Donald Trump Utilizes Racism, but Hillary Clinton Used Similar Tactics Against Obama in 2008

[WillyT]

Donald Trump Utilizes Racism, but Hillary Clinton Used Similar Tactics Against Obama in 2008
H. A. Goodman - HuffPo
Posted: 12/09/2015 9:24 am EST Updated: 1 hour ago


AP

<snip>

To say Donald Trump is a racist ideologue might be an understatement, given his overtly xenophobic statements about Muslims, as well as his views on undocumented immigrants. He's insulted everyone from John McCain and Megyn Kelley to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, so it's obvious that Trump is either delusional, or simply doing everything possible to stay in the limelight. However, it's important for all Americans, especially Democrats, to look in the mirror.

Trump is a reflection of our society, as well as a mirror of what we're willing to tolerate, especially when "our" side is fighting for political power. The truth is that Hillary Clinton utilized race and Islamophobia against Barack Obama in 2008, even though Democrats aren't supposed to reach into this well of prejudice and ignorance.

The Guardian in 2008 published an article titled Clinton aides claim Obama photo wasn't intended as a smear, highlighting that a leading Democrat was willing to utilize "dirty tricks" pertaining to race and Islamophobia, even against a Christian man born in the U.S.:

Barack Obama's campaign team today accused Hillary Clinton's beleaguered staff of mounting a desperate dirty tricks operation by circulating a picture of him in African dress, feeding into false claims on US websites that he is a Muslim.

Obama's campaign manager, David Plouffe, described it as "the most shameful, offensive fear-mongering we've seen from either party in this election." Obama has had to spend much of the campaign stressing he is a Christian not a Muslim and did not study at a madrassa.

The picture showing Obama in a turban during a visit to Kenya in 2006 first appeared on the Drudge Report website today.

The site said it was circulated by Clinton's staffers and quoted one saying: "Wouldn't we be seeing this on the cover of every magazine if it were <Clinton>?"

The picture was taken when Obama went on a visit to Africa as a senator. Obama, whose father was Kenyan, visited Wajir in the Kenyan north-east, close to the Somali and Ethiopian borders, and was dressed by locals as a Somali elder.

The Clinton team hit back at the criticism today, saying Obama's team had turned the picture into a row to distract attention from a foreign policy speech she gave today.

I didn't make this up, nor does reminding the public equate to a nefarious agenda. The picture in The Guardian piece was utilized by Clinton's staff for a reason ("feeding into false claims on US websites that he is a Muslim&quot , which is why Obama's campaign called it "the most shameful, offensive fear-mongering we've seen from either party in this election."

Get ready for the defense attorneys among Clinton supporters to explain why circulating the picture above wasn't a shameful misrepresentation utilizing Islamophobia, or why I must have an agenda for pointing out this fact.

In addition to circulating a photo of Obama in African dress, knowing full well how certain voters in 2008 would view the picture, there's Clinton's 3:00 a.m. ad. Harvard Sociology Professor Orlando Patterson wrote an op-ed in The New York Times about this political attack during the 2008 campaign. Titled The Red Phone in Black and White, Patterson's op-ed explains exactly how Clinton's campaign utilized a "racist sub-message" in addition to Islamophobia:

<snip>

Much More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/h-a-goodman/donald-trump-utilizes-racism-_b_8756816.html

[in_cog_ni_to]

1. She sure did.

The 1% will say and do anything to win. Trump will not be the nominee and neither will HRH.

PEACE
LOVE
BERNIE

Rec and kick!

[Sheepshank]

2. it's no longer fucking 2008

she's not running the same fucking campaign....everyone admits there were changes being made. The ground swell, the endorsements, the talking points...everyone notices the difference, except desperate Bernie crowd.

Trump is a fucking moron and is running his own fucking campaign.

No one...and I mean NO ONE on the Left runs a campaign like Trump, it's a fucking stretch to think that fucking Fascist Trump is anything like any of the candidates on the Left.

OMFG.....is this what the desperation is reduced to?

[DemocratSinceBirth]

6. I would be more circumspect, friend, lest you catch the gaze of the alert crowd.

I learned my lesson the hard way. If anybody wants to know what DemocratSinceBirth truly thinks and has to say, when he feels free of fear and retribution, they can contact him via private message.

[Sheepshank]

7. No personal attacked involved..using the word "fuck" is a reason to hide a post?

well fuck that shit.

OTOH, you could very well be correct...juries being loaded up they way they are lately.

[randys1]

29. It is not safe for liberal democrats to speak openly here

[DemocratSinceBirth]

33. I am much more circumspect. That's for sure...

62,000 + posts...

Twelve years of posting...


Never had a hide problem until this primary season...

