Many think rift with African American voters mended
COLUMBIA, South Carolina (CNN) -
To hear some tell it, the 2008 South Carolina primary clash between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton was a few steps away from a full-blown race riot.
"It was unbelievable down here in 2007 and 2008," said Bridget Tripp, a Democratic organizer from Lexington who supported Obama in that year's primary. "Bill Clinton was going through downtown Columbia calling Barack Obama a racist."
It never got that bad, of course. But in the run up to the contest and in its aftermath, the Clinton campaign scrambled to explain away comments that rankled the black community: Hillary Clinton seeming to downplay Martin Luther King Jr.'s role in passing the Civil Rights Act, Bill Clinton's biting characterization of Obama's campaign as "the biggest fairy tale I've ever seen," and a range of remarks from Clinton allies that seemed to belittle Obama's achievements.
Bill Clinton's remarks in particular went over so poorly that South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn, then the state's highest-ranking African-American in Congress, went on national television and told the former president to "chill." The morning after Obama's crushing 28-point victory, Bill Clinton waved it off in glib terms, comparing Obama to Jesse Jackson, just another black candidate with black support.
The loss was a stinging defeat for the Clintons, a Southern power couple who viewed their long-standing friendships in the African-American community as crucial bulwark against any Democratic foe.
But African-American voters were suddenly flocking to Obama in the wake of his Iowa caucus victory, a win that made the prospect of electing the nation's first black president suddenly seem real. Black voters made up more than half of the South Carolina primary electorate, and Obama won almost 80% of them.
The Democratic primary fight went on for months, but Obama banked a decisive delegate lead and Clinton never recovered from the loss.
Clinton supporters have fresh bounce in their step
Six years on, as Clinton considers a second presidential bid, the battle scars here have largely healed over.
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