They're Going to Steal This Thing

I'm convinced now.

They (the Superdelegates) are going to steal this election.

I've said this any number of times before, that the only reason they haven't come full out for Obama is because they don't really want a Black candidate either. So they will sit on their hands and allow HRC to throw the "kitchen sink" at Obama and not do anything about it, hoping that enough muck will stick and they can say, "I know he leads in pledged delegates but he really isn't electable and we want to win in November. So sorry."

I'm convinved.

I will say this: I will gladly be proven wrong. But the Democratic party will rue the day they decided to torpedo the nomination of the first and arguably the last (for a very long time) viable Black candidate for president.

If they want to go the way of the Whigs, so be it. I will gladly help them get there.

My Sentiments Exactly

From Angry Independent via Jack and Jill Politics

I have to agree with Baratunde on the point regarding Whites not understanding what we are talking about... Especially at Daily Kos.

They don't have the built-in radar that we have (which can only come from years of living while Brown in America). Radar that is able to pick up on all of the nuances and behaviors related to racism and race baiting used by the Clintons and by the Republicans.

I am also glad that there are other bloggers who see what I see and I don't have to explain every detail. I can also relate on the issue of rage. Clinton has short circuited my brain over the last few days.... leaving me damn near incapacitated...in terms of not being able to really concentrate on writing...

My head has been pounding too.

Finally today I was able to start thinking straight again.

(You can even see how Obama has been rattled a little).

You hit the nail on the head Wednesday on NPR's News and Notes.
I was saying Amen when the issue of media bias was mentioned.

The media is clearly trying to help Clinton.

Even today... I have yet to see one major network report that Obama actually won more delegates out of Texas. I have yet to see a major network mention that Clinton only managed to gain a small handful of delegates (single digits) out of the entire night... when she really needed to gain 20, 30, or 40 delegates.

How in the Hell is that a huge victory? It's all about perception.
And they are spinning the Hell out of her wins.

I have yet to hear the big media mention the fact that just 4 or 5 weeks ago... Clinton was leading in Texas and Ohio by very large margins...as much as 20 points... None have given Obama any positive coverage for the way he was able to close the gap to be competitive in States that he was never supposed to win.

Instead...they turned it around and made it a huge failure for Obama...despite the fact that these were States that Clinton was supposed to win all along.

I'm rattled....but not by Obama's perceived losses...but by the way the White corporate media is framing events....and by how they are assisting Clinton by essentially using her talking points and by not scrutinizing her the way that they scrutinize Obama.

I'm also rattled (but not surprised) by the racism amongst the electorate... I expected that all along. That's why I never thought Obama had a snowballs chance in Hell- The U.S. is a racist nation... that will likely never give a Black candidate any real chance. But what really bothers me is how the uneducated voting public in some of these States is falling for the Clinton bull.

I think racism is beginning to trump the "Change Theme". And this is why the Clinton's have been using the issue of race. Yes...people want change...but Clinton is reminding them that Barack is "The Black Guy" and that "Real Change" is not worth that kind of risky "roll of the dice". And what kind of "change" with the d*mb inexperienced n***er bring you anyway?

And once you plant seeds of doubt about a Black candidate in White voters... it takes on a life of its own. The doubt about Black people is already in the White brain....It is built-in; it simply needs to be triggered or turned on. And Clinton understands this and is trying to exploit it for all it's worth.

Barack will be damaged from here on out.... the question will be... to what degree will he be damaged.

It appeared that he lost some White voters in Ohio and Texas... So the racial nonsense is really starting to take a toll.

It will probably hurt him in Pennsylvania, Indiana, Oregon, and other places... even in Mississippi and North Carolina. But he should win enough of the remaining States to stay ahead in delegates. Wyoming will be interesting. Mississippi will be interesting as well... I want to see what percentage of the White vote he gets in both States.

I sat down and wrote a battle plan for Obama (If only I were a strategist for him). Clinton is so vulnerable in so many ways.... Unfortunately... Obama has no political attack dogs who could ruin her candidacy. They are too soft.

I could ruin her candidacy in about two weeks if I had the right pulpit.

I completely understand. I've been so pissed the last few days I couldn't see straight. I haven't been this angry since Katrina. I'm tired. I'm pissed.

- I'm pissed that the bar has been set impossibly high for Obama.

- I'm pissed that every time this woman says she's going to deliver a knockout punch to Obama and she fails it's spun as if Obama didn't deliver the knockout punch to her.

