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Racial tensions roil Democratic race

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« on: January 13, 2008, 07:35:37 pm »

Clinton hits back as race row sours White House contest


By Jitendra Joshi
Agence France-Presse
First Posted 07:30am (Mla time) 01/14/2008



Close this WASHINGTON -- The White House battle between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama turned nasty Sunday as the rival Democrats traded barbed shots over race ahead of the next nomination contests.

Some of the most ill-tempered exchanges yet between the candidates exposed the high stakes at play with the Democratic battle finely poised heading into electoral tests in Nevada and South Carolina.

Republican candidates meanwhile fought running clashes over the economy ahead of their party's primary in Michigan on Tuesday, which has turned into a make-or-break battleground for faltering runner Mitt Romney.

"The Obama camp is deliberately distorting this," Clinton protested on NBC television after she made comments that were taken by influential African-Americans as a slur on civil rights champion Martin Luther King.

Speaking from South Carolina, the New York senator and wife of former president Bill Clinton said she had fought her "entire life" for civil rights, and accused the Obama campaign of "an unfair and unwarranted attempt" to malign her.

Last Monday Hillary Clinton, facing her second defeat in a row to Obama in the New Hampshire primary, sought to emphasize her legislative experience against his popular "change" sloganeering.

"Dr. King's dream began to be realized when president Lyndon Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964," she had said. "It took a president to get it done."

Her remarks were perceived by some as suggesting that only a white president was able to translate the revered black leader's rhetoric into action.

On a media conference call, Obama said Clinton was guilty of "an unfortunate remark, an ill-advised remark," and denied that his campaign was whipping up black opposition to the former first lady.

"She is free to explain that, but the notion that somehow this is our doing is ludicrous," Obama said, going on to attack Washington politicians who think "it is acceptable to say or do anything it takes to get elected."

James Clyburn, the highest-ranking African-American in Congress and a leading Democratic power-broker in South Carolina, has suggested that he might endorse Obama following Clinton's remarks -- a move that could swing the state to Obama when it holds its Democratic primary on January 26.

Obama would be the first black US president, and through his electrifying oratory, says he wants a clean break from two decades of divisive Bush and Clinton presidencies.

Clinton, who would be America's first female president, said this election campaign should not be about race or gender.

"When the cameras are gone and when the lights are out, what happens next? How do you translate your words into deeds?" she said, stressing her national experience.

Clinton also spotlighted alleged inconsistencies in Obama's record on Iraq after her husband had attacked his claim of steadfast opposition to the war as a "fairy tale."

Obama, however, accused the Clintons of "rewriting" history.

"I stood up against the war when she was voting for it (in 2002), at a time when she didn't read the intelligence reports or give diplomacy a chance," he said between campaign stops in Nevada.

Following Obama's stunning win in Iowa, and Clinton's no-less-stunning comeback in New Hampshire, the Democratic contest has all to play for heading into next Saturday's caucuses in Nevada.

Both the candidates unveiled financial stimulus plans as the sagging US economy loomed larger on the campaign trail.

For the Republicans, Michigan is the next big test after Iowa was won by former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee and Senator John McCain took New Hampshire.

Romney's well-financed campaign foundered in both states and he badly needs a win in economically depressed Michigan, where he was born and where his father was governor in the 1960s.

McCain, showing his "straight-talking" candor, told Michigan rallies that some lost jobs would never return.

But with polls showing the state's race resting on a knife's edge, Romney retorted: "I will not rest, as president, until Michigan's economy has turned the corner and is growing again."

The former national Republican frontrunner, ex-New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani, meanwhile denied that he was in money trouble ahead of the Florida primary on January 29.

Victory in the "critical state" would encourage new donors to come forward, Giuliani said, as he pursues a high-risk strategy of lying in wait for "Super Tuesday" on February 5, when more than 20 states will be up for grabs.
 


Copyright 2008 Agence France-Presse. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

 
 
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