're a racist, He's a racist...look at our faces... here

Your request is being processed... Former McCain Strategist Warns Against "Angry Mob"

Irish Musician for Progressive Solutions — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 01:45:24 EDT

From the Huffington Post

John Weaver, John McCain's former top strategist, says the Republican candidate is making both a moral and a a tactical mistake by letting abusive hecklers have free rein at rallies:

"People need to understand, for moral reasons and the protection of our civil society, the differences with Senator Obama are ideological, based on clear differences on policy and a lack of experience compared to Senator McCain," Weaver said. "And from a purely practical political vantage point, please find me a swing voter, an undecided independent, or a torn female voter that finds an angry mob mentality attractive."

One of Washington's longest serving political hands expressed bewilderment and fright over the vitriol coming from McCain-Palin rallies, saying that the anger of the crowds could lead to violence.

"One of the most striking things we've seen in the last few day, we have seen it at the Palin rallies and we saw it at the McCain rally today," said David Gergen, appearing on Anderson Cooper 360 Thursday evening. "And we saw it to a considerable degree during the rescue package legislation. There is a free-floating sort of whipping-around anger that could really lead to some violence. And I think we're not far from that."

Gergen's remark came hours after John McCain and Sarah Palin held a rally in Wisconsin that saw attendees pleading with them to go on the attack against Barack Obama over his past associations and "socialistic" behavior. Earlier in the week crowd members at other McCain-Palin events have screamed out that Obama is a terrorist, has committed treason, and should be killed.
Read more:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/10/former-mccain-strategist_n_133523.html

Race Card? You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet!

Vanessa Edwards from Houston, TX — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 13:16:05 EDT

http://transpolitical.blogspot.com/2008/08/race-card-you-aint-seen-nothin-yet.html

reprint 8/1/08 TransPolitical blog

“[Republicans] are desperate to win this election – there’s a lot at stake. And they’re going to say and do whatever they need to to get [re-]elected. … The Supreme Court’s at stake.”

Oh! “Buy a gun. And learn how to use it.”

This is a difficult blog to write, and I’m still mulling through how to process this information. One thing I’ve noticed over the years in politics: there are those who create chaos in order that they control and then make their own order out of that chaos.

The bottom line of what I learned today: Republicans will start a race war if they have to in order to win the presidency. It’s one of those “options” that’s not “off the table.” The logic? If they get blacks (and other minorities) out in an L.A. riot fashion, it’ll scare most all of the whites back over to the Republican side come election time.

How to Market Obama Now: Play the Race Card...

Adrienne Zurub — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 19:38:54 EDT

I subscribe to BL Ochman's newsletter. Today, this newsletter grabbed my attention. Ochman, makes salient arguments in this article. Eventually, the Republicans are going to use race as a divisive and nasty campaign strategy. Obama needs to address the 'elephant in the room.'

Subscribe to What's Next News Read Online Advertise Contact RSS 1.0 Feed RSS 2.0 FeedBL Ochman's What's Next NewsThursday, September 4, 2008

Please note: These are simply the last two days' posts from What's Next Blog. You can read all my recent posts, and add comments if you like, at What's Next Blog You will need to read the blog online in order to see the videos in the posts. Thanks for subscribing! Follow me on Twitter. B.L.

I COPIED AND PASTED THIS BECAUSE THIS INFORMATION IS TRUE AND IMPORTANT!

How to Market Obama Now: Play the Race Card

Love them or hate them, (and I hate them) Sarah Palin’s views are transparent. What’s not transparent is the race issue, and Barak Obama needs to address it now.

Then we can move on to the real issues, without the whispering. Otherwise, the GOP puppet masters will find a way to poison the well of hope, and we can’t let that happen again.

Race is the whispered undercurrent of this campaign. Friends ask each other: “Do you really think a black man can win?” “Is America really ready for a black president?” And in their private conversations, people say things that no politician or pundit would dare to utter in public, like “Black people will think they can do whatever they want if he’s elected” (This from a liberal professor at a New York City University.)

If I was on the marketing team, I'd advise Obama to come out and say “I know race is the whispered issue, but we need to talk about it. I’m what happens when – no matter where you come from – you work hard, you dream big and you nevergive up. And I’m here to tell you that if you worry about the color of my skin, you are worrying about the wrong issue.”

I'd tell him to do it on YouTube, in blog advertising, in email, in text messages to his supporters, content sponsorship, and on his website. Bypass mainstream media and let them get the news online where millions turn instead of TV or newspapers.

