The Democrats' Race: Dream and Nightmare
“If Bill Clinton was willing to tag Obama as the Jesse Jackson of 2008, the black guy winning black votes, then who would expect Americans who are far less empathetic with African Americans to be any less race-conscious?”
Hillary Clinton knew one thing for certain when her presidential campaign began: She wanted to run on her own assets and abilities, not as Bill Clinton's wife. That was the best way to win, the best way to govern if elected.
Barack Obama also knew one thing when he got in: He wanted to run on his own assets and abilities, not as the African American candidate. That was the best way to win, the best way to govern.
Both stuck with these convictions through a long year of competition in 2007. The sight of their groundbreaking candidates proceeding apace on parallel tracks was an omen of better days for the Democrats -- and possibly for the country.
But after four weeks of electoral combat, the hope is under great strain. And the measure of how much the mood has changed can be found in a single quote from former President Bill Clinton.
On the afternoon of the South Carolina primary, the former president ran into a reporter who asked why it was taking both him and Hillary to beat Obama. Clinton let out a small laugh, then let fly. Ignoring the question, he announced to the reporter that Jesse Jackson won South Carolina in 1984 and 1988.
This happened hours before the results of the vote were known, but the former president was clearly prepared for an Obama win -- perhaps even the landslide that was coming. He wanted to make two things clear. The first was that South Carolina's Democratic base was inclined to vote for a black candidate when available. The second was that Obama did not need to be taken more seriously just because he won South Carolina, as indeed Jackson was not.
That is a bit of spin that someone in the Clinton camp might have been expected to offer to someone in the media at some point in the aftermath of that primary. But for it to come from the former president himself, on camera, before the results were even in, illustrated how things have deteriorated in this campaign.
It showed how hard it will be for Hillary Clinton to ever set the tone and tenor of her own campaign so long as her husband is Bill Clinton and he operates with the independence of a co-candidate. However she may have chosen to deal with a crucial primary where she got less than one black vote in five, the attitude of her campaign had already been set in the public mind by her husband.
But Clinton's remark also showed just how hard it will be for Obama to transcend race in this nominating contest, let alone in the general election. This was Bill Clinton talking, a man Toni Morrison famously called "the first black president." If he was willing to tag Obama as the Jesse Jackson of 2008, the black guy winning black votes, then who would expect Americans who are far less empathetic with African Americans to be any less race-conscious?
Was the president thinking ahead to the effect of this one primary? Or was he thinking about the several Southern primaries Obama is likely to win on Feb. 5? Was he nudging the media to write off those votes as well?
No wonder people who care about the Clintons but are attracted to Obama have found the last four weeks depressing.
We may never know whether that particular Clinton remark made a difference or not. But the Clinton attitude toward Obama in recent weeks has distressed many longtime allies, including -- by many reports -- those members of the Kennedy family who endorsed him at a public rally in Washington just 48 hours after the remark was made. And on the same day, Morrison herself announced that for all her respect for the Clintons, she was going with Obama.
8:19 PM ET | 01-28-2008 | permalink
