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Clinton Camp Downplays Obama Win
January 26, 2008 8:34 PM
ABC's David Wright reports: Even before Obama's victory, the Clinton campaign was already spinning the results, discounting the notion of an Obama victory here.
"Jesse Jackson won South Carolina in 84 and 88," former President Bill Clinton told reporters outside a polling station in Columbia. "Jackson ran a good campaign. And Obama ran a good campaign here."
Translation? The Clinton's want people to believe Obama is simply this year's Jesse Jackson.
Clinton rejected any suggestion he or his wife were guilty of race-baiting in South Carolina.
"Man you've never been in many campaigns if you think this was ugly," he said. "This was a cakewalk."
Clinton insisted his message has been "99-point-9 percent positive for 100 percent of this campaign."
But many Democrats, including 2004 nominee John Kerry, feel otherwise. Kerry, who recently endorsed Obama in Charleston, said that being a former President is not a license to to lie.
Clinton bristled when asked to react to Kerry's statement, noting he respects John Kerry and has supported him in the past.
"This is just part of politics," Clinton said. "We should just not take the bait and go on and make our cases."
January 26, 2008 in Bush, George W., Kucinich, Dennis | Permalink | User Comments (121)
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Since the first debates I've been deeply disgusted with the absence of respect that Senator Clinton has shown for her colleague, Senator Obama. She has repeatedly denigrated his experience, his judgement, his remarkable sense of history, and his vision. Furthermore, with the aid of the only President who's ever been impeached for perjury and subsequently disbarred, Senator Clinton has repeatedly distorted Senator Obama's comments to create a racially divisive atmosphere in the hope of gaining white and Lationo votes. In her supercilious, patronizing manner we're only a step from hearing her refer to Senator Obama as "boy". I had really believed that Democrat's white patronization ended in the 60's and only remained as an O'Reilly Factor.
Posted by: dov | Jan 26, 2008 11:29:53 PM
Kiku: You must have your numbers mixed up or you can't calulate figures. What school did you go to? Obama lost in NH and NV and was frustrated because he lost that Hillary won both when the news media had him winning both. He had to win in SC or else. Don't take any bets because he is not going to win the majority of the big states. Hillary was endorsed by 10 Governor's and Obama 5. I believe she will definately win the nomination and leave him to go back to where he comes from. Then he can run for president there. He would be right at home and so would his run of the mouth wife.
Posted by: Mariann Pepitone | Jan 26, 2008 11:32:01 PM
The Clinton's (especially bill) are professional politicians. They know that the only way that they can get back into THIER Whitehouse is to play down and dirty.
Expect the worse from them and remember every time they drag the contest into the mud, they are successfully turning off Americans desire to vote. These are the same Americans that Obama is reaching out to and inspiring.
This is modern aged disenfranchisement, and they know it. I believe they think it is their only chance at winning. Just look at the people the Clintons hang with, people like James Carville.----birds of a feather, so to speak.
It will only get worse from them. I wish that there was some way for Senator Obama to point at exactly what they are doing, explain it and say. "THAT IS EXACTLY THE KIND OF POLITICS THAT WE WANT CHANGED IN THIS COUNRTY"
That is something hard to express when you believe in taking the high road.
Good luck to us ALL.
Bill & Hilary are willing to do anything to win, no matter what it does to the Democratic Party or our country.
Posted by: Abe | Jan 26, 2008 11:33:28 PM
Personally, I believe the endorsement of Senator Barack Obama by Caroline Kennedy tonight speaks volumes. In closing she said, " I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my father inspired them. But for the first time, I believe I have found the man who could be that president - not just for me, but for a new generation of Americans". Caroline is a very respected woman. I think this will have a huge impact on the female vote.
Posted by: GC | Jan 26, 2008 11:38:43 PM
Comparing Obama's overwhelming victory to Jesse Jackon's victory in '84 and '88 is just another not so subtle way for Clinton to say to white America HEY, OBAMA'S BLACK! DON'T FORGET THAT HE'S BLACK. AND UM, HE'S BLACK. Yes, Bill, we got that memo. But we aren't the backwards racists that you take us for, even in SC. That's why as many white men supported Obama as they did Hillary (not true for Jackson). And why Obama beat Hillary solidly among whites under 40 of both genders. So, Bill, your "red-neck baiting" didn't work. So just stop it and grow up. You're giving Southerners a bad name.
Posted by: Chelton | Jan 27, 2008 2:39:13 AM
Thank you South Carolina for this huge victory. Obama won in IOWA almost 100% where 98% are whites. So if they can say he won in South Carolina because he is black, I strongly disagreed with that statements. I think OBAMA simply won in South Carolina because of his vision and as he would like to re-unite he American people. He has leadrship capability. I think real leadership is about candor and judgment and ability to rallyAmericas from walks of life around a common purpose, a higher purpose. GO OBAMA!!!
Posted by: I.A.T Smith | Jan 27, 2008 2:49:17 AM
If Obama doesn't win SC with 60% african american then where? and please stop whining everytime Hillary question his records and abilities. Obama does not have any accomplishment to back up his words and only with hopes you can change anything. Obama stop crying!
Posted by: Heriberto | Jan 27, 2008 4:53:35 AM
Might the South Carolina slap in face
Restrain Hilly and her dual menace?
Will Billy continue his snippy ways
On and on till end of the race?
Will Hilly muster tears vain?
And Billy bark from manger again?
Will he who he hailed once from Hope
Heap on hope ever more disdain?
