Everything that was right and wrong about Sen. Hillary Clinton’s campaign was on display last week at her first Central Indiana appearance. Where Sen. Barack Obama is the candidate of cool, with an intense, yet understated delivery; Clinton is the hot candidate — energetic, sometimes frenetic and fiery, at times calming, yet always in command and control.
I watched Clinton’s appearance in the historic Wigwam gymnasium at Anderson High School as she regaled a large crowd of loyal Democrats, the majority women. Watching their faces when Clinton spoke, I saw the pride in their eyes as they watched their dreams, hopes and aspirations embodied in perhaps the first woman president of the United States.
You can’t underestimate the pride women have in Hillary Clinton’s campaign. It mirrors the pride Blacks see in Obama’s campaign. And keeping women and Blacks in the Democratic fold is going to be rough, given the growing contentiousness of this campaign.
Clinton hit all the right notes speaking to working class Democrats from an Indiana area hurt hard by the global economy. But Clinton’s speech also showed what’s wrong with her campaign.
On one hand she reminded us about the ‘90s, (Bill Clinton’s administration) when people “were working” and “we had budget surpluses.” On the other hand, she sounded like Lou Dobbs, railing against the NAFTA agreement Bill pushed and approved. Hillary attacked free trade policies that have made us debtors to China, the Middle East and “even Mexico.” Free trade policies were eagerly pursued by her husband.
And as I looked around the storied Wigwam, a striking fact stood out — the paucity of African-Americans there.
There were roughly 150 Blacks in a crowd estimated by the Anderson Herald Bulletin newspaper at between 5,000 and 6,000. In a city, Anderson, that’s 15.4 percent Black, in a county, Madison, that’s 8.8 percent Black, Hillary Clinton couldn’t muster more than a handful of Blacks.
I wasn’t the only one who noticed. During Clinton’s speech, I sat next to Gail Sheehy, author of the landmark book Passages and a contributing editor for Vanity Fair Magazine. Sheehy openly wondered about the lack of racial diversity at a Democratic presidential candidate rally.
In the Clinton campaign’s opening days here, Hillary, Bill and Chelsea conspicuously avoided Indiana’s two major African-American population centers — Lake and Marion counties. And her campaign disrespected Black media by granting interviews to local general market newspapers and television stations, but no interviews to Black media.
“She’ll give one to you soon,” Clinton campaign spokesman Jonathan Swain told me, despite knowing that both John McCain and Barack Obama took direct questions from Black media on their area visits.
I suspect the realists of the Clinton campaign have written off winning Indiana’s Black vote. After the uproar over Dr. Jeremiah Wright and the eloquent speech Obama gave to defuse the controversy, Black support for Obama is hardening. Sen. Evan Bayh’s popularity and charm won’t move Hoosier Black voters to Clinton. As I told Sheehy, Bayh’s support among Blacks is a mile wide and an inch deep.
If Clinton wins Indiana, it won’t be because of Black voters. In fact Black anger over Clinton (more over Bill’s hurtful words than Hillary’s) and the anger against conservative attacks against Black ministers may cause an ever-larger Black turnout May 6 than anyone imagines.
Since Sunday morning is America’s most segregated time, most whites never hear a Black minister. Whites can’t judge Black preachers by televangelists like Creflo Dollar, T.D. Jakes and Frederick Price. They’re the exception, not the rule of Black ministers and theologians.
It’s true that what Dr. Jeremiah Wright said could be heard in other Black churches — freestanding and storefront. But what the soundbites don’t reveal is how all those allegedly fiery sermons end, including Rev. Wright’s, with the message of hope, redemption and forgiveness of the Gospels of Jesus Christ.
I’m sure that John McCain’s and Hillary Clinton’s minister (who are they by the way?) have preached some sermons McCain and Clinton abhorred. But that doesn’t make McCain and Clinton’s faith stronger or weaker than Obama’s.
When I read Obama’s speech 30 minutes before he gave it, I realized it was a speech my granddaughters’ children will read about in school. It was a defining moment in this campaign.
At least Obama had the guts to speak frankly about race in America. Will Clinton and McCain show those same guts? Or will their campaigns continue to pander to our racial fears instead of our shared racial hopes?
What I’m hearing in the streets
In Indianapolis’ first ever special election, African-American turnout was higher than the entire district. Turnout in Black-majority precincts in the 7th Congressional District was 18.5 percent compared with 18.2 percent overall. Turnout was highest in Black-majority precincts in Center Township (21.7 percent), Washington Township (20.3 percent) and Pike Township (18.6 percent).
Congressman Andre Carson got 76 percent of the vote from Black-majority precincts. But unlike incorrect reporting from other media, the bulk of Carson’s Black-majority precinct votes didn’t come from Center Township. The vast majority, 70.4 percent came from Black-majority precincts outside of Center Township.
Black-majority precincts accounted for 57.1 percent of Carson’s total votes, while the district’s white-majority precincts contributed 42.9 percent of Carson’s total votes.
In February, I wrote that Mayor Greg Ballard’s brood was “pushing to eviscerate one of Indianapolis’ most hallowed civic institutions.” I’m hearing they’ve enlisted the help of the sibling of a powerful GOP politician to oversee the destruction of the Indianapolis institution that’s contributed to every positive Indianapolis initiative for nearly 50 years.
Congressman Andre Carson allowed the Clinton campaign to roll him when they had him sit behind the candidate at her Anderson appearance. When Carson attended Obama’s Plainfield rally, he sat in the audience, not behind the candidate. Carson, who’s still a neutral superdelegate, should have sat in the audience at Clinton’s event with other political VIPs.
See ‘ya next week.
Amos Brown’s opinions are not necessarily those of the Indianapolis Recorder Newspaper. You can contact him at (317) 221-0915 or by e-mail at ACBROWN@AOL.COM.
