Something was nagging me about
Bill Clinton’s devious little comparison Saturday morning, as the South Carolina polls were opening, of
Barack Obama with
Jesse Jackson, and how Jackson had won South Carolina in 1984 and 1988. And then I remembered what it was: Clinton won South Carolina the next cycle, in 1992. And if you think he has forgotten that, think again. Here’s a direct quote from Clinton, transcribed from my tape recorder, which he gave at the very start of his remarks to a largely black audience in the black-majority town of Kingstree, SC, on the evening of January 23, less than 72 hours before he offered his curious, Jackson-Obama analogy:
“I thank the people of South Carolina who supported me in the past. I think the second primary I won in 1992 was the South Carolina primary. I lost the first four of five elections in the primaries in 1992, the whole season, and the people here have been very good to me and I’m grateful.”
So, yes, I guess the “black candidate” does win South Carolina every time: Since 1984 at least, that means, Jackson, Clinton,
Al Gore and now Obama—bruthas, all. And yet, in just 16 years, winning South Carolina in Clinton’s own mind has gone from a key, catapulting victory to just an insignificant state because the black guy always wins it.
--Tom Schaller 