The race issue may be over in tennis and golf, but it’s not over around dining room tables across the country, in gated communities or in the projects. It needs to be discussed on a national stage, because until it is, we’re stuck in the past.Posted by B.L. Ochman

Categories: Alternative Marketing, B.L. Ochman, Conferences, Internet strategy,Marketing Strategy, Politics, Reality Marketing, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Thought Leaders, Trends, Word of MouthTags: Barack Obama Obama 08 race and politics Internet strategy political commentary racial profiling political strategy political marketingBL Ochman | Sep 3 08 1:01 | Permanent Link | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)Subscribe to What's Next News

GOOD NEWS:

Which Candidate is Winning Online? Hint: Not McCain

Which presidential candidate is winning on the Internet? Let the numbers tell the story.

The vast majority of forum discussions on McCain Space, the candidate's social network, have fewer than 10 replies, and most have none as of 3 pm today. Most of the groups have 50 members or less, and less than 50 user-made videos have been uploaded to the site, where the most popular video, with 470 votes is "some random rifle spinning" by a Texas supporter who never says a word. The McCain Blog's posts have about half the number of comments as the Obama Blog.McCain News on Twitter is following 119 and has 1,686 followers.

Comments on Obama Blog posts range from 450 to 1200+ per post. Obama has 496,701 friends on MySpace, 1,662,290 supporters on Facebook, Obama's campaign is following 75,287 people on Twitter, where he has 72,367 followers. Following others is a key indicator that a person using Twitter in actually participating in the community.

Politicians have been using the Internet to reach confirmed and potential supporters for more than a decade. But once the Obama campaign won MoveOn.org's support, it became able to use the web to build a two-way conversation and recruit MoveOn's remarkably organized members to quick, strong action and donations.

The proof is in the numbers, says ITbusiness.

On Web traffic-tracking site Alexa, BrackObama.com ranks 535 and JohnMcCain.com 4,497 out of all Web pages, as of Aug. 29. That stark contrast wasn't heightened by the timing of the Democratic convention – over the past several months, Obama's site has ranked an average of 7,000 positions higher than his opponent's site.

Categories: Internet strategy, Marketing Strategy, Politics, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Word of Mouth

Adrienne Zurub

http://adriennezurub.typepad.com

The Race Card

LPeters — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 13:14:19 EDT

Next time anyone mentions the Race Card to Obama I hope he responds by saying:

"I can only play a card if it's been dealt. If you don't want it played, take it out of the deck."

Hillary Fans - Let's Play Cards

The Kozmic Kid — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 09:21:46 EDT

There's a lot of card playing, or rumors of card playing, going on in the campaign. Hillary Clinton supporters blame the media for unfair treatment related to gender. McCain blames Obama for playing the race card when he says the Republicans will remind us that he doesn't look like the portraits on the money. Gender card. Race card. Age card. Fear card. We can probably assemble a whole deck. Or at least a pinochle deck.

I've heard there are Clinton supporters who say they will vote for McCain. I can't think of a single reason why they'd do this except self-indulgent spite - a sort of "if I can't play I'm going to take my ball and go home" attitude.

What's their motivation? McCain's policies are radically different from Clinton's, which are only mildly different from Obama's. Perhaps they want McCain to win so Hillary can run in 2012. At least that makes sense, but why subject ourselves to another four years of Republican administration after the last eight exhausting years?

McCain's Humor Deficit and "The Race Card"

Abigail — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 23:31:07 EDT

New York Magazine - August 8 - The Humor Deficit (Commentary)

Kurt Andersen explores the McCain's campaign's misguided attempts at "humor" and its overstated response to Obama's lighthearted efforts to defuse the real problem of race bias in the election.

Take the most recent race-card brouhaha. Heretofore, “playing the race card” had meant a bitter, overhyped allegation of racism. Yet Obama’s formulations were jocular, tossed out with a wink to sympathetic white audiences, attempts to mention but laugh off a hugely salient fact about this election—that he’s an African-American running against a party that has for 40 years profited politically from white anxieties about African-Americans. “We know what kind of campaign they’re going to run,” he said in Florida in June. “They’re going to try to make you afraid of me. ‘He’s young and inexperienced and he’s got a funny name. And did I mention he’s black?’ ” And then the week before last in Missouri: “You know, ‘He’s not patriotic enough. He’s got a funny name.’ You know, ‘He doesn’t look like all those other presidents on those dollar bills. He’s risky.’ ”
Now, while McCain or people associated with his campaign have indeed impugned and mocked Obama’s experience, name, patriotism, and trustworthiness, they’ve never actually made the argument that he shouldn’t be president because he’s black. However, they surely want to maximize the several million anti-Obama votes that will be powered at least in part by racism. (Just as Hillary Clinton wished to do when she spoke of her greater support among “hardworking Americans, white Americans.”)
In other words, Obama was making a serious point about the ugly political realities, but trying to do so in a way that seemed unthreatened and unthreatening, with cool sock-puppety humor. To which McCain’s campaign manager and then the candidate himself responded with all the pseudo-solemn self-righteous faux rage they could muster—just the sort of overreaction that people like Al Sharpton enact at their Mau-Mauiest. “Barack Obama,” Rick Davis said, “has played the race card, and he played it from the bottom of the deck. It’s divisive, negative, shameful, and wrong.”
I’m assuming that this was standard political disingenuousness rather than actual outrage....

