Please, Republicans, make race an issue. Please. Please.

[TheWraith]

Because with every vote you scare up from your base, you'll push away your already disheartened and alienated moderates.

Because every "Willie Horton" style ad from a Republican group is going to force McCain to either remain silent and be considered a racist, or condemn it and be seen as impotent within the party he claims to lead.

Because the more hate and filth you try to dredge up, the more Americans will recoil from you, and the more Republicans will be forced to repudiate their own party.

Because every time you run to the well of fear and xenophobia, you'll be hit back with hope, light, and American ideals, mounted on the front of a freight train of American voters.

Please be the party that gets endorsed every election by the Klan. Please be the party of Trent Lott and Strom Thurmond. Please, lob us that softball. We'll send it back into your teeth.

[LizW]

1. They'll have to be fast

to bring it up before Obama does.

[patrice]

3. Link please. You need to establish that he does such things. nt

[SayitAintSo]

12. Here ya' go....fer starters.... there's more ...

if you can google....

Race Man

http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=aa0cd21b-0ff2-4329-88a1-69c6c268b304

[patrice]

18. Okay,

First of all that's an opinion piece, not straight reportage.

It says that Obama used a mailing campaign that mis-characterized the mechanism by which HC would make people pay for their health insurance. Such mis-characterizations are common and not unfair, because HC can always set the record straight.

The second mailing, a "distortion" of HC's relationship to NAFTA, seems fair game to me since Hillary made Bill such a huge part of her campaign.

Strategic and immediate use of netroots amongst other technologies could have helped in setting the record straight on both of these issues, but from my observations here at the DU (a LIMITED sample to be sure) the netroots seem to have been used primarily for the puposes of individuals fulfilling their nastier impulses and fighting rather than for strategic persuasion and correction of the record.

The last paragraph is about the racism charges, but contains no attributed quotes. The instances of quotation marks in the paragraph are indications of jargon in the same way that I might describe how Catholics refer to "the Body of Christ" without actually quoting anyone. The paragraph goes on to make racial claims about what happened without actually documenting the events themselves.

While I don't doubt that something happened, and that it was quite likely racial in nature, I've been around long enough to know that there is probably more than one perspective on it, whatever it was, and this article does nothing to create the breadth of information that I would need in order to be able to make an evaluation.

[patrice]

19. Of course I can google, but I need whatever LizW was referring to in order to

evaluate her assessment of it.

[LizW]

20. Well, I'll do better than that

There have been numerous instances of Obama making racial appeals, but those are beside the point.

I'll come back here and point it out to you when he does it against McCain, because he will.

Race is part of this campaign. We can't talk about the historic, inspiring nature of Obama's campaign without talking about race.

Every time Obama says "change," race is injected into the campaign.

I would love to hear what the response will be to the Republicans. I hope it won't be what it has been in this thread, "Oooh, you nasty racists and haters!" Does anyone think that stings a Republican? They don't care. Racism is their stock in trade. They are masters of it.

Please tell me that you guys have something better to bring against the Republicans than cries of "Racist!"

[patrice]

33. "We" have people. What it all turns into depends upon those people.

We ARE the ones we've been waiting for, not Obama, he is a means to an end.

Believe it or not, some of us are old enough and experienced enough not to be all dizzy about Obama. I CAN see it and I DO understand it, but ALL of that kind of stuff is OVER for me. For me, this IS about grassroots' CHANGE and change is an on-going process, so Obama is the be all and end all of nothing, just like any other candidate would be. This IS about Us.

[Political Heretic]

29. A link to a lot of opinion fluff. That's his opinion. So what?

Where's the " a lot more" at?

[TheWraith]

5. And right on cue, the haters show up.

It just burns you, doesn't it, that the Clintons got caught trying to spin the issue of race?

[SayitAintSo]

6. Good one.....n/t

[rhett o rick]

11. What a hateful post. Not surprised. nm

[Basement Beat]

17. Very hateful indeed...

Its amazing that when the OP is directing the attention towards the republicans...a 'fellow democratic underground' member does nothing but go after the democratic front runner.

Something is wrong.

[Darth_Kitten]

23. Your candidate is hardly a perfect angel..........

Deal with reality, ok?

[rhett o rick]

35. I wasn't discussing either candidate. I think all the people in here on both sides

are acting childish when they sink to name calling. Talk about issues, act like a Democrat. If you want to throw sleaze, join the other party.

"Deal with reality"? I am very curious what you think reality is.

[Darth_Kitten]

22. What's hateful? Geez.....look who wants to play the race card?

Take a closer look at yourself.

[rhett o rick]

34. I think this behavior is childish and should be beneath you. If you want to

discuss issues, then go ahead. All this childish name calling isn't very Democratic. Are you sure you are in the correct party?

[Buzz Clik]

31. fuck you and the trailer you live in.

One more asshole hits the Ignore list.

[JVS]

32. And even quicker to bring it up before Bubba does

[patrice]

2. Related question: Do you think we would have Invaded and Occupied Iraq if

Iraqis were "White" "Christians"?

[Chulanowa]

4. Well, we supported the attacks on Lebanon

And the Lebanese are about as white and Christian as you can get in that region.

[patrice]

7. Some difference in scale and duration. nt

[FrenchieCat]

10. The Lebanese folks that I know are pretty brown.......

[LucyParsons]

8. Plenty of the 4,000+ soldiers who have died there were "white" "Christians"

These bastards don't care about that. They only stir up these issues to keep the rest of us distracted.

[patrice]

13. Yes. But my question was more about the kinds of nations in which "we" conduct proxy wars.

[goclark]

15. Exactly ~ they are so mean and evil

[geek tragedy]

9. McCain will try to appeal to Clinton's base with racism n.t

[anigbrowl]

14. That'll be tricky, with his adopted bangladeshi daughter

I don't think he will actually.

[Darth_Kitten]

26. LOL........Good one.

I think the Obamabots need a new script....this stridently crying racism at every turn in the road is wearing very, VERY thin.

[Darth_Kitten]

24. It's Obama's base who are playing the race card........

Sorry, Obamabots, time to move on.

[TragedyandHope]

16. It's been an issue for them all year

Hussein, Osama, Hamas, Muslim, Goddamn America, Black Preacher has been burning up the RW media sphere non-stop, just from the trickle of reports I see here and on other non-RW sites.

I have no doubt that this is going to get very ugly, once the 527s start putting big money into their smear campaign. And remember, the RW doesn't have to worry about losing the black vote. They don't realize that Americans of all colors are waking up to the con job and in hard times like this, people want serious solutions not just the same old garbage.

I'm confident that Obama will work his political ju-jitsu on the fear and hate and use it as a weapon against them. Enough Americans have been screwed by Bush & Co. that they're finally ready to turn the corner.

Obama is going to score a knockout on McCain.

[Darth_Kitten]

21. Maybe the racism, etc won't be coming just from the Republicans.

surprise suprise!

[frickaline]

25. I think you'll see a lot of the racism done anonymously through chain/spam emails

leaving little chance for rebuttal :(

[Darth_Kitten]

27. Perhaps the real racism is in the Obama camp?

n/t

[frickaline]

28. what, racism against the often discriminated against white anglo-saxon protestant male?

are you kidding?

[Buzz Clik]

30. You will not be disappointed.

[IronLionZion]

36. Or he'll say "Some of my best friends are black"

like Colin and Condi. I expect him to showcase his Bangladesh-born daughter Bridget like she was a trick poodle. In fact I wouldn't be too surprised if he finds a young ethnic or female VP.