Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and former Sen. John Edwards share a light moment during an NAACP Martin Luther King Jr. Day rally in Columbia, South Carolina, Jan. 21 2008. (Photo: EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/Getty Images)
by John McCormick
COLUMBIA, S.C. – It was cold this morning, but still not that chilly among the three Democratic presidential candidates who spoke on the steps of the state capitol here to celebrate Martin Luther King Day.
In a critical nomination-battle state, Sen. Barack Obama and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards first came out together to sit and wait and wait and wait for their turn to speak.
About 10 minutes later, Sen. Hillary Clinton arrived at the "King Day at the Dome" event.
But as she was preparing to sit down, Edwards and Obama got up and left the capitol steps, apparently almost frozen after waiting through lengthy speeches by civil rights activists.
As they passed Clinton behind view of the public, she patted them on the backs. Obama told her that he was leaving to "thaw out." Clinton responded, politely, saying something close to "You go thaw out."
The former first lady, wearing a thicker coat than her male competitors, then sat down, although she returned back inside to warm up shortly later.
When it was finally time for the candidates to speak, they came back outside. Obama spoke first, and left immediately after he finished. Edwards was second, and he stayed to listen to Clinton.
None of the candidates said anything about the Confederate flag that was flying above them, a tradition they are likely to be asked about in a debate tonight.
"True unity cannot be purchased on the cheap," Obama said. "It starts by changing attitudes."
Obama mostly stuck to the speech that he had delivered the day before at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.
"I have to be hopeful to be standing here today," he said. "I didn't come from a lot of money. I didn't come from power or privilege. I was raised by a single mother. They gave me love, they gave me education and they gave me a whole lot of hope."
After noting that he was "proud to be a native son," Edwards said he was proud of other changes in the state, a riff that he has also used elsewhere.
"To be able to be on a stage at the state capitol in Columbia, S.C., my native state, on the stage with an extraordinary and talented young man who is running for the presidency of the United States and who is African America, makes me so proud of my state and my country and it says such good things about the progress that we have made in America," he said. "I am also so proud to be on the stage with a woman who has opportunity to speak on behalf of so many women whose voices have been left unheard, whose voices have been muffled. All of these things show the progress that we have made in the United States of America. We have progress left to make. We have work left to do."
Clinton told the crowd of several thousand that it was time to act in an urgent way. By the time Clinton spoke, the temperature had risen to 40 degrees.
"We cannot afford to wait any longer," she said. "It is time for us, not only to stand up and speak out, but to act and to vote. And I hope every single eligible voter in the state South Carolina will vote on this Saturday. Make sure your voices and your votes are heard and counted."
As the other candidates did, Clinton repeatedly mentioned King's legacy. "Dr. King didn't back down from the hard work, and neither can we," she said.
Earlier in the morning, Obama had marched a few blocks to the capitol with campaign supporters, after departing from Zion Baptist Church.
It was a chaotic scene with members of the media and public swarming around Obama, clearly triggering nervousness on the part of his Secret Service detail, which was forced to push and yell at people at times to keep a small buffer around him.
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Comments
Flying the Confederate Flag above a ceremony to honor Dr. King's legacy is akin to flying the Nazi flag over a ceremony to honor US veterans of World War 2. That flag represents everything that King fought against. The State of South Carolina should be ashamed to have flown that flag over their Capitol on this day of all days.
Posted by: Luke | January 21, 2008 2:26 PM
Martin Luther King, Jr., talked about his dream of living in a nation where people will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
Barack Obama ran and won in the Iowa caucus by promising to unite "red" states and "blue" states in a common national cause.
Then he was ambushed by the Clintons, who knowing there are more white voters than black voters in the country, sought to define Obama as the "black" candidate.
( As Newsweek is reporting, Sen. Ted Kennedy has accused Bill Clinton of injecting race into the campaign. See: http://www.newsweek.com/id/96385])
Frankly, it makes me sick to my stomach that race is being used--in 2008!--in a Democratic contest.
And now we have the Clintons will parade in front of black audiences on MLK Day, claiming that it was all one big misunderstanding.
We know what the meaning of "is" is. And this "is" wrong!!!
