The Endorsement Game - Hillary, Obama and Black Voters in South Carolina

Here is a great post by Dayo Olopade on the Endorsement Game that Hillary Clinton has been playing in South Carolina. She is a master at pitting black against black in order to divide a conquer. Check out Dayo Olopade take on the Endorsement Game. Do you agree with him or do you have another view?

The Endorsement Game

by Dayo Olopade

Source: The New Republic

Why so many prominent African Americans in South Carolina support Hillary--and why it probably won't matter.

Hillary Clinton's strategy in South Carolina has always been clear: stockpile as many endorsements from prominent African Americans as possible. She's done impressively. By November 27th, when she stood on stage with over 60 of the state's most powerful ministers--people like Reverend J.W. Sanders of Bethel Baptist Church in Gaffney, and Reverend Charles Jackson, Jr., of the mammoth Cornerstone Baptist Church in Spartanburg--it was clear that she had become the candidate of South Carolina's black establishment. In a state where African Americans are projected to comprise at least half of the Democratic primary turnout, the event was a powerful display. Speakers echoed Clinton talking points flawlessly: "We need to look for a leader that is ready to lead right now," said Timothy Brown, a Baptist pastor in Spartanburg, adding, with a dagger twist, "We don't need to be filling our heads with hopes and dreams."

Rhetoric like that, in the newly racialized 2008 race, has set the tone for next week's primary and helped force a confrontation between party and identity politics in the state. Hillary Clinton has won over an impressive band of African American community leaders in South Carolina, many of whom have been Clinton loyalists since Bill dominated the black vote here in 1992 and 1996. In addition to the corps of ministers, the Clinton team locked up the support of almost 100 black elected officials, including the state's former black caucus chair, David J. Mack, and influential state senators Darrell Jackson and Robert Ford, who were both instrumental in helping John Edwards win 37 percent of the black vote four years ago. Barack Obama, on the other hand, has run a more grassroots campaign for black votes. This is partly out of necessity--no doubt he would have appreciated Hillary's endorsements. But Obama's team has always put more stock in a bottom-up electoral strategy. And it seems to be working. Three months ago, Clinton was beating Obama among blacks by a 22-point margin. According to a Rasmussen poll released Thursday, Obama is now 44 points ahead of Clinton among black voters. Black voters in South Carolina have consistently boosted black candidates--see Jesse Jackson's primary victories in 1984 and 1988, and Al Sharpton's third-place finish in 2004; Obama's candidacy may have history, if not hierarchy, on its side. More HERE