Clinton, Obama clash over race issue

[helderheid]

By BETH FOUHY, Associated Press Writer 16 minutes ago

NEW YORK - Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton suggested Sunday that Barack Obama's campaign had injected racial tension into the presidential contest, saying he had distorted for political gain her comments about Martin Luther King's role in the civil rights movement.

"This is an unfortunate story line the Obama campaign has pushed very successfully," the former first lady said in a spirited appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press." "I don't think this campaign is about gender, and I sure hope it's not about race."

Clinton taped the show before appearances in South Carolina, whose Jan. 26 primary will be the first to include a significant representation of black voters. Blacks were 50 percent of primary voters in the state in 2004 and the number is expected to swell this time.

Both New York Sen. Clinton and her husband, the former president, have engaged in damage control this week after black leaders criticized their comments shortly before the New Hampshire primary last Tuesday.

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[Dogmudgeon]

1. Not quite

Clinton and Obama jostle, maybe spar a little bit.

Their supporters engage in an orgy of fratracide.

We're Democrats.

--p!

[bemildred]

2. I guess any subject is better than the economy or Iraq. nt

[stillcool]

3. Can someone point me....

to the memo...and the speech he gave in Las Vegas...or who interviewed him? or where I can find the context in which these comments are being made, without the commentary and innuendo? I'd appreciate it..thanks.

As evidence the Obama campaign had pushed the story, Clinton advisers pointed to a memo written by an Obama staffer compiling examples of comments by Clinton and her surrogates that could be construed as racially insensitive. The memo later surfaced on a handful of political Web sites.

Obama later called Clinton's accusations "ludicrous," and said he found Clinton's comments about King to be ill-advised and unfortunate.

"If Senator Clinton wants to be distracted by the sorts of political point-scoring that was evident today then that is going to be her prerogative," Obama said.
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Later Sunday, the Clinton campaign scrambled to explain comments by one of its top black supporters, BET founder Bob Johnson, that seemed to raise the issue of Obama's admitted teenage drug use.

"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 at an event with Clinton in Columbia, S.C.


In his memoir, "Dreams from My Father," Obama described using marijuana and occasionally sampling cocaine as a youth.
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While Clinton praised Obama's eloquence, she also stepped up her contention that his record did not match his rhetoric.

She noted that while he had spoken out eloquently against the war in 2002 before coming to the Senate, he voted repeatedly to fund the war once in office.
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Obama scoffed at her suggestion of an inconsistent record on the war. Campaigning in Las Vegas, he said he voted for war funding out of an obligation to support the troops, and noted other prominent Democrats, Sens. Edward M. Kennedy and Barbara Boxer, who voted the same way.

"Once we had our troops in, two years into a war, it was important that we do the best job of it," Obama said before speaking at a Pentecostal church. "They have decided to run a relentlessly negative campaign. I don't think anyone who is paying attention can deny that.