News Bloggers

Mo Rocca has appeared on a bunch of shows, including 'The Daily Show,' 'I Love the 80s,'...

Barack Obama's Campaign Plays the Race Card

The Obama campaign sent their national co-chair Jesse Jackson, Jr. to tear down Hillary Clinton on MSNBC the other night. He took it too far over the top. His comments on Hurricane Katrina seemed to indicate he was saying Hillary Clinton doesn't care about black people. It's one thing when Kanye West says that about George Bush, it's another when it's Obama's spokesperson saying it about Hillary Clinton. That is out of bounds.

Jackson's appearance on MSNBC and our analysis of why he was wrong to say it is in the video below:




What's even more interesting is what happened after we played this clip on the radio this morning. Calls poured in for nearly two hours -- and the results were frightening. It appeared that people have started to split up in different camps based on their identity. Obama supporters were accusing Hillary of not doing anything to help black folks. Hillary supporters accusing Obama of not being sensitive to gender issues.

Yes, there were definitely exceptions. A black female caller voiced strong support for John Edwards. But overall, the sense I got is that the race issue (and less so the gender issue, but that is also growing) is out of the bag. Once that genie is out of the bottle (to mix my metaphors here), it's hard to put it back in. For the first time, I think Democrats are on the verge of doing serious damage to one another. This thing could get real ugly, real soon.

They have got to reel this back in. It isn't going to help anybody. This negative campaigning definitely turns off voters, especially Democratic voters. It's one thing to attack someone's record (which I am actually in favor of), it's another to do these personal and identity based attacks. The candidates are only hurting themselves in the primaries and their opponent if he or she winds up in the general election.

One last thing, this particular strategy by Obama is short-sighted. Yes, it might help in South Carolina. But you could win that battle and lose the war because you turned off so many other voters by playing the race card in South Carolina. As a guy leaning toward Obama, I hope he reconsiders this terribly misguided strategy.

Watch More Young Turks Here

Reader Comments ( Page 2 of 4)

Mo's Video

The Sound of a Smoke-Free Barack...
Almost two years ago we speculated on how Barack Obama's voice would change if he stopped smoking. ...

Coming Soon

Most Commented On

    Coming Soon

Mo's Bio

Mo Rocca appears on a bunch of shows, including CBS News Sunday Morning (with the indescribably wonderful Charles Osgood), The Tonight Show on NBC, and NPR's Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! He's a sometime judge on Iron Chef and was featured on Telemundo's Amore Descarado. Last year he starred on Broadway in the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. His expose "All the President's Pets" was published by Crown in 2004.



Mo Rocca 180


© 2009 AOL LLC. All Rights Reserved.
AOL@News © 2009 AOL LLC. All Rights Reserved.
News Bloggers

Mo Rocca appears on a bunch of shows, including CBS News Sunday Morning (with the indescribably wonderful Charles Osgood), The Tonight Show on NBC, and NPR's Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! He's a sometime judge on Iron Chef and was featured on Telemundo's Amore Descarado. Last year he starred on Broadway in the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. His expose "All the President's Pets" was published by Crown in 2004.

BACK TO TOP