Clinton, Obama promise unity against GOP in interviews with North Carolina Black press
by Cash Michaels - Special to the NNPA from the Carolinian
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (NNPA) — In perhaps their most heartfelt assurances thus far amid growing party concerns, presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama promised that whoever loses their rough-and-tumble contest for the Democratic Party’s nomination will passionately urge their most ardent supporters — many of whom say they will not vote for a Democratic nominee they oppose — to put aside their bitter feelings and join forces with rival Democrats to beat the Republicans.
Phyllis Coley, publisher of Spectacular Magazine in Durham, and Mason McCullough, poublisher of the Iredell County News, listen to Sen. Clinton as she shares her views on the issues on April 28 during the NC Black Publishers Association’s 2008 NC Black Press Presidential Roundtable.
“We did fight the good fight,” Clinton told National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) member The Carolinian she would tell her disheartened supporters if she lost her historic bid to become the first female president of the United States. “And I am proud of the support I have and am very grateful for everyone who worked for me and voted for me.
“But now we have to close ranks and come together, because this is bigger than me, it’s bigger than Senator Obama, [and] it is bigger than any of my supporters or his.”
Sen. Clinton’s extraordinary statement came April 28 as she was still fighting mightily against Obama and her critics to keep her presidential campaign alive past this week’s crucial May 6 primaries in North Carolina and Indiana.
In a separate interview, Sen. Obama, who, despite his substantial lead in the delegate race, could still lose the nomination to Sen. Clinton if a majority of the undecided superdelegates swing her way, agreed that the ultimate goal for all Democrats is to defeat presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain in November.
Sen. Obama talks about his vision for America April 29 during the NC Black Publishers Association’s 2008 NC Black Press Presidential Roundtable.
“This campaign is not about myself or Senator Clinton,” the Illinois Democrat told The Carolinian April 29. “It’s about the American people and the struggles they’re going through. What I am convinced of is that we cannot afford four more years of the same policies that we’ve seen under George W. Bush, and that’s essentially what John McCain is offering.”
Well aware that he was speaking to Black North Carolina voters, the majority of whom overwhelmingly support Obama but have vowed to sit out the general election if he is denied the Democratic Party’s nomination that they feel he has rightfully earned, Obama said, “We have no choice when it comes to sitting out. We are doing this for our children and our grandchildren.”
Both Clinton and Obama, who are engaged in an all-out battle to convince party superdelegates who would be the most viable candidate in November, made their comments exclusively last week during the first ever two-day North Carolina Black Publishers Association (NCBPA) 2008 NC Black Press Presidential Roundtable.
Sen. Clinton met with publishers and reporters from the 10-member organization — many of whom are NNPA members — April 28 in Greensboro, while Sen. Obama welcomed the group the next day in Winston-Salem.
The sessions were videotaped, with clips posted as of May 1 online at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeWIt-EuYNA
The historic Black press roundtables took place prior to N.C. Gov. Mike Easley’s endorsement of Clinton and Sen. Obama’s “angry” denunciation of his former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, for the latter’s recent controversial appearance at the National Press Club in Washington.
Clinton’s explicit assurance of post-primary unity came amid recent concerns expressed by House Majority Whip Rep. James Clyburn [D-S.C.] and other prominent Democrats that her constant attacks against front-runner Obama, coupled with the divisive tone and tenor of the Democratic primary race thus far, may leave the party divided and the eventual nominee damaged in the general election.
“The conduct of this campaign in Indiana and North Carolina could very well be determinative of what we will have after we get a nominee,” Clyburn, the most powerful African American member of Congress, told MSNBC’s “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” April 25. He added that Democratic Party unity in November would depend on the second-place finisher’s ability to pull the disparate factions together.
“If Hillary Clinton walks off the playing field, Obama is in trouble,” Clyburn said. “If Obama walks off the playing field with Hillary Clinton as the nominee, Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party would be in trouble.”
That same concern was expressed by former Democratic National Committee Chairman Joe Andrew, a prominent Indiana political figure and superdelegate with close ties to Bill and Hillary Clinton, who shocked the Clinton campaign by formally endorsing Sen. Obama, citing concerns about growing party divisions. ”While I was hopeful that a long, contested primary season would invigorate our party, the polls show that the tone and temperature of the race is now hurting us,” Andrew told reporters last week.
A New York Times/CBS News poll April 30 bore this out.
While over 6 in 10 Obama Democratic primary voters say they could back Hillary Clinton if she were chosen as the party’s nominee, only 49 percent of Clinton’s supporters say they would accept Sen. Obama as the Democratic standard bearer.
Fifty percent would be “dissatisfied,” the Times/CBS poll continued, and nearly a quarter would be “very dissatisfied.”
