Republicans used race to establish a foothold in the once solid Democratic South. Forty years later, the South is a GOP stronghold.
The Obama camp claims Hillary Clinton has flipped the script and is playing Racial Politics 2.0. Her fulsome apologies for racial gaffes notwithstanding, they believe she is conceding black voters to Barack Obama in the hopes of galvanizing white working-class voters in big states like Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Race has lurked in the background ever since the South Carolina primary. Bill Clinton's dismissal of Obama's victory angered black voters. The question is no longer whether Obama will appeal to African Americans. Now it's whether he's "overly reliant on black voters."
In the wake of the Mississippi primary, race is roaring to the foreground. Geraldine Ferraro's racially charged remark has set off fireworks that threaten to tear apart the Democratic base. While Ferraro has stepped down from Clinton’s campaign finance committee, the damage has been done.
The North Carolina primary may be the site of the next racial skirmish. Clinton is downplaying North Carolina, where African Americans make up nearly 38 percent of Democratic voters.
In a conference call with reporters, Obama communications director Robert Gibbs pointed to Clinton adviser Harold Ickes' comments in the New York Times as proof that Clinton has written off the South. Ickes told the Times:
Most of those states haven't voted Democratic in a presidential since the Johnson landslide over Goldwater in 1964, and we don't see that changing. They're great states, but Idaho, Nebraska and the Carolinas are not going to be in the Democratic column in November. He's winning the Democratic process, but that is virtually irrelevant to the general election.
North Carolina Rep. G.K. Butterfield, an Obama superdelegate and surrogate, said it was "disturbing news that Clinton is going to write off North Carolina."
For both Obama and Clinton, it must be disturbing that the campaign news is increasingly about race.
