1 Boring Old Man

The Card Clinton Is Playing
By Eugene Robinson

From the beginning, Hillary Clinton has campaigned as if the Democratic nomination were hers by divine right. That’s why she is falling short — and that’s why she should be persuaded to quit now, rather than later, before her majestic sense of entitlement splits the party along racial lines.

If that sounds harsh, look at the argument she made Wednesday, in an interview with USA Today, as to why she should be the nominee instead of Barack Obama. She cited an Associated Press article "that found how Senator Obama’s support . . . among working, hardworking Americans, white Americans, is weakening again. I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on."

As a statement of fact, that’s debatable at best. As a rationale for why Democratic Party superdelegates should pick her over Obama, it’s a slap in the face to the party’s most loyal constituency — African Americans — and a repudiation of principles the party claims to stand for.

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Only in Camp Clinton does anyone believe that his supporters will be happy if party leaders tell him, in effect, "Nice job, kid, but we can’t give you the nomination because, well, you’re black. White people might not like that."

Clinton’s sin isn’t racism, it’s arrogance. From the beginning, the Clinton campaign has refused to consider the possibility that Obama’s success was more than a fad. This was supposed to be Clinton’s year, and if Obama was winning primaries, there had to be some reason that had nothing to do with merit. It was because he was black, or because he had better slogans, or because he was a better public speaker, or because he was the media’s darling. This new business about white voters is just the latest story the Clinton campaign is telling itself about the usurper named Obama.

"It’s still early," Clinton said Wednesday, vowing to fight on. At some level, she seems to believe the nomination is hers. Somebody had better tell her the truth before she burns the house down.

This is the Indiana exit poll data reported by CNN. That poll doesn’t report Race but it does report Gender. More women voted but the split between the Cabdidates is even, about 50/50.

These are Indiana’s Demographics as of 2006. It’s a "White State," the percentage of African Americans falling below the U.S. norm.

While it’s not broken down enough to be precise, it certainly doesn’t support Hillary Clinton’s argument. She won by a hair. If people were only voting by Race or Gender, this would have come out very differently. But Eugene Robinson’s point isn’t lost on us. He’s calling her "arrogant" and "entitled." I guess it’s easy to say that, but I’m not sure that’s fair. It’s more reasonable to say that Hillary Clinton desparately wants to be President, and in the pursuit of that goal, she’s saying things that will haunt her long into the future. But were I Eugene Robinson, an African American, I’d be offended too. He’s being generous to see this as arrogance rather than racism.