Everybody sing...'Nobody knows the trouble I've seen...'
Come on! I'm right there with you! You know what I mean...
Posted on 01/22/2006 12:59:01 AM PST by neverdem
Sen. Hillary Clinton — she of the Rodham charm — has thrown it down. She's unofficially, but inferentially, in the presidential race for 2008.
Not that anyone believed otherwise. But the beyond-all-doubt moment occurred this week when she evoked slavery and plantation life during a speech before a mostly black audience celebrating the Rev. Martin Luther King's birthday.
MOST POPULAR STORIES Trojans, Longhorns Team Up in Hula Bowl San Marcos white-water park flowing State trooper dies in fiery wreck Abrams' learning curve continues to improve Give up, Army; he's been all he can be How else to interpret that bit of race-baiting?
After playing center field the past couple of years, trying to sound mainstream on issues such as abortion and the war, she apparently felt the need to remind her base that they're still on the same page.
Clinton was speaking at a Harlem church Monday when she now-famously said that the U.S. House of Representatives "has been run like a plantation, and you know what I'm talking about. It has been run in a way so that nobody with a contrary view has had a chance to present legislation, to make an argument, to be heard."
The latter part of her comment is substantively true, but she revealed more about herself than she did about Republicans with her plantation reference. She's a panderer, all right, but she won't be the first female black president.
Unlike her husband, who was tagged "America's first black president," Hillary Clinton ain't got "all that" — that soul thang that her husband has in, um, diamonds.
When Clinton said, "and you know what I'm talking about," what she was thinking, of course, was, "and you know wuddumsayin?" She wisely censored herself, but her slightly stuttered body English suggested juuuuuust a hint of ebonics. A little roll here, a little hand there. Oy vey, I've still got muscle cramps from cringing.
Watching Clinton's soul-sister moment was like watching a whiffed high-five, embarrassing as watching middle-aged white guys playing air guitar. Stop it.
No one's asked yet why Senator Clinton felt compelled to critique the House, which is not really her bailiwick. That said, it is largely true that House Republicans have marginalized House Democrats. That's a legitimate criticism, but political maneuvering among elected, paid officials doesn't quite equate with slavery.
Feeling left out of the power loop doesn't quite rise to the level of splitting up families and selling human beings.
But playing the plantation card is guaranteed to stir emotions, and emotionalism is the Clinton ace. Not to overplay the playing card metaphor. And sorry, but there's no separating the Bill from the Hill, no matter how much Democrats protest. The Clintons went to the White House in '92 as a two-fer, and they'll return to the White House as a two-fer.
Ever since Clinton's remark, there's been a whole lot of Googlin' going on as Democrats search for Republicans using the P-word. Aha! The Newt did it.
Indeed, former Rep. Newt Gingrich said in 1994 of Democrats, "I clearly fascinate them. I'm much more intense, much more persistent, much more willing to take risks to get it done. Since they think it is their job to run the plantation, it shocks them that I'm actually willing to lead the slave rebellion."
Noted. But Gingrich's poor choice of words doesn't mean that Clinton's are any less offensive (and Gingrich wasn't talking to an African American audience). What's clear is that no one profits by invoking slavery and plantations. Like the Holocaust, the institution of slavery was too horrible ever to serve as metaphor or simile for anything else.
In an effort to deflect criticism of Clinton as panderer, an anonymous Democratic Senate aide reported in The Washington Post's political blog, "The Fix," that this wasn't the first time Clinton used the P-word. In a November 2004 appearance on CNN, she apparently said: "I mean they're running the House of Representatives like a fiefdom with Tom DeLay as, you know, in charge of the plantation."
The aide insisted that this was "proof positive this wasn't a remark to pander to anyone." No, it isn't. It's just proof that Clinton has latched onto an unfortunate image.
If Clinton calculated her comment in advance, then she's got supremely bad instincts. If she spoke off the cuff, then her free-associative mind raises another kind of question: How does a white person gaze upon a church filled with African American faces and come up with the plantation simile?
Up North, they might call that a Freudian slip; down South, they call it racist. Know wuddumsayin?
kparker@kparker.com
Wrong suit. It it ain't hearts or clubs either.
You be bad!
Bling Bling?
Watching Clinton's soul-sister moment was like watching a whiffed high-five, embarrassing as watching middle-aged white guys playing air guitar. Stop it.It shows her absolute political tone-deafness. Hubby the Bubba Bill was the political artiste (though no more, these days he's drifting into a cross between Gore and Carter), but Mamma The Hildabeast is about as good in front of an audience as the character The Jerk, played by Steve Martin.
For some reason I never understood, the people of the rest of New York State (outside of NYC) are willing to overlook the incredible ineptitude of this overly-sheltered bumbler.
The media coverup of New York State won't be continued in the broader national election, can't be continued, even though the Main Stream Media will do their best to portray the Hildabeast as a Joan of Arc. A national campaign is a national campaign and the Hildabeast is as well equipped for it as Miss Piggy.
Bring.
It.
On.
Wasn't me. There's no doubt that the author chose "diamonds" to express that sentiment without getting lynched by Jesse Jackson and the rest of the poverty pimps.
Can see her on the front porch yelling "I got rhythm. I got rhythm."
As for finding her special purpose, I'll leave that to Janet Reno.
Everybody sing...'Nobody knows the trouble I've seen...'
Come on! I'm right there with you! You know what I mean...
"Lift that bale - tote that barge."
"You know what I'm talking about."
I'm sick to death of ANYONE playing the race card for any reason. But, to hear a white senior citizen female dropping it, raises the insanity level of the rats to the extreme. She's freaking nuts. No way can she win a dimwit primary or even think that "everyone is tooting her horn".
She's toast. What's next? Hitlery talking to Nagin and proclaiming her love of Cadbury, Hershey's and Nestle? What I really want to see is Hitlery gittin' down wif her bad self in a black Baptist church, out of step like Algore before her.
"You all know what I mean". Harumph.
I have always said the Bill and Hill-0-ree has a contract with the devil.
"Excuse me, but I speak Jive."
There were some links on a previous FR thread, but they are gone.
That little banter from "Airplane" was so funny I've split my sides serveral times seeing it. Hillarious!
Since the Hildabesat is trying to associate with blacks, just love to see her do a stand up in blackface.
She's deathly afraid that the 12% will grow. It is up from 8% and if it grows to say 16%, a linear extrapolation of 1% per years, she is doomed.
It is a terrible problem to try to solve. How can she get the slaves to return to the Plantation?
Bwah hah hah hah hah!
Run, Hillie, run!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.