Hillary Rodham Clinton, whose quest to become the first woman president is outpacing Barack Obama's bid to become the first African-American winner, took her campaign to the nation's best-known black neighborhood, and was hosted there by the nation's most powerful black politician.
Rep. Charles Rangel (D-Harlem) introduced the New York senator to a nearly full audience at the historic Abyssinian Baptist Church shortly after noon, telling people sitting in the pews to turn to their neighbor and say, "We are making history."
Because black voters form the most reliable constituency in the Democratic Party, Obama's bid for the Democratic nomination suggests Clinton must find a way to appeal for black votes without appearing disrespectful of black aspirations for political influence.
Clinton - who was also introduced by former president Bill Clinton, who retains near rock-star status in the black community - appears to be accomplishing that. She has done so largely by offering herself as a champion of women, another group that has struggled to advance in a world dominated by white men.
Drawing repeated cheers, Clinton promised that an America under her presidency would restore its image abroad by ending the Bush-Cheney "cowboy diplomacy."
She said she would address the problems of "everyday Americans" by pushing for universal health care, affordable housing, rebuilding aging roads and bridges and creating a new GI Bill to help soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
"I think there is a sisterhood that transcends race," Dorise Roberts Black, a black Harlem resident and retired principal, said as she entered the church.
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