Although, Obama has tried very hard to steer clear of the American racial mess that has affected the life and culture in this society. Being black and historically well-read, Obama knows that being a black man running for any significant post in the United States he must not only be among the best of human performers, but must also know that even if victory is on his side, the Negrophobia in this society would not be at peace with such triumph. While Obama has so far avoided the bobby traps of the American racial divide, his foes and enemies have continued to drive him right into the racial quicksand. Such is a dangerous and deathly tactic, and the allegations that the Clintons are up to no good, grew out of the events in New Hampshire.

 But what is remarkable in this contest of wills, are the challenges facing the Clintons. Having served as  President for eight years with corruption as the most popular second name for his administration, and after surviving possible impeachment hailing from the Monica Lewinsky scandal which still reverberates in American political circles, the Clintons are being asked to be faithful to their claims in the 1990’s and not to behave like the old southern chauvinists. The truth is, Bill Clinton adopted the ways and artistry of the black preacher in American society and has carefully tailored his speeches so well that many African Americans got caught in his webs of words and verbal play. Invoking the good name of Martin Luther King and imitating his fondness for certain aspects of black culture, Bill Clinton has somehow convinced a sizable number of blacks that he was “a soul brother” and he knew how to play., he managed to win some black elites who went to the extent of calling him a black president.

  Whatever was the status of this claim, the results of the New Hampshire primary has exposed the darker side of the Clintons. Not only are we now convinced that the husband and wife team are competitive, but they are equally manipulative in their words and deeds. As I stated above, throughout the campaign Barack Obama has strived to avoid the monkeys of racial agitation and propagandistic vituperations. Apparently, when the Clintons are losing, they could resort to all kinds of games. Playing with words and throwing mischievously the word “fairy tale” into the electoral drama. Bill Clinton, in support of his wife, pooh-poohed and trivialized Senator Obama’s candidacy and his campaign arguments making the Obama a political flip-Flop . This is clearly a campaign of destabilization and dirty tricks designed to suggest that the senator from Illinois is not trustworthy and this was reinforced by feminists such as Gloria Steinem of National Organization for Women (NOW) fame who railed against black men. All together the fairly tale gimmick of former President Clinton and the anti-male chauvinist tears of Senator Hillary Clinton brought some of the old South agitation and insinuation against blacks, especially men who since the end of slavery have been struggling for power and recognition. It should be remembered once again that in the post Civil War Era the southern states were run by northern victors in concert with blacks and collaborative Southerners. This party was the Republican Party of the day. During the brief period that blacks sought and obtained power in the South, the whites, as history would later call them Dixie-Crats( aka Democrats) rejected this proposition. They fought hard to reverse that order and in the end the northern leaders conceded to White Power and in the subsequent years following 1877, not only were blacks booted out of power but were killed and lynched. This process of destabilization against racial equality combined white men’ fears with white women’ phobia about the black male and doomed black hopes and dreams.

The strategy and tactics of the Clintons subliminally set the stage not only among whites in New Hampshire but also in the South. Citing the narratives and speeches of Senator Obama as a “fairy tale” and allowing Gloria Steinem in New York Times Op-ed column to make fun of white men by suggesting that the Senator from Illinois was being celebrated because he was stronger than they were. This was deliberately provocative hitting at the personal egos of many white men. Bill Clinton’s spinning game was simply adding insult to injury. Not only was he fabricating history through his subtle if not blatant attempt as verbal castration of the black male figure (who towers over his wife in all debating platforms), but he also helped create the psychological mode for the likes of Gloria Steinem to whistle and curse Obama.

But if we persist in our search for the logic and the meaning behind the Clinton game against Senator Obama, a number of facts come to light. There is the myth about Clinton and his family that begs for deconstruction. Not only is Bill Clinton a myth that has gained currency largely because of his dependency on blacks during his campaign for the presidency and the number of few African Americans who filled high places in his government. But the myth is self-supporting because many African Americans have seen him as political oxygen for their political visibility and significance among black Americans Being with Clinton was a signal of acceptance. He is a Southern President and it was a southern President such as Lyndon Bean Johnson who signed the Civil Rights Bill. This historical fact that is complex and complicating in its construction and nuance was exploited by Senator Hillary R. Clinton when she spoke about L.B. J and Martin Luther King in terms objectionable to many blacks.

Former Vice President Al Gore’s presidential campaign manager Donna Brazile did not take that formulation from Senator Clinton lightly and she responded strongly to the logic behind that articulation, saying it did hit you on the wrong way. The impressions created in this political tactics of the Clintons, is that for a black to be elected to the White House is nothing but a “fairy tale”.

