As Hillary and Bill Clinton continue to catch heat for remarks criticized as reducing her Democratic presidential rival Barack Obama to "the black candidate," the former president was a guest on the ABC Radio-syndicated Doug Banks and DeDe McGuire Show and spoke about the issue of race becoming a factor in the two campaigns.
Trouble seemed to have started last December when Bill Clinton said Obama’s lack of experience would make his presidency "a roll of the dice." A few days before the New Hampshire primary on Jan. 8, he described Obama’s early opposition to the Iraq war as "the biggest fairy tale I’ve ever seen." Many blacks took the "fairy tale" phrase as a dismissive attack on the first African American with a real chance of becoming the president.
James Clyburn, a senior, black Congressman, called on Bill Clinton to “chill a little,” saying that he should not “engender the kind of feelings that seem to be bubbling up."
Defending his words, Bill Clinton told Banks Friday: "First of all, the facts I said were absolutely accurate, but I do think I was a little too hot. I had gone through a year of watching [Hillary] being attacked by the other side. She was called untruthful, manipulative, all those things they said. And she’s my wife and I love her. I also think she’s a great public servant and I didn’t think it was fair. I think the people that told me to chill out were giving me great advice."
As for nodding off at Harlem’s Convent Avenue Baptist Church during a recent event honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Bill Clinton blamed it on a severe lack of proper rest during his wife’s busy campaign.
"I had had three hours sleep two hours in a row, and it was hot and I had to sit there for four hours," Clinton explained to Banks, drawing raucous laugher in the studio. "The truth is, even when I was younger, I would’ve had a hard time going two nights on three hours of sleep both nights, and sitting in a hot church for four hours. I woke up when Shirley Franklin popped me and I thought I gave a good talk there."
(To hear the interview, log on to www.eurweb.com and enter the title into the search engine.)
Reprinted with permission:
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Editor’s note: Caroline Kennedy and Senator Ted Kennedy have endorsed Barack Obama in his bid to become the President of the United States.
