Racial Undercurrent Is Seen in Clinton CampaignBy Chris Cillizza And Shailagh Murray
PLAYERS and PLAYERS
Sunday, December 23, 2007; Page A02
It has unfolded mostly under the radar. But an important development in the 2008 Democratic battle may be the building backlash among African Americans over comments from associates of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton that could be construed as jabs at Sen. Barack Obama's race.
These officials, including Clinton aides and prominent surrogates, have raised questions or dropped references about Obama's position on sentencing guidelines for crack vs. powder cocaine offenses; on his handgun control record; and on his admitted use of drugs as a youth. The context was always Obama's "electability." But the Illinois senator's campaign advisers said some African American leaders detect a pattern, and they believe it could erode Clinton's strong base of black support.
Here's a sample of how the issue is playing out:
From the "Tom Joyner Morning Show," Dec. 14:
Tom Joyner: "Yeah, man, they are coming after you now. So the story about the Clinton campaign putting out this statement not to vote for Barack Obama because he used drugs, and then yesterday I understand that she apologized and the campaign worker quit."
Obama: "Well, I think everybody knows, because I wrote about it in a book 10 years ago. . . . and part of the reason I wrote about it and I talk about it in schools is because I want young people out there to know that if they make the same kinds of mistakes that I made that they can get over it and that they can move on. . . ."
From columnist Derrick Z. Jackson of the Boston Globe, Dec. 15:
"That leaves open as to how far the Clinton campaign, whose poll leads have evaporated in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina, will go to stereotype Obama as not only naive, but cast him in a sinister light in a nation where black drug use and criminality is exaggerated in the media . . . ."
" 'I don't think these strategies are very subtle,' Obama said. 'I won't speak to the racial element of it because I think, you know, if I were a white candidate, obviously, somebody suggesting falsely they were a drug dealer, it's never good.' But in sum, Obama, who has written about his teenage drug use in his memoirs, said, 'There's been a series of these kinds of tactics that at some point we've just got to send a clear signal this is not what we're about.' "
From Black Star News of New York, Dec. 19:
"So the Clinton campaign decided to use the race card. A senior campaign official, Billy Shaheen, the co-chairman of Hillary Clinton's campaign in New Hampshire, warned voters that Obama might not be the suitable candidate because were he to win the Democratic nomination, those nasty Republicans could bring up the fact that Obama has admitted to using marijuana and cocaine in his youth. Might the Republicans not even ask whether Obama had also been a drug dealer? This was clearly playing to the deep seated stereotype that some white people harbor -- of Blacks as natural born criminals and drug dealers."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/22/AR2007122201762.html
