President Clinton Does More Damage Control on Black Radio

Posted by Josh Gerstein
Mon, 14 Jan 2008 at 9:03 AM Permalink

In an interview Monday, President Clinton mounted a less-than-vigorous defense of comments a prominent supporter of Senator Clinton's presidential bid, Robert Johnson, made which many interpreted as a reference to Senator Obama's admission of drug use during his younger years.The interviewer, Roland Martin of WVON-AM in Chicago, played Mr. Johnson's statement Sunday in which he praised the Clintons for having "been deeply and emotionally involved in black issues since Barack Obama was doing something in the neighborhood - and I won't say what he was doing, but he said it in the book…" Mr. Martin sounded incredulous about Mr. Johnson's subsequent denial, in a statement issued by the Clinton campaign, that he was referring to drug use by Mr. Obama. "When you listen to that tone and the inflection, he was not talking about community organizing. It seems to me very clear what he was implying," Mr. Martin said.

"Ironically, this is the first time I've heard it, what you just said," Mr. Clinton said. "I listened to it on the tape and I think we have to take him at his word."

Mr. Clinton then launched into a defense of his "fairy tale" comments from New Hampshire which had not been raised at that point. The former president also sharply criticized Mr. Obama and his top adviser, David Axelrod, for statements suggesting that Mrs. Clinton's stance on Iraq made the death of assassinated Pakistani leader benzir Bhutto more likely. "That's a lot worse than anything Bob Johnson implied or said," Mr. Clinton said. "I don't believe anybody even asked Senator Obama about it. 'Oh you say she's responsible for something like that, that's fine.'

"Mr. Clinton then lit into the Obama campaign for its "overtly racist" opposition research piece labeling Mrs. Clinton as a senator from India "(D-Punjab)." Pressed further on Mr. Johnson's comments, Mr. Clinton retreated a bit, disclaiming any advance knowledge of his remarks on the part of the campaign. "Bob Johnson said what he said yesterday. Nobody knew what he was going to say. It wasn't part of any planned strategy."

Mr. Clinton also said campaign officials did not plan for the Attorney General of New York, Andrew Cuomo, to use the term "shuck and jive" in what appeared to some to be a reference to Mr. Obama's campaign, but which Mr. Cuomo said was a general comment about campaigning techniques in New Hampshire and Iowa. "Certainly, nobody had any advance notice of anything Attorney General Cuomo said," Mr. Clinton said.

Mr. Martin insisted that Mr. Johnson's denial was implausible. "Anybody listening can know what he was talking about—he wasn't talking about community organizing," the host said. "That's something between Bob Johnson and Barack Obama," Mr. Clinton eventually said, seeming to give up on defending the remark. "I think the psychological tensions on everybody are considerable. There are a lot of people who are supporting Hillary who always wanted to vote for an African-American for president. There are a lot of people who are supporting Barack who always wanted to vote for a woman for president," he added later. "It's not surprising that these sort of things will happen….They just happen. I think it's important not to overreact to them."

A series of callers to Mr. Martin's program following Mr. Clinton's call were deeply skeptical of his explanation and harshly critical of Mr. Johnson. One even doubted the former president's statement that he hadn't heard Mr. Johnson's comments, since the words were read to him on another program earlier in the day. Mr. Martin said Mr. Clinton seemed to be saying he had not previously heard the tape of the comments. It took more than an hour to hear a caller defend Mr. Clinton, even tangentially.

Mr. Clinton complained he had been the subject of sharp opposition research attacks by the Obama campaign over his business dealings with the Teamsters and reinvestment in minority communities. "It was a hard hit, man. I didn't say a word about it. And nothing happened to anybody who called Hillary the senator from Punjab," the former president said. "What they're trying to do both of them is figure out how they air their disagreements in a totally new and uncharted field loaded with minefields where people are nervous about is somebody playing the race card or the gender card or whatever," Mr. Clinton said. "I think we should just take what they say on the merits….I'm really proud to be in a party where you've got a woman and an African-American fighting out their differences of opinion."

Mr. Clinton refused to say whether he would vote for Mr. Obama or John Edwards if the race came down to them. "I don't think that that's fair to get me into that," the former president said. He did say he considered Mr. Obama more qualified than any of the Republicans seeking the White House.

