The nation's first elected Black governor said Saturday he is not ready to excuse comments former President Bill Clinton made about Senator Barack Obama. "Barack Obama is not a fairy tale. He is real," former Virginia Governor Douglas Wilder told reporters at a Democratic fundraiser.
In campaigning for his wife last month on the eve of the New Hampshire primary, Clinton called Obama's opposition to the Iraq war "a fairy tale." Clinton suggested Obama had toned down his early anti-war fervor during his 2004 Senate campaign.
Wilder, the grandson of slaves, who was elected in 1989 in what was once the Confederate capital, endorsed Obama last month. Now Richmond's mayor, Wilder's comments still get the attention of the state's Black voters.
Clinton also implied that an Obama victory in South Carolina would amount to a reward based on race. Wilder said the former president's comments stung him and other Black voters and diminished their respect for the former president.
In stops across Virginia, Clinton was careful Saturday to avoid any comment remotely critical of his wife's rival for the Democratic presidential nomination. Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia hold primaries Tuesday.
Friends and supporters get a little in the heat of battle, wouldn’t you say? The old saying that “sticks and stones will break your bones, but words will never hurt you” doesn’t quite ring true in the game of politics.
No comments:
Post a Comment