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The Clintons, MLK and Obama
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01/23/08 10:59 AM ET
I have found myself more and more troubled as the Clinton Machine seeks to derail the candidacy of Illinois Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.). Sure, politics is a vicious game and the Clintons are well seasoned in the art of hand-to-hand combat.
No, what disturbs me most about the Clintons is the manner in which they have targeted the senator and initiated a disingenuous campaign where they claim they would never focus on race — all the while focusing on race in the campaign.
I first took stock of this when the husband of former New Hampshire Gov. Jeanne Shaheen alluded to Obama’s drug use and then noted it would be the Republicans who would make an issue of it, not the Democrats. Hmm … I wonder who brought that up in the first place? Team Clinton.
Then we had the former president’s comments regarding Obama’s stance on the Iraq war as being nothing more than a fairy tale. Was Bill really talking about the war, or was he alluding to the fact that a black junior senator’s candidacy was nothing more than a fairy tale?
And the most recent flap, of course, was over the assertion by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) that it took a president (white, Southern LBJ) to actualize the dream that Martin Luther King was seeking to achieve by signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law. The implicit question being, Do voters want a junior black senator in the Oval Office when they could have the seasoned, white Clintons calling the shots? All this, mind you, came during the week in which we take time to reflect on the contributions and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
I’m sick of this — and I’m sick of the Clintons doing one thing and claiming, till they’re blue (or in his case, red) in the face, that they haven’t done what they just did. For the supposed “first black president” to throw everything including the kitchen sink at a candidate is one thing. For the Clintons to play the race card against Sen. Obama is sick, in my opinion.
I’ve only met Obama once that I can recall and I found him to be quite likable and clearly off-the-charts bright. I might not agree with him philosophically or ideologically, but I will defend him to the end against the Clinton war machine that seeks to judge him by the color of his skin rather than the content of his character.
No, what disturbs me most about the Clintons is the manner in which they have targeted the senator and initiated a disingenuous campaign where they claim they would never focus on race — all the while focusing on race in the campaign.
I first took stock of this when the husband of former New Hampshire Gov. Jeanne Shaheen alluded to Obama’s drug use and then noted it would be the Republicans who would make an issue of it, not the Democrats. Hmm … I wonder who brought that up in the first place? Team Clinton.
Then we had the former president’s comments regarding Obama’s stance on the Iraq war as being nothing more than a fairy tale. Was Bill really talking about the war, or was he alluding to the fact that a black junior senator’s candidacy was nothing more than a fairy tale?
And the most recent flap, of course, was over the assertion by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) that it took a president (white, Southern LBJ) to actualize the dream that Martin Luther King was seeking to achieve by signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law. The implicit question being, Do voters want a junior black senator in the Oval Office when they could have the seasoned, white Clintons calling the shots? All this, mind you, came during the week in which we take time to reflect on the contributions and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
I’m sick of this — and I’m sick of the Clintons doing one thing and claiming, till they’re blue (or in his case, red) in the face, that they haven’t done what they just did. For the supposed “first black president” to throw everything including the kitchen sink at a candidate is one thing. For the Clintons to play the race card against Sen. Obama is sick, in my opinion.
I’ve only met Obama once that I can recall and I found him to be quite likable and clearly off-the-charts bright. I might not agree with him philosophically or ideologically, but I will defend him to the end against the Clinton war machine that seeks to judge him by the color of his skin rather than the content of his character.
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