It's 3 AM, your children are asleep, and Barack Obama is black. Black!!

Kos: Clinton campaign making Obama "blacker." And blatantly lying about it, to boot! Lovely! (Hat tip: yea.)

[UPDATE: Upon further review, I think this story is much ado about not much. On the one hand, Clinton certainly hasn't earned the benefit of the doubt, but on the other hand, this seems, just on its face (no pun intended), more likely to be a slightly ham-handed application of a standard negative-ad tactic than anything racially motivated... and I don't think I can justify imposing a double standard on anti-Obama ads just because he's black and people are hypersensitive to it.

As I said in comments, "I guess I've gotten cynical enough about Hillary where I'm a bit too eager to ascribe the worst possible motivations to her." But I'm going to walk this one back a bit.

Original post after the jump.]

* * * * *

Details here. Money quote: "I'm not accusing Hillary of technically being a racist. But she is cynically exploiting racism to further her personal ambition, and it's part of a pattern."

Maybe she should join the Tennessee Republican Party. I daresay she'd fit right in, if recent events are any indication. I can't imagine, though, why Democrats would want her as their party's national standard-bearer.

It's funny. I'm not as high on Obama as I was five or six weeks ago -- I wouldn't say I'm experiencing "buyer's remorse," but some doubts have definitely crept in -- yet the Clinton team's behavior continues to be so appalling and indefensible, in so many different ways, that I remain just as strongly supportive as Obama as ever. Only my motivation has changed: it's now less pro-Barack and more anti-Hillary.

P.S. About the "blackening" in question, an important preemptive rebuttal: "Others have suggested that darkening and desaturating the footage is normal for political attack ads trying to cast the target as sinister. That may be, but it's not an acceptable excuse. Even if you accept that as normal practice, it's still a dirty one, and it takes on a more charged meaning when you're using it to attack someone in your own party who's already fighting against a lot of racism in the false Muslim smears."

I have to admit, I am at least half-sympathetic to the "normal for attack ads" argument. On its own, I regard this as a mere venial sin by the Clinton team, and if it were the only thing they'd done along these lines, I probably wouldn't even mention it. But it really is part of a distinct pattern, and I've had more than enough of it.

Comments

[David K.]

Even worse that its hosted on their own website yet they claim its not their ad. Wow.

Our three choices for President come down to the GOP runner-up to Dubya, the macievellian liar, or an inspiring man who is getting the youth involved in the voting process again and has accepted no special interest money for his campaign. Sure is a tough choice...

[jalypso]

Did you see that look on Barak Obama
face last night?like a killer

Last night I saw a lot of cheating in
the Obama Caucus!Thats a shame!!!

[jalypso]

Im telling you Obama does not see himself
as a black American. He has a lot of black
and whites Americans fooled.Not me!!!!

[jalypso]

Mccain had something dark brown on his
suit coat last night.He went to the bathroom when he heard Hillary was still in it.Came out with this giant brown spot
on his back WoW !!! What fear can do!!!

[Golden Bear]

"I'm not as high on Obama as I was five or six weeks ago -- I wouldn't say I'm experiencing "buyer's remorse," but some doubts have definitely crept in..." - You can't just drop a bomb like this without explaining what you mean...

[jalypso]

I mean what he said last night he represents Kenya!!!!Obama is a Hybrid
who is either a republican mold or
a easy win for the republicans.All the
money in the world may get him past
Hillary but he is no match for the
republican party not by a long shot.
They will have him wrap so tight he
will be singing negro gospel on capital
hill.

Don't get me wrong!I dont hate obama.I just
don't want his mouth to get him into
something is behind cant get him out
of.You feel me!!!

[jalypso]

You feel me!!!

[thebeef]

wow, this is a total overreaction and cheap shot on Clinton.

Shading the image of the opposing politician in an attack ad is industry standard. Typically the shot is grainy, dark, and in slow motion.

To assume that the Clinton campaign darkened the image to prey on racial prejudice, as opposed to the far more likely chance that they darkened the image because you ALWAYS darken the image in an attack ad, is a stretch in the extreme.

In fact, it smacks of race-baiting. It's pathetic.

