It's 2008. Obama shocked the political world by crushing Hillary Clinton and John Edwards in the Iowa Caucus. Hillary rebounded with a moment where she proved she was human and scored a stunning comeback to win New Hampshire.
Now all eyes are on South Carolina. It's the first state in the process that with a significant Black population - a key constituent of the Democratic Party. The Clintons have traditionally fared very well in the community.
In the run-up to the primary some groups started rumors against Obama that he's not really Black. Unlike most African-Americans he did not descend from slaves. He went to Harvard. He may claim he's Black but he's not really Black.
The Black community didn't see it that way. They basically saw a brother able to win over lily-white Iowa and they realized just maybe America was ready for a Black man to be President. Obama won South Carolina by almost 30 points.
After he became the nominee the same shadowy forces started that talk again in the general election. McCain didn't need to win the Black vote. He simply needed to suppress the Black vote - have enough of them discouraged to not show up.
I must restate: The people doing this were not affiliated with Clinton nor McCain.
At some point Obama felt the need to respond, which I unfortunately can't find on Youtube. In essence he said:
"When I hail a cab the driver doesn't say, "Oh, he doesn't have slaves in his ancestry so I will pick him up. He sees a Black man."
And with that the foolishness ended.
*****
Fast forward to Trump claiming he is not sure Kamala Harris is Black. Again, he's not trying to win over Black voters. He is following the pattern of what was attempted against Obama. Make Kamala the "other". He knows a record African American turnout puts Georgia and North Carolina into play. (The Trump campaign started playing ads in North Carolina this week.)
The ploy didn't work in 2008 and it won't work in 2024. This was a stunning sign of weakness of weakness on behalf of Donald Trump.
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