Ask Mr. Smartypants

Hillary Clinton's visit to Spartanburg, South Carolina to stand in front of about 60 black men of the cloth (and one white man of the cloth, and one white woman) and talk about her candidacy was...unsettling.

Here's the video, for anyone interested, http://www.goupstate.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?category=multimedia02&bcpid=446437106&bclid=440984115&bctid=1325119805

and here's another blog by staffer Jason Spencer, who handled the reporting on the story: http://campaign2008.goupstate.com/default.asp?item=287113

It was disturbing in a way that has to do with the South, and with heritage and with race, but not in a way that had to do with her speech, which she delivered beautifully and charismatically.

And her message was fine, though expensive sounding. Health care for the 47 million who don't have it, more options for the 250 million who do, tax credits to pay for college, a much-expanded Americorps program to let kids work off college debt, more Pell grants.

Some of that money could be found via her promised quick withdrawal from Iraq, but listening to Hillary, I was reminded of the fact that the budget-balancing during her husband's administration was largely against his will: Had he not been stymied by a Republican Congress (back when Republican meant fiscally conservative) and Senate from 1994 on, he would have spent every penny in sight on the same noble programs his wife is now touting.

So in Iowa, there is no real black vote. In New Hampshire, there is no real black vote. In South Carolina, more than half of the folks who vote Democrat are black (which does not make them "registered Democrats," we have no party registration here).

Jessse Jackson won the state  in his 1984 run at the Democratic nomination, thanks pretty much entirely to black Democrats. Hillary has at least some fear that Obama could garner similar results, although thus far he is running into surprising resistance in the black community.

There is a sense that blacks, fearing independents and Republicans aren't ready for a black president, would prefer a Hillary win to an Obama loss, and a Giuliani or Romney presidency.

So Bill was here a month ago, and in addition to stumping, he took time for some closed-door meetings with local black leaders. And they hatched a plan. And the plan was black preachers for Hillary, which would (they hoped) both move voters towards her and show Obama as weak.

But would any one ever think of lining up 60 white preachers on a stage to support a white Democratic candidate? I've never even seen a white Republican candidate do that with local preachers, really, and this is the third presidential campaign I've covered.

 Who do these men speak for and who do they deliver. Their parishoners. The community. Jesus and God.

What exactly is the message?

And why not line up 60 black teachers and professors to show folks how much pull Hillary has in what could be Obama's community? Why not 60 black South Carolina lawyers? Doctors? Accountants? Executives? Engineers? Architects?

There's nothing wrong with Hillary garnering spport from a whole lot of preachers. More power to her.

But it is, in some sense, racial.

She will never stand in front of 60 white reverends to beat down Edwards or diminish the Republican nominee. It's only directly against a black candidate that she and her handlers schemed, "Let's go get the preachermen, cause black folks love to listen to their preachers."

Maybe, maybe not. If it was me, I'd have thrown a couple of doctors and lawyers up there, though. People, black or white, have a tendency to listen to their preachers on Sunday, but this wingding took place on Tuesday, during business hours.

That's because it is business, not religion, and more and more folks (gosh, yes, even black folks) are keeping the two seperate.