See this excerpt from http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/2008/01/6838_clinton_faces_t.html


Clinton Faces Trouble in South Carolina for MLK Remarks

"Before the New Hampshire primary, Hillary Clinton went on Fox News and responded to Barack Obama's frequent invocations of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. "Dr. King's dream began to be realized when President Lyndon Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964," she said. "It took a president to get it done."

The message was clear: knowing how to work the levers of power is more valuable in getting stuff done than even the mightiest of speeches.

But slighting Dr. King is probably not the best way to make any political point. Maybe the biggest ramification is this: South Carolina Representative James Clyburn, the highest-ranking African-American in Congress and a veteran of the civil rights movement, appears poised to abandon the neutrality he has maintained throughout the presidential race and endorse Barack Obama.

"We have to be very, very careful about how we speak about that era in American politics," Clyburn told the New York Times. "It is one thing to run a campaign and be respectful of everyone's motives and actions, and it is something else to denigrate those. That bothered me a great deal."

Clyburn is a heavyweight in South Carolina politics, and his endorsement could help solidify Obama's support amongst the black community there. The black vote in South Carolina, as we've discussed, is not solidly in anyone's camp at the moment, and if Obama can add that voting block to others that are on his side, he will have a very solid chance at the nomination. After all, if he could win Iowa and be competitive in New Hampshire, two states that are heavily white, imagine what he can do in places that are more diverse..."

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Here's two comments that bloggers made regarding the above article:

For him to go after Obama, using a 'fairy tale,' calling him as he did last week, it's an insult. And I will tell you, as an African-American, I find his tone and his words to be very depressing," Donna Brazile, a longtime Clinton ally who is neutral in this race, said on CNN earlier this week.

Asked in an e-mail from Politico about the situation Friday, she responded by sending over links to five cases in which the Clintons and their surrogates talked about Obama, along with a question:
"Is Clinton using a race-baiting strategy against Obama?"
-Posted by: Buddy on 01/11/08 at 5:41 PM

**

I supported Bill Clinton as a politician from outside Washington who was different in 1992 and 1996.

But I am personally and professionally offended by his tone in stating "…this whole thing is a fairytale." There is no doubt in my mind what Bill referring to!

I don't care how much Hillary may have worked for civil rights (after supporting Barry Goldwater), it will never match what Barack Obama has done and support he has gained by running for President.

I am in no way playing a so called "race card". The good people of New Hampshire, where 0.7% of the population is African-American, supported Barack Obama with over 104,000 votes!

I was born a colored child, who became a Negro in elementary school, transitioned to Black in the late sixties and then to African-American. At no point in that time, except when outside the borders of the USA, was I ever referred to as "just" a plain old patriotic American.

But with Barack I will be an American -- no color descriptor required!

Go Barack Obama '08

I once was lost but now am found, Was blind, but now I see!
-Bob , Florida - RFO on 01/11/08 at 6:58 PM Respond

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I stand with an increasing number of African Americans and non-African Americans who believe that the Clintons and their campaign spokespeople are using racial code words in their descriptions of Barack Obama, and are thus exploiting racism for their own personal gain {to try to win the Democratic nomination.

Whether the Clintons are racist or not, their and their surrogates intentional use of racism so that the Clintons may return to the White House is despicable.