Bill Clinton has tons of respect for Jimmy Carter. But he doesn’t agree that racism is a driving factor behind angry opposition to President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform agenda.

Like Carter, Clinton is a former Democratic governor of a Southern state who has spent years battling entrenched racism against blacks.

“I sympathize with where President Carter’s coming from. If you’re a white southerner and you’ve fought these battles a long time, you’re super-sensitive to any kind of discrimination based on race,” Clinton, a former Arkansas governor, said in an interview with ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

Carter, a former Georgia governor, raised the issue of race after U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina shouted “You lie” at Obama during the president’s healthcare speech to Congress this month. Thousands of conservatives also rallied in opposition to the president at demonstrations in Washington.

“I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man,” Carter told NBC News.

Obama, the first black U.S. president, later said he believed some opposition had to do with race. But he denied Carter’s charge that racism was a leading factor.

Clinton sounded a similar note.

“Some of the extreme Right who oppose him on healthcare also are racially prejudiced,” said Clinton, who lost his own bid to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system during his first term as president.

“But I believe that if he (Obama) were not an African-American, all the people who are against him on healthcare would still be against him,” he said.

“What’s driving them is: they don’t want healthcare. They don’t want the government, one more time, to take care of people who are left out or left behind. They are philosophically or emotionally — or whatever — opposed to it,” Clinton added.

Clinton said he hopes the current debate will move the United States closer to universal coverage. He would specifically like to see greater use of electronic medical records, better management of chronic diseases that account for the bulk of healthcare costs and a system that encourages care over costly medical procedures.

As for his own foray into healthcare reform, the former president said it all came down to the strength of the Republican opposition led by former Senator Bob Dole of Kansas.

“Senator Dole decided that he wanted to kill all forms of healthcare and he had 45 votes, so he could lose four and still have a filibuster. That’s what really killed healthcare reform,” Clinton said.

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Photo credits: Jim Young/Reuters (Clinton and Obama); David Mercado/Reuters (Carter)

President Barack Obama has sought to distance himself from Jimmy Carter’s recent comment that some of the anger directed at him over the summer is because he is a black man.

But he couldn’t avoid the issue when he appeared on the “Late Show with David Letterman” on Monday. His host put it to him straight, but with a healthy dose of good humor.

“Was Jimmy Carter onto something … was this unease or poor decorum rooted in racism, or is that just something to talk about?” Letterman asked.

“It’s important to realize that I was actually black before the election,” Obama answered.

“Really?” said Letterman.  “This is true,” Obama said.

“How long have you been a black man?,” Letterman asked.

        –  Pause for laughter from the audience  –

“So the American people, I think, gave me this extraordinary honor. That tells you a lot, I think, a lot about where the country is at,” Obama continued, before the interview moved on to serious issues: healthcare and Afghanistan.

Reuters photo by Kevin Lamarque.

Former President Jimmy Carter said out loud what Democrats had been whispering for a while, that the protests against the country’s first black president are tinged with racism.

Carter’s forceful words threw the issue into the forefront of public debate.

“I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he’s African American,” Carter said in an interview on NBC.

While others had raised the issue, it wasn’t until Carter’s blunt words that it reached a crescendo as loud as the protests.

Carter mentioned his southern roots in saying ”that racism inclination still exists” in the country and many white people believe African Americans are not qualified to be president.

Critics of Obama have protested at town hall meetings around the country, rallied in Washington, and even yelled out on the floor of the House of Representatives (Congressman Joe Wilson’s “you lie”).

Michael Steele, the first black chairman of the Republican National Committee, issued a statement that said: “President Carter is flat out wrong. This isn’t about race. It is about policy.”

Steele accused Democrats of trying to shift attention away from the president’s unpopular healthcare plan.

“Characterizing Americans’ disapproval of President Obama’s policies as being based on race is an outrage and a troubling sign about the lengths Democrats will go to disparage all who disagree with them,” he said.

Obama did not respond to a shouted question by a reporter about Carter’s racism comments.

UPDATE: White House spokesman Robert Gibbs says that Obama doesn’t believe the criticism is racist. “The president does not believe that it’s based on the color of his skin.”

Is there an objective barometer for whether a protest is based on racism or policy?

What do you think? Are the protests about race or policy or both?

Click here for more Reuters political coverage

Photo Credit: Reuters/Eric Thayer (Carter at 2008 Democratic National Convention), Reuters/Molly Riley (Steele after being elected RNC chairman in January)

Some of President Barack Obama’s more demonstrative opponents list any number of reasons why they oppose him and why they’re angry — from the bank bailout, to his plan to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system, the direction the country is heading and the ballooning U.S. deficit. But former President Jimmy Carter thinks a lot of the opposition is really about Obama’s race.

“I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man,” Carter said in an NBC interview on Tuesday.

