Look you are doing nothing but running off the American public we are not interested in identity politics or social justice as the burning issue of our time. Read Chuck Schumers book Positively America, which won margin in 2006. This Liberal lecture and focus on one community is turning people off trust me, it was not that long ago that it almost destroyed the Party, I am in a swing State and people are getting ready to jump. Hysterical fringe negative hate baiting behavior on either party is same oh same oh.

You return to the Teddy Kenndey, Kerry and Clyburn wing of the Party marginalizing others at great risk of losing in 08 divided governments is not a bad thing..

This only says one thing. While the black community used to be grateful for Clinton's service to them, they abandon the cliton's with abandon once one with their skin color is running for office. How grateful!!!

As much as I was telling myself that even if Hillary actually did pull off the nomination despite being an inferior candidate (yes inferior despite Paul Krugman and Josh TMP's Clinton hyping), I would vote for her in the end, after last week I decided no. Billary's ugly Southern Strategy underhanded racist politics simply turned my stomach. I figured that I would sit it out like fat drug addict Rush Limbaugh would if McCain were nominated on the R side.

I guess the dirty Rove-Clinton politics rubbed the fabulous Ms. Morrison the wrong way too.

I am noticing more and more people switching away from the clintons to Obama.

I applaud this endorsement. And I look for more!

Al Gore, are you listening?

I love Toni Morrison. I was already for Obama, so this makes no difference to me, but I guess that I do feel slightly proud to think that I share a candidate with so fine an author.

Meanwhile, re the NH recount: it stopped prematurely because the Kucinich campaign, which had originally commissioned it, did not have the money to pay for it. The limited number of votes that were recounted showed Obama actually losing a few votes and Clinton actually gaining a few.

Ouch, that's gotta hurt. Too bad for mr. bill's candidacy.

When most say "First Black President" they refer to his philandering

I've never heard that connection made before hearing you make it just now.

Think of this as a gauge of public sentiment, not an endorsement that's likely to shift it. Obama has done something, that, just a month ago, pundits confidently proclaimed he could never do - become the candidate of black America. There was a tremendous amount of buzz regarding whether Obama was "black enough." Endless columns citing Hillary's edge in support in early opinion polls that sub-sampled the black community. The consensus was that Obama would do well to split the demographic, but that it might end up providing an edge to Hillary - after all, Obama was a white man's black man.

What a difference a month makes. All of a sudden, the Clintons are trying to tag Obama as a candidate who can't cross-over to white voters, whose support is confined to the black community. And that community is not only supporting him to an extent that is literally unprecedented in a Democratic primary contest, it's also turning out to vote in stunning numbers. The rap on the black community has always been that it doesn't vote in proportion to its potential clout. This year, at least in South Carolina, that just hasn't been true.

So it's a good endorsement, but mostly a marker - Obama has arrived.

I think a Gore endorsement of Obama would clarify who is opposing the Clintons and why. Obama is and always has been the establishment candidate. Is it really that much fun getting beaten up by the Republicans in the general election? Is the Obama candidacy so precious that it's worth the Supreme Court, continuing the occupation of Iraq, continuing to destroy the middle class and, possibly, going to war with Iran? The one thing I'm grateful for is that if Mrs. Clinton is our candidate, she won't have to carry the Kennedy and Kerry baggage. Will be even better if she doesn't have to carry Gore's.

For a person of change.....he's got the same old baggage coming along for the ride.lolololololol

Failings? What an unusual spin of a quote that is obviously about how the dominant culture treats blacks in America. What is so ironic is that now the blacks are treating Bill Clinton the same way. There is such a thin line between gratitude and resentment.

I've defended Hillary Clinton on this site several times before. Up until recently, I have seen everything as fair game--the Reagan comments, the Rezko thing, the present votes--it's just politics and I haven't seen Obama rise above it. Also, I've seen many posters say that the Clintons were the ones injecting race into the campaign, and I just couldn't have been convinced of it.

