USA Campaign 2008 - Tensions raciales chez les Démocrates, Hillary Clinton minimise le rôle de Martin Luther King

USA Campaign 2008 - Tensions raciales chez les Démocrates, Hillary Clinton minimise le rôle de Martin Luther King

Voilà qui va accentuer un peu plus les tensions entre les candidats démocrates et notamment entre Hillary Clinton et Barack Obama - cette dernière dans une déclaration minimise le rôle joué par le pasteur assassiné Martin Luther King. Mme Clinton affirme que le rêve de King n'aurait pu être aussi important et se réaliser sans l'action de l'ancien président démocrate Lyndon Baines Johnson qui avait remplacé John F Kennedy après l'assassinat de ce dernier le 22 novembre 1963.

[ series of comments from Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, her husband and her supporters are spurring a racial backlash and adding a divisive edge to the presidential primary as the candidates head south to heavily African-American South Carolina.

The comments, which ranged from the New York senator appearing to diminish the role of Martin Luther King Jr. in the civil rights movement — an aide later said she misspoke — to Bill Clinton dismissing Sen. Barack Obama's image in the media as a “fairy tale” — generated outrage on black radio, black blogs and cable television. And now they've drawn the attention of prominent African-American politicians.] from www.politico.com

Jim E.Clyburn, congressman de la Caroline du Sud et Afro-américain n'a pas vraiment apprécié les propos de Mme Clinton et le fait savoir en sortant de sa réserve. Il était un important activiste de la cause noire pendant ces années de reconnaissance des droits civils.

[WASHINGTON New York Times — Representative James E. Clyburn of South Carolina, the highest-ranking African-American in Congress, said he was rethinking his neutral stance in his state's presidential primary out of disappointment at comments by Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton that he saw as diminishing the historic role of civil rights activists.

Mr. Clyburn, a veteran of the civil rights movement and a power in state Democratic politics, put himself on the sidelines more than a year ago to help secure an early primary for South Carolina, saying he wanted to encourage all candidates to take part. But he said recent remarks by the Clintons that he saw as distorting civil rights history could change his mind.

“We have to be very, very careful about how we speak about that era in American politics,” said Mr. Clyburn, who was shaped by his searing experiences as a youth in the segregated South and his own activism in those days. “It is one thing to run a campaign and be respectful of everyone's motives and actions, and it is something else to denigrate those. That bothered me a great deal.”]

D'autres leaders noirs en veulent également à Bill Clinton (le mari d'Hillary) car ils reprochent à l'ancien président de critiquer Barack Obama. Au New Hampshire cette semaine, l'ancien président a traité le sénateur de l'Illinois de "kid"et qualifié sa campagne de fairy tale (conte de fée). La course à l'investiture démocrate tournera-t-elle en affrontement racial grandissant au fil des primaires? Rien n'est moins sûr. Nico