south carolina primary

Ludwig Wittgenstein, that philosopher whose fields were the foundations south carolina primary logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language, may have been the most important philosopher since Immanuel Kant, and perhaps because when he was growing up in Vienna locals like Brahms, Richard Strauss and Mahler used to drop by the house – his parents were patrons of the arts – Ludwig could turn a phrase, even if only with words. His brother, Paul Wittgenstein, had the musical talent – Paul went on to become a world-famous concert even after losing his right south carolina in World War I – Maurice Ravel wrote his Piano Concerto for the Left Hand specifically for the hand that was left. Ludwig himself had absolute pitch and was said to be unusually adept at whistling lengthy and detailed musical passages (and he played clarinet a bit). But mostly he said things that sounded right – I dont know why south carolina primary are here, but Im pretty sure that it is not in order to enjoy ourselves. Yep, think of the late nineteenth century Vienna of Freud. Thatll do.

The Wittgenstein quote most often cited is this: What can be said at all can south carolina primary said clearly; and whereof one cannot speak thereof one must be silent. People generally only cite the last eight words, quoting Wittgenstein when they decide it might be time to shut up or limit the damage already or when they want to shut up someone else who just doesnt have a clue about big issue they are proudly pontificating about, and sinking into absurdities. In either the I-guess-I-really-dont know-what-Im-talking-about situation, or the much more common you-dont-know-jack-so-shut-your-mouth situation, Wittgenstein can be useful. If you cannot be clear and maybe just halfway right, silence is a fine option, maybe the only good option.

In the where Hillary Clinton won the Hampshire primary, surprising the pollsters and pundits, followed by days of what was offered as serious and deep analysis of why this happened and what it could mean, many must have turned to their television sets and muttered a bit of Wittgenstein – Whereof one cannot speak thereof one must be silent. Well, maybe not many – just the academic sort. But all the analysis was maddening – no one knows much. Everyone has a theory, and all the candidates have highly-paid consultants, with their theories and action plans based on those theories. Thats why theyre paid the big bucks. But what happened seems pretty impervious to analysis, and no one was being terribly clear. Was it her tears? Was it white backlash against her opponent, the brilliant yet humble yet inspiring young black senator? Were the electronic voting machines rigged? (Dennis Kucinich is on the case,) Who knows?

But with New Hampshire old history and the South Carolina primary looming, it was time to do something, based on whatever theory finally became the probably it was that that got stuck in your advisors mind. And advisors always claim to know what voters are really thinking – they see it before anyone else does.

Unfortunately what they see in South Carolina is that half the Democratic Party is African-American, and the Republicans there are overwhelmingly white evangelical conservatives, many with a deadly serious grudge about the Late Unpleasantness Between the States (what most of us call the Civil War). Yep, lots of people feel abused and wronged. The operating theory would have to be that this one was about race – fighting the civil war again, without the dead people.

So whatever happened, for whatever reason, in New Hampshire resolved to some sort of consensus that race is the issue. But in south carolina primary America thats hard to talk about, directly. You got the kind of code that would have driven Wittgenstein to tears, kind of like Senator Clinton.

There was the shuck and jive business. Andrew Cuomo, son of the Jesuit-trained solidly liberal ex-governor of New York, on the radio talking about Clintons victory, said this – Its not a TV crazed race. Frankly you cant buy your way into it. You cant shuck and jive at a press conference. All those moves you can make with the press dont work when youre in someones living room. It was poor choice of words – or it wasnt. Cuomos office said that the quote had been taken out of context - it applied to both leading candidates and both Iowa and south carolina primary Hampshire, and was offered as an explanation of the health of the early primary process. He was NOT saying south carolina primary one likes that uppity nigger shucking and jiving.

And you cannot call the brilliant yet humble yet inspiring young black senator Boy – but you can call him kidAmericas first black president after all.

And south carolina primary was that business about pickup basketball at Harvard – that was from Karl Roves . Rove flags Obamas trash talking and his days playing pickup basketball at Harvard and the alleged fact that he is often lazy. This was also a poor choice of words – or it wasnt. With Rove, one must assume the latter. The man is a master of code. We all know about young black men, dont we?

Should we lynch him in a back alley? Actually, that wasnt about Barack Obama; it was about Tiger Woods, and other professional golfers may indeed often feel that would be nice. It was just a sportscaster getting with the zeitgeist. She apologized, and Woods shrugged – he likes the kid, and she made a slip. No big deal. But something was in the air.

