Commentary: Sam Donaldson on Race in '08
ABC News vet reports on the political pingpong between the '08 candidates.
July 31, 2008 -- The following is a commentary by ABC News' Sam Donaldson. Click here to view a video version of his latest essay.
Ah, the race card. First it was former President Bill Clinton who was supposed to be playing "the card" by pointing out that Jesse Jackson had done well in the North Carolina primary in years past. Then, it was Senator Hillary Clinton who was supposed to be playing it, initially by saying it took Martin Luther King, Jr. and a president to get the 1964 civil rights bill passed, and then toward the end of the primary season when she said Sen. Barack Obama had not been able to win a large number of white, working class voters in Pennsylvania and elsewhere. All of those statements were true, but was there not a subtle playing of "the card" in pointing them out?
And now, the latest figure to be charged with playing the race card is -- are you ready for this? -- Barack Obama himself.
This week, campaigning in Missouri, Obama has repeatedly complained about the tactics he says McCain and the Republicans intend to use against him. Here's how he put it in Springfield:
"They're going to try to say that I'm a risky guy, they're going to try to say, well, you know, he's got a funny name, and he doesn't look like all the presidents on the dollar bills and the five dollar bills."
Well, we get it. All those presidents on the money are white men. The McCain camp immediately charged that in saying that, Obama was playing the race card.
"Shameful and wrong," said Rick Davis, McCain's campaign manager.
There are two things to be said about this: First, Senator McCain has not said any of those things about Senator Obama and in fact has strongly condemned those who have, including some of his own supporters. It is wrong of Obama to charge that he intends to, and Obama's campaign spokesman quickly issued a statement saying that Obama in no way believes the McCain campaign is using race as an issue.
But second: Obama is undoubtedly correct. There will be a strong under-the-table effort by some of his critics, who may well be Republicans, to torpedo his historic candidacy by fanning the flames of racial intolerance. And it is understandable, nay perhaps imperative, that he warn against this tactic and denounce it in advance.
Let us hear no more about the "race card" -- it will be played -- but let us hope and expect that it will turn out to be a joker, a losing card. And, that the hand that comes face up on November 4th will be won or lost on the cards that really count.
Sam Donaldson, a 41-year ABC News veteran, served two appointments as chief White House correspondent for ABC News, from January 1998 to August 1999 and from 1977-1989, covering Presidents Carter, Reagan and Clinton. Donaldson also co-anchored, with Diane Sawyer, "PrimeTime Live," from August 1989 until it merged with "20/20" in 1999. He co-anchored the ABC News Sunday morning broadcast, "This Week With Sam Donaldson & Cokie Roberts," from December 1996 to September 2002. Currently, Donaldson appears on ABC News Now, the ABC News digital network, in a daily show, "Politics Live."
Related Stories
ABC News Live