But this weekend it all changed. Bill Clinton's Jesse Jackson comments were the last straw. Even if they didn't start the race thing, they are playing the game now. And it's disgusting. It's one thing for a black candidate to pander (note--i'm not accusing Obama of doing this), but it's another for a white candidate to marginalize a black candidate on the issue of his race. The worst part of all of this is that the Clintons aren't doing this because they're racist, I don't believe they're racist for a second. They're doing it for political gain. That's terrible, and barring a head-on apology from Hillary, I just can't support her anymore.

I've always liked Obama. I think he's somewhat weak, better at marketing himself than his policies, but now I reluctantly join the Obama movement. And I mourn the president that Hillary Clinton might have been if she'd only had a little integrity.

Actually Bill Clinton is highly respected and the black community is only alienating those that are not black and I am not sure many voters vote because of Toni Morrison; however I did love one of her books. These inflammatory infamous slanders and charges being made and now with old guard Liberal rich compound living Ted Kennedy, Kerrys weighing in and the JJ and MLK no one but a black person can say anything, is identity politics at its worse it may work in Mass but not out here in America. This raging of Liberal and the Black Community leadership like Clyburn that Hillary cant say the obvious about LBJ, and President Clinton is a racist because he contrast and compares Obama win with JJ is somehow racist must be a inside the Dem Party code because we do not feel obligated to jump on this marketing pitch.

The party elders and the left blogs are acting out everything America distains about this Democratic Party and it will cause no doubt a swing away of those that are being marginalized for a myopic focus. Take squirt gun insert in mouth pull trigger. Another Republican President with out a margin in Congress, not all bad but better than fringe Liberal control of all, fools.

That is a special endorsement -- but as Morrison herself indicates, the "first black president" meme predates her piece (and the whole Lewinsky scandal) by many years.

To chumps upthread who claim it's about his personal failings -- no. Read the piece more carefully. It's about the rain of persecution brought down on a natural human being who challenged the real establishment by stepping out of line.

In particular, he stepped out of line by appointing more minorities than all the presidents before him put together.

As Morrison suggests, Clinton's men and women of color were the first to be hounded out of town by aggressive prosecutors and aggressive media ... for supposed transgressions that turned out at the end of the day to be irrelevant, picayune or imaginary.

Anonymous wrote on January 28, 2008 9:18 AM:
This only says one thing. While the black community used to be grateful for Clinton's service to them, they abandon the cliton's with abandon once one with their skin color is running for office. How grateful!!!
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Yeah, that's exactly why Blacks are voting for Obama. I mean, why are White women & ppl of Roseanne's ilk bashing Oprah because of her endorsement of Obama? Because Oprah's supposed to vote with her vagina & support Billary the War Hawk.

Are you even paying any attention to the filthy campaign being run by Billary?

Just received from a pal who lives near Lyon

Anecdote

My daughters caught me drooling over a presidential poll with breakdowns by gender, age, race...
"Race? RACE??? That's an insult! Don't they understand that the notion of races of humanity is a scientific abomination, there's no such thing, these people are living in the 19th century, etc..."this from my 14 year old.
It's true, it would be illegal to collect such data in France.
We hate your values.

So; The Clintons tried desperately to get Senator Kennedy to endorse Hillary, and failing that, they tried to persuade him to stay neutral. Failing at that, now they have their vermin all over the blogs trashing the Kennedys.

Typical Clinton tactics. They craved Senator Kennedy's support, and once they did not get it, then they set their Clin-Tons of Smears and Slime Express in motion to destroy Senator Kennedy.

It's depressing (and depressingly unsurprising) to see Clinton supporters now willing to trash not only the Kennedys but Al Gore as well, simply out of bitterness that their Little Princess isn't getting her rightful crown without a fight. Wake up, folks! Without Bill's help, Hillary would have NO CHANCE of winning the nomination. With his help, she will most certainly lose.

Please see Iowa and South Carolina for examples.