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Dec
18
Racism and the Anti-Barack Obama Attacks From Camp Clinton
Filed Under Black/African American Issues, Politics, Race and Racism, Sociology by Rachel
First, we have one of Clinton’s New Hampshire campaign leaders (now ex-campaign leaders) insinuating that Barack Obama is, was, or would be a drug dealer. Fortunately, Rikyrah is not afraid to call out the racial double standard:
Now, numerous previous candidates have admitted to drug use. George W. Bush spent the better part of TWENTY YEARS under some sort of influence, be it booze or drugs, and nobody EVER ASKED HIM THIS QUESTION.
But, THE BLACK MAN, who has TWO Ivy League Degrees, is ASKED IF HE’S A DRUG DEALER?
But, if Sheehan was ‘acting solo’/ ‘going rogue’, then what the hell was Mark Penn doing on Hardball with the same slime, not an hour AFTER the debate was over.
Thanks to our friend, sagereader, over at Think On These Things, breaks it down in this post: Evidence That Clinton Camps Attack On Obamas Drug Use Was Deliberate (Make sure to check out this link, which sites evidence, suggesting the Clinton camp planted the drug dealer line.)
The other issue that keeps coming up is the accusation that (Gasp!) Obama is Muslim, and that seems to be coming from everywhere including from Clinton associates. Obama is not Muslim, but folks just can’t seem to accept that.
- The post also goes into a discussion of Hillary Clinton’s views on drug sentencing and how they may affect African Americans, which is worth the read. [back]
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16 Responses to “Racism and the Anti-Barack Obama Attacks From Camp Clinton”
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And we have nearly a YEAR to go on this campaign. Good grief. Just imagine how ugly all this is GOING to get…
I’m a Kucinich supporter myself, but am losing respect for Clinton by the minute (and didn’t have a lot to begin with, her being so mad ambitious and all). In the end, I hope this creep-s**t stuff ultimately acts in Obama’s favor. On the other hand, I’m having a hard time believing that this whole system isn’t irretrievably broken after watching a man like Bush take office TWICE IN A ROW without being elected and nobody doing anything about it. Sigh.
“Just imagine how ugly all this is GOING to get”
… if Obama gets the nomination, and it becomes the Republicans’ turn to attack him.
The whole drug stuff is nonsense. Anyone who was a teenager from 1960 to the present and didn’t smoke weed, at least once or twice has something wrong with them. The hypocrisy is staggering when people start picking on Bush, Obama, and Clinton for having done drugs or drinking. It is such bullshit.
However, I don’t think that you can automatically jump to the conclusion that the attack on Obama for having done drugs come are racist. The attacks on Bush for doing drugs certainly weren’t. What makes these attacks different and why are they racially motivated.
OK, I think I see the idea now - the assertion is that the Clinton campaign is playing on the racist assumption that some people apparently hold: that black men are more likely to be drug users or dealers than other people.
I don’t buy it, but I see what you are getting at. I think that people were just as accusatory and hard on Clinton and Bush regarding drug and alchohol use. Especially Bush (for good reason, because his tough guy law and order persona is inconsistent with the use of illegal drugs)
Its going to backfire not because it is racially motivated, but rather, because practically everyone I know, from UPenn educated lawyers, to doctors, to dentists, to kindergarten teachers, to orthodontists, to many cops have smoked marijuana at some point and drank to excess at some point. Its hypocritical to attack someone or think less of someone for doing what is pretty much normal in our society in this day and age.
Also, how many people really think Obama is a muslim, I think you are blowing that number way out of proportion.
>Anyone who was a teenager from 1960 to the present and didnt smoke weed, at least once or twice has something wrong with them
Nice over-generalization. Um, OK, in my case, that “something wrong” would be 1) asthma, 2) smoke-induced allergies, 3) liking my brain cells in just the right number and not willing to make do with less, 4) no noticeable contact high (I’ve been around it plenty) so why bother, 5) got run over by a high addict on a bike, saw the effects on friends of friends who overdid it, and have an uncle who pissed away a law career and most of his higher faculties using MJ as an excuse and a crutch.
>Also, how many people really think Obama is a muslim, I think you are blowing that number way out of proportion.
It doesn’t really matter how many people honestly believe it, but how often the idea gets promoted and used as an easy target and mode to promote doubt and indecision (Swiftboating, Miami Vice-style).
