This, alas, isn’t the first time. Two months ago, after Hillary Clinton commented on Martin Luther King and Lyndon Johnson, race became an unfortunate feature of the Democratic presidential campaign. It got worse, and more intense, after some campaign surrogates riles the dispute with some additional contentious remarks.
Before long, Barack Obama and Clinton saw the utility in turning the heat down. Obama held a press conference in Nevada at which he said, “I think that (former President) Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton have historically and consistently been on the right side of civil rights issues. I think they care about the African American community and they care about all Americans and they want to see equal rights and equal justice in this country…. I may disagree with Senator Clinton and Senator Edwards on how to get there, but we share the same goals…. They are good people. They are patriots.”
Shortly thereafter, Clinton followed suit. “We differ on a lot of things. And it is critical to have the right kind of discussion on where we stand. But when it comes to civil rights and our commitment to diversity, when it comes to our heroes — President John F. Kennedy and Dr. King — Senator Obama and I are on the same side,” she said in a statement.
Following the terribly foolish remarks of Geraldine Ferraro, maybe the candidates can do it again?
Mr. Obama, speaking to reporters on Wednesday, said he did not believe that there was “a directive in the Clinton campaign saying, ‘Let’s heighten the racial elements in the campaign.’ I certainly wouldn’t want to think that.”
He said he was puzzled at how, after more than a year of campaigning, race and sex are at the forefront as never before.
“I don’t want to deny the role of race and gender in our society,” he said. “They’re there, and they’re powerful. But I don’t think it’s productive.”
The NYT added that the Clinton campaign is “concerned about her standing among blacks, once a core constituency for her and her husband.” The anxiety seems understandable; Clinton’s African-American support appears to be slipping quickly, and it’s getting worse as the campaign continues.
With that in mind, it’s interesting that Clinton, in addition to shedding Ferraro, struck some very conciliatory notes yesterday.
The AP reported on Clinton’s appearance before the National Newspaper Publishers Association, a group of more than 200 black community newspapers across the country.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton did something Wednesday night that she almost never does. She apologized. And once she started, she didn’t seem able to stop. […]
Her biggest apology came in response to a question about comments by her husband, Bill Clinton, after the South Carolina primary, which Obama won handily. Bill Clinton said Jesse Jackson also won South Carolina when he ran for president in 1984 and 1988, a comment many viewed as belittling Obama’s success.
”I want to put that in context. You know I am sorry if anyone was offended. It was certainly not meant in any way to be offensive,” Hillary Clinton said. ”We can be proud of both Jesse Jackson and Senator Obama.”
”Anyone who has followed my husband’s public life or my public life know very well where we have stood and what we have stood for and who we have stood with,” she said, acknowledging that whoever wins the nomination will have to heal the wounds of a bruising, historic contest.
”Once one of us has the nomination there will be a great effort to unify the Democratic party and we will do so, because, remember I have a lot of supporters who have voted for me in very large numbers and I would expect them to support Senator Obama if he were the nominee,” she said.
When the discussion turned to Ferraro, Clinton told the audience, ”I certainly do repudiate it and I regret deeply that it was said. Obviously she doesn’t speak for the campaign, she doesn’t speak for any of my positions, and she has resigned from being a member of my very large finance committee.”
Let’s hope this is a sign of things to come, because at this point, the tension is approaching the point of no return.
In the latest sign of a racial rift in the contest, two prominent black pastors warned Wednesday that African American voters could become so discouraged by the campaign that they might stay home in November if Clinton is the nominee.
“This is a virtual race war, politically,” said the Rev. Eugene Rivers of the Azusa Christian Community church in Boston, one of the country’s leading Pentecostal ministers.
“Virtual race war”? Good lord. Note to the campaigns and the DNC: this is a problem in need of immediate attention. Fix it. Now.