Race becomes an issue in the Democratic contest

A few days after the gender wars erupted in the Democratic race when Hillary captured back the female vote in New Hampshire, race has become one of the defining issues of the Democratic race. It started with CNN and MSNBC trumpeting their great insight into Clinton's NH come back, claiming it had something to do with the Bradley effect of white voters backing away from black candidates (for many reasons, this argument makes very little sense and it was one of the ways the media tried to deny responsibility for their misguided NH coverage).

But things have gotten more serious since, as Obama's entourage has been implying that the Clintons crossed the line with racially insensitive comments, and the Clinton camp defending itself. At issue are Hillary's comments last week about Martin Luther King and Lyndon Johnson; she used their legacies to make her case for prose vs. poetry. She said, "Dr. King’s dream began to be realized when President Lyndon Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It took a President to get it done." (Update: It looks like this quote was truncated when it was cited in the NYT and most papers. Read the full quote here as it appears to contrast Johnson not with King but with Kennedy.) This was interpreted as dismissive of MLK's accomplishments. She later partially backtracked.

Another point of contention is Bill Clinton's characterization of the treatment Obama has been receiving on his opposition to the war as a "fairy tale" (this controversy seems much more blown-up to me, as Clinton's comments were very obviously targeting Obama's war record rather than the issue of his candidacy at large).

The Politico's story is a useful background on the controversy of the past few days. And these comments have been getting a lot of press in the African-American community and on black radios. The response of Candice Tolliver, an Obama spokeswoman, is an ideal illustration of the way in which the Obama camp is now going after the Clintons: “There’s a groundswell of reaction to these comments — and not just these latest comments but really a pattern, or a series of comments that we’ve heard for several months." Bill Clinton went in damage control today, appearing on black radio programs (including Reverend Sharpton's) to explain what he meant when he talked of a "fairy tale."

Many high-profile Democrats who have not been known to be hostile to the Clintons have ripped them apart over the past week. Donna Brazile was very critical of the comments on MLK when they were first made public, and Rep. Clyburn, a civil-rights hero who is a big name in South Carolina, was on the verge of endorsing Obama today out of concern of the way the Clintons were talking about race. Clyburn had indicated he would stay neutral in the primary so this was (justifiably) covered as big news. Clyburn said, "It is one thing to run a campaign and be respectful of everyone’s motives and actions, and it is something else to denigrate those. That bothered me a great deal." The latest news is that Clyburn is backing away towards endorsing anyone.

This could end up hurting just about every candidate. Hillary Clinton is being pounded in the black community and this makes it that much more likely that she will lose the South Carolina primary, just as she benefited from a backlash among women in New Hampshire. But Obama does not want to much discussion about his race, as his campaign has been very careful to not present itself as racially motivated. The first signs of race emerging as an issue occurred when Clinton's NH co-chair talked about Obama's drug-use last month in a way many interpreted as having racial overtones; and it looks like the issue will continue to resonate in the weeks ahead.

Put all of this together, and we have to wonder if Clinton could have problem among the black community come the general election if she becomes the nominee. Democratic candidates have always massively carried African-American voters, and it is unlikely that blacks would go to the GOP. But turnout could definitely dampen. So that's one more reason Clinton should hurry to quiet down this controversy, besides the fact that she has everything to lose from letting the Obama camp play the race card the way she played the gender card earlier in the campaign.