McCain Mocked Idea of Obama on U.S. Currency...in JUNE

Chinni — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 11:37:25 EDT

McCain Mocked Idea of Obama on U.S. Currency...in JUNE

8/2/08 jed report

The issue here, of course, is that John McCain claimed great umbrage at Barack Obama's lighthearted comment that Bush and McCain would emphasize that "he doesn't look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills."
But if John McCain thinks that comment was playing the race card, then why did he play it first? One month ago -- in late June -- a McCain ad superimposed Obama's visage on a one hundred dollar bill as part of an effort to mock his supposed 'presumptuousness.'

Bill O'Reilly Flips Out On Obama

1 LOVE, 1 NATION, 1 GOD, 1 CHOICE [OBAMA 08] — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 15:00:15 EDT

If Bill O’Reilly is part of the “white, Christian, male power structure,” I’d like to volunteer to help break down that structure as well. So here’s a question for two top talkers too reticent to talk — Where do we sign up? Bill O'Reilly Flips Out On Obama (YouTube Video)

McCain calls Obama 'arrogant' - this is how McCain plays the race card (dealing from the bottom of the deck)!

Jean from Saugerties, NY — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 20:41:41 EDT

Notice how McCain makes thinly veiled comments referring negatively to Obama's race. That is what this whole 'Barack is arrogant' smear is clearly all about. To me it sounds like McCain is frustrated that Senator Obama is an educated, confident, articulate and successful man who is also African American. McCain is behaving like Barack has no business advertising these qualities because of his skin color. These 'arrogance' accusations sound like code because McCain is really (and quite transparently) saying that Barack should know his place and stop trying to be an uppity "N-word". If John McCain had anything relevant to argue - he would. All he apparently has is this constant stream of ugliness and it is an evil way to behave. Is this yet another example of McCain's brand of retrograde 'Christianity'?

The topper is McCain accusing Obama of 'playing the race card'. Have you noticed that the GOP consistently does this kind of thing? It's like a game where they quickly rush in to assign negative behaviors to the Democrats, actually accusing the liberals of doing what the Republicans are already doing. This is not new but it has been extremely effective with the press. I like the way that Sen. Obama handles it all. He calls them on their bull and does not legitimize it. He is taking the high road and sticking to the facts and issues. I see that the McCain campaign just gets confused and demoralized by this. Then they degenerate into even more immature name calling. It is simple distraction and McCain only comes off as a very bad and very desperate magician. It is a sad and pathetic path to walk, not to mention a hateful and divisive way to conduct a public campaign. John McCain is revealing just how dysfunctional he actually is. People like this are bound to self destruct and they will try to take us all down with them.

Hurray for Barack - for not compounding and perpetuating this horribly destructive trend! I completely admire the way he refuses to be drawn into these hideous games. Instead Barack is presently speaking about the obvious and highly overlooked factual connection between the outrageous oil company profits, planetary destruction and record sky-high oil prices. A view that was shared by Sen. McCain, by the way, until the oil companies began paying him! Sen. Obama keeps shining the sunlight on the repressive and backward ways of the establishment. What a marvelously refreshing and healing revelation this is! As Americans of all colors we need to refuse to be drawn into the past and the ineffective policies that have been hurting every ordinary person in this country for far too long already.

MSM: Enough with the race card stuff

Samm319 — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 17:11:00 EDT

Saw Hardball today and some guy (Leo something) was over the top about the Brittany commercial being about race. I just wish people who are supposed to be on Barack's side would stop talking about this. They are NOT helping... Personally I don't see it as racial but a stupid attempt to equate a Harvard educated lawyer who has served admirably for over 11 years in elected office to two dumb bimbos. A focus on the absurdity of this would be a much better for surrogates and talking heads to be commenting on. C'mon!

Who Played The Race Card?

QueenTiye — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 15:14:26 EDT

Last night I was hearing everyone talk about how Obama made a mistake - that McCain "himself" never played the race card, even if some fringe periphery groups might have. I thought that argument was sound, and then I saw this, from 2 months ago:

Apologize and MOVE ON!

