Hillary Clinton has worked diligently for much of the criticism that has come her way over the years, and richly, deeply, lastingly deserves it, but not this time out, not in her remark about President Lyndon Baines Johnson being a crucial figure in securing the extraordinary civil rights victories of the 1960s.
She made the observation by way of criticizing her opponent, Barack Obama, in this year?s quest for the Democratic nomination for president. She thinks her experience counts for something, that it?s more important, finally, than Obama?s rhetorical skills, and she emphasized the point in a TV interview by saying that Martin Luther King?s “dream began to be realized when … Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It took a president to get it done.”
Unless you suppose saying something positive about one person must necessarily imply something negative about another person, the remark is no denigration of King and about a million miles from being racially insensitive, as some have charged. Clinton as best I can tell has never in her life undervalued King?s achievement. She has in fact repeatedly gone out of her way to underline what a magnificent leader he was, not just in his eloquence, but in his courage, determination, organizing ability and more. I myself regard him as one of the great Americans of the 20th century, and I suspect she does, too; without him, we would be a lesser land than we are.
Examiner Columnist Jay Ambrose is a former Washington opinion writer and editor of two dailies. He may be reached at [email protected].
