Redstate

Was Bill Clinton right?

By Kevin Holtsberry Posted in 2008 | 2008 Democratic Primary | Barack Obama | Bill Clinton | Race In America — Comments (2) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Now that the Democratic Primary is finally over and Hillary has admitted defeat - or at least agreed to a phased withdrawal or whatever - allow me to throw something out there that I have been thinking about lately.

Was Bill Clinton right when he claimed that the Obama campaign played the race card on him? The conventional wisdom has always been that the former president used race to try and diminish Obama in South Carolina and it backfired. Then when asked about it he ridiculously claimed that the infamous race card had been played against him. But I am coming around to Bill's side of things.

This new perspective comes from having read A Bound Man: Why We Are Excited About Obama and Why He Can't Win by Shelby Steele. Steele's book is well worth your time for its insights into the issue of race in America and into the unique position of Barack Obama as a presidential candidate.

For an explanation of why Obama had to play the race card, read on.

I am going to oversimplify to a degree here, so please read the book for a fuller explanation. But Steele basically argues that there are two types of African American figures in mainstream American culture or two distinct ways in which they relate to American mainstream society: the bargainer and the challenger.

First, the bargainer:

When bargainers in any walk of life seek success in the American mainstream, they make a very specific deal with whites (individuals and institutions): I will not use America's horrible history of white racism against you, if you will promise not to use my race against me. In other words, bargainers grant whites the innocence and moral authority they need in return for their goodwill and generosity.

In contrast, the challenger:

When challengers reach for success and power in the American mainstream, they never give whites the benefit of the doubt. Quite the opposite, they use their moral authority as blacks to stigmatize whites as born racists. Challengers presume whites to be guilty of racism in the same way that bargainers presume them innocent-as a strategic manipulation. Challengers put all whites in the position of having to chase after their racial innocence. The challenger's code: whites are incorrigibly racist until they do something to prove otherwise.

You might recognize such figures as Bill Cosby, Collin Powell, and Oprah Winfrey as classic bargainers and figures like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson as challengers.

The most successful bargainers in American life often reach the status of what Steele calls the "iconic Negro":

The iconic Negro is someone who dispels the sense of "otherness" between the races and replaces it with a feeling of warmth, human familiarity, and racial goodwill. In him or her we have the sense that good race relations are really very easy and natural, and that tension between the races is essentially superfluous.

And again Oprah is the classic example, a figure beloved by millions and one whose imprint can make or break a venture.

Clearly, Obama has taken on this mantle in the realm of politics. In fact, Oprah signified as much by traveling with him and stumping for him early in the primary. And clearly Obama acts as a symbol for a lot of folks not of specific policies but of a better racial future for America; a sense that we have risen above the ugliness of racism. In return for his making them feel better about themselves they feel a profound gratitude and connection to him.

This has to be a great asset for Obama, right? Yes, but there is a wrinkle in this scenario (and hence the title and subtitle of the book). The black community is inherently suspicious of bargainers. If racial guilt is the only tool they have to make their way in mainstream society any movement to deny the pervasive role of racism weakens the community's power. This explains the near constant grumbling about those popular African Americans who refuse to use their position to castigate whites about racism (see Tiger Woods or recently Bill Cosby).

Steele argues that this puts Obama in a difficult situation:

If, to please blacks, Obama does more challenging, he begins to lose his iconic status with whites, his ability to flatter them with trust. He loses white votes because whites don't want a challenging Al Sharpton; they want the iconic Negro, the bargainer in whom they see their own innocence and the nation's redemption. If, to please whites, Obama bargains more, trades more innocence to whites, he loses votes among blacks-a vital constituency in the Democratic party-who define blackness as challenging, as withholding innocence from whites.

This in fact played itself out early in the primary with questions about Obama being "black enough" and his early lack of widespread support among African Americans. Again the conventional wisdom holds that it was Bill Clinton's awkward racialism, and a recognition that Obama could actually win, that caused the African American community to rally behind Obama to such a overwhelming degree.

I have no doubt that these factors did play a role, but I think Obama was more active than just reactive in this strategy. I think Obama was well aware of the difficult position he was in and acted to change it. I think that just as Obama went to Chicago seeking to immerse himself in the African American community so he could embrace that identity, and erase his own doubts, so too did he go to South Carolina and campaign as the "Black Candidate" so as to become the symbol of this community; something he had avoided previously.

And in order to balance the tension between his status as a bargainer and as a symbol of the black community he sought to goad the Clinton campaign into making race an issue; to tempt them into talking about race. He had as an aide the compliance of the media who are as racially PC as can be imagined. Bill Clinton foolishly allowed himself to fall for this temptation and thus cost his wife dearly.

Obama could not do anything as obvious as call Bill racist. Instead, Obama did what he has done throughout the campaign: he had his staff and the media fan the flames while he attempted to remain above it all.

