Jesse Jackson’s Not Mad at Bill Clinton over Comments

By Anastacia Mott Austin

Much has been made lately of Bill Clinton’s remarks likening Barack Obama’s impressive victory in the South Carolina primary last week to Jesse Jackson’s win in the state in the 1984 and 1988 primary season.

Some say the comments had racist overtones. Why? Because after a reporter mentioned Obama’s victory to Bill Clinton, he said, apropos of nothing having been said about Jackson, that Jackson had run a great campaign in South Carolina too.

Meaning? Well, the obvious conclusion, perhaps not the one he intended (to be fair), was the Jackson was a black candidate also and that after winning big in South Carolina he didn’t win the nomination.

Maybe he only intended to minimize Obama’s victory, in saying that the victory in South Carolina didn’t mean he would win the party’s nomination. Maybe.

But what do Obama and Jackson have in common that would elicit the comparison? Not much, really, other than the fact that both are black. Hence the problem.

In 2004 John Edwards won the South Carolina primary and not the election. In 1992 Bill Clinton himself won that state’s primary and did go on to win the nomination as well as the Presidency.

Some political experts say that Clinton’s comments were not just off the cuff remarks that happened to come out of his mouth. The (Hillary) Clinton campaign is known as a slick, political machine that operates strictly on strategy. So why would the Clinton camp want to remind voters that Barack Obama is black?

You think about that part and get back to me.

In the meantime, reporters anxious to record the reaction by Jackson to Clinton’s comments didn’t get much.

"I don’t read anything negative into Clinton’s observation," said Jackson to reporters at The New York Times. Jackson added, "Bill has done so much for race relations and inclusion, I would tend not to read a negative scenario into his comments."

However, Jackson said that he had spoken to both Obama and Clinton in recent days and had urged them both to "take it to a higher ground."

As for the possibility that the Clinton campaign is becoming increasingly negative on purpose in order to elicit a negative response, Jackson told the press he advised Obama to not take any political bait to respond in kind, some very wise advice to a candidate whose momentum has been built on making a positive change.

Jackson told reporters he said to Obama, "…as a tactical matter, resist any temptation to come down to that level. There may be temptations, especially when the media keeps saying ‘Barack is black,’ and they never said ‘Dukakis is white’ or ‘Hillary is white.’"

While Jackson may feel that nothing was intended by the comments, an unlikely camp has found the comments and the general reaction to them just delightful.

Rush Limbaugh devoted some air time to the issue, crowing that he had called it, that the Clintons were going to "call the race card" at some point. He was also pleased that Ted Kennedy has decided to back Obama, calling the whole thing "delicious."

The fact that Ted Kennedy publicly endorsed Barack Obama shortly after the issue hit the press was not lost on anyone, Republican or Democrat.

"Through Barack, I believe we will move beyond the politics of fear and personal destruction and unite our country with the politics of common purpose," said Kennedy in a speech endorsing Obama. Whether he was referring to the current administration as being the perpetrators of "fear and personal destruction," or taking aim at the Clintons is anyone’s guess.

As we all know, how the rest of the primary season will play out remains to be seen. But the strong reaction against the comments made by Bill Clinton may be a preview of what is to come, and they may end up hurting Hillary Clinton’s chances for the Democratic Party nomination.

As for Jesse Jackson? He’s voting for Barack Obama.