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Clinton-Backing Congressman Says Clinton Camp Pushed Racist Strategy

June 06, 2008 9:03 AM

Sens. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, and Barack Obama, D-NY, met last night at the home of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. -- who is a big supporter, it should be noted, of a joint ticket.

A joint statement came from Obama spox Bill Burton and Clinton spox Jay Carson saying: “Senator Clinton and Senator Obama met tonight and had a productive discussion about the important work that needs to be done to succeed in November.”

But threatening to steal some thunder from the rapprochement comes Rep. Rob Andrews, D-NJ -- fresh from his primary loss to Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-NJ -- who tells the Newark Star-Ledger that it may be tough for the party to unify behind Obama since the Clinton camp "has engaged in some very divisive tactics and rhetoric it should not have."

Before the April 22 Pennsylvania primary, Andrews says, a "high-ranking person" in the Clinton campaign "pushed a strategy of winning by exploiting tensions between Jews and African-Americans.

"There have been signals coming out of the Clinton campaign that have racial overtones that indeed disturb me," Andrews said. "Frankly, I had a private conversation with a high-ranking person in the campaign ... that used a racial line of argument that I found very disconcerting. It was extremely disconcerting given the rank of this person. It was very disturbing."

The Clinton campaign's response, from spox Phil Singer: "Comments like these, coming so soon after Congressman Andrews' crushing defeat, are sad and divisive."

- jpt

June 6, 2008 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (288)

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Another rat comes out of hiding. Another worm slithers out from under the rocks. Another opportunist comes out seeking a job from Obama. Another greed monger starts his campaign to write a tell all book.

Stomp out the rats, worms, opportunists and greed mongers. Stomp out this creep and CNN creeps too for tabloid journalism.

Posted by: Wild | Jun 6, 2008 8:55:23 PM

the Clinton's are scandalous people and American knows it!!!

Posted by: FrigidWeather | Jun 6, 2008 7:33:58 PM

Just because you don't like the message, don't blame the messenger!!Oh, like the American people already didn't know the Clintons are scandalous people.

Posted by: FrigidWeather | Jun 6, 2008 7:31:10 PM

As far as Hillary Clinton goes I believe what the bible says: to paraphrase-I will always choose a humble apprentice than a skilled rebel. Hillary cannot be trusted on any level. And it will always be "what's in it for me "and you must always watch your back.

Posted by: lowes4321 | Jun 6, 2008 7:14:24 PM

Since Obama is talking with her ,how does Hillary have the whole world in her hands as one person states and can "make or break "Obama's campaign .If that was the case she would have been the nominee. She couldn't win because her team was not smart enough. Now where does this magical power for Hillary come from now-I say Obama needs to stay away from her. Let her supporters make their own decisions because she IS OUT!!- Hillary supporters must DECIDE how they want their families to live in the next 4 years. Do they want their jobs or not. And are you fine with the price of gas and food. Because Hillary is a millionaire and she does not care how you live because she will be doing fine. How can Hillary supporters be so blind as to let their families go in the toilet to make a millionaire feel powerful.

Posted by: lowes4321 | Jun 6, 2008 7:06:08 PM

Brammy. Pt: It does not matter who had the most popular vote. The popular vote has NEVER determined the party candidate for president and NEVER has it determine who wins the general election in November. The founders of our nation set up a method of determining the winner of the presidential election that is not based on the popular vote. The winner is the person with the most votes from the Electoral College in the general election. Both republican and democrat parties use a similar method by determining the winner by delegate votes. Obama is ahead of Clinton on delegates selected “by the people.” Clinton’s only chance to win was to convince most of the super delegates to vote for her. However, most went with the candidate that the people had selected delegates for. Quit talking about a factious way of selecting our president. If you don’t like the method, then start a Constitution Amendment to change it.

