Noted Quotes: Jimmy Carter's Moral Blunder

Carter is hardly wrong to condemn racism when he sees it in the protests. But to blame racism for an "overwhelming portion" of the fear and rage rising around us would be to consign legitimately frightened and angry people to demagogues and shut out real change. That would be a strategic blunder, and ultimately a moral one, too. ~ Jim Sleeper/Washington Post.

...it was guaranteed that he would spark a populist backlash, regardless of his skin color. And it was guaranteed that this backlash would be ill mannered, conspiratorial and over the top — since these movements always are, whether they were led by Huey Long, Father Coughlin or anybody else. What we’re seeing is the latest iteration of that populist tendency and the militant progressive reaction to it. We now have a populist news media that exaggerates the importance of the Van Jones and Acorn stories to prove the elites are decadent and un-American, and we have a progressive news media that exaggerates stories like the Joe Wilson shout and the opposition to the Obama schools speech to show that small-town folks are dumb wackos. ~ David Brooks/New York Times.

There isn't a living political expert from that bygone era who doesn't know that gubernatorial candidate Carter -- running against the progressive Carl Sanders -- said many times in public appearances that he was a Lester Maddox Democrat. That doesn't mean Carter was spewing racial epithets. It does mean that he "played the race card" himself to get elected. What's unfortunate is that Carter now has chosen to flip that race card over and play it for the opposite effect he sought a generation ago. Though no racist himself, Carter now perhaps is seeking atonement for his campaign rhetoric of years past. But that doesn't explain why he presumes that those who oppose ObamaCare or other potential government expansion programs are racists. Can't people justifiably feel that Obama has become something different as president than what he promised as a presidential candidate? Remember that more than enough Americans cared little enough about Obama's race to elect him president. ~ Matt Towery/Southern Political Report.

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Towery: Obama Losing Youth Traction

By Matt Towery/Southern Political Report ~ The hidden story of the last week has been the shift in many states and nationwide among the youngest of voters, those ages 18-to-29, from a solid entrenchment in the Obama camp to a significant drift toward a newly revived John McCain effort, all courtesy of Gov. Sarah Palin.

Read all of Towery's column at www.southernpoliticalreport.com.

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Will Pennsylvania Break Hillary's Political Back?

By Matt Towery, Southern Political Report ~ The elite of her own Democratic Party are turning on her. The media generally are undercutting her campaign. Her campaign coffers are looking barer every day.

Now a new poll suggests that the April 22 Pennsylvania Democratic primary could be the straw that breaks the back of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.

It is well known that for Sen. Clinton to have even a sporting chance of a brokered convention that might lead to her nomination, she must carry the remaining big state primaries, such as Pennsylvania. More, she must win them convincingly, if not overwhelmingly.

But an InsiderAdvantage/Majority Opinion poll conducted April 2 of 659 likely Democratic registered voters in Pennsylvania shows Clinton leading her opponent, Sen. Barack Obama, by only 45 percent to 42 percent, with the remainder of Democratic voters undecided.

For Clinton, there is nothing but bad news in the poll.

Her lead among white voters, who make up about 80 percent of the Democratic primary vote, was only a modest 49 percent to 40 percent.

Worse for her, the poll showed African-American voters supporting Obama by 56 percent to 29 percent for Clinton. If past races in this 2008 contest are any indication, that vote will trend more and more to Obama as Election Day approaches.

Our most recent survey in North Carolina indicates that Obama is leading handily there, where Clinton badly needs an upset victory to survive until the convention.

The fact is that the Democratic establishment, ranging from Howard Dean to the Kennedy-Kerry-Gore axis, has worked overtime to bury any chance for Hillary Clinton to stage a comeback. Based on media coverage, Clinton's gaff concerning the dodging of nonexistent bullets on a visit to Bosnia as First Lady has done more damage with voters than the explosive comments of Obama's former church minister, Reverend Jeremiah Wright.

There are a few things that are becoming apparent here. First, Clinton has virtually no chance of surviving this race.

The second thing is that the Democratic Party and media elite have finally found ways to pound the Clintons into the ground and "teach them" that they were never worthy of wearing the crown of "Democratic Royalty" to start with. That unofficial title is reserved for the wealthy and more refined Kennedys, Gores and the like.

If I were Bill and Hillary Clinton, I would be so angry that I would be unable to contain myself. Indeed, as for former President Bill Clinton, it is arguable as to whether he has been able to control himself.