Amy from New River, AZ — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 17:19:02 EDT

Barack DID mispeak when he said McCain says "he doesn't look like the other presidents on the dollar bill - -." I heard him and if taken literally, that is what Obama said. However, I KNOW he didn't mean that JOHN MC CAIN said it, because he hasn't--not in those words anyway. Everybody else implies it when they use the words "risky", "unknown", etc.. No, John Mc Cain has never used the race card in public--he wouldn't dare.

So Barack, PLEASE APOLOGIZE AND MOVE ON!!!

Great Minds Talk About Ideas

Catherine S. Read — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 14:09:54 EDT

There's a quote that I've seen attributed to the late Eleanor Roosevelt, but which probably originated with an earlier Greek philosopher: "Great minds talk about ideas, average minds talk about events, and small minds talk about people."

The fact that the McCain Campaign has chosen to attack Senator Obama personally tells all of us the level to which they have been reduced. They apparently have no great ideas to talk about. The Obama campaign does have ideas - about the issues that matter in this campaign and to the American people.

Obama supporters should not get sidetracked by this new tactic or the media's stirring of the pot by giving it so much exposure. The media love controversy because it meets their own agenda. The more controversial the campaign, the more stories they sell over the airwaves, the Internet and through print media. Every form of the media has a vested interest in seeing this election turn as ugly and unsavory as it can possibly be.

We should take our cue from the man himself and rise above these desperate measures intended to discredit Barack Obama personally. He knows there is no basis for any of the statements being made and so do we. We need to focus on what matters to the people and not this ridiculous playground name calling. I hope everyone will pull together to maintain the same dignity, confidence and self-assurance in this campagn that the candidate himself displays every day.

The "Little Experience" Attack

David from Leander, TX — Fri, 30 May 2008 12:15:00 EDT

Let's label this one what it is, racism.

It is the oldest and meanest trick in the racist book. The ploy has always been to treat minority men like they are childlike and need guidance and adult help. Senator McCain has played this one exactly by the script.

Senator Obama's campaign should make a point to get to the source and comment when reporters refer to him as "Barak" and the other candidates as "Senator ________."

Bush II, Bill Clinton, John Kennedy, Jimmy Carter did not have any more international experience than Senator Obama, and this attack was never carried out against them with this same intensity. It is shameful and disgusting to do this now. Senator Obama must have the respect due a United States Senator and not be treated like a "boy."

We need someone other than Senator Obama to get into the media and pound on this. Get some minority opinion leaders of several races and nail this one in public.

That would be doing a favor for every minority male in the country.

Who You Calling A B#%@&?

J.W. — Tue, 27 May 2008 02:26:29 EDT

So, Geraldine Ferraro’s in the news again. Yeah, you know her. She’s the one that said that Barack Obama wouldn’t be in the position he’s in now if he wasn’t black, suggesting that, somehow, it’s advantageous to be black in America nowadays. Keep in mind that this is the same person who claimed that she herself was chosen to be Walter Mondale’s Vice-Presidential candidate in the 1984 election simply because she was a woman. And now, this same woman is claiming that she might not vote for Barack Obama because she believes he’s been condescending and sexist throughout this campaign. (1)

According to Ferraro, Barack Obama has mocked and dismissed Hillary Clinton’s candidacy. Ferraro claims that calling Clinton Annie Oakley was insulting (2) and brushing the dirt off his shoulders (3) at a rally was patronizing. That pulling the chair out for Hillary at their debates was demeaning.

But who’s really been condescending and dismissive in this campaign?

Is it Barack Obama, who has given Hillary Clinton more credit than she probably deserves for her alleged 8 years of experience in the White House? Or, is it Hillary Clinton who said the following:

I think that I have a lifetime of experience that I will bring to the White House. I know Senator McCain has a lifetime of experience that he will bring to the White House. And Senator Obama has a speech he gave in 2002. (4)

Is it Barack Obama who pulls out a chair for Hillary Clinton or Clinton, who mocks Barack Obama’s vision for America. (5)

Who’s played the race/gender card the most? Barack Obama, who always tried to make race and gender a non-issue in this campaign, or Hillary Clinton who’s claimed that she’s the candidate of white America (6) or whose husband compared Barack Obama to Jesse Jackson (7) for no apparent reason other than they’re both black.

So, who’s really been dismissive and condescending, Ms. Ferraro? Clearly, this is a classic case of seeing what you want to see and believing what you want to believe.

Peace,
J.W.

(1) Geraldine Ferraro claims Barack Obama’s campaign has been sexist.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=unzx1Gvkmxc
(2) Barack Obama responds to Hillary Clinton’s newfound support of guns.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=gyL8sYy2Qa4
(3) Barack Obama brushes the dirt of his shoulders after ABC debate in Philadelphia.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=kzXcNgCr0nk
(4) Hillary Clinton praises John McCain’s experience and dismisses Barack Obama’s.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=112KQfOuOcc
(5) Hillary mocks Barack’s vision for a better America.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=a1ckrEeHDRY
(6) Hillary Clinton claims the white vote.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=PfidftLe5Z0
(7) Bill Clinton dismisses Barack Obama’s win in SC by comparing him to Jesse Jackson.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qqd2dfjl2pw

Can we believe in this kind of change?

