After early indications that she would cede South Carolina to Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton reversed course Thursday and returned to the state she now hopes to win on Saturday.
Clinton delivered a major speech on the economy, then staged a large rally with former President Bill Clinton in an effort to reverse Obama’s lead in the polls. Bill Clinton had already spent two days in South Carolina attacking Obama on behalf of his wife while she campaigned in other states.
By rejoining her husband to double-team Obama, Clinton appeared to be abandoning an earlier calculation that she could not win South Carolina, where half the Democratic electorate is black. Bill Clinton himself once said that blacks would deliver a victory to Obama, a prediction dismissed as blatantlow-balling by the Obama camp.
“There’s an old South Carolina saying that goes like this – some people would rather climb a tree to tell a fib than stand on the ground and tell the truth,” said Joe Erwin, former chairman of the South Carolina Democratic Party. “The truth is Hillary Clinton’s campaign is pulling out all the stops to win in South Carolina. And it includes saying and doing just about anything to win.”
The Obama campaign reminded reporters that Don Fowler, the chairman of Clinton’s campaign in South Carolina, flatly predicted, “We’re going to win.”
In another indication that Clinton is not giving up on South Carolina, she nearly doubled her television advertising this week. On Wednesday she also released a radio ad that falsely suggested Obama favored “tax breaks for Wall Street” and opposed an increase in the minimum wage.
The ad was widely criticized as an unfair attack, prompting Clinton to abruptly pull the spot on Thursday. Clinton officials shrugged off their decision to kill the ad, saying it was being replaced by another spot aimed at making a closing argument in advance of tomorrow’s vote.
Meanwhile, there were growing signs that the ferocious acrimony between the Clintons and Obama was causing a deep split within the Democratic Party that could leave lasting scars. Ed Schultz, a liberal radio talk show host, said Bill Clinton is hurting his wife’s candidacy by “lying about Barack Obama’s record.”
“You know what Democrats are being reminded of when Clinton gets out on the stump?” Schultz said on MSNBC. “He lied 10 years ago about Monica Lewinsky and he’s lying about a very viable candidate and somebody who could really bring change to this country.
“He is embarrassing poor Democrats,” Schultz added. “And another thing is that I think African Americans are saying, ‘You know what? He’s picking on a brother.’ ”
