Bill Clinton Rejects Criticism Over Race

[rodeodance]

About time this gets published.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/03/17/ap/politics/main3944841.shtml


Bill Clinton Rejects Criticism Over Race

NEW YORK, Mar. 17, 2008(AP) Former President Clinton is pushing back on criticism that he fanned racial tension while campaigning for his wife in South Carolina.

In an interview with ABC's "Good Morning America" broadcast Monday, Clinton said he had gotten a "bum rap" from the news media after he compared Democratic Sen. Barack Obama's landslide victory in South Carolina's Jan. 26 primary to Jesse Jackson's wins in the state in 1984 and 1988. Clinton was widely criticized for appearing to cast Obama as little more than a black candidate popular in a state with a heavily black electorate.

"They made up a race story out of that," Clinton said of the news media, calling the story "a bizarre spin."

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He added, "Contrary to the myth, I went through South Carolina and never said a bad word about Senator Obama _ not one."

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"I never heard a word of public complaint when Mr. Obama said Hillary was not truthful," that she had "no character, was poll-driven," Bill Clinton said earlier this year. "He had more pollsters than she did. ... When he put out a hit job on me at the same time he called her the senator from Punjab, I never said a word."

He was referring to an Obama campaign memo from last summer that criticized Sen. Clinton's ties to India, referring to her as the "Democrat from Punjab." The former president's reference to a "hit job" evidently had to do with documents the Obama campaign once circulated questioning the former president's financial dealings.

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http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/03/17/ap/politics/main3944841.shtml


Copyright 2008 The Associated Press

[GoldieAZ49]

1. In Fact - he said Obama had run a good race in SC and EVERYWHERE

Obama has been playing the race card covertly from the beginning, with his speech he was forced to play it overtly.


Ferraro was right when she said "it will be the last time his campaign will be able to play the race card."