It didn't stop there. Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. has been busy lately -- threatening African American elected officials to back Sen. Obama, or else. The or else is that they will face a challenger in their next election if they don't get on board with Obama.
Jackson is calling superdelegates who have pledged their support to Sen. Clinton and threatening them. The Associate Press reports:
One black supporter of Clinton, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri, said he remains committed to her. "There's nothing going on right now that would cause me to" change, he said.Sounds like a threat to me.
He said any suggestion that elected leaders should follow their voters "raises the age old political question. Are we elected to monitor where our constituents are ... or are we to use our best judgment to do what's in the best interests of our constituents."
In an interview, Cleaver offered a glimpse of private conversations.
He said Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. of Illinois had recently asked him "if it comes down to the last day and you're the only superdelegate. ... Do you want to go down in history as the one to prevent a black from winning the White House?
"I told him I'd think about it," Cleaver concluded.
Jackson, an Obama supporter, confirmed the conversation, and said the dilemma may pose a career risk for some black politicians. "Many of these guys have offered their support to Mrs. Clinton, but Obama has won their districts. So you wake up without the carpet under your feet. You might find some young primary challenger placing you in a difficult position" in the future, he added.
"My strong belief is that if we end up with the most states and the most pledged delegates, and the most voters in the country, then it would be problematic for political insiders to overturn the judgment of the voters," Obama said recently.As Taylor Marsh said:
But Clinton said superdelegates should make up their own minds. She noted pointedly that Massachusetts Sens. John Kerry and Edward Kennedy have both endorsed Obama, yet she won the state handily on Feb. 5.
It's understandable that Rep. Lewis would be influenced by the district he represents, which went overwhelmingly for Obama.Good grief ...
I'm sure Mr. Jackson will feel the same about Senators Kennedy and Kerry, both of whom will now have to switch to vote for Clinton given that she took Massachusetts by a mile, right?
But the story being told through the Obama campaign is that Lewis and others should be influenced to lean towards Obama out of racial solidarity.
However, they don't stop there. Vote for Barack Obama, or you just might "find some young primary challenger" stepping in to take your job. It's hard to know where to start, but considering Jesse Jackson Jr. has done this sort of race baiting before for the Obama campaign, I cannot say that I'm surprised. There is, however, something so offensive about his threat that it smacks of the same type of hierarchical control African Americans, especially John Lewis, have always fought against, only this time it's a black man in the position of power telling people how they must use their vote or else.
5 comments:
It's a statement of fact, not a threat. If the people who voted overwhelmingly for one thing have a representative vote contrary to that, they are at risk of losing their position. These are back room deals where you can hide what is going on.
You support the position that best helps your candidate. If that means pointing out an obvious fact - that your voters overwhelmingly said something different than you are voting - thats one thing. If it means ignoring previous promises and seating delegates in states where your opponents' names weren't even on the ballot, thats another. You choose which is more honest.
Baloney. It's a threat, it's being preceived by the people he's calling as a threat. It's the same threat Obama is using against Democrats when he says his supporters won't support the Democratic nominee if it's not him.
Sen. Clinton has been urging support for the Democratic nominee whoever that might be.
The bottom line is that Obama is the same Chicago smoke-filled, back room arm twisting politics as usual.
BAC
BAC:
You nailed this. I won't file this under "things that make me crazy" because I don't mind street politics. The stakes are very high for these people and they would be silly not to fight hard to win.
What does make me crazy is that if it were not for you, BAC, Taylor Marsh, and Melissa McEwen at Shakesville! nobody would get the straight scoop on this race.
It's a long hard fight for a very big prize. The difference has been noted time and time again by we few Clinton supporters in the blog world. Clinton is not shying away from the fight and is not representing herself as someone who's doing anything other than trying to win. Obama on the other hand is pretending to be Jesus's step-son and he isn't. If the big-time press were fair, they too would be making that point.
Instead, Clinton is really getting slapped silly. She's being called by the media a "right-wing corporatist" and "dirty campaigner" and at the same time an "old school liberal" whose "caring for the poor and middle class" message is angry and divisive and out-of-step.
Well, which is it? It fucking can't be both. And it can't be "NEITHER" for Obama. But somehow it has been. I guess I have to give Obama credit for that.
Of course, Clinton takes corporate money. So does Obama. Of course, Clinton calls in favors. So, does Obama. That just makes them ordinary politicians and in a mature democratic republic, that's fine. What's not fine is that the race is being distored by the press in very weird ways that make no sense because of some overarching MSM perception that THEY FINALLY HAVE TO SQUASH THE CLINTONS INTO PEANUT BUTTER.
I am not one to whine, however. I knew this was how it would be. I just thought that Clinton's strengths would overcome that. They still might.
Again, I'm going to warn Obama supporters that they are going to be in for the shock of their lives come September. The rocking-chair ride ends. The press loves McCain as much as it hates the Clintons and Obama's going to have to sail into a very strong headwind. All of the bullshit about Obama being a "progressive" will be great fodder for McCain to claw back his base and if Obama tries to get to McCain's right on religion and social issues, and mimic him on the wars, a lot of Democrats will stay home or vote for Nader or some third party.
And if Obama uses anything that smells like Bush's post-2000 election tactics in suppressing the FL and MI votes, there's going to be a war at the convention.
Now, now. Just because a leader proposes a good idea doesn't mean other people will jump on the bandwagon and pervert the message tainting the purity of the original idea with their own individual prejudices. That's true with religion, music, and especially true with politics.
Clinton supporters should know that better than most. :-)
Kevin - so you agree that Obama supporters are engaging in slime politics. Interesting.
BAC
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