First Black President Reaches Out To Supporters

President Clinton will be touring African American churches on Sunday.  He will be joined by two “prominent” African American officials, reports CNN.  There seems to be some confusion as to the motivation for the outreach.

“Bill is going to have to come back among those who loved him and he did so much for. He is going to have to do it – I can’t do it for him – and face the voters,” the source continued, adding that once he does, “it’ll put him back in the comfort zone, and I think you’ll see [Hillary Clinton’s] numbers go up.”

After South Carolina, a lot of speculation was abound regarding Bill Clinton’s reputation with the community that embraced him throughout the 90s.  Dubbed the “first Black President” by Toni Morrison; before Barack Obama, she said about Clinton that he is:

“Blacker than any actual black person who could ever be elected in our children’s lifetime.”

Toni Morrison has changed her tune now that Barack Obama is in the picture, she recently endorsed him for President.  All of this talk about the color of skin makes you wonder just how far we’ve come since the days of Martin Luther King, Jr.

When asked about the “mea culpa” tour, Hillary’s Campaign suggested that it wasn’t anything of the sort, and reminded CNN of the Clinton popularity among Latinos and African Americans.

 “He’s very popular with Latinos, African-Americans, it’s absolutely not a mea culpa tour,” says Clinton California spokesperson Luis Vizcaino.

Since the question was posed to a political spokesperson, you have to expect that a political spin would be injected into the conversation:

“Right after the [South Carolina] debate, where some people felt there was a lot of tension with the African-American community, [Hillary Clinton] came to Los Angeles and had a discussion with members of the African-American community here. And people here said no one cares about the controversy or black-versus-brown or brown-versus white-tension — we want to know about jobs, and how she’ll help our community.

So there you have it, Hillary Clinton’s camp doesn’t believe South Carolina will affect California at all — I agree.  However, I don’t agree that the country wasn’t paying attention to the ‘controversy’, quite the contrary.  It gave democratic supporters a reason to question their blind faith in Bill Clinton and the future of Hillary Clinton as our president.   Political analysts concluded that Senator Ted Kennedy turned on the issue of endorsement because of the triangulation and race-baiting that looked like dirty politics.  His endorsement speech supported the conclusion, but Clinton’s spokesman sees it differently.

“I don’t think there was one single question raised there about we feel you are using race or you disrespected Martin Luther King Jr., nothing like that.”

The race issue will likely not bite Hillary Clinton on the rear any more than it would have before the South Carolina debacle.  Bill Clinton remains a God among men in the democratic party and it only speaks positively of the campaign to continue reaching out to the supporters that are intoxicated by the Clinton mystique.

The idea that Bill Clinton needs to make amends for something that was cooked up by pundits of both parties is foolish.  It plays to the storyline that Bill Clinton is either too involved in this campaign or Hillary Clinton is riding his coattails.   In fairness to Hillary Clinton, If you’ve been watching the debates, it is clear who the presidential candidate is.  You could put ten Bill Clinton clones in the room and Hillary Clinton would still shine on stage and run circles around her opponents.  She’s just that good and anyone who says otherwise needs to start paying attention to the primary or take off the rose-colored glasses.

Fred Soto is an Attorney and Entrepreneur from the Silicon Valley.
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