They've dealt with a DNC chairman who darn well knew from the start that his position on the Florida and Michigan primaries and its delegates not counting would damage Hillary Clinton more than any other candidate.

Dean's appointments to the credentials committee for the national convention have been heavily weighted with those loyal to him and to Obama. At every step of the way Dean has set traps for Clinton.

When Bill Clinton chose to challenge Barack Obama's record, each and every comment was interpreted as a racial slur from a man who has been nothing less than one of the greatest friends to the African-American community in modern history.

Former Clinton guru James Carville is right when he says that Obama is treated differently than any other candidate. This is a rough and tumble business, but one in which every Clinton mistake is treated as fair play, while most questions about Obama are either overlooked or dismissed as his having dealt with them brilliantly.

And what does all of this have to say about the attitudes toward female candidates in America? While Hillary Clinton gets the greater percentage of women votes, it is nowhere near as lopsided as the percentage of African Americans who choose Obama. I've said before that I certainly understand this phenomenon. He is the first candidate of color to ever have a legitimate chance to capture the White House.

But what's good for the goose is good for the gander. If pride in achieving "firsts" can drive one demographic, why should the same not apply to another -- women? For whatever reason, younger women, based on polling and exit polls, have simply seen no reason to take ownership in Clinton's campaign.

Barack Obama may become the greatest political leader of our lifetime. Who knows? But the Democrats had better hope they are right in casting all their marbles with him. Because they slanted, shifted and stacked every card in the deck to do in Hillary.

It's looking like it worked.

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SPR Inside The Numbers: Hillary Clinton Demise A Warning To Barack Obama, John McCain

By Matt Towery, Southern Political Report ~ Newsweek's online edition recently featured a piece by former White House chief of staff Hamilton Jordan. He, along with Jody Powell, Jerry Rafshoon, Pat Caddell and others engineered the come-from-nowhere victory of Jimmy Carter in the 1976 presidential contest against Gerald Ford.

Jordan wrote in Newsweek: "I consider the Obama operation the most brilliant political campaign of my lifetime."

I take issue with Jordan, if for the ironic reason that I consider Carter's victory in 1976 to be the most brilliant campaign in modern history.

Read all of Matt's column at http://www.southernpoliticalreport.com/.

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Towery Examines Role Of Romney's Faith

Matt Towery of the Southern Political Report is out with a column on Mitt Romney's religion that focuses on John F. Kennedy's struggle with his Catholic faith in 1960 and how Romney's Mormon faith might play out in the 2008 presidential race. He concludes that, "From my own and others' experience, I've come to believe that a presidential candidate's religion is usually thought to be a bigger deal with voters than it really is." Read all of Towery's column here.

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Gingrich's Strange Decision: Questions Abound

From The Southern Political Report ~ The Associated Press reported this afternoon that Newt Gingrich’s press secretary, Rick Tyler, officially announced that Gingrich would not seek the presidency in 2008. Tyler explained that research uncovered by the Gingrich organization in the last few days showed that Gingrich could not form an exploratory campaign without resigning as the head of his 527 organization, “American Solutions.”

Gingrich’s former campaign chairman and InsiderAdvantage/Southern Political Report Chairman Matt Towery, who in column after column raised the 527 issue as a potential problem for Gingrich, sheds light on Gingrich’s situation: “As I stated often to the dismay of the supporters of my friend and former candidate, the 527, American Solutions, posed a huge ethical and legal issue for a Gingrich effort for the presidency. I have already been asked if Gingrich was aware of this all along and simply waited until after the launch of American Solutions to make the public of his inability to move forward. My answer is, based on my best experience of the Gingrich organization, no. To have led media to believe that he would begin on Monday, by proxy, a $30 million quest for a mandate to run, knowing full well that such could not take place, would permanently scar Gingrich with the media and his closest supporters, all of whom were led to believe that the exploration announcement was more than legitimate.

“In my estimation, American Solutions and the sudden resurgence of Newt’s interest in the presidency both were occurring so swiftly that this critical element of the law was ignored. This would not be the first time that the Gingrich organization, led by a man who thinks faster than those who try to keep up with him, made statements or set forth plans that were reversed at the last minute. Today’s announcement reminds me a great deal of Newt’s sudden and abrupt decision to leave the House in 1998. One thing is for sure: Gingrich will have to concur with this analysis or he will be viewed in the future by both the media and many of his supporters as having manipulated and misled them.”

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