Vying for the Black Vote
During the New Hampshire primary battle, Hillary Clinton made a comment about Martin Luther King that seemed, at first anyway, to diminish his role in the civil rights battle in relation to that of President Lyndon Johnson. She quickly clarified those remarks and re-emphasized the accomplishments of King, but how has that played in South Carolina?
That created some real problems, because it was an indication of a kind of insensitivity. For a veteran of the civil rights movement—and that's what I am—it wasn't just Dr. King, it was all of the unsung heroes and heroines of that era. Modjeska Simkins here in South Carolina, and the Fannie Lou Hamers, and the children in Birmingham, and the people who rode the freedom buses and went to Mississippi in the summer of 1964 … All of these people created the climate in which Congress felt the pressure and acted.
Don't you think Hillary Clinton would, if asked about this, agree with you? She's saying now that her original comment has been distorted and that Obama's campaign in particular has helped to distort it. Do you disagree with that?
I am responding to it as a veteran of the civil rights movement. And I think you will find that a lot of veterans of the civil rights movement, if not all, would agree that it was in fact a comment that was insensitive to the sacrifices and the struggles of ordinary people who created the impetus for Congress to move forward on a civil rights bill in 1964, and the 1965 Voting Rights Act. And I think there's a degree of struggle among scholars to make sure that history is recorded appropriately. My response is not part of some kind of Obama strategy. I'm talking about what my feelings were when I heard that. I knew that all of the lives, and all of the broken heads and broken bodies, and all of the tears that people went through were the basis for the changes that occurred. I thought [Clinton's comments] were insensitive.
Likewise, former president Clinton made a statement that the press treatment of Obama on his Iraq record was "the greatest fairy tale" he had ever seen. How has that played?
That has raised some eyebrows. It could have just passed over the African-American community, but because it came in close proximity to what Mrs. Clinton said, those two things got tied together.
Rep. James Clyburn, the influential South Carolina congressman, has yet to throw his weight behind any presidential candidate. He seemed to take umbrage at the Clintons' remarks. Will he now get behind Obama, or will he still sit this out?
He has said that he will sit it out, but I don't know.
Hillary Clinton has said, "I don't think either Senator Obama or myself wants to see the injection of race or gender into this campaign." Do you think that is correct?
I think it's absolutely correct. I don't think the issue was involved in the campaign until those particular comments came out and people felt them to be insensitive.
What do the polls tell you about how perceptions have shifted in South Carolina?
I have some concerns about the polls. For an example, a large number of African-Americans probably don't have telephone landlines, and the pollers usually target those people who have landlines. Then I think that people are reluctant about giving out information. Historically and even now, African-Americans will step up and vote in large numbers. I think there will be a lot of new voters this time around.
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Posted By: Colonel Ray @ 01/25/2008 3:49:52 PM
Comment: Comment:
In Obama's own words yesterday he said he is not sure if the people who support him now would support Hillary if he (Obama) is not the Democratic Party candidate in November. Obviously he will not. He also said three days ago he would have to check and see how well Bill Clinton could "dance" before he would consider him to be a "brother". Some of my very best lifelong friends are Black, Hispanic, and Muslim. I am very, very concerned that Barrack Obama is a closet racist that will destroy the race relations in this country.
So I humbly ask that you and all those you know to do your own investigation and report this if true and put an end to this divisive primary campaign before too much damage is done.
God Bless You.
Former Host, The All Things Military Show and The Daily Briefing Radio Show, with Colonel Ray,
heard in Southern California.
Please read below:
"We were always playing on the white man's court -- by the white man's rules. If the principal, or the coach, or a teacher wanted to spit in your face, he could, because he had the power and you didn't. The only thing you could choose was withdrawal into a smaller and smaller coil of rage."
Obama once described the white race as ???that ghostly figure that haunted black dreams.???
???That hate hadn't gone away,??? he wrote, blaming ???white people -- some cruel, some ignorant, sometimes a single face, sometimes just a faceless image of a system claiming power over our lives.???
During college, Obama disapproved of what he called other "half-breeds" who gravitated toward whites instead of blacks. And yet after college, he once fell in love with a white woman, only to push her away when he concluded he would have to assimilate into her world, not the other way around. He later married a black woman.
Obama???s book is primarily about his rejection of his supportive white maternal extended family in favor of his unknown black paternal extended family.
At age 33, he wrote in "Dreams from My Father, that " he found solace in nursing a pervasive sense of grievance and animosity against his mother???s race.
Obama vowed that he would "never emulate white men and brown men whose fates didn't speak to my own. It was into my father???s image, the black man, son of Africa, that I???d packed all the attributes I sought in myself, the attributes of Martin and Malcolm, DuBois and Mandela."
In his memoir, "Dreams of My Father," Obama writes of a story in Life magazine that influenced him -- about a black man trying to bleach his skin white. No such article could be found in Life or Ebony.
Posted By: Julia55 @ 01/24/2008 9:06:17 PM
Comment: "Dr. King's dream began to be realized when President Lyndon Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964," Clinton said last week. "It took a president to get it done."
I understood what Senator Clinton was saying and it makes sense. She was not disputing the amazing amount of work Dr. King did. What she was saying was that had he NOT had a president in office to help him get the laws passed fotr the things we were fighting for, no amount of his work would have ended in the success the Civil Rights movement. Dr. King stood beside President Johnson when he signed that bill. Dr. King and Rev. Abernathy had to meet with the President to get it done. WHAT OTHER PRESIDENT aside from Kennedy were willing to help get these much needed laws passed? It's interesting that those media types and those folks who live for attention are quick to jump on things like this to push a andidate because of his color. The American media feels that it's easier to vilify Hillary Clinton because she happens to be White. Had Obama been a young WHITE man, he wouldn't get anywhere near the press he gets and he knows it. *(See John Edwards -- just as handsome and young and educated, yet he gets nominal press attention). You folks are selling magazines and newspapers and stirring up racial tensions for headlines and to garner talk, and at the end of the day, educated African Americans like myself are going to vote with our heads and not on the emotional rollercoaster you think we ride each day. I'm voting for Senator Clinton and, while I thought it was absolutely beneath her to get into themud with Obama and his tactics just before South Carolina, I know she'll make a better leader. He's not ready, and if he's elected, the first thing that will happen is people like the writers of this piece and all of the media outlets who portray him as today's darling will see him make mistakes based on his inexperience and they will say, "well, he was charming and dynamic and we were all wowed by his erudition and the fact that he spoke well, but boy were we wrong! Boy, if we could be so wrong about this kind of candidate *(and we weren't alone -- YOU voted for him, too, so we're all culpable), NO African American can be suited for the role of President of the United States." And you will set us back 100 years. Hillary gets my vote. And in 8 years after Mr. Obama has spent more time as a Senator and on committees that are relevant to this country.
Posted By: democratinillinois @ 01/24/2008 7:36:37 PM
Comment: This is to you - eddiewhere @ 01/16/2008 10:10:18 PM
You said "Latino's trust Hillary. There's that likeability factor." I'm Latina. I don't trust Hillary and I don't like her. "Likeability factor? She has been 'told' to be nice. What about that 'crying jag'? Well this Latina didn't get taken in by that...like so many of the New Hampshire women did. I wonder, if she becomes president, will she be that 'evil faced' person? Will she start crying when she doesn't get her way? Crying jags won't work for her as president...there aren't enough women in politics to give in to her way.