Spat Over Dr. King's Legacy May Have Severely Damaged Clinton's Standing Among African Americans
Black voters -- the Democratic Party's most loyal constituency since the 1960s -- have long been firm supporters of both former President Bill Clinton, whom author Toni Morrison affectionately dubbed the nation's "first black president," and the former first lady. But a high-profile spat earlier this month between the New York senator and Obama over the issue of Dr. King's legacy may have severely damaged Clinton's favorability ratings among many in the African American community.
The dispute erupted over Clinton's comment that the civil rights martyr's dream of racial equality was realized only when President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. That infuriated African Americans -- particularly those of Clinton's generation and older who lived through the era -- who interpreted Clinton's remark as being denigrating to Dr. King, who led the August 1963 March on Washington to push for passage of the law.
But Johnson's support for the Civil Rights Act alienated the Democratic Party's 150-year-old conservative southern white voter base -- and began the long realignment of white southerners and other conservatives to the Republican Party.
It didn't help that the former president's put-downs of the Illinois senator -- referring to his opposition to the Iraq war as a "fairy tale," for example -- may have offended African American voters even more deeply, especially those of Obama's generation. Altogether, the scrap between the Clintons and the Obama camp has re-awakened old racial sensitivities in a party that has spent decades cultivating a multiracial, multiethnic and cross-gender appeal.
It Could Get Ugly For Democrats in South Carolina This Week. . .
The divides among Democrats between Clinton and Obama have taken a heavy toll on Edwards -- the party's 2004 vice-presidential nominee -- whose support has been in a virtual free-fall since the Iowa caucuses on January 3. His dismal four percent showing in Nevada -- the worst of his campaign to date -- came as a shock to most observers and might spell doom to Edwards' financially-strapped campaign.
The former North Carolina senator must now face the prospect of a do-or-die last stand in his native South Carolina on Saturday, but with African Americans making up half of the state's Democratic electorate and heavily favoring Obama, according to pre-primary polls there, Edwards' chances of winning his native state's primary -- as he did four years ago -- appear bleak.
But South Carolina is notorious for dirty tricks by independent groups that are beyond the control of the candidates' campaigns. And there's no guarantee that there won't be a repeat of the kind of nasty campaign tactics that have plagued past primaries in the Palmetto State.
. . .Just As It Was For Republicans Last Week
The Republicans know it all too well: In an attack against McCain reminiscent of the so-called "swift-boating" of Senator John Kerry four years ago, a group claiming to be McCain's fellow Vietnam War veterans distributed a leaflet that accused McCain of collaborating with the communist North Vietnamese during his years as a prisoner of war.
And a group that promotes protection of the Confederate battle flag aired radio ads during conservative talk shows that praised Huckabee and blasted McCain and Romney for voicing objections to the flag -- which is considered by African Americans a racist symbol as offensive to them as the Nazi swastika flag is to Jews.
The "Stars and Bars" Confederate battle flag once flew atop the state Capitol building in Columbia. A compromise reached among the state's lawmakers in 2000 removed it from the dome, although it remains on the Statehouse grounds as part of a Confederate soldier memorial.
The flag issue -- combined with a controversy over a ban on interracial dating among students at South Carolina's Christian fundamentalist Bob Jones University -- roiled the 2000 GOP primary in the Palmetto State, derailing McCain's campaign and causing great embarrassment for then-Texas Governor George W. Bush en route to the White House. The university's president, Bob Jones III, had endorsed Bush.
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