Clinton and Obama's Clash

Clinton and Obama’s Clash
John Pham

DAVIS (DE)- Up until now, the race for a Democratic presidential nomination has been clean from the issue of race and gender. According to New York Senator Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama’s campaign has added racial tension to this race. She remarked that her comments on Dr. Martin Luther King and his role in the civil rights movement were distorted by Obama’s supporters.

"Dr. King's dream began to be realized when President Lyndon Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964… It took a president to get it done," Clinton said on Fox News .

Her comments have caused outrage in the black community and has even bothered Jim Clyburn, the House Majority Whip.

"We have to be very, very careful about how we speak about that era in American politics," Clyburn said in an interview with the New York Times, “It is one thing to run a campaign and be respectful of everyone's motives and actions, and it is something else to denigrate those."

On NBC’s Meet the Press, Clinton defends her comments while attacking Obama’s campaign.

"This is an unfortunate story line the Obama campaign has pushed very successfully," the former first lady noted, "I don't think this campaign is about gender, and I sure hope it's not about race."

Obama and Clinton seem to be trading blows in this race. Obama’s campaign seems to be pointing out Clinton’s flaws just as the Clinton campaign has similarly done so by suggesting that Obama was a radical Muslim.

With Obama winning Iowa and Clinton taking New Hampshire, both candidates are pushing to get a victory in South Carolina, on January 25th. Recent polls show that Obama is leading in South Carolina with 42 percent over Clinton’s 32 percent.