Clyburn on Clinton, Obama
Posted: Friday, May 09, 2008 12:11 PM by Domenico Montanaro
Filed Under:
Democrats, 2008
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
National Journal’s Linda Douglass sat for an interview with undeclared South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn. He says a couple of interesting things: (a) If Clinton believes Obama will do poorly with white voters in November, based on how he has done in the primaries, does that mean she believes she will only get 8% of the black vote in November, based on how she’s doing now?; And (b) He makes it very clear that any perceived backroom deal had better not take the nomination away from Obama, because that would devastate young people and blacks. He speaks rather emotionally about his daughter and grandson’s support for Obama.
Here's a portion of that interview:
DOUGLASS: …Hillary Clinton has been continuing to campaign today, yesterday, throughout West Virginia and the other states that she is seeking to win, making the argument that she wins with certain kinds of voters -- blue collar voters, Catholic voters, and Obama does not. Do you think that as she continues to press the case that he can't win, that she's doing damage to him as a candidate?
CLYBURN: Continuing to press the case seems to me to be in search of a self-fulfilling prophecy here. You know, we all know anything that continues to be reinforced in the minds of voters, tends to take on a life of its own. I would hope, as I have said before, that the candidates will continue to press their case on their own behalf. …
LD: ...She was quoted today in USA Today describing her strengths against his weaknesses, and she said about herself, quoting from a news article, she was talking about a news article, but Senator Clinton said the following -- that Senator Obama's support among working, hard working Americans, white Americans is weakening again. And whites in both states who have not completed college were supporting me. There is a pattern emerging here, she said. What's your reaction to that quote?
CLYBURN: Well, I don't think that carries any more weight than anyone who will argue that the fact that she only got 8 percent of the African-American vote in North Carolina indicates that she cannot get African-American votes in the general election. …. If we buy into that and we buy into the conventional wisdom that no Democrat wins the presidency getting only 8 percent of the African-American vote, then what does that to say for her prospects in the Fall? So I think that we have to be very, very careful with all of this. And I really believe that this is the kind of stuff that I had been talking about with tamping down the enthusiasm of young people, because scores and scores of non-black young people have gotten involved in this campaign this year. They are very excited about Barack Obama, for whatever reason. A lot of it, nobody can really fathom, but it's happened. And I think we would do well, as Democrats, to welcome the support, welcome the reactivation of African-Americans, welcome the re-involvement of young, White Americans, welcome all of these people into our fold and give them some positive messages to carry forward and not keep talking about what may or may not be the other person's drawbacks. …
DOUGLASS: Well, so I have to ask you Congressman, because you are an uncommitted … it's been said by many, and I think it's pretty clear, actually, that the only way that Obama … can get there is with the help of superdelegates. You certainly sound like you are leaning in his direction, why not just endorse him?
CLYBURN: Well, because I'm still House Majority Whip, Nancy is still Speaker, Rahm Emmanuel is the Chair and Steny Hoyer is the leader, and we've all decided to maintain neutrality. Now, I think part of the problem that people have with some of what I've been saying, thinking that it's not really the expressions of neutrality, there's a big difference in being neutral in this race and being proud of one's race. I'm very proud of what Barack Obama's done. When I sat in those jails back in the 60's in South Carolina – dreaming about growing up, dreaming about becoming an adult, dreaming about having children, and grandchildren – I now have a 14 year old grandson, and he is very proud of Barack Obama. I'm not going to sit down and watch anybody marginalize my grandson's dreams and aspirations. And I'm not going to see anybody go out and just absolutely nullify the energy and time that my daughter, youngest daughter, put into Barack Obama's race.
This young lady started going to his office at 5 o'clock in the afternoon, every day after work, staying there to 11, 12 o'clock at night, and apologized to me for having to follow her heart for fear that it might disrupt my neutrality. So when I look at this daughter of mine, I look at this grandson of mine and see the pride in their faces -- I'm just not going to have anybody just tamping that down, and so that's why I spoke up. Because I'm going home on weekends, and I go to these College campuses, as I will be this weekend, I'm going to Voorhees and do the Commencement there, I'm going to Tuskegee in Alabama and do Commencement there on Sunday. These young people are looking at me saying, are you graybeards in this party getting ready to go into some room somewhere and nullify everything we did in this campaign? That's why I started speaking out. I kept saying, let's lower our voices -- Bill Clinton, please chill out. Stop saying things that will upset the most loyal constituency that this party ever had, African-Americans.
