The Obama Phenomenon: Toward a Multiracial Democracy

7. Opportunity Costs: The Impact of the 2008 Campaign on the Legacy of William Jefferson Clinton

SEVEN Opportunity Costs The Impact of the 2008 Campaign on the Legacy of William Jefferson Clinton SCHARN RObiNSON He entered office in no small part because of them.1 He made them many campaign promises in order to get elected and to gain re-election. By the time his tenure as president was over, some of those promises had been broken. However, they still respected and admired him. After all, William Jefferson Clinton seemed to understand the needs and wants of the African American community as no president had before him. This was a welcome change for African Americans after seemingly tone-deaf Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush left office. At the very least, Clinton knew how to speak to the condition of African Americans, even if his actual policies and practices did not always advance their causes. As he left office in 2001, Clinton’s positive legacy of social and economic inclusiveness was very much intact in the African American community. Moreover, his relationship with and treatment of African Americans stood as a shining part of what would become the Clinton legacy. That is, until the 2008 presidential campaign season. When President Clinton waged war on behalf of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Democratic nomination, he found that the political landscape had changed. The Clintons approached the campaign like any other. They are still some of the most formidable people on earth in a political battle. During the 2008 THE 2008 CAMPAigN AND biLL CLiNTON . 127 primary season, they made no modification in their approach to the main opponent, Barack Obama. President Clinton failed to read the tea leaves as he campaigned for Senator Clinton. He appeared to make little accommodation in his combative campaign style for the fact that Obama was being treated like the crown prince by American journalists and the Democratic Party. As Jonathan Alter, a writer for News Week, observed: Democrats of all stripes [had] a psychic interest in Obama’s success. even if they’re not for him, they’re proud of him and of themselves for being in his party. This turned out to be a miscalculation. They will not appreciate efforts to take him out, which put the Clinton campaign in an excruciating bind. The harder they hit Obama, the more they reinforce[d] the impression that all their campaign [was] about [was] a grubby struggle to keep their power in the Democratic Party.2 President Clinton attacked Obama’s record and experience on the campaign trail and seemed genuinely surprised by the backlash he received inside the party. Clinton found himself explaining incidents of political sparring between the Clinton camp and the Obama camp that needed no explanation against other opponents. African American loyalty to the Clintons had been substantially modified by the presence of Barack Obama. As President Clinton took to the campaign trail on behalf of Senator Clinton in South Carolina, he made gross miscalculations about the nature and strength of the Clintons’ support among African Americans. President Clinton also seemed to lack appreciation for the greater relative strength of Obama’s symbolic appeal to African Americans. In the midst of an ongoing heated exchange with Obama about his administration’s economic legacy and focused on working to gather votes for Senator Clinton, Clinton made a series of racially charged statements that created a political firestorm. Chief among them was his analogy of Barack Obama’s campaign to Jesse Jackson’s presidential bids in 1984 and 1988. In the aftermath of the South Carolina primary, questions were repeatedly raised about whether the president could ever repair the damage his divisive comments caused to his legacy.3 Senator Clinton’s Nomination as an Affirmation of President Clinton’s Legacy As the Clinton years drew to a close, the scandals that rocked his presidency began to overshadow great success on both the foreign and domestic fronts. Presidential historians suggested that the scandals of the Clinton years could inflict great damage on history’s assessment of Clinton’s tenure as president.4 President Clinton has spent the ensuing years not only championing great 128 . SCHARN RObiNSON causes literally all over the world, but also acting to protect and, where necessary , restore his legacy. Indeed, President Clinton has used many forums to underscore and further advance the accomplishments of his administration. How history remembers Clinton’s tenure as president is now the main prism through which President Clinton...