God, that woman is stubborn

A big chunk of sunday's talking head time was taken up by the controversial comments Hillary Clinton made earlier in a USA Today interview.

When she said "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", many people thought she (unintentionally) slurred non-white Americans.

Did she and her team get the chance to set the record straight ??? Big time. Terry McAuliffe on Meet the press, Howard Wolfsson on Fox and probably on a lot of other shows I didn't see.
Did they take the chance. Of course not, just like with the Bosnia flare-up it looks allmost impossible for the Clinton team to admit to a mistake. They still stick to the lame excuse that Hillary was simply quoting an AP story.

So, who did explain that it was simply a bad choice of words and absolutely not an intentional playing of the race card. You've guessed it. David Axelrod.

Terry McAullife on Meet the Press :

"MR. RUSSERT: ...she's saying that white Americans are hardworking Americans. A lot of African-Americans took great offense at that.

MR. McAULIFFE: Yeah. Well, and that's not what she meant. And she was quoting the AP story and could--literally, nobody has worked harder, as you know, than President Clinton...

MR. RUSSERT: Well, the AP story did not say white Americans were hardworking Americans. Those were her, her words.

MR. McAULIFFE: Well, she was, she was paraphrasing the AP story. And, Tim, listen, both Clintons have worked their whole life on civil rights issues; Hillary, her entire life, has been working on issues, on education, on health care. They both have been out there fighting hard. This is the end of a long campaign. It hasn't been, contrary to what a lot of people say, I don't think this has been an overly aggressive campaign, at the end, against each other. 1992, I think, was much worse. But listen, the stakes are huge. We have to win this election November 4th.

MR. RUSSERT: Many undeclared superdelegates are obviously listening to this discussion...

MR. McAULIFFE: Yeah, sure.

MR. RUSSERT: ...and to the debate that's been going on. Here's a report from the New York Post: "Hillary Rodham Clinton played the race card as she dismissed Barack Obama as a candidate who can't win support from `white Americans.' ... The `white Americans' remark drew a swift rebuke from some superdelegates, and private dismay from several Democratic" party "officials who said they're concerned about reuniting the factionalized party. Muriel Offerman, a North Carolina superdelegate who has not disclosed her choice, said: `That should not have been said. I think it drives a wedge, a racial wedge, that's not what the Democratic Party's about.' ... Massachusetts [undeclared] superdelegate Debra Kozikowski said: `That's distressing. ... I'm not even sure how to respond to that. I'd like to think that it was not intended to be what it sounds" "but... it" "sounds like trying to split the country down the middle.'" Those are undeclared superdelegates responding to Hillary comments about race.

MR. McAULIFFE: And you know what? I can put up 30, 40 more superdelegates who will say, you know, talk about what the Clintons have done on the race issue. First of all, I hate that even race is even in the--we should not have it. We shouldn't have race, we shouldn't have gender."

Well, that last statement is really on the mark. It shouldn't be about race and gender and it would help enormously to keep it off the .... (Terry didn't finish his sentence, maybe he realised he was wandering into the twilight zone) if the candidate herself does not put it front and center in the discussion.

David Axelrod on Fox News Sunday :

"WALLACE: Mr. Axelrod, what do you think of a Democratic presidential candidate describing the race in such stark racial terms?

AXELROD: Well, I have to assume that Senator Clinton didn't say that the way she wanted to say it. I don't imagine that she chose the words as she would if you asked her that question again.

And the truth is that that isn't even the fact. In Indiana, we split voters who make $50,000 a year or less evenly. We did better among non-college-educated voters there. And the same is true in North Carolina than in some of the immediately -- immediate preceding states.

And we've done well across the country in various states with these voters.

WALLACE: Well, let me just ask you, though, Mr. Axelrod...

AXELROD: So the thesis itself is -- was wrong. The words weren't well chosen, but the thesis was wrong.

WALLACE: Why are the words not well chosen? Forgetting whether they're accurate or not, I mean, what do you find offensive about talking about white voters not going for Obama?

AXELROD: Well, I'm sure that Senator Clinton didn't mean to conflate hard-working Americans and white Americans in the same sentence. I know she doesn't believe that, and I don't think she meant to, and I'm sure Howard would say the same thing.

WALLACE: Well, let me ask you about that.

AXELROD: I think there are a lot of hard-working Americans of all backgrounds and races and ethnicities, and of course she believes that, too."

That is how this is done. Admit that you've made a mistake and then explain based on the evidence of past work and engagement in civil rights, that it's logical to assume that it was simply a slip of the tongue

But Howard and Terry are not saying that, because only at sniper-rifle point, with video evidence proving a 100 % sure that the facts are undeniable, will Hillary, grudgingly, sort of admit to a mistake.
There are a lot of positive reasons why I prefer Barack Obama as president, but this negative reason is the clincher for me. Someone who is so stupidly stubborn in refusing to admit to a mistake should not be the President of the United States.


