Democrats seek damage control

By Lee Bandy
SouthCarolina Insider

(1/28/08) The political slugfest between Democratic presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama left deep fissures in the party, causing some to wonder whether the damage can be repaired in time for the fall campaign kickoff.

Some fear the healing process may take even longer.

Leading Democrats didn’t sound too hopeful.

“It’s disturbing,” said former S.C. Democratic Chairman Dick Harpootlian. “It doesn’t help the party.”

The sniping began when Hillary Clinton gave an interview in which she seemed to discount Martin Luther King’s role in the civil rights movement.

Later, her husband, ex-President Bill Clinton, cast aspects of Obama’s candidacy as a “fairy tale.”

From there, the war of words escalated.

Hillary Clinton’s comment about King were not in a vacuum, coming as they did amidst an onslaught of attacks on Obama that many in black communities saw as containing racial subtexts and as part of a pattern.

Bill Clinton used dismissive language – calling Obama a “kid” – while two different high-profile Clinton surrogates made public reference to Obama’s teenage use of marijuana and cocaine.

It was not pretty.

Bill Clinton’s attacks drew criticism from black leaders in South Carolina.

U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., House Majority Whip, told Clinton to “chill it…tone it down.”

Obama is running to be the first black president. And African-Americans don’t like it when some white person, like Clinton, stands in the way. His attacks certainly didn’t help.

The Clintons worried about South Carolina from the start. They considered by-passing the Palmetto State. Polls showed Hillary Clinton losing the state to Obama. It wasn’t even close. He had a double digit lead over her. He also enjoyed the support of the younger leadership in the state.

But fearing a backlash in the African-American community if they by-passed South Carolina, the Clintons reluctantly decided to make a play for the Palmetto State.

The only difference was Bill Clinton, not his wife, would stay back and do the bulk of the campaigning while she traveled to the larger primary states like California, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.

He brought a new level of divisiveness and rancor to the Democratic campaign. He became the attack dog, the hit man for the Hillary Clinton campaign.

His level of attack shocked South Carolinians who had never seen Clinton close up.

“I never saw that side of Bill Clinton,” said Trav Robertson, a Democratic consultant from Columbia. “If you’re going to be involved in a shoot out with the Clinton folks, you better not bring a knife.”

They play hardball. And when their backs are against the wall, they get down and dirty.

“They play to win at all costs,” said former Gov. Jim Hodges, an Obama supporter. “People don’t like it.”

“I expected better out of Clinton. It’s distressing,” said Harpootlian.

“It’s one thing to play hardball,” he said. “They cheat...I’m hopping mad.”

Former S.C. Chairman Joe Erwin of Greenville, an Obama supporter, said blacks are not going to sit back and let some white person kill the chances of one of their own to be elected president.”

Hodges said he was disappointed in Clinton and the way he went after Obama. “It was divisive and dishonest.”

Emory University political scientist Merle Black said Clinton was treating a fellow Democrat like a Republican.

In an eleventh hour move, the Clinton campaign brought in some of the Democratic party’s best and brightest to help carry them across the finish line.

Although he was at a disadvantage generally against the Clinton machine and had lost much of the momentum that followed his Iowa victory, Obama entered the South Carolina contest with key strengths. He had led the polls in the state since mid-December and demonstrated overwhelming support from black voters.

Tom Daschle of South Dakota, former Senate majority leader, denounced Bill Clinton’s conduct as “not keeping with the image of a former president.”

Daschle compared the onslaught of criticism to Republican attacks leveled at him four years ago when he lost his seat.

He said these kinds of tactics “destroy the party ultimately. It’s going to divide us, and it’s going to have a lasting effect down the road if it doesn’t stop soon.”

The Clintons had some work to do on image repair amid accusations that Bill and Hillary had deliberately sought to exploit issues of race for political gain.

He took on the role as his wife’s defender – angrily accusing others of playing the race card.

The former president may have squandered his own political capital by engaging in such a negative campaign against a fellow Democrat.