Saturday, February 02, 2008

Bill's 'Mea Culpa' Church Tour

hat tip: poster gregory at Jack and Jill Politics

From the WashingtonPost.com

Bill Clinton Prepares Mea Culpa
UPDATE, 4:30 p.m. ET: It looks like former president Bill Clinton will not have to make an apology to the congregations of black churches in South Central Los Angeles after all. At least not in writing.

Our posting on Bill Clinton's "mea culpa" tour (as we worded it) to African American in L.A. this weekend (ahead of Tuesday's hotly contested California primary) apparently caused much consternation inside the Clinton campaign. Campaign officials scrambled Saturday to dispel the notion that the former president will be making any form of an apology.

The Clinton camp asked Rep. Diane Watson (D-Calif.) to clarify remarks she made in an interview with The Sleuth on Friday evening in which she said Clinton needed to "renew his relationship with the South Central community" after turning off voters in her district with his racially tinged comments during the South Carolina primary campaign.

To achieve that, Watson said she had asked the former president to write a letter "explaining his commitment to civil rights and equal rights."

"He knows what needs to be in it: He needs to renew his relationship with the South Central community," Watson said Friday evening.

But on Saturday, things changed after the Clinton campaign called Watson who then told The Sleuth there will be no letter after all. She had mistakenly thought, she said, that Clinton would not be able to speak inside the churches on Sunday and, therefore, had asked him to put his thoughts in writing.

"I just learned he will be able to speak," Watson said. "So there will be no need for any kind of letter."

But what about mending fences with voters who felt Clinton had unfairly injected race into the campaign? "He can do that now in person in true Bill Clinton fashion -- personally and verbally," Watson said.


So, he doesn't even respect folks enough to put it in writing. Why am I not surprised.

But...but...but....

I thought the Clinton campaign didn't do anything wrong?

That those of us pointing out the Dogwhistle Politics...well, we were just ' Obama agitators that were IMAGINING things.'

Uh huh.


Here's something from Diane Watson in an earlier article:

Watson predicts Clinton's visit to churches in her district and his letter of apology will be enough to mend fences with those who once considered him one of their own. "I think it will be a good day," she says.


One of their own? Her handkerchief's on too tight.

So, rikyrah, why is Bill doing this phony tour?

Well, loyal reader, putting on my tinfoil hat, here's what comes across my skeptical mind:

1. Hillary's Handkerchief Heads are indeed beginning to seriously look like Handkerchief Heads.

You don't think that Waters, Watson, Rangel, et al, have been getting ' that look' from their constituents? We know Black Code. We know that there was a way to support Hillary Clinton without denigrating and disrespecting Barack Obama, which is what more than a few of the HHH Brigade have done. And, in staying MUTE, while Clinton has been pulling this Dogwhistle Racial Politics on Obama...well, it makes Black folk, even those that weren't warm towards Obama, raise their eyebrows towards the HHH. Even if they don't say anything in the presence of the HHH, and they nod politely as the HHH make their case for Hillary, the HHH know the Black Code too.

2. The Southern Strategy all out in the open.

When it could be blamed on Obama Agitators and Their Imagination...when it could be left to Black Radio, Black Talk Radio, and Black Newspapers....basically, when it was only Black folk discussing it amongst themselves, then the Clintons and their defenders were so dismissive of the Black Blogosphere when we sounded the alarm. The damn began to break when Donna Brazile and then Rep. Clyburn spoke up. Then, all of a sudden, it wasn't in our IMAGINATIONS anymore.

3. The Kennedy blowback. The Kennedys standing with Obama, declaring HE was the future - there was no more authoritative voice.

4. The Black/Latino divide.

Now, everyone knows that I'm no ' Kumbaya' person when it comes to Latinos. But, the obviousness of it -from that quote by the Hillary pollster to stoke the fires of Black/Brown dissention, to her ' The Shit Aint Subtle, and You Aint Slick' response in the last debate about illegal immigration, when she deliberately tried to pit Black vs. Brown.....Black folk are fast being hip to it, and surprise, so are some Latinos.

Bottom line: I think the CA polling is telling her that she's losing some of the White vote, and, gasp, she's losing some of the Latino FIREWALL, and thus, you mean, that those NEGROES, are back to being important again?Actually, I don't think that's the case- at all. For now, this church tour is about White voters, to convince them that the South Carolina narrative wasn't REALLY all that bad. That the Clintons were just ' misunderstood'.

UPDATE: Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll in California has OBAMA LEADING!

OBAMA LEADING?

Well, well, well.......guess those Black votes aren't so insignificant after all...

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

UPDATE#2- There is someting called the Field Poll.. Seems to be the gold standard in California.

Latest Field Poll:

Clinton 36, Obama 34, Undecided 18.

For comparison, Field's 1/22 numbers were Clinton 39, Obama 27, Undecided 20

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