Clinton's Subtle Racial Coding in Bloomington, Indiana

This didn't get much play in the press, and Keith Olbermann dismissed it, but I found the statement to be very clever--too clever by half.  Listen to the video as well as the quote, because half of the code is in her facial expressions and voice inflection.

"It's important for you to know the facts.  You can vote for or against any candidate, based on anything.  And we do that in America.  You know, you don't like somebody's--oh, say hair style. It's whatever you chose!  But this is too important an election, and we have to know exactly where people stand.  Not what somebody says, but what they've done. . . . .That's why I want you to approach this like a hiring decision."

The quote is at 1:55:

Link:  http://shockandaww.blogspot.com/...

<iframe height="339" width="425" src="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22425001/vp/24318793#24318793" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe>

Three things struck me about this when I first heard it.  

1.  It's very similar to arguments lawyers make to justify peremptory strikes in jury selection when they are trying to evade Constitutional prohibitions against race-based strikes.  Hair color, style, facial hair, and demeanor have been used effectively to justify strikes based on race.  It's a common enough practice to be written about in Civil Procedure texts.

2.  This also seems to me like Clinton is passing out "permission slips" to vote against Obama because he's black.  Chris Matthews said as much today, without even referencing this quote, and when I heard this it just reinforced it.  As far as these three candidates go, none of them has a hair style to speak of but Senator Clinton--so what could she be saying other than that even petty distinctions can be the basis for one's vote?

3.  Pivoting back into the "hiring decision" line was smart, and indeed it shielded her comments from criticism by Wolffe and Olbermann because she's being saying that all along.  However, juxtaposed with the previous irrelevant statements, I believe it cues "affirmative action" in the minds of the audience.  

And these speeches are written by very, very clever people.  No comment is flippant, and this was not an off-the-cuff remark.  Whoever put it in there thought it served a purpose.

UPDATE:  Please watch the video before you jump to the conclusion she's not using racial coding.  The line is clearly scripted and serves no purpose whatsoever.  In fact, it flies in the face of her argument in general.  Her argument has been that personality is much less important than "the facts"--that we should base our votes on concrete things like records and experience.  Again, I think this line was written into the speech and it sounds awfully suspicious to me.