Posted by: MikeMo1947 | Jun 6, 2008 7:05:09 PM

Yavo, Pt: Your popular vote totals are wrong. (1) No one knows the vote in FL and MI if they had not broke the rules intentionally. These two were early in the primary. The candidates did not campaign in them. That gives a huge advantage to an incumbent (or in this case, someone that is very well known). Up to that point, every state the two candidates campaigned in, Obama increased his numbers and Clinton decreased her numbers. So no one knows what the true total would have been. (2)The numbers you are using actually come from AP. In four of the caucus states, the AP reported the number of delegates selected by the people and not the actual vote. It was footnoted on the NT Times site. For example, it shows in Iowa that Obama received 940 votes, Edwards 744, and Clinton 737, and 80 spread among other candidates. This would imply that Clinton lost by 203 votes (using your numbers). But these are the number of delegates selected by the votes of the people. I am from Iowa. The precinct I attended had about 750 people attending. Obama had about 425 real votes, Clinton had about 210 votes, and Edwards about 115 votes. Since our precinct had 7 delegates to select for the county convention, 4 went to Obama, 2 went to Clinton, and 1 went to Edwards. However, if you look at the actual votes in our precinct, Clinton lost by about 215 votes (one neighborhood precinct). Now spread that across the entire state and you see Obama is not getting credit for the large number of real votes over Clinton. There are three other states reported in the AP numbers the same way. If you want to see the best estimate at the popular vote, go to RealClearPolitics.com that factors all this in several ways to see the impact.

Posted by: MikeMo1947 | Jun 6, 2008 6:54:40 PM

I see the media is at it again - stirring up hate - the Obama -nuts will attack Hill & Bill and the Hillabots will fight back and not vote for Obama - a guess what? the media's real darling - McCain will become president.

Posted by: Anti-Media | Jun 6, 2008 5:54:15 PM

Okay, so now tht I know I can get teh blog through: Sen Diane Feinstein indicated that Hillary and Barack's one-on-one meeting seemed to have been civil and productive and that she even heard shared laughter from them. If these two candidates can "bury the hatchet" and put aside the slights and grievances of this campaign in order tofurther their common goals, I suggest their supporters be "suck it up", calm down and follow their candidate's lead to put aside slights and grievances (real and perceived) and support this campaign so our voices can still be heard and respected.

Posted by: AnotherLaura | Jun 6, 2008 5:16:22 PM

Hey y'all
I tried to tell you guys that Barack and Hillary met privately one-on-one last night to discuss how they would move to respect and unite their supporters and move on against John Mccain in Nov but for some reason the author of this blog blocked my post. I hope this one gets through.

Posted by: AnotherLaura | Jun 6, 2008 5:11:02 PM

People you should all be alarmed at the subterfuge and secrecy surrounding the meeting between Clinton and Obama. These people are not yet in power and already they are holding "secret" meetings! Isn't this government "For the people and by the people" With these goings on I don't think so..

Posted by: Valerie Tarantolo | Jun 6, 2008 5:09:59 PM

LOL!! That was in reference to Hucakbees comment that someone stumbling over furniture in the background as he gave a speech was Barack Obama basically dodging an assasination attempt. RHBATE has posted hillary Hard-Working white people comment in the thread several times which offended a host of voters.

Personally I would have been offended if I were in WV when she said that educated, elite and blacks would vote for Obama but she could count on them to vote for her which is where the HArd working white people speeh was made.... inciting racism.

Glad you're voting for whoever.
***************************************
Sorry I have no idea what you meant by "Hard Working white people, even as adults, is acceptable speech for our leaders right?" means.

I know I got a totally different view than YOU did after reading his book..he is not moving away from racism but he embraces it. I honestly believe he is a racist..in the very basic meaning of the word.
Sorry-no way I will cast my vote for him.
Hello McCain!..not my choice before,but now anyone BUT Barack looks pretty good.


***************************************

Posted by: Brammy | Jun 6, 2008 4:56:37 PM

Bt of course again Huckabees assination jokes and Hard Working white people, even as adults, is acceptable speech for our leaders right?
***********************************

Sorry I have no idea what you meant by "Hard Working white people, even as adults, is acceptable speech for our leaders right?" means.

I know I got a totally different view than YOU did after reading his book..he is not moving away from racism but he embraces it. I honestly believe he is a racist..in the very basic meaning of the word.
Sorry-no way I will cast my vote for him.
Hello McCain!..not my choice before,but now anyone BUT Barack looks pretty good.