Martin Edwin "Mick" Andersen
Posted by: Martin Edwin "Mick" Andersen | January 21, 2008 2:38 PM
Great photo-op event to keep up appearances. Typical manuever by a Democrat; appear at event, spout out that they care, then offer nothing in the way of substance.
Posted by: Ben R. | January 21, 2008 3:06 PM
To poster Mick who said "Barack Obama ran and won in the Iowa caucus by promising to unite "red" states and "blue" states in a common national cause.""
I grew up in Iowa and attended undergrad and grad school there. The attention Iowans receive every four years is always amusing, but the the Iowa Caucus is a joke.
Iowans, especially college students, like to try and shake things up because it gives Iowa the only attention it EVER receives in the national press.
Fact is, without a sitting president running, the winner of the caucus becomes president only 50 percent of the time. Toss a coin, it's the same odds. Iowa means nothing.
Posted by: Greg Pajore | January 21, 2008 3:56 PM
Great photo-op event to keep up appearances. Typical manuever by a Democrat; appear at event, spout out that they care, then offer nothing in the way of substance.
Posted by: Ben R. | January 21, 2008 3:06 PM
Give me a break. How is this any different than Bush's "photo-op" with kids? (see swamp picture and story just before this one)
All these events are politicized by both parties and all candidates. It's sad, but true.
Posted by: Steve34 | January 21, 2008 4:00 PM
Hey Mick -- If the Obama campaign didn't seek to inject race into the campaign, why did staffers develop a four-page strategy memo on what to attack as racist -- including "fairy tale," of all things?
Clearly Obama sought to create a race riot to ensure SC African Americans vote for him.
He strategy may work in SC -- although I hope African Americans are smarter than to take his race bait -- but it won't work in the long term. I can't imagine four years of race games under an Obama adminstration.
Posted by: Monique | January 21, 2008 4:15 PM
Steve34: I agree with your point that both parties are guilty of this. However, I hold the Democrats to task on this because they always prop themselves up as the party that cares so deeply about race relations. That if your a Democrat, that automatically means you care about the plight of any underprivileged.
They always give nice speeches on how they care, but there is never any substance to it. What have they done to warrant themselves as the party that leads on these social issues? Actions should speak louder than words, but in the past, image has been everything for some reason.
Posted by: Ben R. | January 21, 2008 4:54 PM
i think i'll go over to South Carolina and carry a nazi flag with a giant poster of hitler, along with my white friend who will carry his confederate flag and his poster of hickaberry. i wonder how well that'll go over with those good old southern folks.
Posted by: whitley hocky | January 21, 2008 5:23 PM
Greg Pajore claims all Iowans hold the U.S. election system in contempt, useful only as an excuse to "shake things up". Not the Iowans I know, Greg.
Monique, you have your sequence of events wrong. After repeated 'moments' by the Clintons and their surrogates, always brushed off as 'unintentional', the Obama campaign simply made a list to show it appeared to be forming a pattern.
As the saying goes: "Once is an accident, twice is coincidence, more than that is a trend."
Posted by: Tom J | January 21, 2008 6:21 PM
"After repeated 'moments' by the Clintons and their surrogates, always brushed off as 'unintentional', the Obama campaign simply made a list to show it appeared to be forming a pattern."
Ohh I feel better now. Obama made a good attempt at making a mounting out of a mole hill. Even if it was warranted, I'm sure his good judgment saw what making a list complied of race related "events" would do once the public got a look at it. Put the issue of race at the fore front of the race.
Posted by: river bend | January 21, 2008 8:04 PM
Luke, find me one instance where Dr. King spoke out against the Confederate flag. There were too many real issues of discrimination to contend with, and still are. The flag is a symbol of heritage for Southerners, just like on Columbus day no one gripes about Italian flags in parades, even though Italy gave us Mussolini! It is an insult to Jews to equate the institution of slavery, which has been practiced all over the world since the dawn of civilization, with the desire to exterminate, systematically, an entire race.
http://soundbitesouth.blogspot.com/
Posted by: McDonald Hartley Lucas | January 22, 2008 11:49 AM