The First Black President - so called Bill Clinton. perhaps he wants to keep it that way.
No end in sight for racial divide
By Jerry Zremski NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF
The Buffalo News, April 13, 2008
WASHINGTON — A decade after managing President Bill Clinton’s “Initiative on Race,” Judith Winston is a proud supporter of Sen. Barack Obama — and a disillusioned critic of the former president.
“His instincts for winning have overcome his principles, I think,” Winston said of Clinton, who worked with her on his national dialogue and search for solutions on race in his second term as president.
The former executive director of the race initiative, Winston faults Clinton for trying to boost the presidential candidacy of his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, by highlighting Obama’s race.
Winston is not alone. Of a dozen former leaders of the Clinton race initiative interviewed amid a presidential campaign where the Democratic front-runner is African-American, four are openly supporting Obama — and seven harshly criticized Bill Clinton’s campaign comments.
Three said they support Mrs. Clinton, and while those interviewed expressed great admiration for her, in general they heaped praise on Obama’s much-discussed speech on race and his response to the riled-up rhetoric of his minister, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
But most notably, many of the people who tried to help Bill Clinton heal the country’s centuries-old racial wounds a decade ago fear he has been rubbing salt into those wounds in this campaign.
“He was really trying to get those who are inclined to see race as an issue to do so, to push a button to do that,” said Angela Oh, an Obama backer and Los Angeles attorney who served on the initiative’s board.
Posts
