Elder: Clinton Plays The Race Card...And Loses..

Clinton Plays The Race Card...And Loses
Larry Elder, www.townhall.com

"Stupid Black Men: How to Play the Race Card -- and Lose," my new book, comes out Feb. 5, Super Tuesday. Unfortunately for former President Bill Clinton and his wife, no one sent an advance copy.

"Jesse Jackson," said Bill Clinton, "won South Carolina twice, in '84 and '88. And he ran a good campaign, and Sen. Obama's run a good campaign here." Clinton gave this response in South Carolina to a reporter's question about why it took two Clintons to beat Barack Obama. Clinton's response had nothing whatsoever to do with the question.

So why did Clinton say it?

Obama, unlike Jackson, actually got elected to something -- in his case, the United States Senate, from the state of Illinois. Obama, unlike Jackson, won the Democratic caucus in the mostly white Iowa, and finished a strong second in the mostly white state of New Hampshire. Obama is nobody's Jesse Jackson, and Bill Clinton knows it.

By invoking Jesse Jackson's name, Clinton attempted to portray Obama as the "black candidate." Clinton knows that the race-driven Jackson polarizes people. By branding Obama as Jackson-esque, Clinton hoped to peel away Obama's support from white voters and thus -- pardon the expression -- ghettoize Obama's candidacy.

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