Obama and Kennedy

The former president, Bill Clinton is like a shooting star a brilliant streak of light gliding across the sky leaving a trail in its wake. Lately, Bill Clinton has been on the campaign trail every bit as much as the candidates running for president. He garnishes as much attention as any other candidate and his recent comments on the campaign trail have become more like rants. In South Carolina, he accused the Obama camp of putting a ‘hit-job’ on him. He has fueled talk on race and gender that the only the media jumped all over. In this red-hot race for democratic nominee for president, the gloves are off and both sides are throwing punches but his comments are landing below the belt. Therefore, it was clear to me that the folks in South Carolina were sending Clinton a message when they overwhelmingly voted for Barack Obama.

It was not a surprise when Barack Obama won South Carolina on Saturday (0126), after all, he was leading in the polls. The surprise was the large margin of his win, over his chief rival Hillary Clinton. Over half of the state is black and you might think they are more apt to vote for someone who looks like them, but consider this – African Americans affectionately called Bill Clinton the first black president of the United States and this affection rubbed off on his wife Hillary. So what caused over 80% of the black vote in South Carolina to move into Obama’s camp? The pundit talk lays the fault squarely in Bill Clinton’s lap. Running up to the South Carolina primary the former president used divisive tactics to paint Obama as a not just a candidate who happens to be black, but the black candidate. This purposely-divisive tactic was an attempt to turn white voters away from Obama.

In the meantime, Obama acquitted himself well. In the much-publicized last democratic debate in South Carolina, Obama dropped a ‘zinger’ on Hillary. He caught Clinton off guard when she accused him of saying he admired Ronald Regan (the conservative icon)in one of his speeches. In subsequent exchange, Obama accused Hillary’s husband of saying exactly the same thing. Hillary countered by saying she was running for president not her husband. Obama immediately came back by saying he was not sure whom he was running against Hillary or Bill Clinton. In that one line, Obama voiced what many felt - if they voted for Hillary were they really getting Bill.

South Carolinians both black and white saw through Bill Clinton’s underhanded tactic and voted against his wife, as opposed to voting for his wife. In the last two days before the primary, Bill Clinton toned down his rhetoric but the damage was done.
Fast forward to Monday (01.28), and Obama received the public endorsement of Ted Kennedy and Caroline Kennedy, John F. Kennedy’s daughter. In this presidential race, Obama is consistently compared to J.F.K in both his oratory and his message of hope. Ted Kennedy’s endorsement means a lot to the democratic base who consider Kennedy an elder statesman and inheritor of the Kennedy mantel. In a nutshell, Ted’s endorsement provides legitimacy to Obama’s right to inherit the democratic crown.