ShareThisPresidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton should be leery of ever trusting the word of another black person, especially the word of elected officials, celebrities and other elites. She most certainly should never again trust the word of black preachers.Too many blacks have betrayed Clinton. They have been disloyal. They have lied to her, many to her face.From the moment she entered public life after graduating from law school and before her opponent, Barack Obama, started to move up in the polls and won some major caucuses and primaries, Clinton worked with blacks and supported their causes. She was mostly popular among blacks nationwide and was treated as a trusted friend because she was a trusted friend.To wit: While Obama was still wet behind the ears, Clinton was advocating for the Children's Defense Fund, an organization that improved the lives of countless black children in urban and rural America.When the U.S. Supreme Court of John Roberts last year rejected integration plans in two major public-school districts in Louisville, Ky., and Seattle, Clinton showed her disappointment in a speech shortly after the decision.In part, the New York senator said: "Today, the court turned its back on the promise of Brown vs. Board of Education that students of different racial backgrounds deserve an opportunity to attend school together. At a time when our nation's schools are increasingly segregating, we should be championing local efforts to pursue integration and reduce racial inequalities in schools."Whenever members of the Congressional Black Caucus needed extra clout to help them with black-related legislation, they turned to Clinton. When black leaders needed a powerful voice to add weight to a symbolic gesture, such as the commemoration of a civil-rights cause or an event, they called Clinton. When they needed a keynote speaker for this or that gala, they called Clinton.She had no way of knowing that reality would be turned on its head and that all of her good deeds and generosity would be forgotten and that many blacks would one day paint her as their enemy. She misjudged her supporters as did the character in Shakespeare's play, "Henry VI," who said: "In thy face I see the map of honor, truth and loyalty."What Clinton saw was the face of Judas and a map of dishonor, duplicity and betrayal. The ugly irony of the betrayal is that Clinton is the same as she always was. She has not changed. All of the votes she cast for urban policies that aided blacks remain in the Congressional Record. That has not changed.Blacks, worshipful of Obama, have changed.Elected officials, including a growing number of superdelegates, who were committed to Clinton and had told her so, now support the Illinois senator. Blacks who once eagerly took Clinton's telephone calls are now magically unavailable. For most, incumbency trumps loyalty. To get re-elected, they will throw away a decades-long friendship.Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., D-Ill., epitomizes this group. Referring to black Clinton supporters, he said: "Many of these guys have offered their support to Mrs. Clinton, but Obama has won their districts. So you wake up without the carpet under your feet. You might find some young primary challenger placing you in a difficult position."Not all blacks have betrayed Clinton. Some have honorably, and courageously, stayed with her. New York Rep. Charles Rangel is one. Ohio state legislator Eugene Miller is another, telling The New York Times: "I believe in sticking to my word. ... Some people call me an Uncle Tom. There's a lot of pressure to switch sides. There's a lot of emotion. All I can say is thank God it's winter and no one is outside, because there would be more than angry words on the street."New York political consultant Basil Smikle told Politico.com: "This is all about loyalty and the strength of relationships that the Clintons have engendered over the years. It's going to be hard to look them in the face and say, 'I can't support you.' "Win or lose, Hillary Clinton has earned the right to never trust the word of another black person. Somewhere between the Bible and the pseudo-wisdom of the barbershop, many blacks abandoned any sense of loyalty and betrayed a woman who has been a friend.(Bill Maxwell is a columnist and editorial writer for the St. Petersburg Times. E-mail maxwell(at)sptimes.com.)(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com)
Phony black friends ditch Sen. Clinton
Submitted by SHNS on Mon, 03/17/2008 - 16:45
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"pseudo-wisdom of the
"pseudo-wisdom of the barbershop"
Gosh Mr. Maxwell, your hood is showing.
Phony black friends ditch Sen. Clinton
Very well done article. I am impressed with the editorial vision and deep rooted thought of assasination of American morals and trust. It is not Hillary but the rest of the world will soon begin to be mistrustful of the blacks. Is Obama really a person who he claims to be or something he pretends to be. I think people have fallen for his alloquent speaches and charm. Saying and doing some thing are two different things.
I thank god that Mr. Rangle and other Black leaders who stadfast support Mrs. Clinton.
However I voted for Obama but I am rethinking is this race is all about RACE or a real fight for Democratic America.
May God Bless America.. for ever.
Is this article a joke?
Is this article a joke? Clinton's reliance on her supporters' loyalty is the reason she's in trouble in the first place. It's not enough. Obama is simply the better candidate, and the best candidate for the President of the United States. You really believe that we should elect a conniving, double-speaking, dirty politician to office simply out of loyalty? "Get real".
