Community Checkup

It’s no secret that the Clintons have been playing dirty. Smart, but dirty. The question remains as to whether their tactics will be able to stem the gigantic tidal wave of support behind Obama. I don’t think they will.

Plenty of folk, such as Ron Walters of the University of Maryland, have pointed out how the tactics of the Clintons have been to “blacken” Obama to the point that he loses white support.

The objective of the Clinton campaign is to make [Obama] blacker. Which is to say to call out his blackness and therefor to complicate his constituency which is majority white. [Source: NPR]

As Walters later points out, this strategy, “plays on the divisiveness of the racial factor.” An ironic approach for the “first black president” to take.

But while many believe the strategy will be effective beyond South Carolina, I have serious doubts. Obamarama is developing the affinity of a black hole–drawing in everything and everyone around it. And now that he has endorsements from Caroline and Ted Kennedy, that force will only become more powerful.

But the most powerful force behind the Obama campaign is its ability to make the most cynical person believe. Chris Matthews referred to an Obama rally as a spiritual experience. Even watching it from the TV, it has that feel. You’d have to be a corpse to not feel anything.

That kind of draw is hard to contain, which is exactly what the Clintons are trying to do– contain it–put some borders around it and repackage it as something that should be shunned rather than embraced. But the more the Clintons try this, the more they harm themselves. Their tactics appear as just that–tactics for the sake of winning by any means necessary. This very practice reminds people of what they don’t want– the divisive, fear- mongering politics of the current administration. And as Bill continues to blacken Obama, he whitens himself in the eyes of the black community and sullies himself in the eyes of the rest of America.

Obama, on the other hand, conveys that he is staying true to his central message of healing America. Ultimately, it will be the combination of his power to make others believe and his anti-divisiveness that will win him the candidacy.