There's a Whole New Attack Dynamic when Presidential Front-Runners Are Not White Males

WASHINGTON — The Obama and Clinton campaigns traded barbs this week over accusations that Bill and Hillary Clinton demeaned the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. This followed complaints by Clinton aides last week that some of the discourse from rivals and the press in New Hampshire was sexist.

Some of this is to be expected, experts say, because there is a whole new dynamic to the political cut and thrust of presidential politics when, for the first time in history, the front-runners are not white males.

"The campaigns and their strategists are plowing new political ground, and seeing what will work - or not - within the realm of race and sex," said Dianne Bystrom, director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics at Iowa State University.

And "when you break new ground, you might find quicksand," added John Pitney, a political science professor at Claremont McKenna College in California.

Indeed, for the past week, Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, the two front-runners for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, have spent virtually no time talking about their competing visions on health care, Iraq, housing and the economy as a result of the dust-up involving Clinton's comments about King.

Clinton and Obama have called a truce, but at least one major Clinton backer, New York Rep. Charlie Rangel, one of the most influential African American members of Congress, is still fanning the flames, accusing Obama of turning the flap into a racial issue.

"How race got into this thing is because Obama said 'race.' But there is nothing that Hillary Clinton has said that baffles me," Rangel said in a television interview Monday night.

Campaigning in New Hampshire, where she scored a surprise victory over Obama last week, Clinton said it took President Johnson to pass civil rights legislation, suggesting that great speeches, like King's and - by implication - Obama's, require action by experienced politicians to achieve results.

Obama said her comments were "ill-advised," and they did not go over well with black leaders, including House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, the highest ranking African American in Congress, who hinted that he might abandon his neutrality in his state's upcoming presidential primary.

On Tuesday, however, Clyburn reiterated his intentions to stay on the sidelines in South Carolina's primary as he sought to move his fellow Democrats beyond the controversy, telling reporters in a conference call that he had talked to Clinton and Obama and urged them to refocus their attention on political issues.

"I am hopeful that these candidates will be allowed to lay out their vision for our country ... and that can't be done if all the focus is on distinguishing factors like race and gender rather than on shared and individual visions" for the country, Clyburn said.

But experts say the whole controversy could not have been avoided once Obama won the Iowa caucus on Jan. 3 and Clinton followed up with a win in New Hampshire, setting the stage for an unprecedented contest for the presidential nomination of a major political party.

"I suppose that it is inevitable, given that there are two 'historic' candidacies happening in the same party ... trying to differentiate themselves on the basis of personality since they are so close on most issues," said Linda Fowler, professor of government at Dartmouth College.

But the new dynamics in the Democratic presidential campaign also reflect the fact that Clinton and Obama are drawing new voters into the process, many of whom may find some kinds of political behavior unacceptable," said noted Democratic pollster Celinda Lake.

"Voters are ahead of the politicians in terms of what they think is appropriate or not," Lake said. "Finally, whole new constituencies have voice now to say, 'Hey, that always bothered me when you said things like that.'"

Such appears to have been the case in New Hampshire when so much attention was paid to Clinton's "emotional" response to a voter's question about the rigors of campaigning on the eve of the state's primary. Turnout among women surged to 57 percent, and Clinton won their votes by a double-digit margin over Obama. Women also apparently were not amused by an Obama quip during a pre-primary debate that Clinton was "likable enough," which many saw as a gender-based dig.

Even in the historic environment of the 2008 Democratic presidential contest, some experts believe it is more acceptable, in fact, to make a sexist remark than a racist one.

"It's always been easier," said Marie Wilson, president of the White House Project, which promotes the advancement of women in politics. "With women, you can get away with it. With race, you can hardly say anything."

Indeed, the rollout of Delaware Sen. Joe Biden's presidential campaign last year hardly recovered from an off-the-cuff compliment he tried to pay Obama that included the word "articulate," a phrase that African Americans sometimes find condescending when applied to them.

"Progress creates dilemmas," Pitney said of the current state of the Democratic race. "Joe Biden faced charges of racism when he said that Obama is 'articulate.' Candidates are on dangerous ground indeed when a word such as 'articulate' can give offense."