[Sheepshank]

48. Yeah for sure it gets crazy here...but one can get a hide for the most benign things.

I got a hide for asking someone if sheepshank was tying them in knots. Someone apparently thought "sheepshank" was somesort of sexual innuendo, and not a sailors knot. Ignorance can cause people to alert, and even more ignorant people who serve on juries are a problem. OR, perhpas there was other reasons for those juries to vote to hide the comment.....

[DemocratSinceBirth]

49. If I get any more circumspect I will literally have to stop posting...

Imagine being an artist who must worry that everything he or she does can be censored and censured.

[CoffeeCat]

10. So far, she's accused Bernie of racism and sexism!

Who are you kidding? Hillary has managed to twist Bernie's benign comments into full-throttle publicity stunts where her campaign insists that Bernie is sexist and racist.

2008 is 2016, if you compare Hillary's behavior. And she's just getting started.

And all of the bad language in the world can't drown out the truth.

Hillary Clinton twisted one of Bernie's comments into a "Bernie is sexist!" campaign. In Des Moines, at the JJ Dinner, Clinton said,

"When women talk, some people think we're shouting."

She posted the line on her Twitter feed and on Facebook, then sent out surrogate Christine Quinn to say,

“I’m stunned that a man like Bernie Sanders, who has clearly committed his life to making the country a better place, would get sucked into this very dangerous rhetoric, which perpetuates sexist and misogynistic stereotypes.”

And then there came the remark, suggesting that Bernie is a racist and does not understand the African American community.

“There are some who say that this [gun violence] is an urban problem. Sometimes what they mean by that is: It’s a black problem. But it’s not. It’s not black, it’s not urban. It’s a deep, profound challenge to who we are.” Hillary Clinton

Same malarkey. Same immoral tactics. Same Clinton.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/geneveith/2015/11/clinton-accuses-sanders-of-sexism-and-racism/

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2015/11/hillary_clinton_keeps_smearing_bernie_sanders_as_a_sexist_now_she_is_reaching.html

[Sheepshank]

11. you consider those attacks?

There is a thread just yesterday from one of your own crowd extolling the idea that posting facts are not attacks.

Sprinkling Bernie with glitter and lobbing him with cotton balls isn't going to happen in a campaign.

[CoffeeCat]

16. We should expect better behavior from Democrats...

Sanders supporters do not expect "glitter" and "cotton balls".

But what we shouldn't accept is Hillary Clinton taking a benign Bernie comment, twisting that comment into her campaign blender and then parlaying that comment into a campaign where she and her surrogates gallivant all over the planet--suggesting that Bernie is sexist.

Shame on you for condoning Clinton's behavior.

She pulled this crap on Obama. She's just being herself. She can't help it.

And with enablers like you, who excuse such bad behavior, I'm sure it will continue.

[Sheepshank]

43. shame on you

for ignoring all of the statements Bernie makes that are harmful to Dems, and yes, sexist.

[Major Hogwash]

56. Good post.

Using Hillary's own words to expose her is the best way to expose her for what she truly is.

[askew]

13. It doesn't matter. What she did in 2008, running a race-baiting campaign, should

disqualify her from being the Dem nominee. It's shameful and we as a party deserve better than her.

[Fawke Em]

24. Yeah, it is basically the same campaign.

"Ms. Inevitable"
"I have most of the corporate/insider government endorsements"
"Even though my vote destabilized the entire Middle East, I'm somehow "strong" on foreign policy and you, Bernie, who was correct in voting against that war, aren't"
"I change my accent to sound like the region of the country I"m visiting even though it sounds stupid"
"I take tons of money from Wall Street, but, really!, they don't own me"
"I'd rather eat with elite and rake in the cash than be bothered to talk about what real people want"

Don't tell me it isn't the same fucking campaign, because it is.

I didn't vote for her in 2008 and I won't this year. Luckily, in 2008, my candidate, Obama, won the primary, so I didn't have to make the hard choice of what third party to vote for in the general election. I may have to this year.

[daleanime]

53. Feels really like it's still 2008....

Now are you going to try and tell me that if Bernie was asked if Hillary is anti-semitic his response would be anything other "No", followed by explanation about why the question was wrong in the first place?

[Bluenorthwest]

3. The thing is, and this is important, you and this author are both taking the word of the Drudge

Report as to the source of the photo and their verbiage about it. I think there are examples of racist undertones in the 2008 Clinton campaign that stand for themselves and I would make use of those to make this point and never be seen passing the word of Drudge as if it was the unvarnished truth. Because it's not.

[JaneyVee]

4. HAHAHA GOODMAN!

[CoffeeCat]

5. She also sent a surrogate to Iowa who said, "Barack Hussein Obama"

I remember all of this very well in Iowa. It was disgusting.

