Today in the Presidential Race: Race!Just as Hillary last week renewed the debate over whether her gender was a factor in the Democratic primary, this weekend she raised the same question over Barack Obama’s race. Her aggressive appearance on Meet the Press largely focused on remarks she had previously made about Barack Obama in comparison to Martin Luther King Jr. She tried to back up her idea (basically, that MLK is not like Obama because MLK worked for decades, and needed the help of elected officials, to get his goals achieved) and also accused the Obama camp of implying that there was a racial controversy buried in her words. Her tortuous explanation (much too convoluted to get into in a blog post), and the resulting interpretations, are still raising hackles this morning.
• Black Entertainment Television founder Robert L. Johnson, speaking yesterday, sparked a firestorm of debate after saying: “An African-American, I am frankly insulted that the Obama campaign would imply that we are so stupid that we would think Hillary and Bill Clinton, who have been deeply and emotionally involved in black issues since Barack Obama was doing something in the neighborhood — and I won’t say what he was doing, but he said it in the book — when they have been involved.” The Obama campaign reacted angrily, finding a reference to Obama’s admitted childhood drug use in Johnson’s words, an inference Johnson disputes. [The Caucus/NYT]