Clyburn blames Huckabee for racial tensions between Clinton, Obama

[babylonsister]

http://thehill.com/campaign-2008/clyburn-blames-huckabee-for-racial-tensions-in-dem-race-2008-01-25.html

Clyburn blames Huckabee for racial tensions between Clinton, Obama
By Bob Cusack
Posted: 01/25/08 08:49 AM


House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) is blaming a Republican presidential candidate for the racial divide that has emerged between Sens. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.).

During an interview Friday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” with Joe Scarborough, Clyburn pointed the finger at former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) for injecting race into the South Carolina Democratic presidential primary.

“I don’t want to sound disingenuous here but we were doing well with this whole issue coming out of New Hampshire,” Clyburn said, noting that Obama had the support of Reps. Paul Hodes (D-N.H.) and Carol Shea-Porter (D-N.H.), who are both white.

“It was not until Huckabee sort of brought the Confederate battle flag into this thing,” Clyburn said. “Nobody’s been talking about that. And I guarantee you people recoiled when he did. You remember not only did he talk about the flag in a disparaging way but he talked about what the people of Arkansas would do with the pole of the flag...That’s the kind of stuff that brought this back into campaign and it was not here until he did that.”

Before the GOP presidential primary in South Carolina earlier this month, Huckabee said, “You don’t like people from outside the state coming and telling you how you ought to raise your kids. You don’t like people coming from outside the state coming down and telling you what you want to do with your flag. In fact, if someone came to the state of Arkansas and told us what to do with our flag, we’d tell them where to put the pole – that’s what we’d do.”

Pressed how a Republican would affect the tone in the Democratic presidential race, Clyburn said Huckabee “opened Pandora’s box"” but added the former governor’s comment should not be used as an excuse for how race has been handled by the Democratic campaigns.

A Huckabee spokesperson did not immediately comment on Clyburn’s statements.

Clyburn, who is the highest-ranking African-American in the House, has not endorsed a presidential candidate. He has, however, criticized the Clinton campaign -- and specifically Bill Clinton -- for comments on race in the lead up to Saturday’s primary in South Carolina.

According to a new McClatchy-MSNBC poll, African-Americans in South Carolina back Obama with 59 percent, Clinton with 25 percent and 4 percent for former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.).

Bill Clinton attracted 75 percent of the black vote in the South Carolina Democratic presidential primary.

[papau]

1. Jim Clyburn is a wise man - I had forgotten those facts

[CC]

2. I have to disagree with him.

At the most he only gave the MSM the tiniest of openings that they have been drooling for. MSM is the one that wants race and sex brought in. Good for ratings and all that bs. IMO that is a large part of why they only cover two candidates for the Democratic primary while covering 4 to 5 candidates on the repuke side even the one that comes in 6th. They will try hard to bring it in again too because it is what they want to cover.