The Truth is a many-faceted thing, but there are means to discern it. This is not one of them:
Flummoxed by this young, charismatic pretender to their dynastic throne, they made a fateful decision: not to compete aggressively for black votes, but to push Obama into the “black candidate” box and leverage white ethnic and Hispanic support instead.
-AS
[n.b. There is no such thing as a "dynasty" of one. HRC would have to win for there to even be a thought of "dynasty", but "Clinton" is not a dynastic name in American politics, even if she were to take the Presidency, in nearly the same way that "Bush" is. BTW, are "dynasties" bad in AS's view?]
THE WAY IT WAS: VICTORS WRITE THE HISTORY?
This is a re-write of history. It's highly unlikely that Bill's comments in New Hampshire were deliberately racial. Yet he was called onto Al Sharpton's show to "explain them".
This push-and-shove led to a disproportionate loss in South Carolina.
AS recounts Donna Brazille, but he fails to mention that Jesse Jackson's contemporaneous reaction was something like, "I'm not offended by his comments."
WHAT IT IS
The fact that, without black support, Hillary has done as well as she has, shows their skill as politicians. You build a coalition where you can get it. More interesting is why Hillary hasn't done as well among women as Barack has among black voters. What's more, AS is seemingly trying to have it two ways twice, both to minimize the role race is playing in voting yet to expand it when thinking of "poison" and to have Obama transcend race when he analyzes Obama votes/attitudes, yet be "of race" when he analyzes Clinton's votes/attitudes. Perhaps he can square those, but ...
SAY WHAT IS IT?
One can say that a coalition like that is not good for party unity, but making the jump to "besmirch" and "destroy" is slight of hand. That will be the work of FOX, with their "angry black man" photos, their Reverend Wright loops, and Bill Cunningham when he returns to the national stage ...
BABY, WHAT I SAY
Finally, as for destroying their ability to relate to people, one needs go no further than the indefatigable and cheerful Stephanie Tubbs-Jones, enthusiastic Hillary supporter for a complete counterfactual. So, true or false: Andrew is doing advocacy, not providing an insight.