SRG_Legal — Mon, 26 May 2008 05:35:43 EDT

Change the doesn't racially profile blacks?

Change that doesn't kill unarmed black men who are committing no crimes and have no previous criminal records?

Change where blacks in need of medical care get equal healthcare quality to their racial counterparts?

Change where poor struggling African American women are not labeled welfare queens because some filthy rich man who owns at least five homes in four states, a private plane, a charter boat, and receives $99,000 every six months in investment equity in real estate in a nation and has millions of dollars in his checking account in a nation that blacks built and in which they never profited from would begrudge a woman $300 a month and some food stamps to feed and clothe five children?

Change where black men without tons of money get a fair trial BEFORE they are exonerated of their alleged crimes by DNA evidence 20 years too late? (These are not isolated cases...)

Change where blacks who aren't on welfare actually get to benefit off the tax dollars they pay?

Change where the maximum penalty for taking a black person's life is more than four or five years in prison and where the murders of innocent African Americans is also grounds for capital punishment?

Change where there are no more sundown towns, racially segregated neighborhoods, or blockages to blacks in fair and equal housing, and where certain neighborhoods are not "upcharged" in order to exclude blacks who typically have 2-3 times less income than their racial counterparts unless their name is Oprah Winfrey or Bill Cosby?

Change where African Americans finally realize that all of the above is true here and now in the New Millennium and no one can fix it except themselves once they stop giving money to Eddie Long, Creflo Dollar, Joel Osteen, and T D Jakes to pray for prosperity that they themselves will never have?

This kind of change that deals honestly, fairly, and justly with truth instead of being in denial about it, jaded, and accusatory that the man who fights against historic racism is, instead, its instigator and "agitator"? Ronald Reagan, of course, didn't know his left nuts from his right ones and had the Heinzalmers to prove it, but his despicable behavior towards blacks in America lives on.

Clinton playing the race card

Evalyn Gossett — Fri, 09 May 2008 16:27:09 EDT

She wants to fight for the nomination and now she has a fight with HER comment. Now it is her comment which is being attacked by the media. Why wouldn't she just agree to move forward based on the issues which are important to all Americans. Healthcare, gas prices, etc

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/05/09/999566.aspx

And now... HRC Plays the Race Card

ZapDuff — Fri, 09 May 2008 12:37:44 EDT

One of the more thoughtful, less emotional posters to an Obama Campaign EMail list service today suggested Hillary is behaving like a terrorist. My response was, " I do not think it wise or fair to draw a parallel between Hillary and terrorists. I will say, having proof she is now blatantly resorting to playing the race card as we are hearing with her own voice this morning... she has lost all political capital she had to become the nominee or decide a splinter of what goes into the Democratic platform this year.

Bill Clinton - Black, Black, Black!

Cindy — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 07:15:41 EDT

In case you missed it, Bill Clinton, our so-called "first black president," continues his clumsy but determined campaign not to let a real black achieve the presidency.

Recently, he complained to a radio station that the Obama campaign "played the race card on him." Translation: Obama is black. Hey, you voters, he's black, y'all. Black, get it? Black, black, black.

Then, Bill Clinton denied that he'd ever said such a thing. Translation: He's STILL BLACK! Get it?

With this 2-step gutter move, Bill Clinton makes sure his pointed and none-too subtle racial message gets air play not once, but TWICE. It's a 2-fer.

So, Bill Clinton cynically stomps all over racial sensitivities with the sole purpose of getting people to vote according to the little devil sitting on their shoulders, not according to their better angels.

It's the lowest form of gutter politics played at the highest level.

Can the GOP Win the Presidency Without Playing the Race Card?

Gwen — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 21:45:00 EDT

About a month ago, I wrote a widely publicized op-ed piece, raising the issue of the 1995 Million Man March and whether or not all Black men who attended would now be barred from seeking higher office. I had no idea whether or not Sen. Barack Obama had attended the March, but I understood the twisted mindset of Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh and other right-wing radio hosts and their racist rants. It appears that my comments were prescient.

Hannity of FOX News, apparently dissatisfied that the issue surrounding Rev. Jeremiah Wright did not successfully derail Obama’s campaign, is now trying to link the Illinois senator to Louis Farrakhan via the Million Man March. As it turns out, Obama attended the March, but did not play a prominent role.

