Monday, January 28, 2008

Minimizing the Win

I played a show in Albany on Saturday night, so I was only able to watch a fraction of the returns from the South Carolina Democratic primary. By the time I went to sleep after 1AM, however, the results were in, and it showed that Sen. Barack Obama had beaten Sen. Hillary Clinton by more than a 2-to-1 margin. And now the spin begins.

When a presidential campaign comes in any place other than first in a primary, the goal of the following few days is to minimize the win of the dominant campaign; to try to stop the momentum by making others believe that this particular victory is not as important as it is (or it seems). But it seems like the attempts at minimizing Sen. Obama's win on Saturday are particularly strong.

The soundbite that everyone was talking about yesterday, and today, is from (who else) former President Bill Clinton. When asked about Sen. Obama's win in South Carolina, he responded, "Jesse Jackson won South Carolina in '84 and '88. Jackson ran a good campaign. And Obama ran a good campaign here." Roland S. Martin, radio commentator and journalist, commented on the remarks, writing that President Clinton "didn't mention his win in 1992. Or that of Vice President Al Gore in 2000, or even then-Sen. John Edwards' win in 2004. He decided to bypass all of these gents and link Obama with Jackson, who is beloved in black America but stirs hatred among many whites." (Read the full commentary here) Mr. Martin makes a very good point about Mr. and Mrs. Clinton playing the "race card" in order to turn people against Obama. However, the point that I want to make is not intended to be racial.

Two posts ago I mentioned how Rudy Giuliani's campaign has staked it's life on Florida -- essentially telling the citizens of the previous states that they don't matter. Unfortunately, Mr. Clinton's comments follow this same basic trend: trying to convince the general population that a smaller group of voters don't matter. The implications of Mr. Clinton's statements (and the statements of others, including fellow Poughkeepsie Journal bloggers, as well as those who comment on those blogs) are that South Carolinians are unintelligent, misinformed, and out-of-touch. And that because they chose Sen. Obama (apparently like they chose Jesse Jackson in '84 and '88), their opinions should obviously matter less than that of other voters.

I really can't stand people who claim to love America, but clearly can't stand Americans.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Then I guess you'd condemn the surrogates of Obama that think that Clinton should not stand for the rights of voters in Fla. and Mich. top have their votes counted? Obamans hate those americans. In fact the Obama people hate most americans. By and large the rage they spew is astounding. Good thing he's not going to be president.

Anonymous said...

The "left leaning" scam is over. Hillary haters are right-wing nuts that support genocidal fanatics like McCain.

Anonymous said...

That self hatred is really showing. Obama supporters seem to have a knack for shooting themselves in the foot. Did you even know that Obama's campaign was condemning Hillary's attempt to convince the DNC to honor all the delegates before you posted that idiotic rant against yourself? You're your worst adversary. I guess acknowledging that you hate yourself is therapeutic. Good luck with that.

Anonymous said...

Dude, you're not a "blogger" you're a blog administrator. The people that "comment" are bloggers.