Clinton's MLK Comments Spark Racial Tensions In South Carolina


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January 11, 2008 7:43 p.m. EST

Topics: Politics
Kris Alingod - AHN News Writer

Columbia, SC (AHN) -- Recent comments from Sen. Hillary Clinton's (D-NY) campaign have sparked racial tensions among the predominantly African-American voters of South Carolina. The issue has caused Clinton supporters to defend their candidate in the hopes of swaying voters in the state's upcoming primary, as well as Rep. Jim Clyburn, who is reportedly leaning towards giving his crucial endorsement to rival Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL).

"Dr. King's dream began to be realized when President Lyndon Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It took a president to get it done," Clinton said on Monday on Fox News as she continued to tout her experience over Obama's urgent call for change.

Her remarks "generated outrage on black radio, black blogs and cable television," according to Politico.com, and "bothered" Clyburn, the highest-ranking African-American in Congress, according to the New York Times. There has also been strong reaction from the black community to criticisms made by Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton, about Obama's being the "the biggest fairy tale I've ever seen."

"We have to be very, very careful about how we speak about that era in American politics," Clyburn said in an interview with 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."

"To call that dream a fairy tale, which Bill Clinton seemed to be doing, could very well be insulting to some of us," Clyburn, the House Majority Whip, added. He committed to being neutral earlier in the race.

The issue is again being presented by Obama's campaign as a pattern of remarks that point to flaws in Clinton, just as it had done when several Clinton campaign workers suggested in December that Obama was a radical Muslim.

"A cross-section of voters are alarmed at the tenor of some of these statements," Obama spokeswoman Candice Tolliver told Politco.com, even as African-American supporters of Clinton, including Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-OH) and Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), argued in her defense.

Clinton and Obama are each pushing get a victory in South Carolina, which holds its Democratic primary on January 26. The two presidential hopefuls are in a tight race for the party nomination, with Obama having won Iowa and Clinton making a surprising comeback in New Hampshire. A recent survey, however, has Obama leading Clinton in the Palmetto State 40 to 33 percent.


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