Sen. Barack Obama’s stunning rout of Sen. Hillary Clinton in the South Carolina primary was more then just a small state primary victory before the Feb. 5^th Super Tuesday event. There is no doubt that the South Carolina Democratic electorate is unique because African-Americans make up over 50% of the state’s Democratic electorate. Still, what the nation witnessed as Obama garnered 80% of the Black vote in South Carolina, even as Bill Clinton campaigned heavily there, is the dismantling of Bill Clinton as an icon in the Black electoral community. The race card that the Clintons hoped would drive white voters away from Obama has instead driven Black voters away from the Clintons.

Bill Clinton’s metaphorical title as the nation’s “first Black president” started to tarnish the minute the former president begin to demonize the man who may indeed be the nation’s first Black president. Since Bill Clinton has never experienced discrimination as a Black man, many African-Americans are now registering their disdain for his mythical title. The Clinton campaign’s strategy of lying, hypocritical posturing, and misrepresenting Mr. Obama’s positions on a wealth of issues gave Republicans a chance to say “I told you so’ and had African-Americans saying, “I don’t believe this!” Very few Black voters, many of us who are fond of former President Bill Clinton, ever thought we would witness the kind of bitter, divisive, negative campaign the Clintons have launched against a Black Democrat.  Had this kind of campaign come from anybody other then the Clintons, the Black community would be calling the whole affair racist.

It seems all along that the Clinton campaign’s strategy was to dismantle, discourage, and dismiss Barack Obama by using the enormous power and popularity that the former president has inside the Democratic Party establishment. At first glance this strategy appeared to work.  Just a few short months ago, Hillary Clinton was leading in South Carolina.  Her campaign had hired or been embraced by nearly the entire powerful old guard Black political establishment in the state.  But not even the well oiled and highly successful old guard Black “get out the vote machine” in South Carolina could save Hillary’s campaign from the insulting antics of Bill Clinton.

In the old days, before You Tube and video phones, it was possible to outright lie or spin the truth about your opponent in a political campaign and get away with it.  But the internet changed all of that.  Any and everything a candidate says in public and sometimes in private can be captured and replayed to the world via the internet.  For some odd reason, the Clintons did not grasp this reality.  Thus, when the Clintons went on their self destructive crusade of misrepresenting their own positions and the positions of Obama regarding his voting record and his public statements, the truth was easily verified.  And it was the truth that sunk the Clinton’s in South Carolina.

The Clintons, in an astonishing display of hubris, seem to disregard the fact that their false statements were being taken apart in public.  Instead, they continued to make them.  For two white people who have spent most of their lives working with and around Black folks, the Clintons appeared to not care or not know when their behavior had crossed the line and become insulting to African-Americans.

The race for the Democratic nomination is far from over.  Hillary Clinton may become the Democratic nominee for president.  However, South Carolina proved that a great many Black folks are not happy with the Clintons.  It could not help that Caroline Kennedy, the only surviving offspring of former President John Kennedy, has just endorsed Barack Obama.  That is a stinging rebuke of the Clintons when you consider that Hillary Clinton was a close friend to the late Jackie Kennedy and Bill Clinton clearly patterned his political career after the late John Kennedy, who also happens to be an icon in the Black community.

No matter what kind of media spin is coming out of the Clinton camp, the Clintons have to be concerned about Hillary’s campaign. Many Black Democrats like me feel the Clintons have played a racially divisive game that threatens the entire Democratic Party. Listening to Obama’s victory speech after his South Carolina win, I was struck by the diversity of the audience.  I was even more impressed at how rabid that diverse audience was for Obama’s message. The Clinton campaign has to be concerned with the multi-ethnic coalition that Obama’s campaign has put together.  The Clinton brain thrust has to be worried about Obama’s message of hope, unity, and non-partisanship. And then if you are the Clintons, you have to not only worry about losing an election, but the Clintons face losing a legacy.  At least that is how I see it from South of the Trinity.

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