The moderate-liberal commentator writes about the roughness of the Democratic presidential race: "Strong Black Woman. Say it loud, 'I'm black and I'm proud.' So why the sense of injury over the Clintons aiming slime at Barack Obama? Mind you, it's been a moderate dollop. We've heard so much about how the Clinton machine would 'get' him. So: he worked with a slum lord? His record on Iraq is a 'fairy tale?' His embrace by black voters in South Carolina won't take him any further than Jesse Jackson got? Compared to the Swift-boating affair against John Kerry, this is water balloons. And yet wise folk are telling us that part of the reason Mr. Obama copped so much of the black vote in South Carolina is indignation at the Clintons' abuse. The white punditocracy is similarly harrumphing over Mr. Obama meeting sharp elbows. But aren't we supposing that this grown man in his fifth decade of life is curiously delicate? Haven't our elections been permeated with mud since, well, forever?"
Mr. McWhorter continues his commentary: "Yet there is an element of surprise, a tincture of dismay, in how many view the sliming of Mr. Obama. If Grover Cleveland or John Kerry got slimed, what do you expect? But if Mr. Obama gets slimed, well. There is a tacit sense that decent people would make an exception for him. Otherwise, why would so many think of it as news that the Clintons or anyone else would get nasty in trying to push past him? Let's face facts: People see this commonplace phenomenon as news because of a tacit idea that as a black man, Mr. Obama should be treated with kid gloves. Lawrence Bobo, professor of sociology at Harvard, gives it away comparing the Clintons' attacks on Mr. Obama to, specifically, the Willie Horton ad and the 2000 vote count. That is, events traditionally classified as 'racist' — as if Republicans have not sought to best Democrats in ways disconnected to race. Upon which the Swift-boat thing is germane. Mr. Bobo appends that to his list, too — but misses that the guiding theme is not racism but hardball. Welcome to reality: being judged by the content of our character means that we black people will not be exempt from hardball. We should not be seduced by the fantasy that we must pretend to be fragile."
My response: Before some of my leftist readers start cutting up, they should note that John McWhorter supports Sen. Obama for president (no surprise there, as he backed Ralph Nader in 2000 and Sen. John Kerry in 2004). He discusses why here. In relation to Mr. McWhorter's commentary, most critics of the Clintons' tactics are not saying that Sen. Obama should be treated with kid gloves. We argue that he should be treated like everyone else, with a focus on his policy positions and background, and not racially coded language in order to play on anxieties of white folks...in this case, white Democrats.
JOHN MCWHORTER COMMENTARY: Welcoming Obama To Reality
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Mr. McWhorter is making an obvious, but inadequate observation. Mr. Obama is a smart as Billary and not as naive as McWhorter assumes. No rational adult running for President would be surprised at the tactics of the Clintons. These are blows that must be taken in order to expose the Clintons as the duplicitous duo they are, and to break the hypnotic hold they have on the black electorate in particular and the Democratic mainstream generally. The Clintons are calculating they will retain a portion of the black vote by sheer name recognition and can at the same time elevate their appeal in the Hispanic community by making them the new beloved by exaserbating the supposed rifts and competition between blacks and Hispanics. The Clintons benefit by the race card all the way around. However I believe Mr. Obama has anticipated to tactic and is not a deer in the headlights. This is a generational election and I believe the Clintons are fighting the 'last' war with obsolete tactics. Whether there is one more victory remaining in the old way remains to be seen. But the exposure of the Clintons as cut throat, self-serving politicians is a necessary first step and what initially appears as a retreat is actually moving to a strategically superior position. Young people are going to determine the outcome of this contest and the Clintons have little hold on that group. We'll see. But Obama isn't dumb or afraid. He's playing his cards as he reads them.
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