I thought about this today and realized that while I covered the creation of the memo and its general implications yesterday, I didn’t do it justice by examining the salient points and what they imply about the Clinton camp.  On the flip side, it is also important to see as well what Obama’s staff’s focus means too.

So here we go:

Subject: MUST READ: Key S.C. figure takes issue with Clintons

SHUCK AND JIVE

Clinton Supporter Andrew Cuomo, Referring To Obama, Said “You Can’t Shuck And Jive At A Press Conference. All Those Moves You Can Make With The Press Don’t Work When You’re In Someone’s Living Room.” Clinton-supporting New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said the thing that’s great about New Hampshire is that you have to go out and meet people rather than “shuck and jive” through press conferences there. Cuomo said of New Hampshire on an Albany radio station: “It’s not a TV-crazed race. Frankly, you can’t buy your way into it. You can’t shuck and jive at a press conference. All those moves you can make with the press don’t work when you’re in someone’s living room.” [Newsday, 1/11/08]

OK, so what does Shuck and Jive mean?

shuck and jive:   Shuck: To get rid of, ditch, throw away. To try to shed your true image in favor of a false one.  Jive: Trying to adopt a new social status, pretending to be “all that” + a bag of pentium chips.

OK, its urban slang so initially I said “so what?”  Then I noticed that the same site also had some very unflattering definitions, using the N word.   Point taken.

Another definition creeped up with a similar twist:  The 1994 book “Juba to Jive, a Dictionary of African-American Slang,” says “shuck and jive” dates back to the 1870s and was an “originally southern ‘Negro’ expression for clowning, lying, pretense.”

Then I discovered it is also the name of an Oyster house. 

So I have to say I consider it somewhat insensitive but not overtly racist, but very borderline. 

There is enough room for the accusation to stand, and I think it bears scrutiny.  Obama has a right to be offended, though he publicly declined to do so.

Next:

MARTIN LUTHER KING / LYNDON JOHNSON COMPARISON

Clinton, Criticizing Obama For Promising “False Hope” Said That While MLK Jr. Spoke On Behalf Of Civil Rights, President Lyndon Johnson Was The One Who Got Legislation Passed: “It Took A President To Get It Done.”

Clinton rejoined the running argument over hope and “false hope” in an interview in Dover this afternoon, reminding Fox’s Major Garrett that while Martin Luther King Jr. spoke on behalf of civil rights, President Lyndon Johnson was the one who got the legislation passed. Hillary was asked about Obama’s rejoinder that there’s something vaguely un-American about dismissing hopes as false, and that it doesn’t jibe with the careers of figures like John F. Kennedy and King. “Dr. King’s dream began to be realized when President Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act,” Clinton said. “It took a president to get it done.” [Politico, 1/7/08; Video]

Clinton Introducer Said JFK Gave Hope, But Was Assassinated. Clinton introducer: “If you look back, some people have been comparing one of the other candidates to JFK and he was a wonderful leader, he gave us a lot of hope but he was assassinated and Lyndon Baines Johnson actually did all his work and got the republicans to pass all those measures.” [HRC, Dover, NH, 1/7/08] AUDIO ATTACHED

Well, she may not be saying it very nice, but I have to admit she has a point.  All the marches in the world only drive awareness and a desire to change. The legal change came from the government.  Maybe Johnson was pandering or bowing to the inevitable, but at the same time, she is right.  He signed the bill and that’s where another facet of change began.

Change began with Rosa Parks who called bullshit on the status quo.  Change began when Blacks began to stop accepting their second class status.  But it still needed legislation to make it law.

By the way, the snark in me wants to remind Hillary that the democrats of the day voted against it in higher percent then Republicans:

Democratic Party: 153-91   (63%-37%)

Republican Party: 186-35   (80%-20%)

Makes ya wonder who was really for civil rights, doesn’t it?  One notable nay?:  Sen Robert Byrd.

Back on topic, this is race baiting by the Obama people, and it is grandstanding by Hillary.

NELSON MANDELA

Bill Clinton Implied Hillary Clinton Is Stronger Than Nelson Mandela. “I have been blessed in my life to know some of the greatest figures of the last hundred years. [...] I go to Nelson Mandela’s birthday party every year and we’re still very close. [...] But if you said to me, ‘You’ve got one last job for your country but it’s hazardous and you may not get out with life and limb intact and you have to do it alone except I’ll let you take one other person, and I had to pick one person whom I knew who would never blink, who would never turn back, who would make great decisions [...] I would pick Hillary.’” [ABC News, 1/7/08; Audio]

Pointless baiting by Obama.  Obviously Bill is using Mandela to make Hillary look great, but so what?  It diminishes Mandela not at all. 

And for those still laboring under the illusion the Clintons love each other, of course he would take his wife to fight his titanic struggle.

DRUG USE

Clinton’s NH Campaign Chair Raised The Youthful Drug Use Of Obama And Said It Would “Open The Door To Further Queries On The Matter.” Clinton’s Campaign Issued A Statement Distancing Themselves From Shaheen’s Comments And Shaheen Issued A Statement Saying That He “Deeply Regret[s]

The Comments.” The Democratic presidential race took on a decidedly nasty and personal turn, with the New Hampshire co-chair for Clinton, raising the youthful drug use of Obama. Shaheen said Obama’s having been so open — as opposed to then-Gov. George W. Bush, who refused to detail his past drug use during his 2000 presidential campaign — will “open the door to further queries on the matter. It’ll be, ‘When was the last time? Did you ever give drugs to anyone? Did you sell them to anyone?’” Shaheen said. “There are so many openings for Republican dirty tricks. It’s hard to overcome.” By the end of the day, Clinton campaign spokesman Phil Singer had issued a statement asserting that “these comments were not authorized or condoned by the campaign in any way.” And Shaheen himself issued a statement: “I deeply regret the comments I made today and they were not authorized by the campaign in any way.” [ABC News, 12/12/07]

Mark Penn, In Trying To Defend His Campaign Over Bill Shaheen’s Obama Drug Use Comments, Used The Word “Cocaine,” Drawing A Rebuke From Edwards Adviser Joe Trippi.

