True but in the 2008 Democratic primary contest, just before the South Carolina primary, the black vote was split 55% for Obama and 45% for Clinton and Clinton was the heavy favorite for the nomination because she had overwhelming support from the super delegates. Then the Obama campaign sent Jim Clyburn out to call Bill Clinton a racist for mocking Obama's qualifications to be president. Overnight, the black vote changed to 95% Obama and 5% Clinton. Super delegates feared that with black voters responding so strongly to the racist charge against Bill Clinton, if Hillary won the nomination they might not show up at the polls and almost overnight Hillary's support among super delegates moved over to the Obama camp and that's what gave him the nomination. So it's fair to say that if Obama had been white he would never have become president or that if he had not played the race card he would never have become president.
You didn't find Clinton's comments racist?
The issue is not whether Clinton's words could have possibly have been interpreted as racist in another context, but whether it was reasonable to think Clinton was a a racist because of one comment that did not necessarily have any racial overtones when after some 40 years in the public eye no one white or black had ever claimed any evidence of racism in anything Clinton had said or done.
If I remember correctly, Clinton in deriding Obama's qualifications to be president said something like a few years ago he wouldn't have been qualified to carry our bags, which is a comment one might make about anyone thought to be unqualified regardless of race. In another context one might think this was a reference to black people only being qualified to be servants, but in the context of Bill Clinton's long public history, making that assumption has to be seen as either being bizarre or, itself, racist. A more reasonable assumption, given Clinton's long public history, is that he was careless of possible accusations of racism because he was not a racist and believed he had establish bonds of trust with black voters so that he was in no danger of being believed to be a racist.
Sending Jim Clyburn out to call Clinton a racist was a cynical and desperate move intended to threaten the Democratic Party with the prospect that black voters would not go to the polls unless Obama got the nomination. Perhaps the Obama campaign believed Obama was the better candidate and that the only reason the super delegates were supporting Clinton was that they were all racists and they were therefore justified in threatening to cost the Party the election unless Obama got the nomination. In any case, the fact remains that if Obama had been white, he would never have become president and if he hadn't played to race card he never would have become president.
Some people might think this was just smart politics and some people might think this was a cynical exploitation of racial tensions.
