What is being lost for the most part in the progressive political blogosphere is that the dust up over the Clintons' remarks and their surrogates' remarks isn't just a fight between Obama supporters, Clinton supporters, and the normal primary drama.
I see a rec'd diary about a truce between the two camps, as if that is where the outrage comes from. It isn't.
The Clinton statement on the MLK/JFK/LBJ thing offended many people in black America. I don't want to go into the interpretations, that have been fought over time and time again on here. I'm just stating this as fact, it offended a lot of people, rightly or wrongly. And then it got talked about all over the black community online, and all over black radio, and in the community. And then black political leaders started getting calls about it, like Clyburn, etc. I repeat, it's fine if you don't agree with the interpretation, and Obama himself doesn't, but try to understand how the outrage would develop IF many people in the black community see someone as slighting Martin Luther King Jr. in an analogy about a black candidate for president. Whatever the correct interpretation is, I hope we can at least agree that the analogy is referencing Obama as MLK/JFK and Clinton as LBJ.
Now, black America has long felt that a black candidate would catch flack from all sides, left and right, in the form of dogwhistle politics. Many people felt that this would keep Obama from winning the nomination or winning the presidency, regardless of whether people supported him or not.
And then you had Bill Clinton's fairy tale comment, which was about the Iraq War stance of Obama, but got reported initially by many outlets as referring to his candidacy. So on top of the previous comments, you have more things going around black America that are upsetting people. And coming from a political couple who was supported more by black America than anyone since RFK, it was seen as especially hurtful. And then on top of that you have the very arguable Cuomo's comments, and the statements that you can't argue about, the "imaginary hip black friend" comments and the "Guess who's coming to dinner" and the "doing his stuff in the neighborhood that he talked about in his book" comments. That was clear dogwhistle politics.
Again, this was an issue that became big in the entire black community, not just Obama supporters in the black community. Did it move more black people towards Obama? Sure. Did it move some black people away from Clinton? Definitely. But still, the underlying issue is that people in the black community will be outraged by perceived dogwhistle politics against a black candidate, whether that candidate is their horse in the race or not. The black community is not going to sit by while the successful strategy from any black candidate's opponent is to race-bait them into becoming the angry black candidate. Whether or not that was the Clinton strategy behind the statements coming from surrogates, as alleged in a diary yesterday, is irrelevant. What is relevant is that the perception of that tactic being used is out there, and it is not just an Obama-primary supporter thing.
I notice a disconnect here on this blog. These stories and these issues are bigger than primary horse race drama that has gotten 'ugly'. It's bigger than 'we're acting like freepers' and 'Obama and Clinton are directing their camps to bury the hatchet.' If perceived dogwhistle politics continue, the anger in the black community will continue to build, and that effects EVERYONE here on this site because it will lead to a democratic loss in November.