By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE
Published: January 24, 2008
KINGSTREE, S.C. — Former President Bill Clinton defended himself Wednesday against accusations that he and his wife had injected the issue of race into the Democratic presidential primary in South Carolina, and he accused Senator Barack Obama of Illinois of putting out a “hit job” on him.
Scolding a reporter, Mr. Clinton said the Obama campaign was “feeding” the news media to keep issues of race alive, obscuring positive coverage of the presidential campaign here of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.
“They know this is what you want to cover,” Mr. Clinton told a CNN reporter in Charleston, in an apparent reference to the Obama campaign.
“Shame on you,” the former president added.
moreFlashback:
Now, though, some of those old patterns are reasserting themselves.
The series of comments Clinton critics’ cite began in mid-December, when the chairman of Hillary Clinton’s New Hampshire campaign, Bill Shaheen, speculated about whether Obama had ever dealt drugs. In the final days of the New Hampshire campaign, however, the discomfort of some black observers intensified as Bill Clinton dismissed the contrast between Obama’s judgment on the war and Clinton’s as a “fairy tale” and spoke dismissively of his short time in the Senate. And the candidate herself, in an interview with Fox News, stressed the role of President Lyndon Johnson, over Martin Luther King Jr., in the civil rights movement.
“I would point to the fact that Dr. King's dream began to be realized when President Lyndon Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, when he was able to get through Congress something that President Kennedy was hopeful to do, the president before had not even tried, but it took a president to get it done,” she said, in response to a question about how her dismissive attitude toward Obama’s “false hopes” would have applied to the civil rights movement. “That dream became a reality, the power of that dream became real in people's lives because we had a president who said we are going to do it and actually got it accomplished.”
linkAndrew Young:
“Bill is every bit as black as Barack.” 1/13/2008
Statement from Bob Johnson on His Comments Today in South Carolina
"My comments today were referring to Barack Obama's time spent as a community organizer, and nothing else. Any other suggestion is simply irresponsible and incorrect.
"When Hillary Clinton was in her twenties she worked to provide protections for abused and battered children and helped ensure that children with disabilities could attend public school.
That results oriented leadership -- even as a young person -- is the reason I am supporting Hillary Clinton."
linkBill Clinton has weighed in:
The former president said Johnson needs to be "taken at his word," adding that "nobody knew" what he would say and "it wasn't part of any planned strategy."
linkSo the official version is that Johnson was referring to Obama's community service when he said:
"To me, as an African American, I am frankly insulted the Obama campaign would imply that we are so stupid that we would think Hillary and Bill Clinton, who have been deeply and emotionally involved in black issues — when Barack Obama was doing something in the neighborhood; I won't say what he was doing, but he said it in his book — when they have been involved," Johnson said.
linkSo Russert asked Clinton, Does that mean that you'll bar Bob Johnson from future campaign events for making what sure seemed to be a reference to Obama's past drug use?
"Well," Clinton said, "Bob has put out a statement saying what he was trying to say and what he thought he had said. We accept him on his word on that. But, clearly, we want to send a very clear message to everybody that this campaign is too important for us to either get diverted or, frankly, get the message of what we want to do for our country subverted by any kind of statements or claims that are just not part of who I am or who Barack or John are."
Fair enough. Johnson did in fact put out a statement -- he said that when he referred derogatively to Obama "doing something in the neighborhood," he was referring to Obama's work as a community organizer. And in saying she'd "accept" Johnson's "word on that," Clinton tracked the line that her husband had used -- for better or for worse -- in defending Johnson Monday.
But when Russert pressed, asking Clinton whether Johnson's comments had been "out of bounds," she responded by saying, "Yes, they were. And he has said that."
Help us out here. If Clinton really takes Johnson at his word -- that is, if she believes that he was simply comparing the Clintons' commitment to civil rights with Obama's early work as a community organizer -- then how can she also believe that Johnson's comments were "out of bounds"? And if Johnson's comments were "out of bounds," why won't she bar him from future campaign events, as her Sunday pledge might suggest?
linkSen. John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, took aim at Hillary Clinton on Monday, saying her criticism of Barack Obama's stance on the Iraq war was "not founded on accuracy." He also ripped into comments made by Clinton surrogates hinting at Obama's past drug use, calling the remarks "negative in the worst, petty way," especially in the light of Bill Clinton's admitted use of marijuana.
"That kind of discussion," Kerry said, "from a campaign where the former president made famous the words 'I did not inhale' is to make something an issue that they themselves acknowledged shouldn't be."
<>"If you're criticisms and/or your attacks are not founded on accuracy, that's an unfortunate tactic under any circumstance, whatever you call it," said Kerry. "The fact is Barack Obama - and I know this because I'm the one who invited him to speak at our convention in 2004 and I campaigned with him out in Illinois - was against the war. And in his answer to a question he diplomatically tried to avoid creating a confrontation with John Edwards and John Kerry, the two nominees of the party, when he came to Boston . But he did say in my judgment - this is a quote at that time - that the case was not made."
<>"My decision," Kerry went on, "is based on the war component as it is on the larger issues as to who has the ability to unite the country around these decisions... I want to emphasize that I think Hillary Clinton is a very talented and capable person. And if she is the nominee I'm going to work my heart out for her. But I think Barack Obama has the best opportunity to be able to unite the country and create, what I would call, a transformational presidency."
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