Poll
Being able to admit to mistakes is a positive quality in a President
Yes
No
Hillary is never wrong, so she doesn't have to admit mistakes

Votes: 17
Results : Vote Link : Polls

Display:


Re: God, that woman is stubborn (2.00 / 1)

"She was paraphrasing"- lol.  


John McCain: Healthcare for Kids? In America? No way
by bosdcla14 on Mon May 12, 2008 at 06:41:36 AM EST

Re: God, that woman is stubborn (2.00 / 2)

Ah yes, how quickly one forgets all those poor bitter voters clinging to guns and religion.....


I'm United Methodist. I already have a Messiah.
by KnowVox on Mon May 12, 2008 at 11:56:26 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Which Obama honestly admitted was (none / 0)

a poor choice of words.  Of course Hillary can't honestly admit she used a poor choice of words.

Good thing the Obama campaign said it for her, instead of jumping all over it like she did when Obama misspoke.  One of those refreshing differences between the two campaigns.


No Way, No How, No McCain!
by GFORD on Mon May 12, 2008 at 12:04:31 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Hillary is right. (1.33 / 3)

her choice or word is correct. Yor diary just a usual pro-Obama whining. Obama is who is usung race card plus most of his supporters very sexist.


Welcome to a Landslide without white Working class, Latinos, Women, Seniors and holding-on sweeties
by engels on Mon May 12, 2008 at 06:54:38 AM EST

Your spelling and grammar (1.33 / 3)

is at level with the substance of your comment.


by Fairy Tale on Mon May 12, 2008 at 07:01:09 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Hillary is right. (2.00 / 1)

There is no edit option on this site, so it realy helps to read over you comments or to preview before you hit post.

Her choice of words was bad. As she said it, she's stating that the hard working Americans are white.
I think she meant to correct herself when she stated that Barack's support among working class Americans was dwindling, to Barack's support among white working class Americans was dwindling, but she realy did it in a very awkward way.


by hebi on Mon May 12, 2008 at 07:10:10 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Hillary is right. (2.00 / 1)

..not to mention the fact that in arguing this, she was outright lying.

Look at Obama's support in these relevant categories over the last six contests, spanning eight whole weeks.

             TX   OH   MS   PA   IN   NC

White         44   34   26   37   40   37
No College    42   40   58   42   46   56
College Grad  55   51   62   49   50   57
Over $50K     51   47   52   45   49   60
Under $50K    47   42   66   46   50   54

So let's see what Clinton is claiming again -- that "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."

Obama's support among whites is actually increasing compared to Ohio, Mississippi and Pennsylvania. She lied about that.

Obama's support among "hard working Americans", which is code for poorer Americans, has also increased over those in previous contests, save for Mississippi, where the under-$50K vote was overwhelmingly black.

Obama's numbers among college grads is static to increasing. We don't have exit poll breakdowns for education by race, and we can assume North Carolina's huge numbers with "no college" are due to the large African American percentages in the state. But what about Indiana, a state that is whiter (83.9%) than Pennsylvania (82.1%), Ohio (82.9%) and Texas (48.3%)? Despite the demographic disadvantage, Obama actually increased his support among voters with no college degrees.

So how can Clinton be so wrong? Because she's citing an AP-Yahoo News poll from back on May 3rd. Rather than cite actual voter data, she is basing her claims on an old poll taken before the Indiana and North Carolina primaries.

Yup. That's what Hillary Clinton has been reduced to. Ignoring actual votes and cherry picking polls.

Which really, shouldn't surprise anyone. She's already ignored and belittled every state and voter demographic that doesn't support her. So it only follows that since in her world, the only things that are important are things that support her, she'd ignore election results in favor of the one (outdated) poll that confirms her manufactured reality.

--G.O.S.


by rhetoricus on Mon May 12, 2008 at 09:10:36 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Hillary is right. (2.00 / 1)

Intersting you neglected to cite your source.... the right wing Kiplinger Magazine.

Instead, try quoting some democrats:

http://www.correntewire.com/hillary_clin ton_must_be_the_democratic_nominee_do_th e_math


I'm United Methodist. I already have a Messiah.
by KnowVox on Mon May 12, 2008 at 12:01:09 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Hillary is right. (none / 0)

Apart from the fact that your link has nothing to do with the diary, it's also completely missing the point allready in the first sentence.

"Only one thing matters; winning the Presidency in November."

Ever heard about silly stuff like principles !!! A typical DLC approach to democracy.


by hebi on Mon May 12, 2008 at 12:17:24 PM EST
[ Parent ]

God, that woman is BROKE (none / 0)

Hills' gas tanks run bone dry.

Just when you thought it could get worse, it does.

Clinton spokesperson Howard Wolfson reports the campaign has accumulated at least $20,000,000 of debt.  OUCH!  

Bear Stearns, anybody!



