Barack Obama and the African-American Vote

Hillary Clinton’s victory in New Hampshire came on the backs of a fabulous field organization (a Manchester component made up of Mayor Menino’s political foot-soldiers) who had something to work with. The wave of sympathy for Clinton as an embattled woman.

Going into South Carolina where African-Americans comprise 50% of the Democratic vote, it’s possible that Clinton’s comments about the relative contributions of Martin Luther King and Lyndon Johnson to the civil rights movement could do the same thing among Black voters. Until now, many in the African-American community, particularly older folks, have had questions about Obama, the son of a white Kansan and a Kenyan father.

A reverend and New York Assemblyman, who has endorsed Obama, Karim Camara, told me yesterday he was deluged with calls from constituents and other elected officials stunned by her comments. Camara will go down to South Carolina later this month for Obama and expects to be talking about Clinton with the religious leaders he meets with. “I believe churches are very sensitive to the language we use,” Mr. Camara said. “This can have a tremendous impact in increasing their level of churches in going out and supporting Senator Obama.”

Read more here.

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Stroke of Good Fortune for Edwards

The wind had gone from behind the sails of the John Edwards presidential campaign. Until yesterday. That’s when conservative “columnist” — I guess that what you would call her — came to his rescue.

Speaking to the Conservative Political Action Conference, Coulter quipped, “”I was going to have a few comments on the other Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, but it turns out you have to go into rehab if you use the word ‘faggot,’ so I – so kind of an impasse, can’t really talk about Edwards.”

By 12:15 a.m., the Edwards campaign had spun Coulter’s outrageous, homophobic and childish comment into political gold. I received an email from them with the subject heading “Shame on You, Ann Coulter”.

“This is just a taste of the filth that the right-wing machine is gearing up to throw at us. And now that it’s begun, we have a choice: Do we sit back, or do we fight back?” read the e-mail written by Edwards’ campaign manager, David Bonior. “I say we fight. Help us raise $100,000 in “Coulter Cash” this week to show every would-be Republican mouthpiece that their bigoted attacks will not intimidate this campaign. I just threw in 100 bucks. Will you join me?” Just click here.”

It also provided a link so that recipients could watch Coulter’s comments for themselves.

For an operative like Bonior, a former congressman whom I’m no big fan of, comments like this are a gift from heaven. They motivate the NetRoots and help raise money.

As far as Coulter goes, I’ve been observing her since she just started her legal affairs column in Human Events. She’s a classic provocateur and not necessarily a serious person. Her book Treason rewrote the history of the Cold War in a pernicious way. Lost in her analysis, that liberals were on the wrong side of the struggle against the Soviet Union, is the great heroism of Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, the trade union movement, George Meaney, Lane Kirkland and Henry M. “Scoop” Jackson and Arthur M. Schlesinger, more on whom I will have later this week. Her hero is Joseph McCarthy, who, if anything, did a disservice to the cause of anti-Communism.

I would say more about her and her personality but Gitell.Com does not operate with the benefit of a corporate shield.

If you’re looking for a quick-witted, verbally-fluid, blonde, conservatrix, try Laura Ingraham. I often disagree with her much of the time, but, at least, she’s listenable. She’s smart, and she has a contagious laugh.

Here’s what Glenn Greenwald had to say about the fracas. And Andrew Sullivan’s.