Hillary Clinton won Kentucky (which is 91% white) and West Virginia (95% white), predominantly white states. She proudly boasts that she is the electable one because she can carry the white hard-working, lower educated demographic. She just had to play the "redneck" card.

I've been an Obama supporter from the get-go and have frequently criticized the Clinton campaign's ham-handed attempt to play the race card.  The so-called strategy to "ghettoize" Barack Obama.  Note: There are many, many places in which the "ghetto-ization" charge has been made by commentators--myself included, but I linked Frank Rich because I enjoy his writing.

However, something quite odd occurred to me today.  What if the Clinton campaign both knew about, and decided not to use, some of the Jeremiah Wright clips before Iowa?

Hypothesis after the jump.

From "Ballad of a Thin Man" by BoB Dylan

You walk into the room
With your pencil in your hand
You see somebody naked
And you say, "Who is that man?"
You try so hard
But you don't understand
Just what you'll say
When you get home

Because something is happening here
But you don't know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones

At the heart of the language of division is a  world-view: Us vs. Them. Thus, the language only represents the vision; it is this vision, of “how the world is and works, ” and of our role in it, that determines how we think, and so, how we act.  

In this way, Hillary Clinton naturally divides when she speaks, for she divides in her thoughts. She thinks, she perceives, she speaks, and she acts out of a sense of an inherent “otherness”, a sense that there is a  line of demarcation between and within countries, peoples, parties, races, regions.  Seeing and thinking division she cannot help but to act “divisively.”  

It's an emotional reaction.  I've been trying to put my finger on it for some time.

I think I'm getting closer to why.

It's like listening to a piece of music that isn't quite right.  Yeah, the words are just fine, but there's something wrong with the melody. . . .

In another bad sign for Hillary Clinton's sinking campaign, the blogosphere -- and the mainstream media -- is all over her racially divisive comments to USA Today about her white support (read alvernon90's diary), and the verdict is not good.  The broad consensus is that Hillary's comments are clearly deepening rifts in the Democratic party and hurting the party's chances in the fall.  Are you listening superdelegates?

It might have been OK if Hillary kept campaigning without tearing down our nominee. But I guess she just couldn't help herself. USA Today said she made "blunt" comments about race, and that is an act of criminal understatement. She's not even trying to hide it anymore.

From USA Today (h/t Chotiner):

"I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on," she said in an interview with USA TODAY. As evidence, Clinton cited an Associated Press article "that found how Sen. Obama's support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me."

"There's a pattern emerging here," she said.

There is indeed a pattern here. She is getting less and less subtle about it. Notice how "hard-working Americans" and "white Americans" have become synonymous in Hillaryland.

You knew it would come to this.

With her back against the wall, Hillary Clinton, with allegedly progressive credentials, has decided that the time has come to play the race card. With Pennsylvania a must-win state, Hillary used subtle race-baiting to ensure her victory.

In trying to get the votes of Pennsylvania’s significant rural and blue-collar populations, she jumped all over the idea that Obama was "an elitist." You don’t have to be fluent in the language of racism to know what "elitist" means in this context. Substitute the word "uppity," and you’ll know exactly what she was trying to convey.

The people of rural Pennsylvania knew what she meant. They don’t cotton much to a Black man with a Harvard degree and who associated with some dark characters in his past. They overwhelmingly voted for Hillary, helping her to the double-digit victory she needed to legitimize the continuance of her candidacy.

UPDATE: Sorry, forgot my manners.

First things first:

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A HUGE THANK YOU goes out to everyone who contributed their time and energy to making the PA campaign a success.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

---------------------------------

Ok... now for a little something to relieve election day tension....

In an interview this morning on NPR WHYY, Bill Clinton attempted to defend his statement comparing Obama to Jesse Jackson in SC, he forgot to hang up at the end.

While still on air, he is heard to be saying:

"I don’t think I can take any sh*t from anybody on that, do you?"

My dear friend Cornel West, I can appreciate your disapproval of Barack Obama's absence at the MLK's event in Memphis but I emphatically disagree with you because your position as noble as it may sound is pathetically wrong.