Just weeks before the Iowa caucuses, when Obama was gaining in the polls, Hillary sent in Bob Kerrey, a Nebraska Senator who boldly said, "I just love that his name is Barack Hussein Obama and that his father was a Muslim and his maternal grandmother is a Muslim!"

Kerrey did this at a press event while endorsing Clinton!

These remarks were made during a time when the right wing was accusing Obama of being a Muslim and suggesting that he could not be trusted on matters of national security.

Kerrey later apologized for his remarks.

Iowans saw through this and were not happy. It really was a sick move.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2007/12/why-did-bob-ker.html

[askew]

15. She also had multiple surrogates who said that Obama was a drug dealer

And they also kept referring to Obama doing cocaine so much that Edwards' campaign manager got disgusted and called them out for their racist tactics.

Let's not forget Ted Kennedy and John Lewis had to publicly call out Hillary over her racist campaign as well.

[GusBob]

8. And yet, he choose her to be SOS and they are close friends

and I think he and Biden both are supporting her candidacy and are planning helping on her presidency, as good Democrats would

[Fawke Em]

26. They're not close friends.

But, in regards to SoS, I think that was a strategic move by Obama: he didn't want her challenging him again in 2012.

You've heard of keeping your friends close, but keeping your enemies closer.

I've seen them together. Their interaction looks almost as stilted as Obama does with Netanyahu.

[1StrongBlackMan]

31. And you know they are not friends, how? n/t

[DemocratSinceBirth]

37. Perhaps she runs in their circles...

I think it is only fair to give her a chance to prove herself.

[1StrongBlackMan]

41. What is it about a certain group on DU ...

with their constant telling of what other people think/feel?

[DemocratSinceBirth]

42. I politely refuse to answer that on the grounds my answer might be used to incriminate me.

But until your interlocutor responds we can not eliminate the possibility she knows the current president and the former Secretary Of State personally.

[1StrongBlackMan]

45. LOL ...I doubt there will be a response. n/t

[rhett o rick]

47. He claims to like to keep his enemies closer. nm

[workinclasszero]

9. You can always count on H A Goodman

to carry water for the republicans.

So what are you Burnie fans going to do when H A Goodman recommends voting for the republican candidate for president?

He will for sure.

What will you do???

[KittyWampus]

21. Blame Hillary for sinking Bernie's shot at the nomination.

[brooklynite]

12. Clinton and Obama have another secret lunch

CNN:

Washington (CNN)President Barack Obama met for lunch with Hillary Clinton on Monday, the latest in a series of behind-closed-doors sessions between the commander-in-chief and the top Democrat vying to replace him.

"When their schedules permit, President Obama and Secretary Clinton enjoy the opportunity to catch-up in person," White House press secretary Josh Earnest said. "This afternoon they met privately for an informal lunch here at the White House for about an hour and a half."

The meeting came only hours after Obama delivered a major address on ISIS from the Oval Office, though the White House declined to say whether the President discussed his anti-terror strategy with his former secretary of state.

"They discussed a wide array of topics, but this was mostly a social occasion," Earnest said.

If President Obama isn't bothered, I won't be either.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

14. Read Axelrod's "Believer". Neither was he./nt

[CoffeeCat]

23. Obama's kindness and ability to be professional...

...speaks volumes about his ability to be diplomatic.

I agree.

But he wasn't the one who ran a backbiting, underhanded campaign full of dirty tricks, like Hillary did.

So, why would he have any problem doing his job? He did nothing wrong.

She's the one who degraded herself.

[brooklynite]

27. If this is such a "smoking gun" issue, maybe you should talk to Bernie Sanders...

...he might want to add it to his stump speech.

Or maybe you could go to Reddit and talk to the BERNIE LIGHT BRIGADE about having it written up in electric lights...

[Blue_Adept]

17. So much use of Trump by Sanders supporters this week

[MineralMan]

18. More H.A. Goodman tripe?

Likening Clinton to Trump now? Something's badly wrong with this article. Can you guess what that is?

[KittyWampus]

20. Well, yesterday WillyT literally blamed Democrats for Donald Trump.

it's just all part of the schtick.

[MineralMan]

25. I'm sick of it.

Anyone who attempts to liken Hillary Clinton to Donald Trump is making a huge mistake. It must be desperation or something. This kind of attack does not belong on DU, I think. Not even during primary season. The person being attacked is very, very likely to be the Democratic nominee next year. It's OK to support the candidate one prefers, but making comparisons like this is beyond the pale, in my opinion.

H.A. Goodman is not a friend of Democrats. He's an astroturfer.