From the perspectives of certain blacks rallying behind the Clintons, it is dangerous and unwise for them to challenge the winning Clintons who are best qualified to lead and guide. Thinking foolishly or arrogantly a la Bill Clinton , such blacks accept the point of view that his wife search for the Democratic Party nomination ought to be perceived as a coronation, and all blacks who are politically sophisticated have nothing to fear but Clintonphobia. Unlike FDR, the American war president during the Second World War, the two Clintons talked about this fear in defense of their political dynastic claims. Black men such as former Atlanta mayor Andrew Young, who supports the Clintons, see an Obama candidate as an aberration from his perspective. To men like him, black men like Obama are political hustlers doomed to fail because whites have not changed for the better and should not expect them to vote for a black man at this time in U.S. history. Andrew Young is not the only case in this campaign. There are others across the country.

Thus, probing deeply into the Obama/Clinton feud one must also deconstruct the falsehood about Clinton being a black president who was concerned about Africa. Truth be told, African historians have much to say about how Clinton snookered the blacks here in U.S and on the continent itself. In the United States the Clinton administration helped pass bills that increase the police force by 100,000 policemen. Instead of developing strategies and plans to tackle the roots of the black dilemma, he projected himself as the best sheriff in town. This was part of a disciplinary strategy aimed at crime but the butt of this campaign rested on African American shoulders. Similarly Bill Clinton supported and signed welfare legislation that left thousands of black men and women in the wilderness. To put it in another way, the Clintons can blame the eight years of Bush for the lack of progress in the eradication of poverty in America, but when the facts are pulled together between the Bush-Clinton administrations we see an argument more forcefully articulated by John Edwards than by Clinton. The legislative measures of the Clinton era were built upon by the waves of pro-corporate legislations under the Republican hegemony. That was why Obama could link her to the Wilma, the giant corporation that trades with China and is widely disliked by labor unions for low pay for its workers. In retaliation, Senator Hillary Clinton tried to portray Senator Obama as a lawyer for the slum landlords.

 Again, searching for logic and the rationale of the Clinton assault against Obama, I wonder how Bill Clinton really feels about being black. Is he a wannabe black?  Or is he a manipulator who passes himself as a “Wegro” (white kid who is a moral equivalent of the soul brother kid very much tied to the Hip-Hop musical world) who sees social and political points in doing so, but has no genuine desire to be one or to be treated genuinely as one. One distinguished African-American writer, Ishmael Reed, in The Baltimore Sun described “ Bill Clinton as black because of his mimicking a black style”. He disputed the claim that Clinton was the first black in the sense that the first was Warren G. Harding who never denied the rumor about his black ancestry. According to him, Clinton “was able to seduce black audience, who ignored some of his unfriendly actions hostile to blacks.

His interruption of his campaign to get a mentally disabled black man, Ricky  Ray  Rector executed. (Did  Clinton tear up about this act?) His humiliation of Jesse  Jackson, his humiliation of Jocelyn Elders and Lani  Gunier are matters to be noted and remembered. . His administration saw a high rate of black incarceration as a result of Draconian drug laws that occurred during his regime. He advocated trade agreements that sent thousands of jobs overseas.”  Such observations are a striking part of the growing body of information about black responses to the Clintons of New Hampshire and beyond. If he persists the way he is acting like Senator Hilary’s political hit man, contrary to the advice of the likes of Senator Kennedy, chances are his legacy in the Black World could be jeopardized and chances of his wife being elected seriously diminished.

Two final points deserve attention here. The first is Clinton and the tragedy in Rwanda. As long as people talk about Rwanda, what Bill  Clinton once called “The Rwanda thing” would haunt him like the ghost of Banquo in the Macbeth of William Shakespeare. He did not directly cause the death of the 800,000 Rwandans as immortalized by Hollywood’s Hotel Rwanda, but his administration could have done better. This is much widely made point, and President Bill  Clinton cannot jettison this termite –infested log from his ship of legacies. In addition to this permanent legacy from the world of violence and woes in the black experience, there is the pressing issue of HIV AIDS. Much has been written about this life-threatening disease that has almost permanently destroyed Africa’s image in the world, it would be ironic if ‘the first black President Bill Clinton” could not do substantially in the realm of fighting AIDS than in dressing up as an Ashanti chief during that celebrated visit to Ghana when Hillary and himself amazed the white world by being “African.” It was a brilliant act for history to record but it did not plant the much needed seeds for African liberation from disease, poverty and underdevelopment. What a more sympathetic situation to cry like Hilary Rodman Clinton.