To rebuke Obama for not making a symbolic visit to Memphis is to ignore the enormous responsibility he has for successfully conducting his campaign for the most important political office in the land, the president of the United States.  Is there any priority greater than that at this time for Obama?

As hard as Obama has tried to convince people that he isn't doing things the same old way, some folks like you my friend still don't get it.  Obama is hunting for an elephant and can't afford to stop and throw stones at small animals.  This is an old African adage and you sir Cornel West may want to add this to your wisdom pouch.  It's important to note that my comment by no means diminishes the event.

(Cross-Posted at myDD)

Sean Wilentz created a big teapot in a tempest around here with his New Republic piece Race Man, in which he blames Barack Obama for all of the racial division in the Democratic primaries. This article has become a rallying point for many Clinton supporters in advancing this claim, partially because no one else has taken up the cry. At the time I, and many others, pointed out that it was poorly documented, relied on argument by assertion and circular logic, and in no way proved its point. Since that, the article has largely fallen into obscurity except among people who occasionally trot it out along with other tired charges.

But now Wilentz is back, with a much more succinct and updated version of the same attack, Obama was the first to play the race card. The New Republic piece at least had the virtue of being poorly circulated outside the blogosphere, but this piece ups the ante by reaching for wide circulation in a state with an upcoming primary.

Bill Clinton, today:

   It'd be a great thing if we had an election where you had two people who love this country....

translation: Obama doesn't love this country. Remember, he's black AND he's got that scary black pastor! Who says crazy things that all black people believe! How could he say that we bombed Nagasaki and Hiroshima!

who were devoted to the interest of the country...

translation: He will only focus on BLACK stuff if you elect him, not the important things this country cares about.

and people could actually ask themselves who is right on these issues instead of all this other stuff...

translation: No more talking about racism. I'm sick of all these BLACK issues. The only people that care about racism are black people. Did I mention the things his pastor said??

which always seems to intrude on our politics.

translation: Don't forget, he's black. Don't be fooled!

Just walk away. I don't care if her comments have been racist or offensive or ridiculous. There is no more dangerous narrative for Obama than the potent combination of "you are benefiting unfairly from affirmative action" and "you are playing the race card."

Apparently this is the second time Geraldine Ferraro has claimed a black Presidential candidate has gotten where they are because they are black.  She apparently said the same thing about Jesse Jackson in 1988.  This is a pattern.  
http://www.politico.com/...

The Clinton campaign has shown a pattern of trying to play the race card.  I guarantee you if Hillary gets the nomination, the black people are either going to stay home or are going to vote for John McCain.  I hate for something like this to happen, but unfortunately this is what Hillary Clinton is going to cause.

I have been anti-Hillary for a while because of her Iraq votes and un-progressive stance on Iraq.   But Kossacks are aware of more.

Each week she seems to pile on another piece of steaming crap.   This weekend was a double dump by Hillary.   The un-defense of the false smear that Obama is Muslim and the endorsement that McCain could be a better President than Barack Obama.

Without further ado, a vote.

This is for those Hillary supporters who are who are just appalled at the slander that's been tossed at Bill and Hillary Clinton over race during this campaign.  And for those who support Obama and are going to post a bunch of nasty comment here - all I ask is that you read the entire piece before you do so.

Put aside everything else - does it make any sense that the Clintons would "play the race card" if they wanted to win?  Could there be anything stupider one would do in a Democratic nomination contest?  Think about that for five seconds, and then read the piece

Today's Chicago Tribune provided fodder for a discussion that has been going on in Daily Kos land lately, regarding the quality of political discourse around here lately, as it relates to all things Hillary Clinton vs. all things Barack Obama.  

Follow me over the fold to see what Barack did wrong, and into the comments and Recommendations of this diary to see if he is taken to account for it the same way Hillary and Bill have been in the past and would have been if they had done this bad act, or if his poor conduct will be condoned by Obama supporters.

Front page article "Seeking Unity, Obama Feels Pull of Racial Divide" in the NYT today dredges up crap from the SC primary. For what?

According to Harold Meyerson over at the American Prospect's TAPPED blog, the race card may be in play now in the worst possible way.