The objective of the Million Man March was to make a positive statement that Black men were responsible, upstanding citizens who take care of their families and were not all criminals as portrayed in the media. It was completely peaceful and attracted 1 million-plus Black men from all socioeconomic and educational backgrounds. Farrakhan was a catalyst for organizing the event, but was really incidental to its outcome. Through a 1995 interview with a newspaper called the Chicago Reader, Obama had some very critical things to say about Farrakhan and his approach to issues, as well as a critique of the March.

But these facts are lost on Hannity and his right-wing cohorts because, in their world, facts don’t matter. Their real objective is to make racial division the dominant wedge issue of the 2008 presidential campaign. That appears to be the only way Republicans have been able to win national elections because they have been unable to win on the issues.

Take a look at the last 35 years in presidential politics and every Republican victory has had the underlying theme of racial animus. Richard Nixon based his campaign on his “Southern strategy” and strongly opposed forced busing to integrate public schools.

Ronald Reagan ran against “Chicago welfare queens” (presumably Black) who were getting a free ride from the government. Reagan, proclaiming support for states’ rights, launched his campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi, the site of the 1964 murders of three civil rights workers, Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Michael Schwerner, with an apparent olive branch to the descendants of those who condoned this horrendous deed.

And who could forget George H.W. Bush’s campaign against Michael Dukakis and the specter of Willie Horton. Horton was a Black man who escaped from prison and raped a White woman while her husband was forced to watch, conjuring up images from the 1915 film “Birth of a Nation.”

During the presidential primaries in 2000, George W. Bush made a pilgrimage to Bob Jones University, an institution known for its objection to interracial dating among its students, to shore up his redneck bona fides. And 527s, independent political groups, ran an underground campaign during the South Carolina primary insinuating that John McCain had a Black love child when, in fact, he and his wife Cindy had adopted a dark-skinned child from Bangladesh. In 2004, Bush won re-election based on the fear of gay marriage and of brown-skinned radical Islamic terrorists.

It appears that, should Obama be the nominee, the GOP themes for 2008 will center around Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Louis Farrakhan, the Million Man March and whether Obama, as a Black candidate, is sufficiently patriotic.

My personal experience with the GOP has been disheartening, to say the least. Raised in a Democratic household, in my late 20s I had soured on some of the party’s issue stances and the fact the Democrats took the Black vote for granted. As someone who is pro-business and conservative on social issues, I decided to switch my party affiliation in the 1990s and became active in Republican politics. I believed then, and still believe, that Black voters would be better off being involved in both parties so neither could take us for granted.

However, I found that Republicans prefer that Black members of their party be seen and not heard, and were expected to tow the party line at all times. My husband I tired of being one of the few Blacks in the room at most Republican events. If other Blacks were present, we were often mistaken for someone else since, of course, all Blacks look alike. Any hopes of bringing other Black voters into the party were thwarted by the Republicans’ constant use of the race card, particularly in Senate, Congressional and presidential elections. After a few years of this abysmal treatment, my husband and I decided that the independent route was our best option.

Hopefully, McCain, as the Republican standard bearer, will not stoop to the tactic of fanning the flames of racial division, but other members of his party have already taken a giant leap in this direction. Right-wing talk radio has apparently decided that playing the race card is lucrative, good for ratings and serves as red meat for the more extreme elements of its audience. The 527s will be out in full force with video snippets of Rev. Wright, Farrakhan and anyone else they can use to smear Obama as a closet subversive, a potential mole for a radical Black faction, even though his life's work proves he is open-minded and inclusive.

After all, Republicans certainly cannot run on the failed U.S. economy, the falling dollar, sky-high gas prices, inadequate access to health care, and their disastrous military and foreign policy in the Middle East. A campaign based on racial anxiety may be their only hope. In November, we’ll get a chance to see if their tactic is successful once again.

Clinton Strategy Playing The Race Card!

Mark Ungemach (Democratic Committee Person, Franklin Township, Landenberg, PA) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 11:17:22 EDT

I don't think that we can comment on this. In fact, I think if we speak out about it, we will only help the Clinton effort. I do think, however, that we can share this article with our progressive friends who are pro-Hillary, or who are on the fence.

From: http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3597/the_clinton_firewall/

The Clinton Firewall

The New York Senator’s last-ditch efforts to win the Democratic

nomination could rely on the “Race Chasm” and the trampling of

democracy.

By David Sirota

Google the phrase “Clinton firewall” and you will come up with an ever-lengthening list of scenarios that Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign has said will stop Barack Obama’s candidacy. The New Hampshire primary, said her campaign, would be the firewall to end Obamamania. Then Super Tuesday was supposed to be the firewall. Then Texas. Now Pennsylvania and Indiana.

