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McCain Camp Cozies Up to Bill Clinton On Obama and Race

August 01, 2008 9:12 AM

"Say whatever you want about Bill Clinton," McCain campaign chieftain Steve Schmidt tells Politico's Jonathan Martin and Ben Smith,  "but it's deeply unfair to suggest his criticism of Obama was race-based. President Clinton was a force for unity in this country on this subject. Every American should be proud of his record as both a governor and president. But we knew it was coming in our direction because they did it against a President of the United State of their own party."

There are a number of prominent African-American Democrats who would disagree that Bill Clinton's criticism of Sen. Barack Obama during the primaries was beyond reproach, but it of course long before Sen. John McCain got into the act, Bill Clinton was the first one to accuse the Obama camp of playing the "race card."

It behooves McCain and his team to cozy up to Bubba on this issue. The goal: to woo those still-angry Clinton voters and to make Obama look like a racial whiner.

For what it's worth, we at Political Punch kept quite a keen eye on how the Clinton campaign used (or didn't use) race in the Democratic primary and at NO time was the Obama campaign involved in our reporting.

Nor did Obama ever level a charge himself, as he did this week against "McCain and the Republicans" in Missouri.

Obama campaign senior adviser David Axelrod was asked by Chris Cuomo on Good Morning America just what Obama was driving at with his comments that "McCain and the Republicans" would make an issue out of the fact that "he doesn't look like all those other presidents on those dollar bills."

This is how Ax answered: "He's not from central casting when it comes to presidents of the United States, he's young, he's new to Washington, yes, he's African American."

Watch HERE.

Do you think that acknowledgment that there was a racial dimension to Obama's comments contradicts what Obama senior adviser Robert Gibbs told the AP yesterday?

Gibbs said “What Barack Obama was talking about was that he didn’t get here after spending decades in Washington. There is nothing more to this than the fact that he was describing that he was new to the political scene. He was referring to the fact that he didn’t come into the race with the history of others. It is not about race.”

Other ways Obama does not look like the presidents on the dollar bills:

* No powdered wig
* No wooden false teeth
* No pince-nez in jacket pocket
* No splinters on hands from chopping down cherry trees

- jpt

August 1, 2008 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (224)

User Comments

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I gotta tell you I'm laughing here. A political party that made a career of bashing Bill Clinton is now cozy with him... what strange bedfellows. I gotta believe that Bill has taken a couple showers just to wash the McCain off, to remove that lingering ring of Republican smug. Given that all polls show a 50-50 McCain/Obama split, the entire country is at least 75 percent against Bush, so about 1/4 of the voters will represent a vote against rather than for anyone. Gonna be an interesting 6 months. Let us prey.

Posted by: Rick_VT | Aug 2, 2008 8:42:20 AM

She said, "He's unelectable"........now you know why.

Posted by: Independent minded | Aug 2, 2008 7:33:13 AM

Camp Obama looks pathetic these days ---Who else is going to be thrown under the bus to get this fraud elected? Now the bus is getting ready to run over Pelosi as team Obama flip flops on off shore drilling. No principles, no convictions, every Dem core principle is up for grabs to put an empty suit in office. Look at the polls Clinton-Mccain and see who would have run away with this election...

Posted by: obamasinksinpolls | Aug 2, 2008 6:28:06 AM

Race will inevitably be a part of this race. Obama invokes it to his advantage - so stop whining Obama supporters. It's sad to say, but if Obama were white he would never of had a chance in hell against Hilliary or the others - he certainly didn't win on experience or judgement, as we are beginning to learn now as we finally peel back his layers.

Posted by: rob | Aug 2, 2008 5:23:12 AM

Marylou, I must congratulate you. It's good to see the traditional Democratic "vote against your own interests on matters of principle" approach in full cry.

With any luck, you'll be able to enjoy all the benefits of the America proposed by Senator McCain.

Posted by: Psaltseller | Aug 2, 2008 5:08:23 AM

DREW:
_When asked:
"did race play a part in your decision and white people went on record saying Obama being black was the main reason they did not vote for him..."

Yet the percentage of white people who voted for Obama was larger than the percentage of Black people who voted for Hillary..... Racism in reverse?

And as for ethnic stations existing for various ethnicities.... those are like comfort zones for a lot of people.

Not everyone would be interested in a station catering to Yiddish music... or to Telemondo.... but why shouldn't they exist?

And yes, It is not a secret that Obama is black.

I think a lot of people only have a problem with that when those of us who preferred Hillary or choose McCain... are told that we are racists because 're not voting for B O !

In fact, I think this is a turn off for a lot of people who already feel that this newbie has been crammed down our throats by the broken down DNC and the politically pushy media.

And why is it acceptable for B O's bloggers to label McCain as a a doddering old man.... but not acceptable to label Obama for the unscrupulous egomaniacal politician whose actual accomplishments (aside from penning two semi-autobiographical novels of hype) are minimal.

Granted, B O's campaign is great; all hail David Axelrod. Perhaps HE should be our candidate...