Here’s what the Georgia Democrat had to say:
“I live in the South, and I’ve seen the South come a long way, and I’ve seen the rest of the country that share the South’s attitude toward minority groups at that time, particularly African Americans. “And that racism inclination still exists. And I think it’s bubbled up to the surface because of the belief among many white people, not just in the South but around the country, that African-Americans are not qualified to lead this great country. It’s an abominable circumstance, and it grieves me and concerns me very deeply.”

Click here for the NBC video.

Disputes over race are not unheard of in U.S. presidential politics. Click here for a list of some of them.

Click here for more Reuters Political News.
Photo Credit: Reuters/Tami Chappell (Carter at a baseball game in Atlanta in June)

WASHINGTON - Rev. Joseph Lowery was back on stage with a president, but on Tuesday the civil-rights pioneer used his wry rhymes to welcome the U.S. leader, not skewer him as he did three years ago. 

Lowery, who co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with Martin Luther King Jr., delivered the benediction at Barack Obama’s inauguration as first black U.S. president.

Lowery prayed for healing from a era of “greed and corruption,” and asked, in verse, for divine help toward a new beginning of racial harmony:

“We ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get in back, when brown can stick around, when yellow will be mellow, when the red man can get ahead, man; and when white will embrace what is right,” Lowery said to laughter from the vast audience.

In 2006, speaking before then-president George W. Bush and three former presidents at the funeral of King’s widow, Coretta Scott King, Lowery delivered a stern rebuke to Bush’s conduct of the Iraq war and domestic policy.

“We know now there were no weapons of mass destruction over there. But Coretta knew, and we know, that there are weapons of misdirection right down here. Millions without health insurance. Poverty abounds. For war billions more, but no more for the poor,” he said then.

Critics charged that the remarks were out of place at a funeral. Lowery defended them as relevant to Mrs. King’s life.

Also speaking at the inauguration was evangelical pastor Rick Warren, who said in his invocation that “Dr. King and a great cloud of witnesses are shouting in Heaven” over Obama’s historic presidency.

Gay-rights supporters had criticized Obama for awarding the inaugural showcase to Warren, an influential supporter of a successful ballot measure to ban gay marriage in California.

But Lowery got the last word, and a chorus of Amens.

Photo credit: REUTERS/Jason Reed (Lowery speaks at Obama inauguration, Jan. 20)

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WASHINGTON - Republican presidential hopeful John McCain had previously made it clear he was a big admirer of civil rights leader Rep. John Lewis — but now not so much.

Lewis, a Georgia Democrat, said late last week that he was disturbed by the negative tone of the Republican’s campaign, accusing McCain and his running mate Sarah Palin of “sowing the seeds of hatred and division” and that it reminded him of the segregationist era of Alabama Gov. George Wallace.

The lawmaker later clarified his remarks, saying he did not compare the two to Wallace and that his purpose was to remind candidates that “toxic language can lead to destructive behavior.”

That clarification didn’t seem to make much difference.  In an interview with CNN late Monday, McCain fired back calling Lewis’ accusations “so far out of bounds and so disturbing.”

“It stopped me in my tracks,” McCain said in the interview. “I never believed that John Lewis, who is an American hero, who I admire, would every make a comment of that nature.  He even referred to the bombing of a church in Birmingham.  That’s unacceptable.  It is totally unacceptable.  And of course I’m not going to accept it and I’m going to reject it.”

He noted Lewis was a widely respected member of the Democratic Party, not a fringe element on a rant.

“I’m so disappointed in Congressman John Lewis who I have admired and respect. This is not just some obscure party official.  And that’s what’s so totally unacceptable about it,” McCain said. 

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.   

- Photo credit: Reuters/Carlos Barria (McCain at a rally in Virginia Beach on Monday)

Fiery sermons didn’t drive Barack Obama away from his church, but they did unnerve one other prominent parishioner — media mogul Oprah Winfrey.

According to Newsweek, Winfrey stopped attending Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ in the 1990s in part because she wanted to distance herself from the incendiary views of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

“She’s always been aware that her audience is very mainstream, and doing anything to offend them just wouldn’t be smart,” one anymous source tells the magazine. “She’s been around black churches all her life, so Rev. Wright’s anger-filled message didn’t surprise her. But it just wasn’t what she was looking for in a church.”

Wright, of course, is the preacher whose racially charged denunciations of the U.S. government have caused such heartburn for Obama’s bid for the Democratic nomination since they were made public in March. Evidently Winfrey, an Obama supporter, wanted to avoid a conflict of her own.

But Oprah had other reasons for leaving as well, another anonymous source tells Newsweek.

“There is the Church of Oprah now,” the longtime friend says. “She has her own following.”

Photo: REUTERS/Danny Moloshok (Winfrey campaigns for Obama in Los Angeles, April 2)

INDIANAPOLIS - Rock star John Mellencamp played for Hillary Clinton in his home state of Indiana on Saturday, just a few days after he played for her rival, Barack Obama.