Clinton aides continued to insist that she will remain in the race even while confirming that she is $20 million in debt. "The voters are going to decide this," senior adviser Howard Wolfson said on "Fox News Sunday," acknowledging the $20 million figure.


"McSame: He's Constipated and Ready to GO!
by Al Rodgers on Mon May 12, 2008 at 07:06:57 AM EST

Continue spending even when (none / 0)

you have to borrow to do it.  Gee, that sounds familiar.


No Way, No How, No McCain!
by GFORD on Mon May 12, 2008 at 12:06:43 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: God, that woman is stubborn (2.00 / 2)

not a peep about Obama's bragging that he's got the black vote sewn up, even Michelle 'predicted' that black americans would WAKE up and vote for Obama....    no not a whiff of racism in that...    but HRC talks about working class americans AND white working class americans and all of a sudden it's back to grammar class to parse things here.  


by swissffun on Mon May 12, 2008 at 07:40:35 AM EST

Re: God, that woman is stubborn (2.00 / 1)

"not a peep about Obama's bragging that he's got the black vote sewn up,"

Can we have a link to that?


by Aris Katsaris on Mon May 12, 2008 at 09:36:34 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: God, that woman is stubborn (2.00 / 2)

In the AP article she was referring to there was no mention att all of a category hard working Americans vs non hard working Americans, there was also no mention off different results for the candidates based on income. There was a paragraph however about racial divide.
If she simply had referred to strong support among white working class voters the discussion would have been much less heated. It was her conflation of white and hard working that was so tone deaf.
But apart from that, once it became clear that the statement was not conveying the right message, the smart reaction would have been : "Sorry, that was not a smart way of saying what I meant".
by hebi on Mon May 12, 2008 at 09:37:57 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: God, that woman is stubborn (2.00 / 2)

to clarify :
I'm assuming she reacted to this AP article.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/P/P RIMARY_EXIT_POLL_GLANCE?SITE=VTBEN&S ECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT


by hebi on Mon May 12, 2008 at 09:42:43 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Axelrod can KMA (2.00 / 1)

this is part of his strategy to make the Clintons look like racists.  Her choice of words was just fine.  


For Obama it now becomes: Faith, hope and CHANGE! And the greatest of these is Change!
by TeresaInPa on Mon May 12, 2008 at 08:30:34 AM EST

Re: Axelrod can KMA (2.00 / 2)

So Axelrod defends Clintons and that's bad.

I certainly agree with Terasa that the choice of her words was fine for what Hillary intended.

Of course we probably disagree on what they were intended for: I believe it was intended to please racists, but at the same time allow her more mainstream supporters to believe it to be a merely clumsy word-choice AND allow them to call "race-baiting!" yet again.

A most excellent choice of words. You can see its elegance when you compare it to true blunders like "bittergate" or "typical white person". Those blunders were unlikely to have earned Obama votes among any demographic, but Hillary's so-called "blunder" pleases the racist vote most elegantly in its covertness and allows the "racebaiter" card to be played again against anyone who objects.


by Aris Katsaris on Mon May 12, 2008 at 09:56:53 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Oh My God, Clinton said WHITE (none / 0)

what a f*king racist!
Everybody knows "white" is street code for "nappy headed 'ho"
by internetstar on Mon May 12, 2008 at 09:08:10 AM EST

Re: Oh My God, Clinton said WHITE (2.00 / 2)

She equated "white" Americans with "hard-working" Americans, evoking the "lazy black" canard.

Should she get more forgiveness for this than Obama got for his poorly worded "bittergate" comments, over which Hillary personally crucified Obama?


by rhetoricus on Mon May 12, 2008 at 09:13:27 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: God, that woman is stubborn (2.00 / 1)

I don't think she made a mistake. I think she spoke the truth. And you can't handle the truth.


Visit Pagan Power You know you want to!
by Pagan Power on Mon May 12, 2008 at 09:12:47 AM EST

..and that truth is? (2.00 / 2)

..that only white Americans are "hard-working"?

I see.

You're right, I can't handle that.


by rhetoricus on Mon May 12, 2008 at 09:14:50 AM EST

Racism? I'm pissed at Mr-Uniter-not-Divider stuff (2.00 / 1)

Its not like we haven't heard that one before and although it may be more elegantly paraphrased this time around, it's unconscionable that the other half of Democrats have fallen for it -- some of them, fallen for it AGAIN.


by dcrolg on Mon May 12, 2008 at 09:26:37 AM EST

dude... (none / 0)

they put a memo out about her comments a few hours after the article broke. repeat after me - bait and switch.


"Democracy! Bah! When I hear that I reach for my feather Boa!" Allen Ginsberg
by canadian gal on Mon May 12, 2008 at 10:50:20 AM EST

Re: dude... (none / 0)

Links please.
It's not on the campaign website !!!
by hebi on Mon May 12, 2008 at 12:11:18 PM EST
[ Parent ]


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