If Colon Powell were running for office, he would have been way out in front by now and, frankly, I think lack of credentials will play a bigger role in this outcome of this election than the color of Obama's skin

Posted by: questioner | Aug 2, 2008 3:25:07 AM

Obama has been playing the race cards since the day he graduated from colleges. From the church he attended to the people he associated with clearly showed his ambition and characters. I'm not surprised to see why the Obama fans don't even know what he wants to achieve if he becomes president except his ambition. Any issue Obama said yesterday, today is different. Let be honest, American people don't even know what the heck he will do after he gets elected. But surely there are many people will vote for him, then after that they will be complaning just like they voted for Bush. MaCain is the same. He is just an old dog. He is no difference from Bush as I see it. He keeps following the "global economy" band wagon of big corporations. The old fool thinks tax break for big corporations moving jobs overseas is good for the country. Do you see any country gives tax break for companies sending jobs overseas. Only in America. So, do I care who will become the next president? Frankly I don't give a damn!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted by: crookedpolitician | Aug 2, 2008 3:17:06 AM

What the mcCain wants to do in essence is to stop Obama from speaking, so no matter what he says or how he says it, They are going to twist it to suit themselves. Anyone sensible listening to the Obama speech would deduce that he was making fun of himself. Lighten up people, it is good to be able to make fun of yourself. What Obama said is true. Does he look like the presidents on the bills? So where is the problem? Poor John McCain; one must pity him: he is a pathetic, dirty, senile old man who needs to go sit in his rocking chair

Posted by: exatlantic | Aug 2, 2008 2:04:29 AM

Only thing Obama is good at is playing race card. He makes every critism toward him a racial issue. This is what he runs on. Even the great President Bill Clinton became OB's racism victim. This is about time that the Republicans call OB's race card bluff.

Posted by: Fair Politics | Aug 2, 2008 12:56:00 AM

McCain used the Obama $100 bill June 27th in a WebAd on his site. He also recently scrubbed his Letterman appearance which AP called McCain a political celebrity. Who knew John McCain could sell his soul for his prior reputation?

So Disney News needs to scrub that story suggesting Obama was making up the race card stuff. McCain did indeed create and post the ad Obama was referring to. If Disney had any real reporters, they would have found it like the blogs have.

Posted by: kravitz | Aug 2, 2008 12:52:16 AM

Are you kidding that the Obama campaign didn't play the race card?

They have been doing this crap for months -- it started with Jesse Jackson, Jr. back in January and has not abated. How dare you say that Obama wasn't invovled before this week. THIS IS HIS CAMPAIGN!! Jackson Jr. is one of his chief advisors/campaign heads -- this was out of his mouth from the beginning -- Obama could have stopped it at any time.

This is Obama's typical M.O. -- have someone else under his bannedr do it, then disavow he had anything to do with it.

Sorry, Jake -- I'm not buying it.

Finally, McCain (and Rick Davis) stepped up to the plate and called him on the stuff the mainstream media has been too chicken to say.

Posted by: Annagain | Aug 2, 2008 12:48:39 AM

Obama doesn't have to worry about taxes himself, seeing as how he gets his money under the table from his puppet master Rezko-----he doesn't have pay any tax on his ill gotten gains no matter how much he ups everyone that actually works taxes. Crime does pay.

Posted by: chattyway | Aug 2, 2008 12:20:35 AM

I know lots of Hilliary female supporters that will be voting for McCain and against Obama.....the more we know about Obama, the more we dislike him. Bye, Bye Obama.

Posted by: chattyway | Aug 2, 2008 12:18:19 AM

Well, of course Axelrod had to acknowledge that race was being referred to in Obama's comments in Missouri. To do otherwise would be to look foolish, indeed. I just don't understand why he would want to harp on it - unless you are blind, you realize he's black.

Posted by: Lynne | Aug 1, 2008 10:57:38 PM

We LOVE Bill. We MISS Hillary. The Clintons are the greatest political success story of the Democratic party since FDR and Eleanor Roosevelt. In fact, Bill is the ONLY Dem to be re-elected since FDR! The arrogance and audacity of Barack Obama to try to denigrate the great legacy of Bill Clinton is unforgiveable.

Obama has destroyed the Democratic party. Obama is neither qualified or electable. The Dems are very foolish if they nominate the "one" candidate who cannot win.

It's NOT too late for the Dems to wise up and nominate the best candidate, Hillary Clinton, who has already won the popular vote, winning MORE votes than ANY candidate (including Bill) of ANY party in history! Hillary rocks. Let's give credit where it's due.

The DNC MUST open up this convention in Denver and allow BOTh Hillary and Obama's names to be placed in nomination, allow speeches by and for BOTH, allow BOTH names on ballots, allow votes to be cast for BOTH, and yes, gasp, actually COUNT ALL THE VOTES!

It's the ONLY democratic way to resolve this nomination.

In 1932, FDR came into the Dem convention, 90 delegates short of the needed number and he won the FOURTH, 4th, ballot!

Hillary has earned the right to be nominated. The DNC will find that paybacks are hell if they deny her.

It's Hillary or McCain 08 and Hillary 2012. Country first, party second.

The DNC MUST be held accountable.

Posted by: R | Aug 1, 2008 10:50:26 PM

l am going for obama.macain is a racist.l was for macain befor, now l am changeing my mind.

Posted by: taxas | Aug 1, 2008 10:49:19 PM

The Clintons and John McCain have a genuine respect for each other. Hillary and John McCain have worked together on many projects in the Senate. They really like each other.... McCain tells the truth.

Posted by: Turtles | Aug 1, 2008 10:28:03 PM

Hillary Was Right! Obama is a Show Horse. Hillary Clinton & John McCain are Work Horses. We Need A Work Horse President - Not another Empty Headed show Horse President!

Posted by: Not Fooled | Aug 1, 2008 10:08:13 PM

A deal?

Clear Bills racist name, by bringing down Obama as a race baiter to repair Bills legacy?

I smell a RAT!

Posted by: Sam | Aug 1, 2008 10:00:42 PM

by what we now know from HuffPo and Crooks and Liars, McCain did indeed run a web ad where a bill with Ben Franklin turns into Obama and explodes. so Obama was right.

in other words, both McCain and Clinton pulled the race card from the bottom of the deck first, and both got pissed when they got called on it by the Obama campaign.

the crazy little old man is not fit to be leader of the United States.

Posted by: kravitz | Aug 1, 2008 9:23:19 PM

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