Who Won the Showdown in Selma?

March 5, 2007 — -- Sunday's march in Selma, Ala., may have been a sacred commemoration of the "Bloody Sunday" civil rights march of 1965, but beneath it all lurked raw politics, with Sens. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., competing fiercely for black voters.

While local churches were packed with parishioners, just a few hundred yards apart on Martin Luther King Jr. Street, the rival Democratic presidential candidates made their pitches, both praising civil rights leaders for paving their way.

"Don't tell me I'm not coming home when I come to Selma, Ala. I'm here because somebody marched for our freedom. I'm here because y'all sacrificed for me," Obama told a crowd.

Meanwhile, at 709 Martin Luther King St., Clinton told parishioners at First Baptist Church that "the Voting Rights Act gave more Americans from every corner of our nation the chance to live out their dreams. And it is the gift that keeps on giving. Today it is giving Sen. Obama the chance to run for president of the United States. And by its logic and spirit, it is giving the same chance to [New Mexico] Gov. Bill Richardson, an Hispanic. And, yes, it is giving me that chance, too."

Black voters are crucial for both front-runners as their campaigns calculate the math that will lead to their nominations. The fierce competition between the two was not only evident in their presence this weekend, but in the the steps they took to connect with the crowds.

Raised in Illinois and representing New York, Clinton effected a sporadic but curious Southern drawl in her speech. "I" became "Ahhh," "far" morphed into "fahhhr," and "mayor" suddenly sounded like "mare."

And how about Obama? Well, he credited the "Bloody Sunday" civil rights marchers of 1965 with the fact that his parents -- a black African father and white Kansas mother -- were empowered to fall in love and got married.

"They looked at each other and they decided, 'We know that in the world, as it has been, it might not be possible for us to get together and have a child, but something is stirring across the country because of what happened in Selma, Ala., because some folks are willing to march across the bridge.' And so they got together and Barack Obama Jr. was born. So don't tell me I don't have a claim on Selma, Ala.!"