The Blue Voice

Friday, March 07, 2008

Clinton in Mississippi

The Mississippi caucuses this coming Tuesday are the current battleground for the Democratic Presidential nomination.

On Thursday evening, Clinton spoke to attendees at the state Jefferson-Jackson-Hamer dinner. That's a good updating of the Democratic Party tradition: Jefferson the anti-slavery slaveowner and democratic leader, Jackson the slaveowner who was an enemy of the secessionists and the chamption of white workers' interests, and Fannie Lou Hamer who was a civil rights leader in the state. Good combination.

Leah Rupp reports in Clinton: 'I'm here for you' Clarion-Ledger Online 03/06/08:

Presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton told Democratic Party faithful at tonight's Jefferson Jackson Hamer Day dinner that improving health care and pulling American troops out of Iraq remain high on her list of priorities if she's elected.

Clinton has taken some flak for a comment that gave Clinton opponents a chance to say she was dissing Mississppi. Campaigning in Iowa last year, she was heard to say (Oh, That's Change Alright National Journal blog 03/05/08):

I was shocked when I learned Iowa and Mississippi have never elected a woman governor, senator or member of Congress. There has got to be something at work here...when you look at the numbers, how can Iowa be ranked with Mississippi? That's not what I see. That's not the quality. That's not the communitarianism. That's not the openness I see in Iowa.

No, Mississippi's probably not that big on "the communitarianism", whatever exactly she meant by that.

As Rupp reports, Obama supporters found it a useful statement to bash:

Obama supporters went on the attack during a news conference Wednesday at his campaign headquarters in downtown Jackson. Former Gov. Ray Mabus and Hattiesburg Mayor Johnny DuPree criticized Sen. Clinton's remarks to an Iowa newspaper last fall that noted a lack of women elected to higher office.

While campaigning in Iowa, Sen. Clinton told the Des Moines Register she was surprised Iowa and Mississippi had never elected a woman as governor or as a member of Congress. ...

The comments drew an immediate rebuke from Mississippi Republicans, but some voters said Sen. Clinton was only telling the truth.

Mabus said Mississippi voters should elect more women but added Sen. Clinton was trying to "curry favor with Iowa ... it's also pretty clear she didn't ever expect to have to be in Mississippi."

Sen. Clinton, who opened an office this week at 500 Capitol St. in Jackson, apologized after her comments drew media attention. She called Republican then-Sen. Trent Lott and apologized. His spokesman at the time, Lee Youngblood, said Lott accepted her apology.

I should mention here that my hometown of Shubuta, Mississippi, was the first municipality in the state to elect a female mayor, a wonderful woman named Florence Busby. (I believe it was in 1967.) At 92, she's still a hardcore Democrat. I remember back during the 1996 Presidential election, I said something mildly nice to her about the Republican candidate Bob Dole and she chewed me out, which I surely deserved.

State Democratic Party Chairman Wayne Dowdy, a former Congressman, is mentioned in the article. The last time Trent Lott ran for re-election to the Senate in 2006, Dowdy was quoted in the press as saying that if Lott decided to run for re-election, he would favor the Democrats not even putting up a candidate against him! For the good of the state, of course. This is from the Democratic state party chairman!

They need to get a real "fighting Dem" as the head of their state party. The Dems have a shot at Lott's Senate seat in the special election this year after Lott resigned to become a lobbyist. But if they had mounted a strong campaign against Lott in 2006, they probably would have lost, but they would have better positioned the Democrats in this unexpected opportunity. What a boneheaded notion! Instead, they had a nominal Democratic candidate that I understand was pretty much invisible to most voters.

Tags: florence busby, hillary clinton, mississippi, mississippi politics, wayne dowdy

posted at 12:55:00 AM by Bruce Miller

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