I’m reluctant to post this…

  • Posted by Brian
  • March 5, 2008

… because I really don’t want to stir the pot any more, but… I think it’s too important to ignore.

It appears the Clinton campaign might have been doing some additional race-baiting.

Tensions are running high in Democratic circles between the supporters of senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama — and nowhere is that more evident than on the internet.

Some of the more explosive blog posts making the rounds today concern a charge from a couple of diarists on the Daily Kos that the Clinton campaign deliberately darkened Obama’s skin color in a recent television ad.

Doing this is divisive and unnecessary. Blogging about it is divisive… but I don’t think unnecessary. I just wish this kind of stuff wasn’t out there to begin with. It’s right out of the GOP playbook, and while the common argument is that he’ll have to weather it then if not now, what’s being ignored is the fact that this will turn off a LOT of Obama voters in the general election should Clinton win the primary. Liberals, as a group, should be better than this. It’s disappointing when the Clinton campaign isn’t.

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March 5th, 2008
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Hillary Clinton
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Comment Number:
1
Written by:
Joseph
Posted on:
March 5, 2008 at 5:56 pm

Well- they also made is coat more black and the background more black, etc.

It looks like they just changed the contrast on the photo a little.

I’d tend to believe it more if they just changed his face.

Comment Number:
2
Written by:
Brian
Posted on:
March 5, 2008 at 9:17 pm

Right - I too think they just twiddled the contrast. But to what end?

This is a pretty standard procedure for making something appear more menacing or less respectable (even with white people), but I think it takes on a different flavor when you do it to a black candidate.

Maybe it was accidental or coincidental - they didn’t mean to make him “blacker”. But I have my doubts, given some other stuff that’s been going on.

Comment Number:
3
Written by:
jimmy james
Posted on:
March 6, 2008 at 10:03 am

Joseph,

I pulled the first photo in Photoshop and darkened it down and tweaked the contrast, trying to duplicate the second image. You don’t get anything close to the second photo when it comes to the face. This is a smear. They changed the color of his face.