What Toni Morrison Really Means: Bill Clinton as America's First Black President.

When will the Press finally place Toni Morrison's comment that Bill Clinton was "the first black president" in its proper context?

As recently as today, March 26th, 2008, Maureen Dowd, one of my favorite writers, states, "And even Clinton supporters know that Bill does not want to be replaced as the first black president, especially by a black president with enough magic to possibly eclipse him in the history books."

At the 2001 National Black Caucus Dinner, where he was honored as "America's First Black President," Clinton offered his own explanation, "'I think it's a function of the work I have done, not just as president, but my whole public life to try to bridge the racial divide and the fact that even when I was a little boy I had friends who were African-American.'" And by reinforcing the narrative that he'd done a bunch of stuff for the African-American community, Clinton lets his political instincts get the better of him. Can't blame him for that, can we?

Of course, that is not at all what Toni Morrison stated. Here is her statement:

"Years ago, in the middle of the Whitewater investigation, one heard the first murmurs: white skin notwithstanding, this is our first black President. Blacker than any actual black person who could ever be elected in our children's lifetime. After all, Clinton displays almost every trope of blackness: single-parent household, born poor, working-class, saxophone-playing, McDonald's-and-junk-food-loving boy from Arkansas. And when virtually all the African-American Clinton appointees began, one by one, to disappear, when the President's body, his privacy, his unpoliced sexuality became the focus of the persecution, when he was metaphorically seized and bodysearched, who could gainsay these black men who knew whereof they spoke? The message was clear "No matter how smart you are, how hard you work, how much coin you earn for us, we will put you in your place or put you out of the place you have somehow, albeit with our permission, achieved. You will be fired from your job, sent away in disgrace, and--who knows?--maybe sentenced and jailed to boot. In short, unless you do as we say (i.e., assimilate at once), your expletives belong to us."

In other words, she simply argues that Clinton's upbringing and subsequent metaphorical public castration fits the African-American trope, that African-American males could sympathize with him. In short, Clinton could be Milkman, the protagonist in her stellar, _Song of Solomon_.

In sum, then, Clinton was never "the first black president" because of his policies or even because of anything he acheived. For Morrison, Clinton's upbringing and his subsequent "castration" mirror that of the American Black Male.

It's that simple.

Hillary Clinton on Barack Obama's Religion

60 Minute's Steve Croft had the following exchange with Hillary Clinton:

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“You don't believe that Senator Obama's a Muslim?” Kroft asked Sen. Clinton.

“Of course not. I mean, that, you know, there is no basis for that. I take him on the basis of what he says. And, you know, there isn't any reason to doubt that,” she replied.

“You said you'd take Senator Obama at his word that he's not…a Muslim. You don't believe that he's …,” Kroft said.

“No. No, there is “You don't believe that Senator Obama's a Muslim?” Kroft asked Sen. Clinton.

“Of course not. I mean, that, you know, there is no basis for that. I take him on the basis of what he says. And, you know, there isn't any reason to doubt that,” she replied.

“You said you'd take Senator Obama at his word that he's not…a Muslim. You don't believe that he's…,” Kroft said.
to base that on. As far as I know,” she said.
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She and her team play ball like Bush and his Karl Rove-led team. Will the American people continue to vote for such candidates?

What will Hillary Clinton cost us in her quest for self-validation?

If she wins will anyone care?

Editors Note: She totally gave the Republicans the playbook on how to attack him. They had no idea until Hillary showed the way. How many times have we seen "I take the president at his word" from the Mitch McConnel's?

Hillary's Ohio Victory

Hillary's Ohio victory rally encapsulates what is wrong with her candidacy. Everytime MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell or CNN's Candy Crowley showed their face at Clinton campaign headquarters, the Clinton crowd--after realizing they were on the tube--turned from dead silence to cued managed screams. After the networks called Ohio for Senator Clinton, she stood at the podium amidst child-voiced squealing screeching. Her campaign clearly coached this to counter Senator Obama's rallies, peopled by those who seem to react to him naturally.

Eerily enough, "I love you's" came Hillary's way tonight from her crowd. Her campaign planted these words like so many Jeff Gannons. And now her campaign appropriates Obama's "Yes, We Can" with its own "Yes, We Will."

Does the Clinton campaign have any sense of itself at all? Does it realize that it exists only for itself. She's like Hegel's Charlemagne.

How are we to believe she is ready to lead when she--along with her one hundred percent name recognition--has blown through her cash twice over, lost the delegate lead to a first term Senator, and can only laud "comebacks."

It's like lauding yourself your own greatness for finding the keys you had earlier lost yourself.