The trumped up allegations that Bill and Hillary Clinton made racist remarks seems to have had its intended effect. Hillary Clinton was getting the majority of the black vote until Obama groupies engaged in a smear campaign that would have made the Bushies proud. They somehow got the mainstream media to take snippets of statements and make it seem that Senator Clinton and Bill Clinton say things they did not say. The fairytale comment was not about the idea of a black guy winning the race for president being a fairytale, but Obama's claim that he has been consistently opposed to the Iraw war being a fairytale. Senator Clinton never minimized Martin Luther King's role in the Civil Rights movement, rather she was discussing how Dr. King awoke the nation's consciousness and how without Lyndon Johnson's signature the Civil Rights bills would never have been passed.
There is no reason for us to fight over what the Clintons said because black voters have been hoodwinked and believed the fairytale that the Clintons, who have connected with the black community by reaching out and engaging that community the way no other national candidates have, are actually racists. The exit polls in Nevada showed that black voters had turned on Senator Clinton. The polls leading up to the South Carolina primary are showing the same thing. The question is no longer whether or not what they said was racially insensitive, but whether the Clinton campaign can successfully pivot the way they always have and reclaim what was once their home turf.
Senator Clinton is about to get an endorsement that is crucial to winning back her majority of the black vote. She will be appearing at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem where the Reverend Calvin Butts, the pastor of the church, will endorse her. Reverend Butts is a nationally respected figure within the black community. Reverend Butts did get into a dust up with black activists in 1998 for endorsing George Pataki for governor of New York. He was called a traitor because Governor Pataki is a Republican who brought the death penalty back to New York. Rev. Butts said that he endorsed Gov. Pataki because Pataki had been a leader in the economic development in Harlem. New apartments replaced spaces that were just empty buildings or warehouses, which were used as crack houses or places where people used and sold drugs. But, the Abyssinian Baptist Church was revealed to be a co-owner of the corporation that was building the Pathmark and a high rise apartment building. But that was 10 years ago and many people do not remember that and are happy with the way Harlem has turned out. Rev. Butts well respected and well regarded. Obama can forget winning Harlem now because Harlem's pastor-in-chief is supporting Senator Clinton. He will have access to churches in the south and we can be sure that he will going to every church as his schedule permits. His presence will make inroads.
Senator Clinton is sending her second smart bomb into the south: Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton has made some gaffes of late, but he is unlikely to face the hostility he has faced in the north. Last year Bill Clinton showed us all how to work the room in a black church when he spoke at Coretta Scot King's funeral. When Bill Clinton is speaking in the pulpit he achieves mastery. Bill Clinton is going to go door to door, church to church and make Senator Clinton's case. If he does what he did at Coretta Scot King's funeral at those churches he can turn this thing around.
The power of the black church, especially in the south, cannot be denied. When a feeling or sentiment gets into one church, it is viral. Black churches have always been political networks. It is no coincidence that many, if not most, black leaders have been black. There was really no secular equivalent to Dr. King in the Civil Rights movement. He doubled as a minister in an Atlanta church and a political leader. The Reverend Jesse Jackson has been a political force for decades, though his influenced has waned in years. Love him or hate him, the Reverend Al Sharpton is the go to man when someone has transgressed the black community with an offensive remark. Don Imus, Bill O'Reilly, and Bill Clinton have gone on his show to atone for or explain away a racial slip up. Louis Farrakhan is the point man on settling beefs between gangs and rappers before further violence escalates. What secular politician has the sort of influence these men have had?
Black individuals certainly have their opinions, but black churches have viewed speaking with a unified voice as a priority. This is exemplified by the so-called Revival season in late August. Every second Sunday in August, my family returns from New York to go to our family church in Newberry, South Carolina. Though I look down my Yankee nose at the idea of people sitting all day in a church that is so old and backwoods that it has no air conditioning when I would rather spend my Sunday having brunch and swimming at Soho House, I would be blind not to see its potential as a political gold mine. A great number of the people attending that church service were not members of that church. They were not people who just went to church that one day of the year, they were members of other churches. Everybody attends everybody else's churches, not just during the Revival season, but all year round. Churches bring their choirs to other churches, travel to other churches to engage in fellowshipping with other Christians. This sort of decades old goodwill could not survive if there had been a history of political schisms and the bitterness that goes along with it. Bill Clinton is still well loved enough to snag an invite to a) atone for his blunder and b) charm churches back into the fold.
The outcome in New Hampshire proved that the tides of a campaign can turn in five days. If Clinton and Calvin Butts can go on the charm offensive in black churches, Senator Clinton may yet win back home field advantage. As someone who dislikes Obama more than I like Hillary Clinton, I hope she does. Obama groupies start your engines.
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Bill and Hillary Clinton have a record that some say helped blacks and some say has hurt blacks. While the rates of imprisonment may have gone up for blacks, no one says if that rise was proportional for whites. Ideally, no one would have to go to prison. It is also true that violent crime decreased in the Clinton years and seeing how homicide is the leading cause of death for black men, I think we could all agree that is good.
I can tell you who has an indisputably bad record when it comes to the black community: Barack Obama's hero Ronald Reagan. Let's start off with the way Reagan announced his candidacy for president. He went to Philadelphia, Mississippi and opened his speech with "I believe in states' rights." For those of you who do not know, Philadelphia, Mi is where the three civil rights workers, Cheny, Goodman, and Schwerner were abducted and murdered. The Movie Mississippi Burning is loosly based on that. "States' rights" is a code word for segregation as that was the main argument against ending it. Reagan pushed for the laws that made crack related jail terms as harsh as they are. Reagan instituted the War on Drugs that everyone is bitching about, not Bill Clinton. Has Obama pledged to end them? Not to my knowledge. If he has I would imagine it is because this so-called black president does not want to be looked upon as the black candidate who wants to free his jailbird brothers. Ronald Reagan ran up massive deficits. Gave birth to welfare stereotypes and other racist caricatures of black people. So before we rush to paint the Clintons as racists we should at least consider the person Obama wants to be like.
Please do not launch into me about Hillary Clinton citing Reagan as one of her favorite presidents on her website. I know about it and I view it as dimly as I view Obama's statement about him. That is why I do not like either of them.