Report: Hillary's Black Supporters Complain Of Heavy Pressure To Flip To Obama
Today's Washington Post has some juicy behind-the-scenes detail on the battle between Hillary and Obama for black support, reporting on a private conference call among Hillary backers trying to cope with the pressure they say they're feeling to flip to Obama:
Last Friday, about 25 of them held an hour-long conference call to discuss what one described as an effort to "pester, intimidate, question our blackness" for not supporting Obama.The catalyst for the call was a report in the New York Times that Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) was wavering in his support of Clinton...
This bit of news was extremely significant, for Lewis is one of the coveted "superdelegates," those 796 elected officials and party insiders who are not bound by anything that has or will happen at the polls...And with the nomination fight so razor-close, they are being wooed -- some say harassed -- like never before...
Some of Clinton's other black supporters decided to rally and try to blunt the fallout. Among those on the conference call were Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer, former Denver mayor Wellington Webb, and congresswomen Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas and Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Ohio.
Palmer was among the more forceful voices, urging others on the call, as he put it yesterday, "to stand up and say why you're for Hillary Clinton in the face of adversity. We can't afford to be wishy-washy . . . Stand up. Fight. Advocate for your candidate. Don't capitulate. . . . Don't let nobody intimidate or threaten you. Just hold on."
The only explicit example of such pressure cited in the article was Obama supporter Jesse Jackson, Jr.'s recent assertion that black super-dels not backing Obama might risk facing a primary challenge down the road.
So it's not clear what intimidation the folks on the call we're talking about. But it's interesting nonetheless that Hillary's black supporters are trying to persuade one another to hold the line.















Oh the horror - superdelegates (of any race) will face huge backlash from us crazy cultish Obama supporters if they try to thwart the will of the people. How undemocratic of us to assert that we have the power to support any candidate we choose for any election, and there could be consequences at the ballot box for anybody who ignores this fact.
February 19, 2008 10:37 AM | Reply | Permalink
this was part of the rules before the campaign started, are you for the rules or not?
You seem to be for the rules when they talk about Florida and Michigan delegates seized.
February 19, 2008 12:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
What pressure?! Calls like the ones from Bill, "promising" to remember who's with him and who's not?! Another typical example of the CLinton camp turning the table and accusing the other side of what they are doing! Is it undair to point out that the voters in a 3-to-1 district for Sen. Obama might remember that their "super-delegate" chose his/her own ties to the Clintons (promises of threats and rewards) over their constituents?!
February 19, 2008 10:40 AM | Reply | Permalink
Once again, wasn't this supposed to be the "fun part" of the campaign. Why do bullies cry when they lose?
February 19, 2008 10:40 AM | Reply | Permalink
Black politicians who have endorsed Hillary have a real problem since black voters have deserted Hillary for Obama. So, of course, these politicians have a problem now--it's called voters.
These folks are in a holding pattern right now but that won't last if Obama continues to win. They will fold like a house of cards. Voters will make sure of that.
Intimidation by voters--I like that phrase.
February 19, 2008 10:41 AM | Reply | Permalink
Bad timing for this story, coming on the heels of the story about the Clinton campaign pressuring even pledged delegates. As usual, the Clinton campaign whines the most about this kind of thing, while doing the exact same thing if not worse.
February 19, 2008 10:41 AM | Reply | Permalink
GREAT! now the obama campaign is playing the race card against the black delegates and threatening them with consequence! i guess this is the new kind of politics they are talking about. reverse racism.
February 19, 2008 10:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
Hmmm,
Hillary gins up a conference call of her black superdelegates so they can complain about facing pressure to switch but the story very conspicuously fails to state who this pressure is coming from, what form it is taking or, most conspicuously of all, why they should resist it.
Immediately thereafter, Hillaroids appear to bemoan all the terrible, unethical, race-baiting nastiness the Obama campaign is orchestrating. The complete absence of a shred of evidence of that, aside from a story several days ago where one Clinton supporter ran to the press to tattle about a private conversation he'd had with JJJ.
If you can't find any real dirt, you just have to make it yourselves, I guess.
February 19, 2008 11:05 AM | Reply | Permalink
This pressure is assuredly coming from voters!
February 19, 2008 11:48 AM | Reply | Permalink
"To intimate that you may face a challenge for what you believe in, I just think that's over the top," explains Palmer. That's almost funny. Is Palmer suggesting that voters whose beliefs differ from his own ought to support him anyway? That stands made on principal are above reproach (unlike, perhaps, the rest of his positions, taken simply for the sake of expedience)? Frankly, I can't think of any better reason to challenge an incumbent than for his beliefs, and the manner in which he acts on them.
