{"id":2078,"date":"2008-01-27T09:22:46","date_gmt":"2008-01-27T17:22:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=2078"},"modified":"2008-01-27T16:37:56","modified_gmt":"2008-01-28T00:37:56","slug":"black-america-feels-the-sting-of-ex-presidents-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=2078","title":{"rendered":"Black America Feels the Sting of Ex-President&#8217;s Comments"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2008\/01\/24\/AR2008012402987.html?sub=AR\">From the Washington Post Jan. 25<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>For nearly two decades, Yvette Wider, an African American, adored <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/ac2\/related\/topic\/Bill+Clinton?tid=informline\" target=\"\">Bill Clinton<\/a>, once described by a famous black novelist as the nation&#8217;s first black president.<\/p>\n<p>But now, after Clinton&#8217;s &quot;fairy tale&quot; remark about <a href=\"http:\/\/projects.washingtonpost.com\/congress\/members\/o000167\/\" target=\"\">Sen. Barack Obama<\/a> (D-Ill.) in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/ac2\/related\/topic\/New+Hampshire?tid=informline\" target=\"\">New Hampshire<\/a> and a statement in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/ac2\/related\/topic\/South+Carolina?tid=informline\" target=\"\">South Carolina<\/a> that Obama had put a political &quot;hit job&quot; on him, Wider said she feels she hardly knows the former president. &quot;I was surprised to hear him make a comment like that, because I thought he understood our people better,&quot; said Wider, who said she will vote for Obama in Saturday&#8217;s South Carolina primary. &quot;It made me think he&#8217;s been playing us all this time.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Wider&#8217;s sentiments are echoing across black America &#8212; on blogs, Web chats and talk radio, where Clinton is being attacked as never before.<\/p>\n<p>It is a significant turnabout for Clinton, who throughout most of his presidency counted black people as his staunchest supporters. Less than eight years ago, African Americans gave the former president a stratospherically favorable rating &#8212; higher than those for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/ac2\/related\/topic\/Jesse+Jackson?tid=informline\" target=\"\">Jesse Jackson<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/ac2\/related\/topic\/Al+Sharpton?tid=informline\" target=\"\">Al Sharpton<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>With his attacks on Obama, however, that appears to be changing, causing some strategists and observers to wonder whether Clinton&#8217;s behavior will alienate black voters whom his wife, <a href=\"http:\/\/projects.washingtonpost.com\/congress\/members\/c001041\/\" target=\"\">Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton<\/a> (D-N.Y.), will need should she win the nomination.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;The tone of some of the things he said just crossed a line,&quot; said David Bositis, chief researcher for the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/ac2\/related\/topic\/Joint+Center+for+Political+and+Economic+Studies?tid=informline\" target=\"\">Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies<\/a>, a black think tank.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/dennisprager.townhall.com\/TalkRadio\/Show.aspx?RadioShowID=3&amp;ContentGuid=aac80e18-92fd-4bec-a85f-c66250949218\">Dennis Prager<\/a>: It&#8217;s astonishing that there are substantial numbers of black Americans in positions of stature who charge Bill Clinton with racism for saying that Barak Obama lives in a fairy tale. There was nothing remotely racist in what Obama said.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s being taken that Bill Clinton is abandoning the black community that so loved him. Even Bill Clinton can&#8217;t criticize Barak Obama without being accused of racism. This means that any criticism of Obama is going to get one accused of racism.<\/p>\n<p>If Bill Clinton, the most popular white in the black community can&#8217;t criticize a black politician, than nobody can without being accused of racism.<\/p>\n<p>Of course Clinton has been playing blacks all the time. He&#8217;s been playing everybody all the time. Bill Clinton is all about Bill Clinton.<\/p>\n<p>What folks like Yvette Wider are saying is that you can&#8217;t attack a black person. That blacks should be immune to criticism.<\/p>\n<p>How did Bill Clinton&#8217;s remarks cross the line of racism?<\/p>\n<p>Notice how the article says &quot;black people.&quot; Do you ever see &quot;white people&quot;?<\/p>\n<p>If Obama gets the Democratic nomination, criticisms of him will be seen as racially inspired, which will cause of rise of anger in the black community.<\/p>\n<p><!--adsense--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From the Washington Post Jan. 25: For nearly two decades, Yvette Wider, an African American, adored Bill Clinton, once described by a famous black novelist as the nation&#8217;s first black president. But now, after Clinton&#8217;s &quot;fairy tale&quot; remark about Sen. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=2078\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[592,24,36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-politics","category-race"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2078\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}