Let's Go to the Videotape

What is happening to this country? Don't get pulled into a race debate. Look at the real issues that matter, the war and the economy (and the future), get past the spin, and pick a leader for America's sake.

Jake....good article...I think you got almost all the possible Clinton spin covered....except for the big one of course.

It wasn't even Bill Clinton on the tape....it was an outer-space alien dressed up as Clinton. Once Obama wins....the aliens will attack the USA just as Hillary said they would in New Hampshire! Remember what happened to Gordy Brown!

I don't buy it. I compared Obama's South Carolina win to Jesse Jackson's before I heard of Bill Clinton doing it. I'm a black male. Am I racist? This is just one more example of Obama's supporters playing the race card, and it's getting old. Obama and Jackson both won South Carolina with 55% of the vote on the strength of black voters while still running behind nationally. I'm sorry, but it's a natural comparison to make.

As a black male, it's disheartening that you continue to claim Hillary's campaign played racial politics against Obama. The reverse is more accurate.

Obama's South Carolina campaign chair, Jesse Jackson Jr., crassly declared that Hillary never shed tears about Katrina victims in response to her famous "welling-up" incident in New Hampshire. Isn't that playing the race card? Where is the outrage from Obama supporters?

Soon after, Obama's staffers released a memo implying that Hillary's campaign was "racially insensitive." For proof, the memo referenced Hillary's MLK-LBJ gaffe and Bill's "fairly tale" speech. Hillary's comparison was clunky and ill-advised but hardly racist. The fairy tale Bill referred to was Obama's Iraq war vacillation, not to race. Yet rather
than criticize this dirty trick, pundits bought into the lie that the Clintons are bigots.

It's disappointing that reporters are too politically correct to confront Obama about his campaign's abuse of racial politics.

The sad part is neither Obama or Jesse Jackson are making this particular South Carolina incident a race thing. It's Obama's supporters who refuse to let the racial dog lie. And it's going to backfire against their candidate if they keep it up.

Now, it is obvious that Clintons have become cult leaders, just like Rev. Moon couple of the Unification Church, so their follwers would blindly believe whatever they say and reject whatever others say. It's getting really scary.

It's not the facts that are in dispute, but your interpretation of the facts. I really didn't think that the mere mention of Jesse Jackson was a "smear." Jesse doesn't think so, in fact, he's voting for Hillary. I think it's pretty clear that Bill had seen the polls, and knew that Hillary was losing badly. So, when he was asked the stupid, baiting paparazzi question, "How does it feel, ganging up on Obama?" he rejected the premise, and brought up a historical example of another black man, with a "Rainbow Coalition," who didn't do so well after South Carolina. Now, I don't think Obama will disappear on February 5, but he was just being philosophical in the face of an impending whupping. The objections to the relentless "battle of the clips" in our presidential elections stands. They never mean what they say. Dean's "scream" was a bad mike, which the nets decided not to mix with audience sounds. It made him look crazy. They were helped in that interpretation by the Kerry and Dick Gephardt running ads, seconded by the DC establishment, that echoed what Limbaugh and Rove had been saying about Dean for weeks. Dean's a "radical" who's angry. Instead, we got the insufferably boring Kerry, who now supports Obama.
Very similar to the ganging-up on Hillary. The press wanted her out by New Hampshire, and they were appalled when she won. The press immediately stopped sliming her as a woman and took off on her "racist" husband. Just happens that meshes with Obama's need to get some more black votes in South Carolina. Hmm.
So now, it may be "obvious" to many in the press that this remark was a slap, but that's just because you guys in the cocoon just talk to each other. I believe it was also "apparent" to you guys that Bush was a nice guy and Gore was crazy and would do anything to get elected, even defeat Bush in the debates, and Saddam had WMD.
By the way, how does it feel when Bob Herbert uses one of your craziest commenters to "prove" the slimy tactics of Clinton?

Congratulations on your show of backbone, Mr. Tapper. A more tremulous reporter would have simply passed along the Clinton-camp spin.

nice rant. What do you do for an encore - start a flame war?

This video is highly exculpatory for President Clinton - indeed, it's an "aha" moment - and ABCNews should apologize.

He'd just come off a lengthy discussion of civil rights, black voters, and leaders like Andrew Young and John Lewis. Then he mentions Jesse Jackson in the context of race-baiting.

Clearly, it didn't "come out of nowhere" as ABCNews and Jake Tapper have claimed.

You owe President Clinton an apology.

What upsets me, as a black woman, is that the mere mention of Jessie Jackson's name has now become the race card. And, I would further say that if there were no Jessie Jackson after the death of Martin Luther King, their probably would have NOT have been a Senator Barack Obama. Instead of Barack running from Jessie Jackson he could have, especially in South Carolina were Jessie did, in fact, when 2 Caucasus because of the black vote, acknowledged that he was walking in the footsteps previously set by Jessie Jackson and many other civil rights leaders. That would, in deed, show true courage on the part of Obama. What I also noticed during Obama's victory speech was the audience that was used as a backdrop for his speech -- they wereabout 95% white. How could that be with an 80% black turnout in support of Obama. It was done intentionally so as not to frighten the white community with his overwhelming black support. Let's be real -- Bill Clinton can not make Obama a black candidate, nor can a landscape of adoring young white people, make America color-blind. I am very proud of Barack and if he should get the nomination, I will support him. However, I am not ashamed of Jessie Jackson -- he is not perfect, but he has paved the way for many African Americans, and what is truly hurtful is how the predominantly white media has reduced him to a race card.

maddymappo and all the other Libs - Dont you watch your own liberal news shows?
WMDs were there and Hussein was planning on building them up again once we left!! DUH!! So I expect an Apology to our President for the false allegations from you libs!!

daron - Open your eye all and all dirty tricks, lies, misconduct come from the libs!! ALL Proven!

Facts are facts, and the fact here is that the Husband-Who-Will-Not-Shut-Up is becoming more of a liability to his wife's campaign than an asset. Although in this campaign, he is certainly trying to make an asset of himself, without the last syllable.

Jake,

Thank you for getting the truth out. I heard a well-known pundit repeat this morning that the statement was taken out of context. It clearly wasn't.

Kevin, you are insane. The dirtiest of tricks is always from the right side. Dems aren't perfect and all aren't white as the pure snow, but anyone who doesn't acknowledge that the right is more known for their dirty tricks is just completely in denial.

The Clintons are smearing Obama because when it came to the most important life and death vote of her entire Senatorial "experience" , Hillary voted to give Bush the authority to preempt war in Iraq. Now after nearly 4,000 American lives have been lost, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis are dead and 2 trillion dollars spent, she says no one can know the future. But it was not a wrong decision based on predicting the future, it was a wrong decision based on her inability to clearly view the present. She did not understand the “urgency of now”. There was never any evidence of WMD or an Iraq/Al Qaeda connection. She made her decision because she was all wrapped up in the feelings and fears of the public and the political correctness of materializing an enemy to fight for the moment.

Barack Obama is to 2008 as jesse Jackson was to 1988. It is the truth.

Thank you so much for consistently calling out these lies and distortions, doing so in a frank, unambiguous manner, and backing up your statements with full transcripts and (now) video. So refreshing to see folks in the media take a stand and unspin the candidate's statements.

If you want to get rid of these dirty tricks then vote out the Democrats!!

Look what they did to Lieberman!!