Wednesday, January 23, 2008 - Posts
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As long as we’re dissecting telling Bill Clinton moments, here’s one
more. Heading out the door of a Charleston
bar and grill Wednesday, the former president heatedly responded
to reporters asking about race on the campaign trail:
"This is almost like once you accuse someone of racism
and bigotry the facts become irrelevant. Not one single solitary citizen asked
about any of this and they never do.” [More context here. Video here.]
Fast forward to Clinton’s
Kingstree event that evening, where an audience member asked a long question about Hillary and Obama and
race. “We know you sound polite when you talk about Obama,” he said. “But black
America
is voting for Obama because he’s black.” The man went on to claim that America isn’t
ready for a black president and that Obama would lose to a Republican in the
general election. “I’d love to see a black president,” he said, adding that he
thought Obama would do a good job. “But America, it still has racist
problems.”
The questioner said he's a minister from a nearby town but refused to give his name. When reporters pushed, a policeman who was escorting him--and inexplicably wearing a Department of Corrections uniform--waved them away.
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At the same Kingstree event, Bill Clinton called on a small girl and was thrown
a curved: “What do you do when you get married?”
Clinton
laughed, maybe a little nervously. “See the press people back there?” he said,
pointing to the back of the room. “They put me through the ringer this morning.”
“When you get married,
if you’re really lucky, then your husband or wife becomes your best friend,” he
said. “And you get to live with your best friend for life. Like, Hillary’s my
best friend.”
He continued: “The best moment of my life is I was in the hospital with my
wife when our daughter was born. ... The best thing about being married is having
kids. … Those are the two best things about being married.”
Bullet ... dodged.
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Kingstree, S.C. -- Speaking to a crowd at the Williamsburg County Recreation Center, Bill Clinton just now offered an olive branch:
“If [Barack Obama] wins this nomination, I’m going to do what I can to help him become president.”
The promise comes after a week of bitter exchanges between the former president and the Obama campaign. "After all the mean things they said about me, I can’t believe I’m saying this," Clinton said.
Clinton was responding to an audience member's question--well, more like a statement--about how "black America is voting for Obama" even though "America is not ready for a black president." "I hope you're wrong about that," Clinton said, adding that he thinks Hillary is the best candidate for reasons other than gender or race.
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“What does that feel like to be a minority, to be a white male?” Tyra Banks asked John Edwards on her show. Edwards laughed, “It feels like you have to fight for everything you get.”
It was a joke, but at the same time a great rhetorical twist. Now suddenly Edwards is the downtrodden minority, just in time to campaign in the heavily African-American areas of rural South Carolina.
Edwards has long played the underdog, describing his opponents as “celebrities” and reminding voters of his mill-town roots. But this is different: If he runs with the idea that he—not Hillary or Obama—is the anomaly in this race, maybe he can convince people that his would be the historic, plate-shifting presidency. Free campaign slogan: Make history; Vote for the white guy.
I actually wouldn't be surprised if the hey-look-I'm-a-minority joke surfaces on the Edwards trail in the coming days. It's a clever comment on the topsy-turvy nature of this race, and it gains Edwards no small bit of sympathy. But more importantly—and perhaps more insidiously—it reminds white Southerners that they do have the option to vote for a white male, and that it's OK to do so.
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