Posted by: paynts | Jun 6, 2008 4:52:21 PM

I'm not a high ranking anything in either campaign and I can look at the historical relationship and see what there was going to be a divide between the Jews, Blacks, Hispanics, Whites, Asians - every culture has their own initial reaction to someone who is not from their culture.

I don't think that it takes any high-level mastermind to remember the old war saying - the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Soften the language, put it in context of a political campaign and there ya have it.

Posted by: Brent | Jun 6, 2008 4:50:44 PM

If you want to see how treacherous these people really are, google: USS Liberty.

Posted by: rhbate
------------------------------------------

I dont need to google anything. I know that the USS Liberty was bombed purposely by the dirty Israeli's. Its a known fact. Israel is not an friend of the US, they have killed the US citizens, they have spied on the US (multiple times), the diddle with US politics (AIPAC), and of course the USS Liberty -

Really, this ish makes me angry and sick.

Posted by: Citizen in Florida | Jun 6, 2008 4:46:34 PM

"IT WAS HARD - WORKING AMERICAN -WHITE AMERICANS, WHO ARE MY CORE BASE OF SUPPORT"

Saying this, she dissed Native Americans, Asian-Americans, African-Americans, Eskimos and a host of others.

Posted by: rhbate | Jun 6, 2008 4:44:01 PM

This article is a non-issue. He didn't provide any details.

I do think, however, that it was very "unclassy" of the Clinton camp to distribute the pic of Obama trying on Somolian clothes-like a tourist-to make him look like some kind of underground Islamic terrorist.

Posted by: Justme | Jun 6, 2008 4:40:20 PM

Israel will fall. Nations have come and gone quicker than 60 yrs, so its not out of the question that Israel could be (and will be) demolished

Posted by: Citizen in Florida | Jun 6, 2008 4:30:15 PM
__________________

The so-called state of Israel is a fiction created by the Western nation because they did not want those people in their own countries, so they gave the Jews land they did not own. Ever since, the Zionists have been trying to steal all the Arab land they can. I am against the use of nuclear weapons but why is it OK for the Zionists to have them and not the Arabs. If you want to see how treacherous these people really are, google: USS Liberty.

Posted by: rhbate | Jun 6, 2008 4:39:00 PM

Again: Hillary math...What Ann coulter forgot to mention was that OPbama's name was not even on the Michigan ballot and the margin was on 300k votes less than 25%. Have you really bought in to the fact that NO ONE in Mich would have voted for OBama had they not violated DNC rules? YIKES!!! More people decided not to vote for anyone than to vote for Hillary due to that little oversight.
**************************************
Ann Coulter really nailed it, Obambi is selected not elected. Hill won the most votes and they took it away from her. It's Al Gore/2000 all over again, except the Democrats did it to themselves.
Also reminds me of Mugabe stealing the election in Zimbabwe.
Anyway, Michelle Obama's Whitey rant tape would have done the job if Wright and Pfleiger hadn't in ensuring a Mac landslide in November!

Posted by: Brammy | Jun 6, 2008 4:36:59 PM

The war will never be "done" no matter who gets in the WH....if you believe that I have a used yardstick for $80.00!! Our main concern at this time, is the economy!! People cannot pay $150/wk for gas! The Congress is the problem! They have done nothing to help the average "Joe" and now the Congress wants to tax us up the "ying-yang"! And what programs are their priority? Take from middle income so that they can give to the poor...then the middle income will become poor...if Congress was so concerned about this country then Nancy Pelosi alone, would be building her car door parts in buildings in the US and not France and China...is anyone aware that Pelosi and her husband sell their car door parts for EVERY CAR MADE!! AND NOT IN THE USA!!So much for the horsesh!t that comes out of Congress!! I am voting republican for the first time in my adult life and so are millions of us, so that there will be an equal balance in the Congress!! No one party should control the Congress and the WH. That's where there will be some controls! My advice is to beware Obama's words..he changes them to suit the situation!! He is a story teller!

Posted by: micha | Jun 6, 2008 4:36:39 PM

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