“This country’s got to change, and you’re the people who can change it,” he told a crowd of Clinton supporters shivering in an evening chill in White River State Park in Indianapolis.

Mellencamp, an Indiana native who still lives in the state, then launched into “Our Country,” a song often played at Clinton campaign events.

The song begins: “”Well, I can stand beside ideals I think are right, and I can stand beside the idea to stand and fight. I do believe there’s a dream for everyone. This is our country.”

Mellencamp has not endorsed either Clinton or Obama. He played for an Obama campaign event on April 22 in Evansville, Indiana.

The musician, known for his involvement in Farm Aid and his support for U.S. soldiers, campaigned for John Edwards before the former North Carolina senator dropped out of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. Mellencamp also has spoken out against President George W. Bush and the Iraq war.

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage 
 

Photo: Reuters/Jeff Haynes

WASHINGTON - The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama’s former pastor, pinned the blame on the media for the controversy over his fiery sermons, saying they misinterpreted his remarks and the ensuing criticism was an attack on the black church.
 
Obama has tried to distance himself from Wright, criticizing him for remarks that have included charges that the Sept. 11 attacks were an act of retaliation for U.S. policy and that the government may have created the AIDS virus to kill black people.
 
On Monday, Wright argued during a National Press Club speech that reporters did not listen to his entire sermons so they did not understand the context of his remarks and that people who question his patriotism are off the mark.
 
“I feel that those citizens who say that have never heard my sermons, nor do they know me.  They are unfair accusations taken from sound bites and that which is looped over and over again on certain channels,” he said. “I served six years in the military.  Does that make me patriotic?”

“How many years did Cheney serve?” he said, referring to Vice President Dick Cheney’s deferrals from the military draft. For his full remarks, click here. 
 
Does Wright’s remarks clear the air, does it help or hurt Obama, or has the issue run its course? 

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage. 

- Photo credit: Reuters/Larry Downing (Wright speaks to the National Press Club).

Bill Clinton is making news again.

Campaigning for his wife Hillary in Pennsylvania, the former president accused the Obama campaign of “playing the race card” and later lashed out at a reporter who asked him about his comments.

Could this hurt Hillary’s prospects in the must-win Keystone state, which holds its nominating contest today?

Bill Clinton was so popular among African Americans during his time in the White House that he was sometimes known as “the first black president,” but much of that goodwill evaporated after the racially charged South Carolina primary in January.

Many blacks were angered when he compared Barack Obama to Jesse Jackson, seeing it as an attempt to marginalize a black candidate who has drawn white support. Bill said he meant no offense, and later accused the Obama campaign of trying to take advantage of the remarks.

Bill took a lower-profile role in his wife’s campaign for several weeks after his run-ins with reporters who asked him about the remarks received prominent news coverage.

But evidently he still feels he was misrepresented.

When asked on Monday if he had been mistaken to compare Obama to Jackson, the civil rights leader and 1988 presidential candidate, Clinton told Philadelphia’s WHYY radio:

“No, and I think they played the race card on me. … I frankly thought the way the Obama campaign reacted was disrespectful to Jesse Jackson.”

On Tuesday, Obama seemed perplexed by Clinton’s remarks.

“Was there a plan to get him to say that my campaign was like Jesse Jackson’s? I don’t know what he was referring to, unfortunately,” Obama said at a diner in Pittsburgh.

Hillary did not seem so eager to revisit the subject.

“It’s old news. It’s been around for several months now,” she said in a television interview.

Clinton tried to distance himself from the remarks in a testy exchange at the Jewish Community Center in Pittsburgh. Here’s a full transcript, provided by the NBC reporter involved:

NBC reporter Mike Memoli: “Sir what did you mean yesterday when you said that the Obama campaign was playing the race card on you?”

Clinton: “When did I say that, and to whom did I say that?”

Memoli: “On WHYY radio yesterday.”

Clinton: “No, no, no. That’s not what I said. You always follow me around and play these little games, and I’m not going to play your games today. This is a day about election day. Go back and see what the question was, and what my answer was. You have mischaracterized it to get another cheap story to divert the American people from the real urgent issues before us, and I choose not to play your game today. Have a nice day.”

Memoli: “Respectfully sir, though, you did say …”

Clinton: “Have a nice day.” [continues shaking hands with supporters]. “I said what I said, you can go and look at the interview. And if you’ll be real honest, you’ll also report what the question was and what the answer was.”

Memoli: “They asked you if you regretted your comparing Jesse Jackson to Barack Obama on the day after the South Carolina primary.”

Clinton: “And I pointed out that I did not do that, and that I complimented them both. And that Jesse Jackson took no offense. And I called him myself, I said: ‘Did you find that offensive?’ And he said no.”

photo credit: REUTERS/Bradley Bower (Clinton listens to Hillary Clinton address supporters at a Philadelphia rally on April 21)