Mark Penn, defending the Clinton campaign in light of Bill Shaheen’s comments about Obama’s drug use, repeatedly referenced Obama’s cocaine use. Edwards adviser Joe Trippi accused Penn of dropping the word “cocaine” deliberately. Mark Penn said “Well, I think we have made clear that the — the issue related to cocaine use is not something that the campaign was in any way raising. And I think that has been made clear. I think this kindergarten thing was a joke after Senator.” Joe Trippie responded and said “I think he just did it again. He just did it again. … This guy’s been filibustering on this. He just said cocaine again.” [Politico, 12/13/07; Video]

The Clintons are engaging in a twisted paralipsis where they invoked something, qualified by saying that they are only concerned it will be exploited by the Republicans, which allows then to make it seem like a weakness only by virtue of the evil Republicans who will surely be using it to attack him, and thus attacking the Democrat party. In reality, they are really trying to point out it is a fundamental character flaw because for whatever reason people remember it, they will remember.

However…  Since they went after Bush for it (which he refused to engage in) they have little room to complain, really.  If they used it previously, obviously drug use is fair game, except for Bill who did not inhale.

So in the end, this is just more hypocritical chicanery by the Clintons, as well as some hypocritical avoidance by the Obamas.

FAIRY TALE

Donna Brazile Lashed Into Bill Clinton For Comparing Obama To A “Fairy Tale” And Said “It’s An Insult… As An African-American” And That His Tone And Words Are “Very Depressing.” Donna Brazile lit into Bill Clinton over his insulting comments of Obama, where he called him a “fairy tale” and said “I could understand his frustration at this moment. But, look, he shouldn’t take out all his pain on Barack Obama. It’s time that they regroup. Figure out what Hillary needs to do to get her campaign back on track. It sounds like sour grapes coming from the former commander in chief. Someone that many Democrats hold in high esteem. For him to go after Obama, using a fairy tale, calling him as he did last week. It’s an insult. And I will tell you, as an African-American, I find his tone and his words to be very depressing. … I think his tone, I think calling Barack Obama a kid, he is a United States senator.” [Politico, 1/8/08]

This one is the most easy to dismiss as pointless baiting, really.

OK, let’s take a look at it in full context:

In response to a student’s question about a misjudgment made by Mark Penn, the New York senator’s pollster, who sent a memo after the Iowa caucuses that dismissed, prematurely, as it turned out, Obama’s bounce in the New Hampshire polls, the former president veered off to attack Obama.

An indignant, finger-pointing Clinton said:

“But since you raised the judgment issue, let’s go over this again. That is the central argument for his campaign. ‘It doesn’t matter that I started running for president less a year after I got to the Senate from the Illinois State Senate. I am a great speaker and a charismatic figure and I’m the only one who had the judgment to oppose this war from the beginning. Always, always, always.’ ”

“First it is factually not true that everybody that supported that resolution supported Bush attacking Iraq before the UN inspectors were through. Chuck Hagel was one of the co-authors of that resolution. The only Republican Senator that always opposed the war. Every day from the get-go. He authored the resolution to say that Bush could go to war only if they didn’t co-operate with the inspectors and he was assured personally by Condi Rice as many of the other Senators were. So, first the case is wrong that Way.”

“Second, it is wrong that Senator Obama got to go through 15 debates trumpeting his superior judgment and how he had been against the war in every year, numerating the years, and never got asked one time, not once, ‘Well, how could you say, that when you said in 2004 you didn’t know how you would have voted on the resolution? You said in 2004 there was no difference between you and George Bush on the war and you took that speech you’re now running on off your website in 2004 and there’s no difference in your voting record and Hillary’s ever since?’ Give me a break.

“This whole thing is the biggest fairy tale I’ve ever seen…So you can talk about Mark Penn all you want.

So reading this, exactly how did Donna Brazile get offended as an African America?  First of all, Bill, whom I really hate to defend, did not call Obama a Fairy Tale.  He called Obama’s claims about his Iraq stance a fairy tale.

So again, all he did was criticize Obama for statements he made that may not have been truthful.  Why be offended?

Because she supports Obama of course.  And no problem, in a campaign that’s expected. 

But.  She specifically said it offended her as an African American.  Her implication therefore is that Obama is not subject to scrutiny on his voting record and his statements in a presidential campaign, because he is black.

What utter nonsense.   How can any presidential candidate NOT be subject to this scrutiny?

With respect to her and to Obama, if he, or more to the point his supporters, cannot defend his record and words without pulling the race card out as a shield, then he is not fit to be president.

Period.  This becomes the most obvious and reprehensible race bait of the bunch because the only people making race the issue were Obama’s defenders.

So in the end, I think the Clinton’s get mixed marks.  They were surely trying to make Obama look bad, and most of these were attacks, no question.  So what.?  That’s politics.  Only one really has any racial overtones, and should be dealt with, in my opinion.

The Obama supporters however, acted with paranoid self serving race baiting for most of the remarks, so he gets lower marks in my mind.

By the way, this is not the first dumb memo from the Obama campaign.

Just how I see it, Straight Up.

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