Another Right Winger for Obama?

Stephen1947

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Sunday March 23, 2008 · 1:14 PM PDT

2008/03/23 · 13:14

On Friday Christopher Caldwell published a column on FT.com, the on line version of the Financial Times, in which he offers yet another interpretation of "A More Perfect Union. In it he praises Senator Obama for bringing the actual day-to-day commentary about race relations into the light. He starts off by alluding to Obama’s story about the young woman who tried to convince her mother that she really liked mustard and relish sandwiches:

This girl had kept her faith in other people, Mr Obama said, even though "perhaps somebody told her along the way that the source of her mother’s problems were blacks who were on welfare and too lazy to work".

All Americans have heard such talk; no recent politician has ever been remotely brave enough to allude to it, even when quoting a hypothetical third party. It is not clear whether Mr Obama’s 37-minute address will help or hinder him on his road to the White House. But it is potentially a great service to his country. For one morning at least, Mr Obama left off trying to inspire and chose instead to explain.

More below the fold:

Stephen1947

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Saturday March 22, 2008 · 8:24 AM PDT

2008/03/22 · 08:24

Roberto Lovato over at Alternet has a theory that the divisive playing on racial tensions by the Clinton campaign is not accident. In fact it is only one manifestation of a wider strategy becoming more visible in the behaviors of many officials affiliated with the Democratic Leadership Committee (DLC).

More than any other political machine in this very tense political moment, politicians affiliated with the DLC have developed policies and made statements that reconfigure racial politics beyond the Southern Strategy -- appeals to white voter fear and anxieties with anti-black policy proposals that successfully transformed the once Democratic-leaning South into a Republican stronghold -- that still defines much of the Republican racial realpolitik. DLC affiliates have more or less formed a beeline to make racial comments appealing to white voters as an unprecedented racial reality has come upon America: white minority status.

Below the fold he goes on to give many recent examples:

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Another Right Winger for Obama?

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