What's most striking here, though, is the defensive posture. The article doesn't cite a single reason for these leaders to support Hillary. There are many, of course. These leaders could stand up and say: "I support Hillary for her track-record on civil rights issues; it's important to me that when white politicians champion the issues of our community, they be rewarded with our support." More than a few of them could level with their constituents: "When Hillary's husband held political power, he introduced programs and allocated funds that benefited our district - that's the sort of behavior we want to encourage." And, in some cases, they might offer this rationale: "The Clintons offered my family members administation jobs, and they treated me with respect. I feel personally loyal to them, and that trumps the views of my constituents."
Even that last, most crass rationale trumps what's presently on offer - defiance of the voters for the sake of defying the voters. Palmer and his ilk are advancing a tautological claim - that their principled stand in support of Clinton is principled because it's a stand. If they wish to survive the wave of discontent from their constituents, they must offer more than that. They need to give a cogent reason for the stand. And then, they deserved to be judged on how persuasive that reason may be.
February 19, 2008 10:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
Screw the superdelegates, they aren't going to hijack this election either way, so I don't care who gets more of them. I'd rather they hurry up and jump to Obama so we can end this thing once in for all, but they aren't going to circumvent the will of the people, and if they try there is going to be hell to pay.
February 19, 2008 10:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
Wow. I just read about rumblings from the Clinton camp that they're planning to go after Obama's pledged delegates too.
Boy. Both candidates had better tamp this down. This is getting out of hand. Democratic voters are already anxious about the prospect of having their will thwarted by "elite" superdelegates -- we don't need to have voters anxious over losing their "pledged" delegates as well.
Cripes. Howard Dean? Al Gore? Somebody? Time to speak up and reassure the voters???
February 19, 2008 10:46 AM | Reply | Permalink
Am confused by the last paragraph here. Are you saying there may be no further intimidation beyond Jesse Jackson's Jr.'s already cited ad nauseum one-time warning? Or are you leading us to conclude that the Obama campaign has been issuing "warnings" to other black delegates? You clearly seem to want to open the door to readers concluding the latter -- take the title of your report alone. So why the disclaimer at the very end? Since you have absolutely nothing to back any of the implications inherent in you piece up, wouldn't it have been more appropriate to say these delegates are "feeling" pressure. Indeed, how could they not after Lewis's defection? And one, I think, can assume, there are pressures within their own black communities having nothing at all to do with Jesse Jackson Jr. and Obama.
February 19, 2008 10:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
JJJ says something vaguely threatening and these guys need to hold hands and cry? No wonder Congress can't get anything done even if they hold a majority. These guys fold faster than boneless chickens.
Grow a spine!
February 19, 2008 10:54 AM | Reply | Permalink
Jesse Jr. needs to shut up. And this coming from an Obama voter. Srsly.
To paraphrase the immortal words of The Dude, "No, Jesse, you're not wrong. You're just an a$$hole."
February 19, 2008 10:56 AM | Reply | Permalink
My guess is that the "pressure" isn't coming from the Obama campaign (at least not at this point). Most likely constituents and fellow power brokers in their state machines.
That or this was another attempt to distract the public at large.
February 19, 2008 10:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
i like the Clintonite's claims of "intimidation" of these poor repressed elected officials. they are feeling pressure FROM THEIR CONSTITUENTS, otherwise known as voters, who chose to back a different candidate than the one these officials have hitched themselves to.
of course there is going to be pressure, and i hope it serves as a lesson for "superdelegates" and the like to hold off on throwing their support one way before the contest has been decided or at least contested.
February 19, 2008 11:07 AM | Reply | Permalink
it's not clear what intimidation the folks on the call we're talking about.
Are you kidding? Do you really expect them to detail the phone calls or the 'little chats', the inferences that they are selling out because they chose a candidate and stuck by them?
There was a diary running on TPM for quite a while where a woman talked about her enthusiasm for Obama. One line of her diary was something along the lines of how those Democrats who didn't go along with Obama would be voted out. I wonder where she got that idea?
Obama the idea man using the strong arm. Who would have thought?
February 19, 2008 11:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
And, once again, I ask, what actual evidence of this do you have? Aside from what you just know must be true?
February 19, 2008 11:19 AM | Reply | Permalink
Ok, let's try this again.
Uh, thank God there isn't any pressure on super delegates that are white, hispanic, eskimo, asian or pacific islander male or female (I hope I covered all ethinic groups that I could think of. If I missed someone, I am sorry.) Luckily the only people getting pressure are the african-american super delegates and that keeps getting reported in the media, over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over again. Whew, I was worried there for a minute.