Bill Maxwell article about Sen. Hillary Clinton
Based on what fact can you make the statement that Obama is simply the better candidate? Have you perused (that means read) his Senate voting record lately? Pretty boring, because he hasn't taken a position on anything in months! What a cowardly way to get out of having to be accountable for positions based on his voting record. Oh right, yes that one vote against the Iraq War...he's milking that for all its got. His speeches are a long run on of quoting other people! What are you idiots thinking? Sen. Clinton is experienced, and if you don't think that we need that next in the White House, to clean up the mess that has been made, then you are living on another planet. Obama supporters need to come off of their cloud, and get real! One good speech does not a President make. I followed Obama before I made my decision, and he made it very easy for me. I want someone who has solutions, experience, and yes, Sen. Clinton is on the right side of most issues. And I hope she's tough...because, that is what it will take. And by the way, if she was a he, the term B#@#$ would not even be used.
A Woman President is a Better Global Leader!
Dear Bill Maxwell:
Your article on the betrayal of elected black leaders omits an important component of this election. We are in a global economy so that domestic issues cannot be handled without a global vision. When Senator Obama and Senator Kennedy wax about change, they are making a point about the new forces that are directing politics.
However Senator Obama does not really mention about the global forces. They all talk as if the United States is the only country that counts. In this light, Mr. McCain is making headway, because he is increasingly advocating collaboration with our allies. He is the only one so far to deal with the issue in an effective way.
Considering the global forces, about slightly more than half the adult world consists of women. I think a woman president is likely to draw the whole world including Asia, Africa, and the Arab world into the fold of the U.S. European women and men are likely to be even more supportive. I think the country needs something like that to happen, because too much damage has been done by the events of the last few years. The U.S. is tired, the world has mostly ignored the present leadership, and the world is in a vacuum.
I think a woman president will change that. There are many factors in favor of Senator Clinton as a wold leader. This is not so obvious in the case of Senator Obama. On the other hand a Black Vice-President in combination with a woman president will do the magic even more.
This is not the place to analyze this point of view in detail, but I think, if a woman is not to be the next president, then McCain is more likely to be elected as the next president. He will not be in an envious position, when he assumes office, but he has already started dealing with the central issue, which is the role of the U.S. as a global power. Military strength alone is not enough; and that is what we are learning from the Iraq War. The spectacular early victories powered by technology have been annulled.
A woman president like Mrs. Clinton will bring moral authority into play. Right now she is subdued by a domestic environment, which is male-powered. She will change that. Mahatma Gandhi has said that increasingly women are going to lead the world and well. He himself laid the foundations, whereby many women became leaders in India and neighboring countries. They did well, and if they did not do better, it is because the West did not have until the reins of Margaret Thatcher of Britain a woman leader. Mrs. Clinton will shine even more than Thatcher, because the world already knows her and admires her, and her husband President Clinton. This is the time to cash in on the good will of the world for her both as a person and a global leader. The country has the choice to choose a domestic leader and continue to fail for at least another four years, or to go forward coming out of a bad dream. Let us hope that we will choose the world and not isolation. Thanks.
Ray
you're not serious, surely!
At the start of this race, the Clintons owned the majority of adult black support--both a worry and disappointment to Obama.
He worked hard to prove he was worth consideration to many skeptical people.
The Clintons lost this support by patronizing and demeaning African Americans, using coded language that I haven't heard in many years. When black people lined up to put the Clintons' in office, our support and loyalty was celebrated as historic. But voting for Obama is treated as "betrayal, mindlessness, ...
Moral lesson--respect your voters.
Great logic Bill. Distrust
Great logic Bill. Distrust all because of the behavior of a few. No, that's not racism. Of course not. Besides, don't they all look alike?
What you seem to discount, my dear Bill, is that Ms. Clinton as well as her African American associates are politicians. Regardless of color, they are going to do what is politically expedient. Hasn't that been what the Clinton's have been doing all along?
But then again, maybe you have a point. After centuries of slavery, a century of Jim Crow, lynchings, opportunities lost, why should any African American trust any white?
Just your logic at work Bill.
Hillary
Hillary should never trust a black person again? Is that right??? Wow and to think I trusted her enough to vote for her in the Texas primary. Thanks to your article which I will share with my family, friends and coworkers I won't vote for her this November.
Talk about generalizing another race you good forth nothing bigot.
Clinton
Her Phoney Black Friends are her problem...I don't think some understand Bill Maxwell is black.
Let's not forget that the
Let's not forget that the Clintons was not doing this from the goodness of their hearts. They wanted the black vote and they got it so let's not act like the Clinton's have been these naive, caring people for Black America. They used black america to get exactly what they wanted and I'm just sorry speaking at a dinner just doesn't equate to the political power, money they've accessed because that black vote helped them along the way.
Let's not forget.
Hillary's black loyalty?
Bill, you neglected to point out that Hillary first came to national attention by dissing black Senator Brook of Massachusetts in her Welsley speech--her "loyalty" was bought and paid for by a number of Federal programs which she co-opted for her own political purposes. Tell us what 'unpaid' volunteer work she has done, ever, within this population or any other for that matter. Hillary is all about money and power, and I, for one, am glad the black population is no longer giving her either one!
This is utter claptrap!
This is utter claptrap!
This is nothing more than politics as practiced by politicians. If Hillary bothers to read this, she will have a chuckle, for she ceratainly knows better.
Churchill said "Britain does not have friends, it only has interests", and that maxim is true for politicians as well. At least the successful ones.
