That so many got it wrong. Not only that, it is incredible how the press, that has nothing else to do but be the press didn't do their job once again.
I have always been troubled by the alleged comments that Bill Clinton made in South Carolina. They have been used by everyone everywhere to charge Bill and Hillary Clinton with racism or race baiting or that they would say anything so terrible to get elected. It was something so terrible that it made them despise the Clintons. When I heard the ENTIRE media parrot this, when I heard people I respect like Frank Rich, Dr. Cornell West, and legions of others use this to damn the Clintons forever, I knew something was wrong. And I knew if I was right, Barack Obama reached a low point in politics previously inhabited by Lee Atwater, Roger Ailes and Karl Rove.
Obama and his spin team Reverse Macacaed the Clintons.
How can so many have been so wrong? How could so many people on this site not have a clue they were perpetuating a huge lie and character assassination? How could so many charge Bill Clinton with "those things he said in South Carolina, without identifying what he said and without putting it in context? When we make up our minds about a candidate, are we as bad as Karl Rove. Obviously we are.
Craig Crawford was there when Bill Clinton said that Jesse Jackson won South Carolina in 84 and 88 and he ran a good campaign and Barack Obama ran a good campaign. Craig Crawford doesn't kiss ass and the way he tells it, Bill Clinton was asked about the history the South Carolina primary and none of that showed up on the sound bite. No conversation was presented just a spliced out sentence without context.
So, now let's find out the truth, if that still matters. Well, it matters to Media Matters as they present the shot heard round the world that nobody paid attention to. Go here for full text and video: http://mediamatters.org/...
On the January 29 edition of MSNBC's Morning Joe, co-host Joe Scarborough teased a segment with Congressional Quarterly columnist Craig Crawford by asserting that Crawford is "the only human being on the face of the Earth, other than [former President] Bill Clinton, that doesn't think Bill Clinton's Jesse Jackson remark was inappropriate." Scarborough was referring to Clinton's statement on January 26 that "[Rev.] Jesse Jackson won in South Carolina twice, in '84 and '88, and he ran a good campaign, and Senator [Barack] Obama's [D-IL] running a good campaign." During the segment, Scarborough said to Crawford: "[Y]ou and Bill Clinton obviously go to Dunkin' Donuts in the morning and sit there and eat glazed donuts and drink coffee, because you are the only guy who has defended Bill Clinton's ... Jesse Jackson remark." In fact, according to a January 28 post on The New York Times blog The Caucus, Jackson himself has said that he does not "read anything negative into Clinton's observation."
Those of us who knew about this and purposefully used it out of context are no better than the worst scum in the Republican Party. Those in the press, like Andrea Mitchell, Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, CNN's Jack "the stooge" Cafferty and even the exalted Frank Rich, owe the Clintons and this country an apology for being members of the press and perpetrating a lie.
When interviewed Crawford lays it all out there as plain as day:
CRAWFORD: No, no, no. Real politics, I mean, here's the deal, you know, with, you know, that race in South Carolina, he was asked -- they were talking about the history of voting in South Carolina, you know, that clip's just not part of the clip that's been shown. The senator, Carrie Meek's --
BRZEZINSKI: But, Craig, it wasn't a slip of the tongue.
CRAWFORD: -- [former Rep.] Carrie Meek's [D-FL] son [Rep. Kendrick Meek (D-FL)] was there; he's been talking about that. So, anyway, they'd been having a discussion about the voting history in South Carolina before he said that. But even so, I mean, that is a fact, isn't it, that --
BRZEZINSKI: Yeah, but was it a slip of the tongue?
CRAWFORD: -- Jesse Jackson won those two --
SCARBOROUGH: Why would he bring that up, though?
CRAWFORD: -- and they were caucuses, which is -- because they were -- they'd been talking about it. They'd been talking about the voting down there in South Carolina.
BRZEZINSKI: Are you saying that the sound bite is being brought out of context?
CRAWFORD: Well, there is no context in the sound bite, hardly; there's only the first few seconds before he makes those remarks.
Ironically, Michelle Obama injects race into South Carolina, without being asked. See Margaret Talev's article "Michelle Obama stumps to sway black women to husband's campaign" for McClatchy at: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/...
"I know folks talk in barbershops and beauty salons, and I've heard some folks say, 'That Barack, he seems like a nice guy, but I'm not sure America's ready for a black president,' " Michelle Obama told a crowd Tuesday at historically black South Carolina State University.
"We've heard those voices before, voices that say, 'Maybe you should wait' — you know? — 'You can't do it,'" she said. "It's the bitter legacy of racism and discrimination and oppression in this country."
Her black pride message is a difficult one to calibrate, not only because overreaching could bring a backlash, but also because the campaign's national strategy hinges on whites seeing Obama as a post-racial candidate.
How many times has South Carolina been the anthem for the cause celebre? Crawford tells the truth. This is a pretty disgusting episode in how lies and injecting race has to be stepped on, even if it is promoted by the candidate you support. Everyone is out there so upset about poor Barack being questioned about Jeremiah Wright...what about this lie about South Carolina? I have never seen so many people bamboozled in my life.