February 19, 2008 11:11 AM | Reply | Permalink
"The only explicit example of such pressure cited in the article was Obama supporter Jesse Jackson, Jr.'s recent assertion that black super-dels not backing Obama might risk facing a primary challenge down the road."
If that's the only example, these reps must be pretty lily livered. I didn't think it was even necessary for Jackson to spell it out, since it's a no brainer that voters might be none too happy if their rep or senator went against an overwhelmingly one sided vote (whether it's Obama or Clinton).
Did anyone else catch the NPR interview with Rep. Cleaver (?) from Missouri talking about the "pressure" and "threats"? The only example I remember him offering was that John Lewis was a victim of a robocall. I mean, that's really scary stuff!
Cleaver said he was sticking with Clinton because loyalty trumps everything, which is fine. However, in order to explain this highly complicated concept of loyalty, he gave an analogy - he was saving a seat for another rep (a white guy) at the State of the Union, when a black guy he didn't know asked to sit there. Cleaver said he had to think about that for a moment, then proudly announced that he said no to the stranger because he was saving it for his friend...
February 19, 2008 11:12 AM | Reply | Permalink
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=19096400
February 19, 2008 12:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is BS.
It's a plant by the Clinton camp to remind their WHITE voters that Obama is black.
February 19, 2008 11:18 AM | Reply | Permalink
Crazy obamaloons seem to find fault in everything clintons do... jesse jackson jr. few days back explicitly threatened of the consequence they'll face if they dont back the black candidate! if that is not playing the race card, i don't know what is!
February 19, 2008 11:25 AM | Reply | Permalink
Bonnie, that's what the press said JJJ said. After checking out the actual interview, that's not what he said at all, nor how it was interpreted by the recepient of the alleged "threat." Sorry, let's try another victim card today or a new message of the day. Anything going to stick? Doesn't seem like it.
February 19, 2008 11:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
"Jesse Jackson won South Carolina in '84 and '88. Jackson ran a good campaign. And Obama ran a good campaign here." -- Bill Clinton
Since you claim to not know what playing the race card is, I thought I'd be neighborly and point out an example. You're welcome.
February 19, 2008 11:34 AM | Reply | Permalink
I think the pressure is coming from voters. I know people who are writing their the supers of their states about this. I'm sure many in the black community are doing the same.
February 19, 2008 11:46 AM | Reply | Permalink
Fact is these guys jumped on the Clinton bandwagon prematurely without consideration of the views of their constituents because they wanted to back the winning horse and/or they are Clinton cronies. I have a sneaking suspicion, to paraphrase a favorite line of Hillary Clinton, that if they knew what they know and they had to do it over again, more than half of them would back Obama.
February 19, 2008 11:49 AM | Reply | Permalink
ThompsonLives - sorry to disappoint your hypersensitive fragile heart!
but thats not playing race card - 50% of democratic voters who happened to be blacks voted 80% for obama in SC primary.. it seems perfectly okay for all the racist obama supporters to point out that hillary is winning states becoz of latino votes! but it seems to be there is a double standard when it comes to pointing out that obama is winning these southern states becoz of blacks.
Ofcourse for obamaloons like you, its not enough! but that's okay... it is said, not to push the cultist followers too much, they get depressed and take drastic action!
February 19, 2008 11:56 AM | Reply | Permalink
So close to being a rational thought, yet so far.
February 19, 2008 12:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ok bonnie, any links on this:
it seems perfectly okay for all the racist obama supporters to point out that hillary is winning states becoz of latino votes
Nah, I doubt it. Sounds like one of those bs clinton straw person arguments.
February 19, 2008 12:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
A conference call participant says there were attempts to "pester, intimidate, question our blackness".
TPM commenters naturally assume he is lying, because he is for Clinton.
February 19, 2008 11:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
And heaven forbid that anyone should ever associate deception with the Cllinton campaign.
February 19, 2008 12:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Here's Tavis Smiley:
"“There’s all this talk of hater, sellout and traitor,” Smiley said to me in a telephone interview. Smiley even mentioned getting death threats, but wouldn’t elaborate. He said his office has been flooded with angry e-mails. “I have family in Indianapolis. They are harassing my momma, harassing my brother. It’s getting to be crazy,” Smiley said."
February 19, 2008 12:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
rationality doesn't go with obamaloons!
February 19, 2008 12:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
An excellent retort. Keep making friends and influencing people, Bono.
February 19, 2008 12:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
What is the context for this?
February 19, 2008 12:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
i'm neither here to make friends nor to influence anyone ... blogs are infested with crazy cultist followers.. and my mission is to point out to the rest of the innocent readers - how absurd, illogical and crazy obama supporters hv become!