Robot  Villager

# 1 var sbtitle5230=encodeURIComponent(Keeping The...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 23.01.2008 20:07

Frisky Larr  Villager

# 2 Oh come on!!! Cut off this crap madam! We can search hard for evidence of racism and come up with one. How does "Fairy tale" equate with racism? Even if an Op-Ed columnist picks up on it and stir up white emotions as you claim, why should the Clintons be guilty of this? There are also insinuations that the involvement of Ophrah Winfrey in Obama's campaign was to stir up black sentiments in Obama's favor. Where do we start and where do we end when we seek to define racism? No one knows. But we should desist from defining it for convenience please! The Clintons are not racist. That much should be certain. We can all pray for our black brother to prevail. That is another issue altogether! Posted by Frisky Larr| 24.01.2008 10:27

Ruyi Igiehon  JJC

# 3 "Bill Clinton is the first Black President" A lot of African American have used the above statement, can we agree that you can never be black if are not black neither can you be white if you are not white or in a different analogy you can not know a persons suffering unless you have been through it, but you can see with their suffering. Bill Clinton "the first Black President" as African Americans call him could we say saw with the African American people but remained white as an individual, he also fed of this part of "seeing with black people". African Americans having been through a lot over generations had a ray of hope with Clinton over the past years, how much was expected in hope is the big question with African American. That ray of hope probably should have always been measured as he was not black and his degree of commitment to the black cause was always going to be question some day, personally what he did paved the way for Black people themselves to be heard and to be reckoned with. We can argue that African Americans having reserved comments about what the Clintons have said about Obamas presidency a fairytale and many other, this statements should not come as a surprise. Why? 1. His wife is running for Presidency, what would we expect of him as husband who cheated and was made public and she took it upon herself to stand by her Man. Personally I won't dare ask where his loyalties lie, on the flip side have the African American expected to much of their ex-Black President, are they disappointed he is not black anymore or are they not just happy that he is not consistent or true to what he is really about, which brings us to number 2 2. Is he true to his ideals or along the way has he exchanged his ideals for power?, we may wonder (as ordinary Individual), and like most politicians unsurprisingly so. The question is have African Americans made an idol of him, probably so. Were they and are they still expecting from him?. Whatever his intentions were based on the above points we can agree he had a contribution in paving the way for the African American people, like Obama and many other African Americans in the U.S Government. Has he done enough? we can read into the following statement: "fairy tale" As a Man in desperation of Power and scared that the giant he helped in creating is coming back to hunt him (in terms of his support for the African American) or as Man that feels he owes this to his wife after his infidelities. I believe he (clinton) has done enough and should not be criticized , he as well as others (white counterparts) have passed the mantle to the African American community several times, is it not time the mantle is taken?, Obama in all his courage has taken it and yet other African American have a thing or two to say against him publicly. The truth be told he probably does not have the right credentials to be the first Black President but he should be commended by his Fellow African Americans for the courage to step out and be counted. Posted by Ruyi Igiehon| 24.01.2008 11:27

ifeolooni  Villager

# 4 am a big obama fan but am worried abt the tactics of the clintons,rlly worried and dissapointed cos i had alot of respect for bill. and more worrying is that barack is swallowing the bait ws all awake here in london till 3 am when the cnn black caucus debate ws on, i felt bad, but head or tail obama has nothing to lose,cos he has alrdy crowded-out al and jesse. Posted by ifeolooni| 24.01.2008 13:06

Palamedes  Villager

# 5 ...he managed to win some black elites who went to the extent of calling him a black president. Blame Toni Morrison (authoress) who is said to have originated the phrase to show the similarities between Bill Clinton's (poor, working-class, single-parent etc) background and that of lots of African-Americans. Thus, probing deeply into the Obama/Clinton feud one must also deconstruct the falsehood about Clinton being a black president who was concerned about Africa. Indeed, George Bush, with all his faults has done far more for continental Africa than Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter during their presidencies combined. Further, George Bush's appointments of African-Americans to very high offices elevate hope and aspirations among African-Americans who previously, like Andrew “Not now” Young hadn't considered such high office attainable. I don't know if I should say this or not, but I feel that some African-Americans are envious of Obama who, in some people's view, is an outsider and upstart. His interruption of his campaign to get a mentally disabled black man, Ricky Ray Rector executed. Madam, I am glad you mention this salient point to show how opportunistic the Clintons are. I refer readers to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricky_Ray_Rector Although I don not reside in the USA, I am a keen follower of events over there–occasionally staying awake with CNN. And all the commentators, pundits, analysts, I have heard, agree that the Clintons are playing the race card to hurt the Obama campaign. I never trusted Bill Clinton; the false smile, his annoying habit of pointing at an imaginary friend in a crowd—watch Hillary do the same. The fact is that he used African-Americans, and I wouldn't be surprised if Chelsea starts dating an African-American to bring in the African-American vote. I, would, however, like to see their reaction the day Chelsea tells them she is to marry a non-Caucasian. Frisky Larr is perhaps naive and unable to the see the sophisticated politics of the Clintons. If Obama had intended to inject racism into the campaign, there is enough even in this article to throw at the Clintons. Frisky Larr is also probably naive about American politics to realize that celebrity endorsement was not invented by Oprah but something that is as old as American pie. Obama wouldn't play the race-card because he knows that it is the one thing that could wreck his chances of the Democrat nomination. The Clintons know it too well, any wonder they wouldn't let the matter rest. They continue to recycle the controversy to appeal to the innate and irrational fear of Caucasians of the African-American. Remember how Hillary started the controversy over Martin Luther King Jr. and subsequent accusation of the Obama camp of playing the race-card BEFORE even the Obama camp had time to respond to the initial controversy. This is like the game we use to play as children: you squeeze the other persons hand very hard to hurt and while your victim is screaming, you scream as loud as possible to drown the victim's scream. Onlookers would think, you are the one being hurt and your victim is the one inflicting the pain on you. Ha! Madam, I must say, this is a well presented article. All nicely done without flashing any academic degree(s). Posted by Palamedes| 24.01.2008 13:39

