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Let me start this by saying, unequivocally, that I do not believe that John Edwards has played the race card.
But he has said and suggested things that, if judged according to the same standards being applied to Hillary and Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, would leave Edwards open to the same accusations the press (and many DUers) are hurling at the other candidates.
Examples:
Imagine if, instead of Elizabeth Edwards, it was Bill Clinton who said that his spouse "We can't make {Hillary} black. We can't mae her a man. Those things get you a lot of press, worth a certain amount of fundraising dollars." No one can claim with a straight face that the media and non-Hillary supporters would have been all over him like nasty on a roach, accusing him of trying to manipulate race, and worse.
Edwards put out an ad in which he said, "if you're looking for heroes, don't look to me. Don't look to Elizabeth. We have support. We have health care. We have the American people behind us. Look to them. They are the ones who we speak for. They are the ones that we stand up for." According to the Huffington Post, "The images of the 'heroes' are: white man farmer, white woman in front of house, white waitress pours coffee for white woman, white mom kisses white son, white farmer couple, white woman in hospital scrubs helping white patient, Elizabeth Edwards hugging white cancer survivor (I think?), white man by door, white men working on tractor, white woman, white man sitting on tractor, white man with moustache. I'm not one to watch an ad with an abacus counting off minorities, and I realize this is an ad aimed at Iowa. But it seemed a little odd to me, frankly, for a 60-second (that's long) ad targeted at Democratic primary voters focused on 'the American people' to not have one single person of color."
If the Clintons had put up an ad like this, with nothing but white people in it or if Obama had done one with nothing but black people, they would have been lambasted for it.
John Edwards consistently touts the fact that he is the only candidate who could win in every state, but never gives a specific reason why. It could be inferred that Edwards is using code language to appeal to white men, suggesting that they should vote for him because he is one of them. Or at least this could - and would - be inferred as such if one were applying the same standards that are being applied to Clinton and Obama who are being accused of invoking race whenever they open their mouths, even when they say absolutely nothing abour race.
Again, I do not believe that John Edwards is doing this. I'm simply pointing out how, if one is so inclined (and the media clearly IS so inclined) to interpret just about anything someone says as racially charged, even when it's not.
It is particularly ironic that the media is so quick to infer racial connotations in even the most innocent comments by Obama and Clinton when, until this week, they could never be made to believe that anything a white person said, short of just outright using the N-word while burning a cross, could be interpreted as being even insenstive, much less bigoted or racist.
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