Obama and Race

Mary from Vermont — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 19:52:55 EDT

Obama and Race = My response to an editorial in the Wall Street Journal

It’s just you. Barack Obama has faced plenty of criticism in which he has not played the race card. Excuse me, but if you remember correctly it was Geraldine Ferraro who brought up race as an issue in this particular ‘situation’, with her inflammatory remarks. I think there were many people who were offended by her claims, not simply camp Obama. Not acknowledging this is not really being clear about what this statement evoked for many (have you been reading the blogs??).

I would like to know specifically how it is that Barack Obama’s race has positively influenced his candidacy and where he is at this time in the race. My feeling is that if he was a white man, and spoke the same articulate, even-tempered message, that he would have blown Hillary Clinton out of the political waters and won the party nomination already.

I think it is his right to be sensitive about race to a degree. You have not walked in his shoes and do not know what his personal racial experience has been. But I don’t see where he has played the race card to ‘blunt all criticism’. He has been under close political and media scrutiny in which he has remained true to his principles and answered claims false and otherwise with aplomb.

Let’s call Hillary out on her blatant lies, fear mongering and otherwise Republican tactics used to win this race by any means possible. Three weeks ago I considered the party lucky to have two such competent candidates. Now, due to the tone that has been set by Clinton’s campaign, I will sit this election out if she is the Democratic nominee. Having followed this primary very closely through both mainstream and alternative media, I am not alone by a long shot.

Mary Tirpok

Here is the article...

Obama and the Race Card
March 13, 2008

Is it just us, or does Barack Obama seem a mite too quick to play the race card when facing criticism from political opponents?

In recent days, the Obama camp has been demanding an apology from Geraldine Ferraro, the former Vice Presidential candidate and current Hillary Clinton supporter who last week let slip that, "If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. And if he was a woman of any color, he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept."

Though Ms. Ferraro resigned from the Clinton campaign yesterday, her remarks reveal little more than a firm grasp of the obvious, even if she could have found a less artless way to express herself. There is no disputing that Mr. Obama's skin color has been a political boon for him to date. And the suggestion that saying so aloud betrays racial animus implies that only the Illinois Senator can discuss the issue of race in regard to his candidacy.

Back in January, the Obama campaign was on similarly shaky ground when it accused Mrs. Clinton of belittling Martin Luther King Jr. by stating that "it took a President" to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Mrs. Clinton was stating a fact, not slighting King, and the context in which she uttered the statement made that perfectly clear.

We're not suggesting that the Obama campaign has never been justified in crying foul over racially tinged remarks out of the Clinton camp. When Bill Clinton gratuitously invoked Jesse Jackson after Mr. Obama won the South Carolina primary, he was clearly trying to define the Senator's victory in narrowly racial terms.

But for all of Mr. Obama's soaring rhetoric about the nation's need for a post-racial politics that "brings the American people together," his campaign at times has seemed overly sensitive about race. It also seems to want it both ways. Mr. Obama claims that his brand of politics transcends race, but at the same time he's using race as a shield to shut down important and legitimate arguments.

Already, prominent Obama sympathizers, such as Harvard's Orlando Patterson, are detecting racial overtones where none exist. In a New York Times op-ed this week, Mr. Patterson said a Clinton political ad designed to question Mr. Obama's readiness as Commander in Chief contained a "racist sub-message" because none of the people depicted in the TV spot are black. Counting people of color in an ad about national security is hardly consistent with the Obama theme that "race doesn't matter."

We suppose some of the current back and forth is due to the diversity preoccupations of Democrats. But it bodes ill for an honest fall campaign if Mr. Obama and his allies are going to play the race card to blunt any criticism. A campaign in which John McCain couldn't question Mr. Obama's policies, experience and mettle without being called a racist is not what the country needs. Or wants.

Democrats have repeatedly touted the diversity of their party's White House hopefuls. And it is true that a Clinton or Obama Presidency would make gender or racial history. Americans of all backgrounds can take satisfaction in watching the country field its first black Presidential candidate with a chance to win. But voters also want their would-be Presidents properly vetted, by the media and by each other. To that end Mr. Obama would do better to focus more on answering his political critics with specifics and less on questioning their motives by crying wolf on race.

The "race card"

Naomi — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 17:18:55 EDT

First, a warning. In this post, I am going to attempt to "go there" on the issue of race in America and how it is reflected in the current campaign. I mean "go there" as in "let's not go there." We need to go there. We're already there, we just don't acknowledge it. I do not imagine that my perspective is universal, nor that I will not offend anyone. But if we don't go there, how can we ever imagine we're going to get at the heart of what is ailing this society?

Second, a disclaimer. I am a white woman in her 30's. Unnervingly, that may make some people more willing to listen to what I have to say than if I were, say, an African-American male. And yet, who knows more about race and racism in America than a person of color? More on this later.

