What Hillary actually said..... to quote:

[MagsDem]

"Dr. King's dream began to be realized when President Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, when he was able to get through Congress something that President Kennedy was hopeful to do, the President before had not even tried, but it took a president to get it done," she says. "That dream became a reality, the power of that dream became a real in peoples lives because we had a president who said we are going to do it, and actually got it accomplished."

I think what she is saying is that white people helped pass civil rights legislation too. And she is correct. I think people tend to forget that Johnson pushed civil rights legislation when he KNEW what a negative effect on future votes for the Democratic party. He knew it, and he did it anyway, because it was the right thing to do. Maybe some of you are very young, but the Republicans didn't really come into any parity with Dems as a party until after the Democratic Johnson administration pushed through civil right legislation. That is when we lost the south as a party.

The point is, Democratic presidents have made great sacrifices to party power in order to do the right thing. It's useful to remind people of that once in awhile. When the right thing needs to be done, it is typically the Democrats that will do it, regardless of the politics of the situation.

I'm not a huge Hillary fan, but I just don't understand how anyone can read her words and conclude that she is making a racist comment, or denigrating the work of MLK or others. She is reminding people of what the Democratic party stands for as far as I can tell.

[DrFunkenstein]

1. That Is A Pretty Powerful "Because"

It was very poorly worded, at best.

[Quixote1818]

2. You can say that again. nt

[MagsDem]

6. It's reality

What she said is objectively true. Again, not a huge fan, but I give her props for eliminating the BS and speaking the truth. Given all that the Democratic party has sacrificed since Johnson pushed that bill through, it's ridiculous to claim that MLK was the complete savior on the issue of civil rights. By the way, MLK was a republican. :)

[AGirl]

3. I really don't see what the big deal is.

I think maybe some people are just sensitive. People should have just ignored it.

[Quixote1818]

4. "I think what she is saying is......" You know something was not communicated well when

someone starts out a sentence with: "I think what she is saying is........" :crazy:

[MagsDem]

7. No, starting out the sentence with "I think what she is saying...."

is a result of her comments being twisted ad nauseum.

[napi21]

5. I honestly don't think she meant to include "white people" in that

rmark at all. MLK fought long and hard, but no civilian can actually get the legislation passed! MLK fought harder, longer, and sacrificed a lot more than LBJ, but it still takes someone inside our government to get the laws passed. I can't see how anyojne can interpret any kind of racism or derogatory words against MLK in her comments.

Dan Abrams had a good segment on this tonight. He said he believed the media was bored with the campaign and wanted a fight, so they took a short clip from Bill and another from Hillary and instigated a racial fight just to keep their ratings up. He even showed 5 or 6 newspaper headlines to prove his point. I happen to agree with Dan!

[annie1]

8. i don't think she was saying "white people helped"...

she said 'you're all talk no action' he said 'words inspired, like MLK's' she's tried to say, 'please, you're no mlk, there has to be action, and then she tried to bring it back to the task at hand, the presidency.

[Quixote1818]

9. The Media is mostly to blame for this because many articles presented it like this

"Dr. King's dream began to be realized when President Lyndon Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964," Mrs. Clinton said in trying to make the case that her experience should mean more to voters than the uplifting words of Mr. Obama. "It took a president to get it done."

[TankLV]

10. I think it was a powerful and fine statement...and totally lost on the sensitive obamabots...

just like they refuse to see the big deal in the gay bashing preacher...

simply clueless and thin skinned...

[MonkeyFunk]

11. Hey! Get your stinking facts outta here!

They have no place in a feeding-frenzy.

[Occam Bandage]

12. There is nothing offensive in there whatsoever.

I believed that when this whole thing began, too:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=3981471&mesg_id=3985509

[DURHAM D]

13. Further, I don't believe the Civil Rights Act would pass today

or at any point in the past 40 years. By that I mean the House, Senate and White House would need to be correctly aligned and a highly skilled political President would have to be in place and perhaps willing to sacrifice his own political viability or that of his party. Further, it would require a national event that would truly shock the country like the death of a beloved President or political leader. It was one moment in time...

[Sulawesi]

14. I think the phrase, "...and actually got it accomplished."

demeans the civil rights movement and does imply that it was talk, and fluffy, until LBJ came a long and instantiated it. Intentionally or not, the text of this elevates LBJs accomplishments relative to MLKs, and that was wrong.

Why Hillary can't just say that is completely beyond me.

[MethuenProgressive]

15. Swiftboating Clinton on Race will backfire on Obama's surrogates.

Shame on them.