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Clinton Says Obama Campaign is Stirring Up Racial Tension

Posted on: Monday, 14 January 2008, 09:00 CST

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 the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'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 an 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 .

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

The senator was quoted as saying King's dream of racial equality was realized only when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, while Bill Clinton said Illinois Sen. Obama was telling a "fairy tale" about his opposition to the Iraq war.

Former President Clinton has since appeared on several black radio programs to say he was referring to Obama's record on the Iraq war, not on his effort to become the nation's first black president.

At a dinner Sunday in Atlanta celebrating black achievement, Michelle Obama said her husband is the person the United States needs in the White House right now and was critical of anyone who would "dismiss this moment as an illusion, a fairy tale." He is the right candidate "not because of the color of his skin, but because of the quality and consistency of his character," she said.

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.

Obama later called Clinton's accusations "ludicrous. "

memo

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.

Source: Virginian - Pilot

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