Clinton, down in S.C., reaches out to black voters
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- January
- 25
Two prominent black leaders from New York City flanked Sen. Hillary this morning at the front of the chapel at Benedict College to appeal to South Carolina’s black voters to support her in tomorrow’s Democratic presidential primary in which half the voters are expected to be black.
Rep. Charles Rangel, the Harlem Democrat who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee, took the issue of race head on in explaining his support for Clinton at the historically black college. “Some people have asked me if I feel awkward when her opponent is of color,’’ Rangel said.
Without mentioning Sen. Barack Obama by name, Rangel observed, “What a great country that we have someone of color who could aspire to be president.’’
Rangel described Clinton as someone whose name is in his Rolodex. “Who do you know who can do the job, as opposed to who you hope and dream can do the job?’’ he asked.
Former New York City Mayor David Dinkins invoked former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo’s comment—often quoted by the Clinton campaign—that politicians campaign in poetry but govern in prose. “Friendship and loyalty, that leads the list,’’ he said, describing his reasons for supporting Clinton.
Students from around South Carolina and other states who attend Benedict College said in interviews they planned to vote on campus Saturday becaus they have claimed local residency. The student body is split between Obama and Clinton, they said.
Zogby International’s latest daily tracking poll has Obama’s lead in South Carolina at 13 points over Clinton. He leads Clinton 38 percent to 25 percent with 21 percent supporting former Sen. John Edwards. Among black voters, the Zogby poll found Obama with 55 percent support compared to Clinton at 18 percent and Edwards at 8 percent. The poll’s margin of error is plus or minus 3.4 percent.
Obama, meanwhile, is trying to retain support among white voters in a contest that had been racially neutral up until the last week or so.
About an hour after Clinton’s event ended, he held a roundtable discussion about a mile away at the University of South Carolina with three white women and one Native American woman.
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on Friday, January 25th, 2008 at 4:11 pm by Brian Tumulty.
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So, what is this, the 4/5ths compromise?