December 19, 2002
On Wednesday, Don Bill Clinton wrote off the South for the Democratic Party by weighing in on Trent Lott's statements. He called the GOP hypocrites for turning on Lott, because racism is how they gained a majority in the South. He lumped all of you non-people of color in the South, even if you or your family emigrated there from Ohio just last week, in with the KKK and all those 60s Democrat segregationists.
What does Clinton listing all these examples of supposed tricks to keep Democrat voters away from the polls say about what he thinks of their brains? While we're at it, is Bill Clinton not a son of the South? I guess that despite his efforts to present himself as a Rhodes Scholar (dropout), he's just one of the good old boys that he's now impugning.
After all, Clinton loved J. William Fulbright – an unapologetic segregationist. Clinton says the GOP used the Confederate flag. Never mind that it was Democrat Fritz Hollings who ran that flag up over the statehouse as South Carolina governor. Never mind that Clinton did nothing in his 10 years as Arkansas governor to remove the Confederate star from the state flag - or that the NAACP sued Clinton for failing to enforce the Voting Rights Act! Forget that Carl Limbacher writes in Newsmax.com about Lani Guinier's report on Clinton pandering to segregationist whites.
While people of both races have moved on, the Democrats insist on speaking the language of 1932 on the eve of 2003. They already have the black votes who'll respond to this sewn up, which is why I say that this kind of talk can easily backfire on the Democrats just as Tom Daschle's whining did. James Carville knows this, which is why he forgives Lott. Clinton thinks he's saying positive things to his own Democrats, but this is offensive to the very people they need to have electoral opportunities in the South.