February 19, 2008 12:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Keep trying, but your posts aren't cutting it. Basically, they appear to evidence how crazy the clinton cultists have become. Totally devoid of any truth, logical thought or reality. But I encourage you to keep trying. The more you do, the more people will vote for obama. Thanks.
February 19, 2008 12:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Off topic--can anyone explain the Snorg t-shirt with the luv heart dangling from a lamp chain? It's driving me crazy.
February 19, 2008 12:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
The only explicit example of such pressure cited in the article was Obama supporter Jesse Jackson, Jr.'s recent assertion that black super-dels not backing Obama might risk facing a primary challenge down the road.
gee, and here at ObamaElection Central, we never mention the fact that Jesse Jackson Jr. pressured a Congressman Cleaver by asking him if he wanted to be the ONE person to deny an African American the chance to be president....
we never mention it, even though it is highly relevant to the claims made that there was
'an effort to "pester, intimidate, question our blackness" for not supporting Obama.'
Because we all know that Barack Obama isn't about race, transcends race, and would never use race as an issue in pursuit of the nomination.
....except, of course, when its to his advantage.
February 19, 2008 12:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
hahahaha.. i know .. so let me help you out..
i know a perfect spot for you ... u'll feel at home..
http://obamamessiah.blogspot.com/
February 19, 2008 12:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
How horrible would it be if we found out white people where pressuring white people to vote for Hillary because she is white? And to vote against Obama because he is black.I thought the African-American movement has been telling us we have to look beyound the color of one's skin, and judge a person by the content of their character. Does that only apply to white people. Are African -American's not held to the same standard? I don't think it can be justified any other way that 9 of 10 African-Americans will vote for Obama. They know the Clinton's aren't racist. I believe from the start that African-American's were going to find something, anything to distort and claim it to be a racist comment by the Clintons in order to justify not voting for them. Why not just be honest and say you are voting for Obama because he is black instead of playing race cards. That will not help us in the long run. What goes around comes around.
February 19, 2008 12:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
p_lukasiak, what have you done????
u hv spoken the unthinkable! don't you know you are in the obamalala land?? Everyone must speak the truth here as long as it favours the saint obama! Otherwise.. well.. u'll see the cultist attack coming ur way now!
February 19, 2008 1:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
"i'm neither here to make friends nor to influence anyone ... blogs are infested with crazy cultist followers.. and my mission is to point out to the rest of the innocent readers - how absurd, illogical and crazy obama supporters hv become!"
You contradict yourself here. Pointing out the absurd or illogical IS seeking to influence the "innocent".
Think hard & try again later ;-)
pkj-that I heart lamp ad is bugging me too
February 19, 2008 1:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Keep pushing for Obama the Tofu President of the future. He is going to be the next Jimmy Carter President, sounds nice but doesn't get anything done and the Gop will take over for the next 12 or more years because of him. But keep listening to the youth of today the ones with the pierced lips, eye brows, nose, tongue and what ever else and of course they have had there body branded (tattoo)all over and this is what is picking the next president. You hear that Sen. from Missouri say her kids told her to back Obama, dosen't she have a brain to pick for herself, her kids tell her and she is in the senate. He talk nice but carries no stick, that is the problem. He makes all kinds of nice sounding speaches, but no substance to back anything he says. It is nice that he makes you feel good, but there is going to be a lot of work to be done in Jan. 09, and sweet talk is not going to fix everything George W Bush has screwed up. This country needs a fighter that will do what is best for the people and the country, not left or right. So looking for a feel good nice guy check out history and see Jimmy Carter that is what he was.
February 19, 2008 1:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
lois plain - a typical obamaloon with too much time in his hand - hip, young, naive, lazy and stupid!
February 19, 2008 1:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
You got every single thing wrong, again. Nice to see you have been reduced to name calling though, very smart.
February 19, 2008 1:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Coming from an obamaloon- i feel so better now!
February 19, 2008 1:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
BonoX is a troll. Pointing out the silliness of his goofy name-calling won't change this. Rather than responding to each "Obamaloon" comment, I think we'd be collectively better off simply ignoring the posts altogether, until he/she contributes something of value.
Having said that, ThompsonLives does make some pretty damned funny observations. Unfortunately, since BonoX so clearly lacks the intellectual bandwidth to process them, it's a "pearls before swine" kind of dynamic.
February 19, 2008 2:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Bono, please do keep advocating as the voice of reason for Clinton.
February 19, 2008 2:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Clinton's black supporters?
Do corporations have colors?
February 19, 2008 7:57 PM | Reply | Permalink