- I'm pissed that the party allows this woman to stay in the race even though she lost 12 contests in a row and didn't deliver on her big "firewall" wins and can't surpass him in delegates

- I'm pissed the media allows her to determine what races are important. And then claims Obama needs to do better at "managing expectations."

- And I'm mostly pissed that the Democratic party, as loyal as we've been, can allow us to be called a nigger time and time again by one of the potential democratic nominees, not do anything about it and then expect us to "come home" to the democratic party should she win the election.

Bottom line: you teach people how to treat you. The Democratic party can be foolish if they wanna and allow Hillary Clinton to stay in the race and continue with her scorched earth tactics. If the Dems want to besome as relevant as the whigs, so be it.

A Commenter Nails It When Describing the Russian Roulette the Clintons are Playing With the Black Vote and Ultimately The Democratic Party

From Group News Blog in reply to comments being made by myself and others that because of the Clinton's antics HRC will NOT be getting our votes:

I agree with JJ and moonglum on the not voting for Hillary issue.

People need to understand the seriousness of this.

It's not that black folks don't care about the Supreme Court or progressive programs but you have to understand for many blacks what the Bill Clinton has done (and yes I say Bill because this fight is more about him than Hillary IMHO and you know damn well he is behind every single nasty remark that has come out) is a betrayal first as a friend and second as a fellow Democrat.

Many of us considered the Clintons family, not me personally but I have family members and friends who loved him. Not agreed with him. Not liked his policy programs but loved the president because culturally and socially he was the first president that was close to us.

As Mrs Robinson wrote downthread, a charming smart guy who grew up poor in Arkansas raised by a single mother, tormented by a drunken father who overcomes the odds to make his way North for a better life is resembles to many of the stories of our own families. (Especially older relatives who were part of that migration of blacks from the south so many years before) We related to Bill in a way we never could to people like JFK and RFK because they were the product of rich families.

He might not have had the same skin color but superficially he was about as close as he could get. And for black folks who saw Jesse run and fail and had their hopes dashed then and assumed that they would never have anyone remotely close to them with a real sniff at the Whitehouse, Bill Clinton was a great substitute for the real thing.

The other endearing thing was he was a Democrat who many other Dems of his generation fought for our civil rights. Hell he even had a picture of is teenage self shaking JFK's hand! And maybe after years of Reagan and Bush we would have someone we could trust to continue that legacy.

Bill Clinton wasn't just a president he was family.

So we voted for him, vociferously defended him while many whites Dems were breaking ranks voting for the GOP and impeaching him not only in Congress but in the court of public opinion. And because Bill was family we also willfully ignored how he didn't deliver for us as he said he would. We stayed true to him through everything. We never even thought of straying from the party and it's ideals the way some many others had since 1980.

So to sit here and see staffers, surrogates, and Bill rip apart a black man using pages from the GOP playbook is about the worst thing politically many of us have seen not because we haven't seen it before but the source is a person that we gave unconditional trust to.

To see fellow Dems make excuses for the behavior is shocking to the system too. Read sites like Dailykos and see the real shucking and jiving some folks are doing to not only defend this crap but turn it around and say blacks in the party need to STFU. I never thought in my life I would hear the uppity nigger STFU line by another Dem. NEVER.

So yes we are pissed and we are going to stay pissed because the candidates, Howard Dean and many people in the party don't seem to give a shit.

So tell me what are my real choices? What choice to do we have but to stay home and not vote or do something more drastic like leave the party all together if Hillary wins the nomination when no one will take our concerns seriously or they pull out some argument about Supreme Court nominations changing the subject entirely?

Now I know some will think I am politically naive but what people outside the black community do not seem to understand is the first and I would argue largest reason we don't vote for the GOP is the GOP's racism. Not it's policy but simply the sickening way they choose to treat us.

I know I'm going to shock some folks here but us blacks no matter how much we like to say we are different than whites in many ways aren't. We've got homophobic religious evangelical fanatics too (thus Obama's speech on MLK day about homophobia in our community). We've got rich money grubbing assholes too (see Robert Johnson). We've got opportunistic bastards running our churches who are influential in our community who would endorse Satan in a political campaign if they thought it would get them money and political power (see all the pastors in 2004 who couldn't get on their knees fast enough to suck up to Bush).

We've got all the political diseases whites have and they are largely masked by the fact that the GOP's racism is so repellant that all these groups are FORCED to stick together for our own survival.

