Clinton Campaign Disenfranchising Black Voters?

Filed under: Politics — one May 4, 2008 @ 10:25 am
 
The first time I heard about "Women's Voices, Women's Vote" (WVWV) I really didn't think much of it. Recently it came to the attention of several news agencies that this seemingly independent group was placing robocalls to voters after the primary registration deadline explaining what they need to do in order to register to vote.
 
WVWV claimed that these calls were in order to encourage people to vote in the general election and apologized for any confusion. Fair enough, right? Except apparently these calls occurred in multiple states, and not only did they always occur after the deadline to register for the Democratic primary, but always just before the primary itself. Well that does seem a little bit of a coincidence.
 
But if these calls are deliberately placed after the primary registration deadline but just before the primary itself then what might the motive be? The Economist has enough facts to make a fairly strong case that the motive is to convince enough of Barack Obama's supporters that they aren't registered to vote in the primary that Hillary can win, or come closer than expected.
 
Sounds paranoid, right? The thing is, the board of WVWV is packed with people who have worked for and with both Clinton campaigns and the President of the organization personally donated thousands of dollars to Hillary's campaign, but for some reason they aren't making these phone calls to Hillary's "base". In fact, they seem to be making them primarily to black voters and other groups who polling shows are the least likely to vote for Hillary.
 
All things being equal, when a bunch of Hillary supporters are phoning up a bunch of Obama supporters (who are already registered) telling them they need to register to vote, and these phone calls consistently occur after the registration deadline but before the primary in state-after-state, I'm going to suspect the Clinton campaign of utilizing sleazy, disgusting tactics in their campaign for the Presidency. I understand "wanting it" and being "a fighter" but tactics like this are inexcusable. This is a democracy, if you can't convince people to vote for you then you aren't supposed to win, period.

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Video of Clinton Advisor in Question

Filed under: Politics — one May 2, 2008 @ 11:22 am
NOTE: There are questions about the interpretation of this video. Please read all the way to the end for the latest update. 
 
A video has surfaced recently of Mickey Kantor, the Campaign Chairman for Bill Clinton back in '92, a long-time friend of both Bill and Hillary and a current advisor to Hillary's '08 Campaign. In this video he appears to say two things that aren't just offensive to the people of Indiana, they're just outright offensive. Americans like this are a major part of what's wrong with the country.

Not only does he appear to say that Indianans "are sh*t" but he apparently refers to them as "worthless white n***ers". He gets the combo win for racism and elitism. I guess if you don't live in New York or California you're just an undereducated dope who shouldn't even really have a say in how this country is run — but maybe that's just me getting angry and reading too much into his words. You decide, here's the link:

[This video was apparently taken down by the owner, you can still see the original clip below. Current indicators suggest this is perhaps a misinterpreted remark, but I've seen no evidence of doctoring] 

UPDATE: Apparently the major media outlets are buying the Clinton campaign's explanation that this clip was doctored. This seems unlikely. First off, the footage is taken from a 15 year old documentary called "The War Room" which you can review for yourself around the 4:45 mark. Secondly, he clearly says, "those people are sh*t" — there's simply no question about it. Watch his mouth.

Finally, people are claiming the last remark is inaudible, that it doesn't match his lips, and even that he's actually saying, "How would you like to be in the White House right now?"  I don't think so. Turn up the volume and listen for yourself.

I agree it seems as if the audio doesn't match his lips, but that could just be a synchronization error between the audio and the video. Ultimately, if this clip was doctored, then it was doctored 15 years ago (who would have the motive to do that??) and the only part that could possibly be doctored is the whisper at the end. Somehow I don't think it's very likely that he referred to Indianans as "sh*t" and then lowered his voice to a whisper in order to ask George Stephanopoulos if he'd enjoy being in the White House.

What's more, look at Stephanopoulos's reaction: He shakes his head uncomfortably and looks down, exactly like someone who was just asked a very inappropriate question on camera and doesn't want anything to do with it.

UPDATE 2: The current best claim about the first remark is Kantor is saying "Those people are sh*t… excuse me, those people are sh*tting in the white house [about Perot's numbers]".  This the first thing I've seen that seems plausible. Not doctored, but possibly misinterpreted. This doesn't explain the second, whispered remark but it casts doubt upon it being relevant to Indianans.

I think it's plausible to claim this footage is simply being misinterpreted, but I've yet to see any evidence it was doctored or that it's somehow tied to any of Hillary's opponents.

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