Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Yes, they can

It hit me last night after I thought about Geraldine Ferraro's appalling comments: Hillary Clinton's emphasis on "a hiring decision" as a metaphor for the election now seems to have been a preparation for an increasingly overt effort to cast Barack Obama as an affirmative-action applicant and thereby draw upon the presumed resentments of economically hard-pressed white voters. Here's a job: are you gonna let the black guy take it away?

This effort of a piece with the claims that Obama's supporters are "latte-drinking, Prius-driving, Birkenstock-wearing trust-fund babies" or, more concisely, "the latte-sipping crowd." "Us" v. "them," racial warfare and class warfare: what a way to run a 21st-century Democratic primary campaign. Every time I think that Clinton and her surrogates can't go any lower, I'm reminded:

Yes, they can.

comments: 2

Eustace Bright said...

nice punch line. :)

how can she not care more for the overall strength of her party in the election than for her individual effort to be the candidate in that election? attacking obama in ways that will hurt him in the general election should he win the nomination (e.g., saying that mccain is better than obama on terrorism, fanning subtly the fears that obama might be muslim, etc.), suggests that there is something more important than party platform to clinton: career. this does not stand flatteringly next to the pope of hope.

Michael Leddy said...

Thanks for the compliment. I wonder whether there's anyone in the Democratic Party who can ask the Clintons (yes, plural) to see beyond their own ambition.