Two things that have had a lot of play in the press the last couple of days have really stuck with me. The first was a lot of commentary accusing the Obama campaign of "playing the race card" in responding to Ferraro, and saying that Obama supporters are "injecting race" into this campaign.

The second is today's report that Hillary Clinton apologized for Bill Clinton's comments about Jesse Jackson in South Carolina by saying:

"I want to put that in context. You know I am sorry if anyone was offended. It was certainly not meant in any way to be offensive. We can be proud of both Jesse Jackson and Senator Obama. Anyone who has followed my husband's public life or my public life know very well where we have stood and what we have stood for and who we have stood with."

So, let's take these from the top.

Ferraro's Playing of the Race Card Planned

Darrell Ross — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 03:01:31 EDT

Oh come on. Ferraro is being quite hypocritical. She plays the race card and then says people have been tip-toe-ing around it but not around gender for Hillary? Bull. People have been ridiculed for playing the gender card too.

Besides, this seems all too familiar with the Bill Clinton comment on Barack winning South Carolina just because of race. It's yet another dirty attempt to galvanize and divide the nation; black vs not-black. I feel like it's only helping the Clinton campaign. They knew they needed someone to play the race card and Ferraro was chomping at the bit to do it. Problem solved (for Hillary that is).

Now Hillary can claim she had nothing to do with it and Ms Farraro can spout her head off about it. I am so sick of the first-woman-prez vs first-african-american-prez junk. Obama has better foresight and has made better decisions in the past, he has better advisors (check out some of Hillary's advisors), his spouse is hardworking and started her life where many people in the US start, down low.

If you read the link above, you know Hillary's primary campaign chief is Mark Penn who works for corporations running polls and is constantly running polls for Hillary. This allows them to more-or-less predict the effect of campaign goals, or, to put it another way, manipulate the vote.

Right there, the previous two paragraphs -- I don't care if she's a woman or he's black; Obama is clearly the less corrupt candidate. The fact that he has survived a single senate term without becoming corrupt is certainly encouraging. I am so tired of the spinsters. *sigh*

Attack Agendas, Not The Candidate, Billary Still Don't Get It!

IKEY G-KHAN GALACTICCA — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 12:34:48 EST

Billary has been attacking Obama because she is now losing and therefore very desperate.

This is a very big mistake. Instead of attacking the man that America has fallen in love with who shall be the next president, she should be clarifying her campaign agenda and telling the Americans how she can do a better job solving their problems!

I do not know who is her political adviser, but they are doing her a lot of harm by not advising her correctly.

Like Obama said at the Austin debate, this campaign should be about uniting America and bringing everyone together to take part in bringing changes that America desperately needs in order to survive and be re-empowered.

But it seems from her attack, Billary is interested in division and creating more problems for America by playing race, gender, party, media and African dressing cards.

This seems to be the same complaint coming from the media and millions of America: she is a divisive candidate and repulsive.

I am the person who advised Obama never to attack Billary personally. The reason is that she is losing! And this loss is the most nightmarish experience of her life.

To become the President of America and make history is one of her greatest ambitions.

Besides, if Obama starts attacking her, she will draw sympathies from female voters especially lesbians, bisexuals, LBGT and Latinos who are her core voters.

This is why during the debates, you rarely saw him lambasting her. Obama has a mountain of dirty stuff to throw at her and demolish her campaign instantly.

But I am happy, he has not used any of them and has continued to be very civil, positive, gentlemanly and ethical.

That is all the more reason why he should be nominated.

It has been Billary and her hubby slick willie doing all the attacks from day one.

And the attacks will not stop because that is what they enjoy doing : dirty politicking.

When you have nothing of substance to offer, it is natural to mock and attack the candidate, the messenger, the messiah.

But the more she attacks Obama, The new American Political Messiah, the more he wins! What a magic!

This is more miraculous than changing water to wine!

Race Card

Mover and a Shaker — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 21:35:38 EST

The race card should not be a constant throughout the race. Even though it is unavoidable for it not to have a place it should not be playing as active of a role as it is now. The race should be kept based on platforms and politics. When not it turns into a case of personal likability which has it's consequences. It resulted in Hilary's win in New Hampshire and the election of George Bush because polls show that in that year an considerable amount of people vote based on personal feelings.

P.S. visit: needablogidea.blogspot.com (spread the word)

"Will They Play the Race Card" (Washington Post)

We Are HERE! — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 16:40:11 EST

I wanted to share this article that will run in tomorrows Washington Post. Apparently some people think that Bill Clinton is Black, including his wife. Bill Clinton is NOT Black. Please share this with others.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/11/AR2008011103281.html