What does seem a big deal was Hillary Clinton, fed up with all of Obamas inspirational crap, hitting him hard about referring to Martin Luther King inspiring people, offering hope, when everyone knows that King was a minor figure who really changed nothing much. You see, It took a president to get it done – Lyndon Johnson got the Civil Rights Act passed in the sixties, with south carolina primary and threats and gaming the system. Inspiration is useless, of course. Having the Washington insider moves down cold is what really matters. Experience trumps bullshit inspiration.

Needless to say, this assertion may have been a bit unwise, no matter how heartfelt, or how insightful in terms of political theory, and no matter how frustrated she was.

Here is one typical reaction:

Thats right. It wasnt the courage of King and local Montgomery residents standing up to legalized white supremacy in their hometown that began to change America, it was the white man. It wasnt Rosa Parks who had enough and refused to sit in the back of the bus that got things started, it was the white man. It wasnt John Lewis and others facing down billy clubs and tear gas in Selma, it was the white man.

It wasnt Fannie Lou Hamer the racist Democrats at the 1964 convention that black people were sick and tired of being sick and tired, it was the white man. Why credit the people who gave their lives for the struggle when all credit is due to the great white father, in his ultimate, eternal benevolence, for finally deciding to recognize black people as human beings? I wonder where he got that idea?

Johnson didnt change America. Johnson reacted to the changes in America. For that he deserves some credit, but never mistake the man in the suit for the soldiers on the street. The difference is obvious: Johnson isnt the one whose life was ended by a snipers bullet.

The junior senator from New York really stepped in it this time. And that reaction was a bit of Wittgenstein – south carolina primary one cannot speak thereof one must be silent. She should have read Wittgenstein back at Wellesley.

Over at the Washington Monthly, Kevin Drum had a question – Are subtle racial appeals on the rise in the past week? Or are south carolina primary creating news where nothing exists?

The answer – (1) Ben Smith at The Politico, Racial tensions roil Democratic race: A series of comments from Senator Hillary Clinton, her husband, and her supporters are spurring a racial backlash and adding a divisive edge to the presidential primary as the candidates head south to heavily African-American South Carolina. (2) Joe Gandelman at The Moderate Voice, Clinton Camp Race-Tinged Comments Multiply. (3) AJ Strata at The Strata-Sphere, Americas First Black President Was Clinton - Remember?

And the womans husband, Bill Clinton, is backtracking. Obamas candidacy isnt the fairy tale at all, but his Iraq war opposition is:

Bill Clinton just appeared on Al Sharptons radio show, and was asked about his statements in New Hampshire that the media was pushing a fairy tale about Obamas candidacy. Bill insisted that he did not mean Obamas candidacy itself was the fairy

I have given south carolina primary of speeches on Hillarys behalf in this campaign, Bill said. I dont believe Ive ever given a single one where I havent applauded Senator Obama and his candidacy. Its not a fairy tale - he might win.

Instead, Bill said, the fairy tale is the that Obama has always opposed the war. We went through 15 debates and the Obama campaign has made the argument that his relative lack of service in the Senate was not relevant because he had better judgment than the other Democrats on the Iraq War& Bill said. And I pointed out that hed never been asked about his statements in 2004 that he didnt know how hed have voted on the Iraq War, and that there was no significant difference between his position as President Bushs.

Bill then speculated on what Obama might have south carolina primary at the time - perhaps he only disagreed with the conduct of the war, or how best to deal with it now. The point is, it disproves the argument that he was always against south carolina primary everyone else was wrong and he was right& Bill said. I said that story is a fairy tale, and that doesnt have anything to do with my respect for him as a person or as a political figure in this campaign.

Counterpoint:

Obama has said during south carolina primary campaign that he hedged on his answer about the Iraq War authorization vote because he south carolina primary not want to openly disagree with John Kerry and John Edwards, as they were the partys ticket at the national convention where he was speaking, and both of whom had voted for the war and yet to repudiate it.

Good – thats all cleared up. But wait! There is this story from The Guardian (UK) on Friday, south carolina primary 11, which quotes some unidentified Clinton advisor saying this – If you have a social need, youre with Hillary. If you want Obama to be your imaginary hip black friend and youre south carolina primary and you have no social needs, then hes cool.