MrOneNaija  Villager

# 6 WORDS THAT MOVE. OR DESTABILIZE An interesting read! There is no doubt that many would find objectionable former president Clinton's campaign rhetoric regarding the presidential ambition of Senator Obama. But a critical question one must ask is this: Does the rhetoric in any way risk negating any putative achievements of the Clinton presidency regarding the welfare of Blacks? Probably not, especially if the Clinton legacy in the area of the defense of issues dear to that constituency is objectively credible. We should not ignore the fact that this is a national campaign with mini-campaigns here and there and what will eventually mar or make a candidate is the ability to appeal to the greatest number of voters or potential voters. That in no way suggests an acceptance of questionable tactics that cater to base instincts of racism or sectarianism. If indeed the Clinton camp is trying to whip up racist sentiments against the Obama candidacy, Hilary and her husband deserve to be condemned in the strongest of terms. And I hasten to add that if the question of an egregious racist onslaught on the part of the Clintons is in the realm of conjecture and therefore open to debate, what needs to be done now is for the parties concerned to henceforth strive to avoid such potentially dangerous gimmicks. It is a brilliant and dignifying move on the part of Senator Obama, his refusal to take the bait of taunts or tactics that may be intended to derail his campaign. Ultimately, what the Afro-American voter needs to consider most is the legacy or track record of either politician, that is Hilary and Obama. Not necessarily that of Bill Clinton. As for the likes of the loathsome Andrew Young, I don't think that their kind of support will have any significant impact. Andrew Young lost any semblance of credibility a long time ago with his active embrace of murderous tyrants in the Obasanjo mould. Young has demonstrated in his dealings with Obasanjo and other African madmen in power that what matters to him is making blood money at the expense of the long-suffering polulations of the African continent. Remember also his reported support for the diabolical Third Term plot of Ali Baba? Andrew Young is a disgrace to the human rights movement. This character is a nauseating presence. Posted by MrOneNaija| 24.01.2008 13:50

dele26  Villager

# 7 =Ruyi Igiehon;4294983208>"Bill Clinton is the first Black President" Another ‘forty winks’ from reality, the black race whether in America or Africa likes to be deceived. If everyone in America is a black man the sobbing Clinton wouldn’t have overtaken Obama. I strongly believe someone who is not black in Obama’s camp started sabotaging his effort after the Iowa's victory Posted by dele26| 24.01.2008 14:21

Auspicious  Villager

# 8 Hi, Folks.. You may wish to throw in a line or two on this same topic HERE. Hopefully y'all catch the Obama Fever with me too. G-OBAMA! I am Auspicious..and I approve this Message. Posted by Auspicious| 24.01.2008 14:30

Frisky Larr  Villager

# 9 Frisky Larr is perhaps naive and unable to the see the sophisticated politics of the Clintons. If Obama had intended to inject racism into the campaign, there is enough even in this article to throw at the Clintons. Frisky Larr is also probably naive about American politics to realize that celebrity endorsement was not invented by Oprah but something that is as old as American pie. -Palamedes Palamedes, What are you talking sir? "Sophistication" is a matter of interpretation. You can go on interpreting several words if you chose to. You just wont be able to run a campaign anymore would you? Every thing you say to attack your opponent will either have a racist or gender undertone. Bill's statement claiming Obama and Hillary are each making their gains because of race and gender will surely not make him a racist and a sexist at the same time. Sometimes naivete may be required to avoid rocking the boat and making unnecessary waves. 2. Who on earth told you Palamedes that Ophrah invented endorsement? Where did you see that insinuated? Are you saying something new sir? Why not understand my point properly before hastily pulling on a response? Posted by Frisky Larr| 24.01.2008 15:11

akuluouno  Villager

# 10 Nooooooooooooooo:exclaim::exclaim::exclaim: Obama was done in by the problems in his papasland Kenya coupled with the tintinabulations of the "Open Sore of the Continent" and I did not mean the giant of the blackman and Africa, Nigeria:D:D:D:D:D Posted by akuluouno| 24.01.2008 15:26

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