Posted by: MeeraDad | Jan 27, 2008 5:03:51 AM
O.J. Simpson would have won in S.C. against Abraham Lincoln. So don't break your arms patting yourself on the backs Obama backers.
Think about this.... Why are the GOP's so afraid of Hillary and don't give a damn about Obama? Some food for thought for Democrats who are dumb enough to vote for Obama.
Posted by: Fairy tales for Obama | Jan 27, 2008 6:05:18 AM
some one need to tell Mr.Clinton that he has to stop doing dirty game again and again, he needs to wake up to the future and new vision of USA.
Posted by: Mike, VA | Jan 27, 2008 6:13:04 AM
from first in the south to who cares about SC, truly the rudest most uneducated people in AMerica.
Posted by: first in south | Jan 27, 2008 6:52:14 AM
The Clintons are pathetic. Obama is no Jesse Jackson. Obama represents a movement way above any racial, gender, or cultural issues. This is a movement save America -- no race left behind. Just because a bunch of white women in SC were obsessed with having a woman as president does not mean Obama has problem with white voters. He won easily in "white" Iowa and nearly won in "white" NH. Obama will do very well on Super Tuesday. It looks like this thing is going to a brokered convention.
Posted by: Bob, DC | Jan 27, 2008 7:06:43 AM
The south carolina vote tonight proved the same thing we saw in Nevada. African americans are RACIST. White people gave Obama a chance in Iowa and NH. African americans arent giving ANYONE a chance whatsoever. If it wasnt for Bill Clinton campaigning so hard there, Hillary wouldnt have even got the 17% . John Edwards had nothing to do with any of this. He is from South Carolina and won the state in 2004. Yet he got THREE PERCENT of the African american vote. They ought to be ashamed of themselves.
Posted by: tom | Jan 27, 2008 7:45:11 AM
And again, Bill opens his mouth. When will he learn to shut up and let a woman drive. When will Hillary get out of her June Cleaver world and tell him to shut up?
Posted by: Susan Crossen | Jan 27, 2008 7:49:02 AM
Hilary and Bill have a deal. She helped him get to the White House and now it is her turn. He owes her and this is a debt that he has to pay.
Their strategy is to continue to try and marginalize Obama. Somehow when he wins it has less meaning then if she wins. Blacks who continue to support the Clintons are foolish. Whites, Latinos, Asians, etc. who can't see through their political scheming are foolish. Now that Caroline Kennedy has endorsed Obama, she is just another private citizen whose opinion doesn't count. Is everyone in the country stupid with the exception of the Clintons? When this race began I thought that I would vote for Hilary if she got the democratic nomination. I no longer feel that way. If she gets the nomination I will either not vote or I will for the first time in my life vote republican.
Wake up America!! Let's change our hearts and minds and vote for a real person!--
Posted by: SC, WV | Jan 27, 2008 8:24:20 AM
I must say that I'm personally digusted by the South Carolina results. These results clearly show that race matters, and racism is alive and well within this country just not in the group we imagined. When 81% of a group votes for a candidate that's significant, but let's not just stop there, the candidate that they supported has no record! Has very little experience! But they do share one trait with the man, the color of their skin is the same as his. As a black man I'm honestly ashamed that color, and fancy rhetoric are clouding the judgements of so many African-Americans. There are so many more African-American politicians more qualified than Obama, that I go dizzy thinking about how the black community is giving him a free ride! I don't know if Hillary or Obama will win the nomination, but I'd feel a ton better if this nomination process was about ideas, and less about a woman or a black man.
Posted by: Ryan | Jan 27, 2008 8:53:05 AM
What else are they gonna do?
Posted by: LongT | Jan 27, 2008 9:14:41 AM
Oh, I see. When African Americans vote for a white man (Bill Clinton)it's okay, but when they vote for a black man (who happens to be half white), they are just voting because he is black?
Are you kidding me??? I am a 28year old Asian American female. I am voting for Obama. Gee, must be because he is black.
Obama 08
Posted by: va girl | Jan 27, 2008 9:20:36 AM
TWO PRESIDENTS TOO MUCH, ANYWAY:
"...One problem with the George W. Bush administration is that it has brought a kind of plural presidency in through the back door. Vice President Dick Cheney has run his own executive department, with its own intelligence and military operations, not open to scrutiny, as he hides behind the putative president.
No other vice president in our history has taken on so many presidential prerogatives, with so few checks. He is an example of the very thing James Wilson was trying to prevent by having one locus of authority in the executive. The attempt to escape single responsibility was perfectly exemplified when his counsel argued that Mr. Cheney was not subject to executive rules because he was also part of the legislature.
We have seen in this campaign how former President Clinton rushes to the defense of presidential candidate Clinton. Will that pattern of protection be continued into the new presidency, with not only his defending her but also her defending whatever he might do in his energetic way while she’s in office? It seems likely. And at a time when we should be trying to return to the single-executive system the Constitution prescribes, it does not seem to be a good idea to put another co-president in the White House."
Posted by: annevilla | Jan 27, 2008 10:07:34 AM
Every word out of Hillary is divisive. I have NEVER seen for such a long time, one person that us uniting people like never before until Obama came along. I wish him well for honestly despite the Clinton tag-team he is already making great changes to American multi-cultural society. I don't see Hillary and Co making ANY bridges anywhere, only breaking more and more with their spite filled dirty tricks campaigning. Go Obama.
Posted by: Kate | Jan 27, 2008 11:12:08 AM
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