From the widely-read Josh Marshall, some common sense:

It is remarkable, or perhaps its not so remarkable, rapidly this punching match over race has escalated between the Clinton and Obama camps. Even calling it that is perhaps controversial in itself.

… south carolina primary genuinely unclear to me how much one side or the other is consciously pushing this, how much its escalated based in part on misunderstandings, or whether, in a somewhat related fashion, hyping journalistic accounts has given the engagement a life of its own.

Some of the statements recently to the Clintons have seemed at best awkward in how theyre discussing race and the civil rights movement; others have struck me as unobjectionable statements interpreted in a tendentious fashion.

Yes, some of the code may not be code at all. The item in the Guardian is just puzzling:

Now, as I said, I have a bit of a hard time knowing whats going on here. If this is really the word the Clinton campaign wants its surrogates putting out, theyre really much stupider than I could have imagined. On the other hand, advisor is a notoriously slippery phrase that can mean almost anything. Campaigns have hundreds, perhaps thousands of people who in one fashion or another advise them. A lot of those people arent under any kind of real control. And if a reporter talks to enough south carolina primary them one of them is bound to say something stupid. On the other hand, you have to rely on the journalist and the news outlet not to send you down the wrong path or give you the sense that this is a Clinton insider rather than just someone spouting off.

Well, as many have said, the Guardian folks have their enthusiasms, but they do not flat-out lie. The British press is like that. We are the ones who have a problem:

Race is an inherently compromising issue in American culture and politics. And some of what I think is happening here is that it is ricocheting in all sorts of directions in this campaign which is about the heart of the Democratic Party.

I dont have any global answer here. This has spiraled pretty far in the last forty-eight hours. And Im just now taking stock of it again. Like I said, its not completely clear to me the mix of intention, inertia and accident involved. But this is explosive. So were going to do the best we can tell you whats happening, not to hold anything back but also to be conscious of each step we take as we report on and thus in a real sense relay these increasingly inflammatory statements and reports.

Fair enough. We can argue about other things. Like this from Hillary Clinton on Barack Obama:

He was a part-time state senator for a few years, and then he came to the Senate and immediately started running for president. And thats his prerogative. Thats his right. south carolina primary I think it is important to compare and contrast our records.

Matthew Yglesias has a problem with that:

Part time, okay&.

Meanwhile, the experience thing is obviously a good issue for Clinton but I feel like when you put it this bluntly, it sort of evaporates. I mean, compare their records? Clintons record turns out to be really thin - shes only been a Senator since 2001 and hasnt authored any major legislation. Barack Obamas been in the US Senate even more briefly, but did write some significant bills as an Illinois Senator, and has served more years in elected office than has Clinton. Like everyone else, south carolina primary shake the sense that Clintons years of first ladying amount to some kind of substantial experience, but they dont really amount to a record. Whats more, in a lot of ways shes really not running on her husbands record - shes certainly not emphasizing the idea that shes going to be a committed free trader and budget balancer.

To be clear, its not Clintons fault that she hasnt authored any significant legislation - it wasnt in the cards given the larger political situation. But thats what makes it strange for her to specifically ask us to compare her record with Obamas; what are we supposed to find when we look?

Thats better. not about race, just about bullshit.

Still, its better bullshit than we have now. Michael Hirsch on Bush in the Palestinian territories:

Enough already. Weve had a president who was the Great Emancipator. And another who was the Great Communicator. Bush is the Great Conflater. In his first term he conflated the threat from Al Qaeda with the threat from Saddam (You cant distinguish between Al Qaeda and Saddam when you talk about the war on terror, Bush said in September south carolina primary and then tossed groups like Hezbollah and Hamas into the mix (though their goals were markedly different from Al Qaedas). Now Bush is suggesting that all the south carolina primary he in together can be solved by an equally lumpy panacea of freedom and democracy.

Yglesias:

If hollow sloganeering south carolina primary an adequate substitute for serious American leadership freedom would, of course, have been on the march long ago. On the specifics of the Palestinian issue, Bushs conflation of freedom, democracy, and self-determination are especially dangerous since he south carolina primary has south carolina primary intention of taking any of the steps that might actually lead to the creation of an independent Palestine as the main impact at this point is to simply re-enforce the idea south carolina primary high-flying American rhetoric is just a mask for violence against Arabs.

This really would have driven Wittgenstein to tears, kind of like Senator Clinton – Whereof one cannot speak thereof one must be silent.