When Bill Clinton attacked Obama's claims of being an early and consistent opponent of the Iraq war as a "fairy tale" many Obama supporters in and out of the media jumped on it as racially loaded even though it was clearly about the war not race. Likewise, I don't really think Hillary was implying anything racial insensitive in her clumsy remarks about the need for LBJ to enact civil rights legislation that MLK inspired. But she too was immediately attacked. Remember, Hillary too campaigned in black churches in her Senate races and had strong support among African American leaders.

Obama mostly stayed above all of this but his staff was passive aggressive in both dismissing it and yet making it clear that it was offensive and out of bounds. This led to an environment where Obama supporters began to feel like the Clintons would do or say anything to tear down Obama. This fed perfectly into the media storyline about Bill and Hillary and so the perception quickly grew. The Clinton campaign really just wanted to go after Obama's pose as a squeaky clean or different kind of politician.

Bill was angry that Hillary's campaign was being run so poorly and that her staff seemed unwilling or unable to take the fight to Obama. He insisted against their advice to go to South Carolina and campaign for his wife.

Also adding to the emotion was the feeling that Obama was stealing Bill's persona to defeat his wife. After all, Bill was the next great thing of the Democratic Party once; the fresh young outsider who could give a great speech. And Bill Clinton's career owed a great deal to his ability to reach out to African Americans and seek to bridge the racial divide. An Obama win meant all those years of working to build up this support could be dashed by this arrogant upstart barely out of the state senate.

It was with all of this as background that Bill fell into Obama's trap. Bill went around the state attacking Obama. He got angry and wagged his finger. Most foolishly he got in a angry fight with Representative James E. Clyburn. At the same time Obama was campaigning in black churches and using the style and idiom of that community in a way he hadn't, or couldn't, in place like Iowa and New Hampshire.

Cinque Henderson lays out the sly strategy all of this involved:

It's worth remembering that the majority of blacks still think O.J. Simpson is innocent. And, in times like these, when a black man is out front in the public eye, black people feel both proud and vulnerable and, as a result, scour the earth for evidence of racists plotting to bring him down, like an advance team ready to sound an alarm. Barack needed only a gesture, a quick sneer or nod in the direction of the Clintons' hidden racism to avail himself of the twisted love that rescued O.J. and others like him and to smooth his path to victory, and, therefore, to salvage his candidacy. After Donna Brazile and James Clyburn started to cry racism, Barack was repeatedly asked his thoughts. He declined to answer, allowing the charge to grow for days (in sharp contrast to how he leapt to Joe Biden's defense a month earlier). But, while he remained silent about the allegations of racism, he gave speeches across South Carolina that warned against being "hoodwinked" and "bamboozled" by the Clintons. His use of the phrase is resonant. It comes from a scene in Malcolm X, where Denzel Washington warns black people about the hidden evils of "the White Man" masquerading as a smiling politician: "Every election year, these politicians are sent up here to pacify us," he says. "You've been hoodwinked. Bamboozled."

By uttering this famous phrase, Obama told his black audience everything it needed to know. He was helping to convince blacks that the first two-term Democratic president in 50 years, a man referred to as the first black president, is in fact a secret racist. As soon as I heard that Obama had quoted from Malcolm X like this, I knew that Obama would win South Carolina by a massive margin.

And this was the moment that the tables turned on the Clintons. Once someone accused Bill Clinton of racism what did you think his reaction would be? Calm patient discussion and an attempt to defuse the situation? Ahh, no. He fired back angrier than ever. Going so far as to get in a shouting vulgarity filled argument on the phone with Clyburn. When he tried to compare Obama's win to Jesse Jackson's the story line was cemented.

And of course Bill only got more defensive. But he seemed unable to see that by getting angry and fighting about it in the media he only reinforced the perception of him as out of control. If Obama had really played the race card on him, voicing the accusation served only to make Bill look all that more foolish.

I honestly believe that the Obama campaign wanted race to become an issue in South Carolina and that they allowed Bill Clinton and the media to make Obama appear to be the victim of racial attacks. Because once Obama became a victim of racism all the questions about his own racial loyalty among the African American community went away. He was a black man being attacked by a white man.

And of course, Obama was soon winning this crucial Democratic demographic by overwhelming margins. In fact, he could not have won the nomination without such overwhelming support. If the African American vote gets split to any degree Obama loses. Instead, he won those votes nearly 9:1 in the aftermath of South Carolina and this allowed him to build the lead that would carry him through Hillary's last charge. (For reference, Hillary won 88% of the African American vote in her 2006 Senate re-election race according to this exit poll.)

Now that Obama is safely portrayed as the symbol of the African American community he has the ability to break out of the bind that Steele describes. No longer does he have to worry about being black enough. But he can also continue to portray himself as the harbinger of racial unity and peace at the same time. He can continue to be the Oprah of politics; Steele's "iconic Negro." And this is exactly how the media portrayed him this week.

There is another hurdle still out there for Obama - his hidebound liberalism - but that is the subject of another post.

Originally posted at the Stop Him Now Blog.