When you have the time, please read this two-page article .

[Maribelle]

It could be a stalemate

....
The Axelrod strategy

The genius of the Axelrod strategy thus far is that it has been directly centred on race while maintaining the appearance of the opposite, appropriating the race card as well as that of moral rectitude for Obama himself. Very early in the campaign, Obama's South Carolina press office put out a memo pronouncing routine political sniping from the Clinton camp to be racist. The memo came from a local "low-level staffer", Axelrod reassured us. In fact, it was written by Amaya Smith, a seasoned Democratic Party spokesperson and former congressional press secretary based in Washington - and the labelling of the Clintons as racists had stuck.

Geraldine Ferraro, the Democrats' vice-presidential candidate in 1984 and a former congresswoman, was similarly targeted. In an interview last month with a tiny Californian newspaper called the Daily Breeze, that would have passed unnoticed by at least 99.99 per cent of Americans, Ferraro casually observed that if Obama was a white man or "a woman of any colour," he would not be a presidential candidate today. Her remarks led to a national furore, but nobody pointed out that it was Obama's campaign that alerted the national media to Ferraro's words.

"I'm always hesitant to throw around words like 'racist'," Obama said, doing just that. Ferraro, a veteran 72-year-old, riposted that "every time that campaign is upset about something, they call it racist". She sussed out the Axelrod strategy: to gain immunity from political attacks by immediately smearing attackers as racists.

The kind of thing that is worrying some super-delegates, too, is that Obama is increasingly emerging as no mean fibber himself. In his latest television ad, he declares that he does not take money from oil companies. According to the Centre for Responsive Politics, however, Obama is overlooking the $213,884 he had received from the oil and gas industry up to 29 February, most of it channelled directly from the CEOs of two major oil and gas companies.

...

http://www.newstatesman.com/200804030028


And be sure to read the very last paragraph which talks about Obama taking the high moral ground and smearing Clinton at the same time.

[DURHAM D]

1. Thanks for posting.

This is so true. The swiftboating of the Clintons by Obama is the reason I will never vote for him.

The Obama fans think it is because we are too conservative or too status quo. They have absolutely no ability to put Obama's cynical strategy in perspective or understand our (older liberal Democrats) history of liberal advocacy.

[susankh4]

2. There aren't many people I hate

but Axelrod takes the cake. I have been on to him for quite some time. He is scum of the earth.

[NCarolinawoman]

5. As bad and evil as Rove.

Any means to an end. Divide and conquer. The hell with the country. :grr:

[IowaGirl]

3. It all just makes me so sad. Obama is such a poser but why can't everyone see it like we can?

:banghead:

[NashVegas]

4. What I Think Is Brilliant

Is the way Obama has used race to make himself completely untouchable.

While it's work very well in the Democratic primaries, they have to be aware that there is no such phrase as "conservative white guilt."

In the meantime, after a visit to some RW blogging sites, the thing that struck me is how little attention they are paying to our race and how much attention they are paying to fundie terrorists. They're preparing for a fight against Obama and they've been laying the ground, there. Now, throw in Barack's semi-communist mother; between Wright, Michelle's American pride, and mom, they're going to have a field day.

Oh yeah, and there's the Larry Sinclair video. They can't use that in the greater media, but can do direct mailing and let it do its damage underground.

I really wish I could get behind his candidacy; in the last cycle I wrote about the internet factor and how us people in blogs and message boards are the fans in the bleachers, and we are part of the game. Obama's campaign seems to have truly mastered this factor - I was just under the belief, when I wrote it, that whomever did wouldn't turn out to be such negative pricks.

I'm really hoping people will wake up in the next two weeks, but am not counting on it.