[Andrew]

thebeef, I am 1000% in agreement with you. So what is this, marketing and advertising folks have to write little sub-rules now, such as For attack ads, make images distorted, grainy, and darker -- except if the opponent is black! This is such a blatant attempt by the Obama camp to play the race card by accusing HRC of playing the race card, and they've been pulling this crap for months now. The fact that an astute guy like Brendan falls for this crap repeatedly shows just how effective it is and really explains how Obama was so effective in eroding HRC's advantages going into this nomination battle.

[Brendan Loy]

You know, you guys may have a point. The more I think about this, the more I think that if it was anyone other than Hillary being accused of racism over this, I'd be decrying the accuser of race-baiting. I guess I've gotten cynical enough about Hillary where I'm a bit too eager to ascribe the worst possible motivations to her. But as I always say to other people who go too far with their criticism of somebody, better to stick with the criticisms that are actually legit...

[Andrew]

On its own, I regard this as a mere venial sin by the Clinton team, and if it were the only thing they'd done along these lines, I probably wouldn't even mention it. But it really is part of a distinct pattern, and I've had more than enough of it.

You mean this pattern? Look, I detest both Democrats and want McCain to beat the crap out of whomever he faces come this fall, so I think I have a pretty unbiased view here. But Brendan, you've completely saturated yourself in the Obama kool-aid -- hook, line, and sinker.* Obama knows it does himself no political favors to play the race card (people won't vote for a Jesse Jackson), and HRC knows it does herself no political favors to play it either (she'll alienate much of her Democratic base). So what happens over and over is, Obama's campaign baits the Clinton campaign, trying to twist something relatively innocent into something sinister and diabolical, then Jesse Jackson, Jr calls up all of HRC's black supporters and asks, "Are you really going to help defeat our best chance to have a black president? You better fall in line or else!" Meanwhile, the uppity liberals drop their Starbucks and run to scrape the HRC sticker off their Volvo and replace it with an Obama one to appease their white guilt (see: Frank Rich; Vermont primary voters).

As far as I am concerned, all is fair in love, war, and presidential politics, so I think the Obama camp is just being brilliant here. But when you pick up the mantle of outrage and lay into HRC like this, it drives me absolutely nuts. I have no problem if you're ready to march after Obama into the Promised Land, but please, put the soap box away.

*I expect you to be submitting this to BOTW under "Metaphor Alert".

[David K.]

As you said Brendan, if it were her only offense its much ado about nothing, but afterwhile she loses the benefit of the doubt. What I don't understand is how win-at-all-costs Andrew can't be in love with win-at-all-costs Hillary, seems like a match made in heaven ;-)

[Andrew]

David, I don't propose that every candidate "win at all costs" -- I describe how the game is played, not how I wish the rules were written. Sure, the reality is that, yes, you can play dirty, but it can and often does backfire in the media and with the public. What pissed me off so much about the Clintons in the '90s was that they got away with it because the media was either too dumb, hoodwinked, or part of the "conspiracy" to protect Bill Clinton. This unraveled at some point with Monica Lewinsky, but it was a general pattern that President Clinton's goons got away with a bunch of underhanded spin and the media played right along. A Republican just can't get away with that level of spin and dirty tactics; when Rove went super-dirty on McCain in the 2000 election, it damn near backfired. Bottom line is, I know how HRC operates and the media and Dem insiders know, too, but Obama is a fresh face on the scene and the media is only now barely poking and prodding him. And if McCain ends up losing in November, I'd probably be willing to roll the dice on Obama over HRC. Still, I have to admit, the one think I like about HRC is that no matter what kind of anti-war crap she's selling during the primary season, if she was president, she'd probably act fairly rational and at worst operate with a realpolitik foreign policy, which is a step back from what we're doing now but it's far better than Obama's head-in-the-sand foreign policy ideas.

[David K.]

It should also be pointed out that it is the Kos website that brought up this issue, not the Obama campaign, so Andrew your criticisms are unfounded, because as much as the right likes to pretend that Kos == all democrats, thats only true if by the same logic Coulter/Limbaugh == all republicans.

[Andrew]

David, where have you been? Kos has been shilling for Obama for a long time now, he's hardly a neutral observer.

[David K.]

Andrew, Kos may support Obama, but he doesn't speak for him any more than Brendan does.

[Andrew]

How the hell does Kos' relationship to the Obama campaign (or lack thereof) have any relevance to my point that Obama's campaign has been continually pouncing on HRC and inferring that her campaign is playing the race card? Go read the article I linked to and then tell me Obama isn't stirring the pot on race and using it to his advantage.