Reply #32: Really trying to get him with the racism angle aren't you?

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

Here's the exact Greenwald quote you are referring to, but apparently unable to post from this article

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/06/10/lincoln/index.html

In other words, Obama exploited the trust that African-American voters place in him to tell them something that is just absurd: that Blanche Lincoln, one of the most corporatist members of Congress, works for their interests. Bill Clinton did the same with the Arkansas voters who still trust him.

To draw that conclusion he himself included a link to this article from the Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/09/AR2010060905618.html?sid=ST2010060903121
Lincoln's Ark. runoff win points to power of black voters

By Peter Slevin and Karen Tumulty
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 9, 2010; 7:34 PM

LITTLE ROCK -- For all the millions that both sides spent on the bruising Arkansas Senate Democratic primary race, Yvonne Thomas admits she went to the polls not having much of a sense about the candidates.

What she did know, and what turned out to be the only thing that mattered in her decision to cast her ballot for the embattled incumbent Blanche Lincoln, was this: "Obama wanted us to vote for her," said Thomas, who is African American.

Unlike in much of the South, in Arkansas it is a rare thing for the black vote to be the decisive factor in elections. African Americans here account for 16 percent of the population -- about half their percentage in Georgia to the east. Arkansas is the only state from the Confederacy that has never elected a black candidate to Congress, or to any statewide office, since Reconstruction.

But in this election, Lincoln and her Democratic primary challenger, Lt. Gov. Bill Halter, battled hard to win black voters. The intensity of that courtship was evidenced by the large number of African Americans who stood onstage Tuesday night with Lincoln as she celebrated a victory that the smart money in Washington had declared to be all but out of reach.

When you made this same assertion in this thread, post number 278
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8529658#8536267


I replied and advised you to read this

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/news/ap/politics/2010/Jun/07/ark__democrats_vie_for_black_voters_in_senate_race.html

An excellent Ap article about how BOTH the Halter and Lincoln campaigns made very specific appeals to the African Americans voters in Arkansas who would probably clinch the outcome for either candidate.

Greenwald AND the Washington Post AND the AP all made the point that President Obama's opinion carried a lot of influence with black voters. Why is that a surprise? Is the Washington Post racist as well for pointing that out? Is the AP? Where Greenwald differed is in pointing out how cynical it was for Obama to say that Lincoln was the better candidate policy wise when she clearly was not.

Try discussing the actual issues instead of just making blanket accusations of racism.