The growing division has even boiled over on popular political Internet blogs like Daily Kos, where Clinton and Obama supporters rhetorically fight tooth and nail over who the ultimate Democratic Party champion should be.
“The Obama-ites exuded the confidence of those who feel that they embody the future and are the seed bearers of energies and new modalities too long smothered under the thick haunches of the
See UNITY/ page 11 tired, old, entrenched way of doing things,” wrote James Wolcott in his piece, “When Democrats Go Post-al” in the June edition of Vanity Fair magazine. “The Hillarions felt a different imperative knocking at the gate of history, the long-overdue prospect of the first woman taking the presidential oath of office.”
“For them,” Wolcott continued, “Hillary’s time had come, she had paid her dues, she had been thoroughly vetted, she had survived hairdos that would have sunk lesser mortals, and she didn’t let a little thing like being loathed by nearly half of the country bum her out and clog her transmission … Democrats have pulled their punches for so long [against the Republicans], “Wolcott adds, “that they know only how to hit themselves in the face …”
On MSNBC, Clyburn warned, “We’re in a very critical point in this process, and if we’re not careful, we could do irreparable harm … We’re trying to do something that’s never been done in this country before.”
That “something” Congressman Clyburn alluded to is the Democratic Party’s effort to elect the first African American or the first female president in the nation’s history, a point that didn’t escape Sen. Clinton in her interview at the NC Black Press Presidential Roundtable. “Whatever differences Sen. Obama and I may have with one another, they pale in comparison with the differences we have with Sen. McCain and the Republican Party,” she said. “There isn’t a person who voted for me or voted for Senator Obama, who did not vote for some reason that Senator McCain does not believe in.
“Maybe they voted for universal health care [or] to get the economy turned around. Maybe they voted for a very aggressive agenda to improve education; maybe they voted to take the tax cuts from the wealthiest Americans and put them back in the hands of middle-class working people. Whatever your reason for voting for either of us, that is a reason to vote for us as Democrats.
“I am going to be so explicit, and I’m going to campaign hard, and I’m going to speak out, because I believe with all of my heart … that the people of this country will be so much better served by a Democratic president whose last name is one of ours,” she added. “We’re going to go to make that case in every part of America.”
As NC Black Press publishers and reporters listened intently, Sen. Clinton said she fully understood the passion and excitement surrounding the possible election of either the first Black or the first female commander in chief.
“I understand, when you enlist people in a cause like this, especially such an historic election where, for women and African Americans, this has never happened before, we have an embarrassment of riches. It is a good problem to have,” Clinton continued. “And so people do feel it in their hearts and souls; and I think that’s great, because we’ve brought millions of people into this process.”
Adding that even some Republicans have vowed to support either her or Sen. Obama, whoever is nominated, Clinton said both candidates, regardless of how contentious they’ve been, “have done such a great service [for] our party, and we will do a great service to our country. That’s means people have to look very clearly at what the choice will be, and if they look at that choice … Senator McCain is a good man; he has served our country with distinction and great honor; but his ideas are wrong for America … We’re going to say that from the mountaintops to the valleys, and I think people will hear it.”
Sen. Obama acknowledged that while he and his feisty Democratic rival are indeed in a tough battle, “some of these divisions are overstated.”
”We’re in the middle of a nomination battle right now,” he said. “November is an eternity away. I think when you go through a convention and folks are making speeches, people are seen unifying together to talk about the principles behind the Democratic Party, I think that will go a long way toward the healing … This is not a cult of personality; this is not about one particular candidate. I think this is about the need for all of us to get engaged in the political process in ways we haven’t for a very long time.”
Sen. Obama later told the NC Black Press Presidential Roundtable that if, by some chance, he should lose the Democratic Party nomination, he will remain loyal to the party and not mount an independent bid for the presidency.
During the two-day sessions, both Obama and Clinton reaffirmed their support for universal healthcare, though they differ on the method of delivery; commitment to bringing rising gas prices down for the American consumer; and determination to find ways to jump-start the faltering U.S. economy.
The NC Black Publishers Association (NCBPA) member newspapers include The Carolinian of Raleigh, The Wilmington Journal, The Carolina Times of Durham, The Fayetteville Press, The Iredell County News of Statesville, The Carolina Peacemaker of Greensboro, The Winston-Salem Chronicle, The Minority Voice of Greenville, and Greater Diversity News of Wilmington. Spectacular Magazine of Durham is currently an honorary member.
NCBPA President Ernie Pitt, publisher of the Winston-Salem Chronicle, lauded both Democratic candidates for recognizing the importance of the Black press and for sharing their views with North Carolina’s leading African American newspapers.
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