Peggy Noonan just abused Pat Buchanan on race

[Coexist]

Don't like either of them, but at least Noonan shut up that filthy, ignorant bigot.

"Would Nixon have said that, even with the "southern strategy"? Its vulgar".

"You don't do that, you hire vulgar people with Blackberrys to do that."

[dkf]

1. Oh yeah...she pwned him.

[my2sense]

2. Why oh why is this

bigot on my TV......

[H2O Man]

3. Isn't it sad

when Peggy Noonan has more class than a democratic candidate/Senator, and that candidate/Senator is on the same side of the race issue as Pat Buchanan?

[Skidmore]

7. My thoughts exactly.

[Coexist]

9. yes

did you catch Pam's House Blend yesterday? She was spot on::

http://www.pamshouseblend.com/showDiary.do;jsessionid=B06C04ED3C937A8F7A9BCE20132390A1?diaryId=5311

I want to believe that it wasn't a purposeful slip of the tongue because it's too painful to contemplate that the black vote is now perceived as a "problem" because it skews to Obama, and because there are more white voters who have a problem with him based on his race, we have to nail that demo. Remember, the black vote has been the most reliable Democratic vote, not the Reagan Democrats. Black voters don't turn out for Obama solely because he is black. I've blogged before about this bizarre train of thought -- if the affinity vote is so powerful we would have seen a bum rush for Alan Keyes. What Clinton is saying is not inaccurate (polls slice and dice this way), but its use here is inappropriate and inflammatory. It's because the last core demo left for her to appeal to is resistant to Obama for reasons that have little to do with policy differences, or 3 AM readiness. She's brought the microtarget out into the light and it's one many of us don't want to face talking about, with a different name -- scared white people.

She is naming her remaining trump card, and considering our country's pitiful history of not frankly dealing with or discussing race -- aside from painful, fumbling defensive fits and starts -- we're left to deal with the fallout of a "poorly worded" statement, lacking a sufficiently stocked toolbox to deal with the ramifications of courting a vote with implicit and explicit biases.

The question never explored is why are these people scared more about a black president (regardless of political viewpoint) than the prospect of a McCain presidency and four more years of failed economic policies that have left this very demographic high and dry? What do we want to do about this as Americans? Apparently nothing, that's a third rail topic and there's an election to win.

[babylonsister]

14. Looking at it in that light, it's worse than sad. nt

[City Lights]

17. Yes...depressingly so.

:-(

[YOY]

24. H2O man you have a way of wrapping things up nicely in few words

When I try that it has nothing but vulgarities...

[Skidmore]

4. Poor Pat. He doesn't undertand why the Rs can't get more than

10% of the AA vote. "We've worked on it and worked on it," sez he, then in the next breath he is carrying on his normal bigoted ranting.

[NewJeffCT]

5. what did he say?

that caused her to respond to that?

[H2O Man]

6. He had tried

to justify Clinton's USA Today comments.

[dkf]

11. Pat said Hillary was only saying what everyone else is saying

But Noonan said that a great leader says we are one people and does not slice and dice the population.

She says it is one thing for columnists and commentators to examine polls, but it is another thing for someone aspiring to lead the country to do the same. She called it unhelpful.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

8. but first, she dissed Hillary something awful.

for saying it to a newspaper in the first place.

[Califooyah Operative]

10. And Hillary.

She was right on.

[EffieBlack]

12. I have never been a fan of hers, but she's really been great on this

On several occasions, she's shown an insight and depth that have been really refreshing.

[Coexist]

15. you know what - they just played the audio of Clinton's interview, and something I keep noticing

is that Clinton knows, KNOWS, that what she is saying is disgusting. That its low.

She hesitates before she says 'white' for the second time. She KNOWS its wrong, she sounds a bit ashamed to say it - but she STILL does it. Listen to it again if you get the chance.

I noticed her shamefacedness at the debate when she was mentioning Ayers. Watch it again - during the part when she is being dirty, watch her body language. She turns away from him, she won't even look in his direction. She knows its wrong, on some level, she's ashamed, but she STILL DOES IT.

[EffieBlack]

18. You're right - she not only hesitated, but she was CLARIFYING herself when she said it

This was very clearly deliberate.

Did she think that no one but the interviewer and the people she was directing this to would hear it?

This is absolutely astonishing. Absolutely astonishing.

[DangerousRhythm]

19. I noticed it too.

All the fairly unusual (for her) umming. The whole vibe of it kind of reminded me of that millisecond of hesitation I picked up when she was about to say her "Change you can Xerox" line that time and seemed to realize it was a mistake. What a shame, seriously.

[Coexist]

22. you are right -

it was there for the xerox line.

[dkf]

13. Here's a bit from her column in the WSJ.

In case you didn't get what was behind that exchange, Mrs. Clinton spent this week making it clear. In a jaw-dropping interview in USA Today on Thursday, she said, "I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on." As evidence she cited an Associated Press report that, she said, "found how Sen. Obama's support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me."

White Americans? Hard-working white Americans? "Even Richard Nixon didn't say white," an Obama supporter said, "even with the Southern strategy."

If John McCain said, "I got the white vote, baby!" his candidacy would be over. And rising in highest indignation against him would be the old Democratic Party.

To play the race card as Mrs. Clinton has, to highlight and encourage a sense that we are crudely divided as a nation, to make your argument a brute and cynical "the black guy can't win but the white girl can" is -- well, so vulgar, so cynical, so cold, that once again a Clinton is making us turn off the television in case the children walk by.

"She has unleashed the gates of hell," a longtime party leader told me. "She's saying, 'He's not one of us.'"

She is trying to take Obama down in a new way, but also within a new context. In the past he was just the competitor. She could say, "All's fair." But now he's the competitor who is going to be the nominee of his party. And she is still trying to do him in. And the party is watching.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121027865275678423.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

[Coexist]

16. wow.

[4themind]

21. "She has unleashed the gates of hell,"

quoting from her article,wow, just wow hope this thing can still end gracefully.

[Window]

20. That was fun.

[NoFederales]

23. I guess the die-hard Democrats are giving her enough rope to hang

herserf, but I think that is a very damaging policy, it is unhealthy and very cowardly unprofessional.

And what do we say about the die-hard Clinton supporters? Are they "vulgar"? If so, are they merely flawed and salvageable? Or are they "cultists", a charge with which they tried to bayonet their competitors, and probably unsalvageable?

The Democratic Party does not need bigoted cultists of any stripe--race baiting, lying, pandering to the fears and worst of human nature. This "civil war" within the Democratic Party is beginning to gell into hard core camps, and as such, there will only be casualties and survivors. Imagine, a family torn asunder facing a GE opponent who is more than willing to fight even dirtier.

I don't know who's got the switch, but there's some asses needing some stripes ASAP.

NoFederales

[roseBudd]

25. I think some are cultists but many are just low information voters

They will decide whether to vote for Obama or McCain based on 30 second TV spots. They may watch a debate or two. I think McCain's GOP economic policies and support for the Iraq War will not help him with this demo. They may have to vote for the black guy because the GOP economy has them on their knees.

[NoFederales]

26. Low info voters--an appropriately loaded phrase if ever there was

one. When I attend public functions of any sort nowadays, I can't help but look around and wonder about all the influences that motivate people.

As for Clinton, Peggy Noonan rates a two-fer--check out the WSJ piece:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121027865275678423.html?mod=opinion_columns_featured_lsc

It is time to move on to McCain, and I believe Obama is doing just that; he just doesn't need any more hurtful distractions from the Clintons.

NoFederales

[saltpoint]

27. LOL! Nice to see these two having at it.