Mr. Maxwell should return to reporting lost pets and stolen bikes, or whatever minor duties he had before his editor mistakenly allowed him to write of politics and politicians.
Perhaps Mr. Maxwell's editor should seek a different carrer path - he is certainly no judge of columnists if he thinks that Mr. Maxwell's analysis of the political life enhances the Scripps reputation. .
Senator Clinton Ditched Them First
Who can blame blacks for turning their backs on Senator Clinton. She and her husband ditched the blacks early in this contest. In fact, Clinton and her surrogates have cynically used racism as a key tactic in their ruthless win-at-all-costs effort to take back the White House. I only hope the remaining fence-sitting superdelegates have enough moral courage to join those blacks, and the rest of us who see the Clintons for who they really are, in backing Senator Obama. And I hope they do so before it is too late. God knows this country (and the world) doesn't need another 4 years of the Bushes or the Clintons. As for Mr. Maxwell, I would urge him to keep supporting Senator Clinton. His shrill, divisive, and petty comments may help more of her supporters realize they should ditch her as well. After all, who wants to be standing on the same side of any issue as someone like Mr. Maxwell?
Phony black friends ditch Sen. Clinton
The only judas, Clinton has is Ferarro, she unearthed this can of worms. Her husband, president Bill Clinton, fumbled the ball many times, he brought race into the fray, Why blame common black-people, many who know nothing about the imperialist political regime and their systems of operation. Black people have been loyal, and have been betrayed so many times, that it defeats the purpose for this response. To blame us, is the ultimate insult to our intelligence, which you have never been interested in in the first place. You have never cared about or ever bothered to find out what we were thinking, our opinions about things. Now Clinton is stuck and it's our fault? The U.S. is the one's who practice patriarchy on a daily basis. Battered, and butchered women up and down the highways and byways of America, broken homes, led by uneducated women, with no hope for redemption, a woman reports that she was raped and she gets the third degree, and you are blaming us? Ferarro, had a chance to turn the wheels to Clinton's side, but she demurred, since when does a nominee's skin color determine the presidency? Since when have the black vote ever elected the president of the U.S.? Clinton's problem is she has not handled her business. She depended on too many patriarchal-minded people in her camp. Did she believe everybody in her camp was a friend? If she did, that's her fault. Politics is the dirtiest game in town, and with her experience, she should have known better. Don't blame us, blame the dirty elite players in the political game who have no conscious and no loyalty, and no allegiance. That's who you blame. Now Clinton knows what we have known for far to long: Don't trust your friends, for they are your greatest enemies.
Barack's friends are the real deal...
Donna Brazile tells us on "This Week" (abc yesterday 3-16) that Pastor Wright is among the more moderate black pastors. Moderate? What is really being said in the black churches that can't be said in public, among friends both black and white for goodness' sake? Now Sen. Obama needs to "reframe" the debate to give us a "major speech on race." Just between friends. After 20 years with his friend Pastor Wright, is Sen. Obama really qualified to give the rest of us a speech on "race"? And yes, Barack Obama shot out of nowhere to get a key role in the 2004 convention and the nod from Ted Kennedy to run because he's been groomed by the DNC to be the first black president. And for that, he's one lucky black man. Judging by exit polls in every state, blacks are voting for him in extraordinarily high percentages. "He's black/we're proud." But we're all friends. Understandable and I have no problem with it. But that's more luck based on skin color only. Now, back to Donna Brazile and the "moderate" Pastor Wright... you gotta have friends!
This editorial is pathetic
Dear Mr. Maxwell,
I realize that you may still be wet behind the ears when it comes to the way democracies are run, so let me clarify this for you. The vote is supposed to be given to the person whom you think will do a best job of running the country, not the person you think has done the most for you.
For you to imply for even a nanosecond that African-American voters are obliged to give Hillary Clinton their vote because of some things she has done in the past, and ignore the fact that she is not the best person to run the country in the future, is not just an absurd thing to say... it is a pathetic thing to say. Why? Because what you are implying in your bizarre editorial is that Hillary has only helped African-Americans in order to get their votes, and if they don't vote for her, she will never lift a finger for them again. Is that Hillary Clinton's position on the issue?
Get a grip. The reason Obama is beating the crap out of Clinton in the primaries is that she's demonstrated that when it comes to the type of change this country so dearly needs, she's just another establishment good ol' boy in a skirt.
Juan Jimenez
San Juan, Puerto Rico
Where dit it happen?
I read on all these blogs, that the Clintons "ditched" the black voters.
But when I asked, nobody can really explain when and how.
Do any of you remember who started to announce H. Clinton won New because of the Bradley effect? I give you a hint, it was not the Clinton Campaign.
Do you remember who introduce race (directly after New Hampshire primary)?
http://youtube.com/watch?v=DfG-SxYCusQ&feature=related
Have any of you read the entrance poll of the Nevada caucuses (on the 19th of January) where B. Obama already got 83% of the black votes?
All this was before the South Carolina election.
So again, when and how made the Clintons that "ditch"?