The main people who brought up the whole
Muslim/madrassa idea were conservatives, not Clinton’s campaign. Even when proven in error, nothing like an apology was issued. And now it’s been repeated in multiple forums.
It’s throwing crap against the wall and seeing what sticks.
No, this Sheehan is not a relative of mine.
in this information age where pickin’ a booger can end up on the news blotter, a bald-faced lie can be floated in the public arena just for its own sake…
perhaps it is an over-generalization as you so self-righteously and piously point out. To clarify, whether someone did bong hits in their senior year of high school, or smoked a joint during their senior year of law school or at their bachellorette party, it isn’t, and shouldn’t be a factor when evaluating their character or ability. If you are an unrecovered habitual abuser that is whole other matter. But for most of the people in this country aged 15 to 50 who have and/or do drink and/or smoke weed it seems pretty ridiculous to critize Barack Obama and George Bush for doing the same thing. The fact that neither one of them do drugs or drink any more makes it even more ridiculous.
I don’t know if it is true, but don’t you always hear the story that Adolph Hitler was a squeaky clean vegetarian who never touched a drop of alchohol. How did that turn out? To be fair, I think I remember seeing a tv program that asserted that he and all of his henchmen were on speed most of the time - but who the hell will ever really know.
LL: I actually agree with you in the first paragraph, and I’ll go one step further. I place marajuana in a different category, as far as behavior and side effects for most people [despite my idiot uncle and the rest (note, I said he USED it as a crutch, not that MJ did him in)], than most other drugs, and am in strong favor for controlled medicinal or even recreational use of cannabis. I know several people who died in pain when morphine wouldn’t work anymore. And if my best friend undergoing chemo had had more of an appetite, I think she would have been stronger and maybe fought off the opportunistic diseases that shortened her life even more than the cancer did.
I mentioned my past non-experience with drugs not to be “pious,” thanks, but because 1) it was an overgeneralization that I’m really tired of, which I can back up w/ personal experience, and 2) “everyone else does it” is NOT a good reason to keep or change laws or societal opinion. There may be other good reasons, and that’s what I want in public discourse. Sorry that wasn’t clear enough (BTW, not a vegetarian, not that that’s bad, and I love a good beer. Thanks for comparing me to Hitler though. First time for everything.)
But then again, this country has never been sane about drug use in whatever form. We can’t decide what to ban, what to regulate, and when to prosecute.
[...] Racism and the Anti-Barack Obama Attacks From Camp Clinton : Rachels Tavern “I saw this posted over at Mirror on America, and I have to agree. We should not be so naive as to think that people in the Clinton campaign are not directing their surrogates to play on racist and Islamophobic stereotypes of Barack Obama.” (tags: u.s.-presidential-election-2008 politics Racism) [...]
not comparing anyone to hitler, just pointing out that how someone treats their body or treated their body in the past is a poor yardstick with which to measure of what kind of leader they are capable of being.
Hillary Clinton, do not impress me in the slightest, when she resorts to tears, to gain sympathy from white women voters in New Hampshire, or when her campaingn resorts to racist behavior to pander to Southern white voters with racist leanings to vote for her. Where was Bill & Hillary, when 7 million Black people were slaughtered in Rhuwanda. Bill said nothing and let them die. Nor did I see her crying about the killing of innocent women children in Africa, nor did I hear about her crying about the hundreds of African Americans who died when Katrina hit New Orleans. They are both calloused selfcentered individuals. There is an old expression used by black people which paints the picture of a thousands words: “An apple does not fall far from a tree”. Latinos and Black folks, and people of good conscience should look beyond the clintons, the entire country must go beyond what they continue to represent, hypocrisy, deceit and lies. I’m clear about their credentials and know that they both stand for. Hillary is incapable of leading this country with those kind of credentials.
“Hillary Clinton, do not impress me in the slightest, when she resorts to tears, to gain sympathy from white women voters”
Oh, hell no. Did you even read Rachel’s post, Jesse Jackson Jr.?
And add me to the apparently short list of people who never touched drugs (or alcohol, or cigarettes, or foreign genitals) in their youth.
“This bud’s for you, Gilberto…”
“But, calling her an ice princess and then focusing on how she allegedly cried (I actually wouldnt call that crying, but a quivering voice.) to manipulate gullible white women is OVER the top. I know many people think white women are for the most part stupid, naive, and manipulative, but thats some incredibly sexist BS and if you believe it youre sexist.”
- quotation marks on top
[...] and their mother is calling everybody else a [...]