Mr. Clinton also appeared Monday morning on the syndicated Tom Joyner Morning Show, where the former president suggested Mr. Obama was benefiting from an unfair double standard. "We have been much kinder to him than he has been to her," Mr. Clinton said.

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Daily Presidential Tracking Poll

Daily Presidential Tracking Poll

Monday, December 03, 2007

If the current round of Huck-a-mania is nothing more than Mike Huckabee’s fifteen minutes of fame, the former Arkansas Governor is certainly making the most of it. Today, in the first full round of national polling completed since last week’s “debate” among Republican Presidential hopefuls, Huckabee has pulled to within three points of the frontrunning Rudy Giuliani. Heading into the debate, Giuliani led Huckabee by twelve.

Not only that, new polling data released today shows that Huckabee has pulled to within a single percentage point of Hillary Clinton in a general election match-up. Huckabee is also a frontrunner in Iowa and essentially tied for second in New Hampshire. Some pundits believe Huckabee’s numbers will surely go down as fast as they’ve gone up while others are beginning to consider the possibility that the bass-guitar playing Governor may become a serious contender for the Republican nomination.

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday shows Giuliani with 20% support nationwide while Huckabee attracts 17%. Fred Thompson is at 14%, John McCain at 13% and Mitt Romney at 11%. Ron Paul attracts 7% of Likely Republican Primary voters nationwide and no other Republican candidate reaches 2% (see recent daily numbers). During the past week, three events—a debate, an endorsement, and Huck-a-mania—have created new challenges and uncertainties for the GOP frontrunners.

Rudy Giuliani is still seen as the most electable Republican. McCain, Romney, and Huckabee are essentially tied for second in this category.

Results for the Presidential Tracking Poll are obtained through nightly telephone interviews and reported on a four-day rolling average basis. Today is the first update for which all of the interviews were conducted following Wednesday’s Republican debate.

In the race for the Democratic Presidential Nomination. Clinton now attracts 37% of the vote while Barack Obama earns 24%. John Edwards remains in third place among the Democratic hopefuls at 15%, Bill Richardson is the top choice for 6%, and no other Democratic candidate tops 3% (see recent daily numbers).

Seventy-three percent (73%) of Democrats believe that Clinton is at least somewhat likely to win the White House if nominated. That’s down from 81% a month ago. Sixty-six percent (66%) believe Obama is at least somewhat likely to win it all and 58% say the same about Edwards.
New polling on general election match-ups released over the weekend shows Obama tied with McCain, in a toss-up with Giuliani, and leading both Thompson and Romney.

Other polling released yesterday shows that just 23% believe the United States is heading in the right direction. Women are more pessimistic than men.

Also, during the month of November, 37.3% of Americans identified themselves as Democrats while 32.6% considered themselves Republicans. Those figures are virtually unchanged from October, are a bit better for the GOP than November 2006, but represent a significant decline in the number of Republicans since President Bush’s re-election.

See Rasmussen Reports general election match-ups and other key stats for all Republican and Democratic candidates.

The Rasmussen Reports Election 2008 Presidential Tracking Poll is updated daily. Today is the first day of regular weekend updates.

Daily tracking results are from survey interviews conducted over four days ending last night. Each update includes approximately 750 Likely Democratic Primary Voters and 600 Likely Republican Primary Voters. Margin of sampling error for each is +/- 4 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.

Rasmussen Reports provides a weekly analysis of both the Republican and Democratic race each Monday.

Each Monday, full week results are released based upon a seven-day rolling average. While the daily tracking result are useful for measuring quick reaction to events in the news, the full week results provide an effective means for evaluating longer-term trends.
Rasmussen Reports is an electronic publishing firm specializing in the collection, publication, and distribution of public opinion polling information.

The Rasmussen Reports ElectionEdge™ Premium Service for Election 2008 offers the most comprehensive public opinion coverage ever provided for a Presidential election.
Scott Rasmussen, president of Rasmussen Reports, has been an independent pollster for more than a decade.

This survey includes approximately 750-800 Likely Democratic Primary Voters and 600-650 Likely Republican Primary Voters. Margin of sampling error for each is +/- 4 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.

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