And the danger that LM didn't touch upon too much is what happens when that line of racial hatred between the Democrats and the GOP becomes blurred. Forget folks staying at home over Hillary on election day. Think of the total destruction of the Democratic party as blacks leave to vote for the GOP.

And yeah I know the first response to that is "The won't do that they'll be voting against they're own interest." So what? White folks have been doing that for nearly 30 years now. Like I said we aren't all that different from whites and some of are are craven and stupid enough to do it.

And yes it will be total destruction because blacks ARE the Democratic party. We ARE the left in this country. We ARE the stability of the party and have been for a long time.

And you Dems need us. To be more precise you need that 90% of our votes that we've given you in election after election.

Remember Rove's permanent majority? Part of the strategy was peeling off black votes. Just maybe 10-15 % and the Dems would never win another election again.

Think about that. Think about that as Clinton and his bullies keep pissing us off and giving younger blacks like me more and more reasons to say fuck it and stay home in Nov or do worse.

The Clintons are playing a game of racial Russian roulette. And they will keep pulling the trigger over and over again. And they don't worry about being shot because the gun isn't pointing at them but all of us.

Are you going to take a bullet for them?

- baltogeek

He then goes on to say:

My mom's thinking about voting for McCain if he gets the nomination as are some of my other relatives and friends.

I have others who are just demoralized and ready not to vote for anybody.

I know my post was really long but the short of it is that if the Dems through their own infighting and failure to address the issues surrounding may be pushing some of us in the direction of the GOP or not participate at all.

And as for numbers? I'm not Latino so please someone correct me if I'm wrong but IIRC Latinos in this country have spread their vote out between the two parties with the Dems with a slight majority.

Despite the rhetoric of both parties we've had tight political races.

If the Dems need 90% of the black vote to win (or lose) by a squeeker what happens if that vote is 75 or 80% which it very well could be if Hillary wins the nomination?

Are you assuming Latinos are going to vote in those kind of numbers? They haven't so far as far as I've seen and they may not in the future.

Look, I'm not going to pretend to be a expert on Latino politics or where they stand between the GOP and the Democrats but all things staying equal the Democratic party will be fucked if blacks stop giving them their votes whether we are the largest minority or not. It's not about ALL of us saying "We're taking our ball and going home" but enough of us to really screw things up. That's the danger I'm talking about that noone seems to understand or dismisses as being unreal.

And as for the DTV analogy, I'll give you one of my own.

I have a friend who has digital cable. He got it while they were advertising one of those specials where you pay a low rate for a few months before they jack it up to a much higher one.

Everytime he gets close to the end of that low rate they give him a call about extending his service he gives them some spiel (sp?) about how a satellite dish looks good and he saw a lower rate somewhere else and you know what? They keep him at his low rate.

Why? Because of competition. Because even in cold-hearted businessmen know that even at a lower rate it's better for them to get your money than have it go somewhere else.

The Democratic infighting may produce a competition for black votes for the first time in forever.

Do Democrats know that it's better to keep blacks rather than ignoring us and giving us reasons to leave?

I don't think anyone wants that.

- baltogeek


I couldn't have said it any better myself. I will NOT be voting for Hillary for the aforementioned reasons. And it's important to note that Black folks don't vote Republican so much based on policy (I do but I know that for many that's not the reason) but for their BLATANT RACISM.

We know "they" don't like us and have done everything they could to screw us so we vote Dem. But what happens if this is election is what brings the naked racism out in the Democratic party? Then what? Contrary to popular belief Black folk ain't stupid and we won't be so inclined to vote Democratic if we recognize we're just as abused, mistreated and dismissed under them.

For a LONG time I've been very vocal about the fact that I'm not a die hard Dem. I bear them no love and because of what I considered there similarities to the Republicans became politically apathetic until Obama won the Iowa Caucuses. While I have no intention of becoming politically apathetic again but if HRC gets the nod I will do everything in my power to organize a Don't Vote Day or if McCain is the nominee send Black vote voting for him (I'm not a McCain fan but right now I despise HRC more).

This is a personal betrayal. And like Baltogeek I was not a member of the "Bill Clinton is the first Black President" club but I recognize his success came on the back, belief and loyalty of many Black folk and for him (and his wife) to indulge in the stench of race warfare and to see the "liberal" establishment basically shrug off and ignore our concerns...well, my momma always said you teach people how to treat you and I'm real determined to teach the Clintons (and the Democratic party) a lesson they will be hard pressed to forget.