[99Forever]

34. So if "something is badly wrong with this article"....

...then you shouldn't have much problem PROVING so.

Instead, you just do the cowardly shoot the messenger bullhit routine.

Weak sauce at the very best.

[MineralMan]

35. It's simple: Comparing Clinton to Trump

is shark-jumping, pure and simple. It's simply unvarnished bullshit. How's that?

[99Forever]

39. What's bullshit is your posts.

Ya got nothin.

[MineralMan]

40. I see. OK, then...

Please proceed.

[KittyWampus]

19. True, but they kept it to a low dog whistle & didn't go the ELEVEN like Trump

The problem with that piece though, is it takes Drudge's word that it was Clinton's people circulating that photo. Why would anyone trust Drudge especially about Democrats?

I find it interesting that you would take Drudge's word as gospel.

There are a few examples of Clinton campaign's dog whistles from her last run for POTUS… but I am not taking Drudge's word.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

22. It is my understanding that it is the work of her supporters and she disavowed it.

It is my understanding that it is the work of her supporters and she disavowed it. My understanding has been confirmed by all the impartial sources that investigated the story.

That begs the question. Is the Vermont independent responsible for everything Mr. Goodman writes?

[MineralMan]

28. H.A. Goodman is not promoting anything Democratic.

He's simply sowing discontent and FUD. Astroturf, pure and simple. Bringing his crap here is simply enabling that writer.

Comparing Hillary with The Donald is the worst sort of thing to do on a Democratic forum, I believe.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

30. Well, compadre

"Comparing Hillary with The Donald is the worst sort of thing to do on a Democratic forum, I believe."

If you are part of the in crowd you can do it with impunity.

[MineralMan]

32. Well, that's not a good thing in any way, I think.

A spirited debate on the primary candidates is one thing. Coughing up old Drudge "scandals" is not just spirited debate. H.A. Goodman should not, I think, be a source quoted here. His intentions are not honorable, I believe.

When a writer compares Hillary to Trump, using ancient, questionable information, I think the shark has been truly jumped.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

36. This is the business some have chosen.

[MineralMan]

38. That business will soon be bankrupt.

It's a poor sort of business, and people won't buy such flawed products in enough numbers to derail a Democratic win next November. They'll keep trying to sell that shoddy merchandise, but will fail badly in the end.

[DanTex]

44. LOL. I figured by the title that this was more HA Goodman.

He's really losing his mind.

[oasis]

57. Reminds me of Jevert, the cop in Les Mis, with his obsessive pursuit of Jean Valjean.

Hillary gives Goodman a reason to exist.

[AtomicKitten]

46. IOKIYAH.

[opiate69]

50. Jury Results

On Wed Dec 9, 2015, 01:20 PM an alert was sent on the following post:

Donald Trump Utilizes Racism, but Hillary Clinton Used Similar Tactics Against Obama in 2008
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1251887709

REASON FOR ALERT

This post is disruptive, hurtful, rude, insensitive, over-the-top, or otherwise inappropriate.

ALERTER'S COMMENTS

Likening Clinton to Trump in this way is shocking. The source, too, is not truthful. This is over the top. Hillary Clinton is in no way a racist, and the source relies on debunked information from Drudge. This sort of attack is over the top and should not appear on DU, I think.

You served on a randomly-selected Jury of DU members which reviewed this post. The review was completed at Wed Dec 9, 2015, 01:31 PM, and the Jury voted 3-4 to LEAVE IT.

Juror #1 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: The original story has a point. We cannot censor speech because we don't like it, as such, I voted to leave it alone. Clinton, and her staff, may not have had any racist intentions in the last election, but we would do well to pay attention and consider. The writer of the original article is not comparing her to Trump either, as the "attacks" are on completely different levels.
Juror #2 voted to HIDE IT
Explanation: I'm a Bernie supporter but no Democrat should be compared to Herr Trump
Juror #3 voted to HIDE IT
Explanation: GDP sucks
Juror #4 voted to HIDE IT
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #5 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: Nope. It's a link to an opinion piece. It's not Stormfront. It's not Breitbart. Not censoring opinion pieces.
Juror #6 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #7 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: Sorry if the truth about Hillary sucks but so be it. Leave.

Thank you very much for participating in our Jury system, and we hope you will be able to participate again in the future.

[Broward]

52. Thank you for posting.

[Major Hogwash]

54. Speaking truth to power!!

Excellent article explaining why Obama won the 2008 primaries so handily.

[Nonhlanhla]

55. WTF?

Now Hillary is being compared with Trump? Tea Party logic, this. They compare Obama to Hitler. Goodman compares Hillary to Hitler's reincarnation. I can't believe a single Bernie supporter on this site would condone this kind of nonsense.