Reidblog [The Reid Report blog]

Clinton's senior advisers have grown convinced that the media deck is stacked against them, that their candidate is drawing far harsher scrutiny than Barack Obama. And at least some journalists agree.

"She's just held to a different standard in every respect," says Mark Halperin, Time's editor at large. "The press rooted for Obama to go negative, and when he did he was applauded. When she does it, it's treated as this huge violation of propriety." While Clinton's mistakes deserve full coverage, Halperin says, "the press's flaws -- wild swings, accentuating the negative -- are magnified 50 times when it comes to her. It's not a level playing field."

Newsweek's Howard Fineman says Obama's coverage is the buzz of the presidential campaign. "While they don't say so publicly because it's risky to complain, a lot of operatives from other campaigns say he's getting a free ride, that people aren't tough enough on Obama," Fineman says. "There may be something to that. He's the new guy, an interesting guy, a pathbreaker and trendsetter perhaps." ...

...Some reporters confess that they are enjoying Clinton's slippage, if only because it enlivens what had become a predictable narrative of her cruising to victory. The prospect of a newcomer knocking off a former first lady is one heck of a story.

Halperin, who surveys political news at Time.com's the Page, says: "Your typical reporter has a thinly disguised preference that Barack Obama be the nominee. The narrative of him beating her is better than her beating him, in part because she's a Clinton and in part because he's a young African American. . . . There's no one rooting for her to come back."

Traditional civil rights-era black leaders are treating Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, a presidential candidate, like strange fruit hanging from the ballot box, and it’s a crying shame.

You may recall the song, Strange Fruit, by Billie Holliday, which condemned racism, particularly the lynchings of African Americans in the South.

What black civil rights leaders are doing politically to Obama is nearly as bad.

Almost daily, these black leaders from yesteryear can be seen on national TV questioning Obama’s blackness, or explaining why he should not be running for president at all.

Others offer reasons why blacks should throw their support to New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, a white female, instead of Obama, a black man. Still more question his experience, wonder aloud about his involvement in the black community, and lob subtle hints that his life experience has been, “too white.”

Such notions are not only unfair, but also painful to witness. These once-accomplished leaders embarrass themselves out of clear jealousy and fear. They are jealous of Obama’s past achievements and fearful of what else he might accomplish in a relatively short period.

Throughout the country, we have in the black community traditional, long-winded civil rights-era leaders who have a death grip on positions of social, political and community leadership. At a time when we are confronted with crippling issues like violence, AIDS, illiteracy, crime and drugs, we can no longer turn to this generation, or white folks, to address our needs.

Many of these leaders are on the other side of retirement age, and 1960s-era approaches will not solve these issues. We need a new generation to step forward.

But instead of grooming a younger generation or mentoring successors, these old-school leaders behave as if they will live forever. It is from this mindset that their indifference toward Obama is born.

They are the original “go to” negroes who believe everything must come through them, and that no one else can lead except them. The time has long since passed for them to let their people go…and assume the roles of mentors, advisors and disseminators of wisdom. Their time has passed.

The latest example of this comes from former U.S. Ambassador Andrew Young, a civil rights era icon, during a recent interview.

“Bill [Clinton] is every bit as black as Barack,’’ Young said. “He’s probably gone with more black women than Barack.” Later, he said he was just “clowning.’’

Continuing his shameless display of envy, Young went on to praise both former President Bill Clinton and his wife, Hillary Clinton, while piling on more excuses about why Obama should not be president.

“The thing about Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, they have grown up basically in the black community.”

“I want Barack Obama to be president…in 2016.”

“It’s not a matter of his being inexperienced. It’s a matter of being young.”

When examining Obama’s candidacy, one is hard pressed to legitimize those criticisms.

Nevertheless, his life story has brought to the forefront a long-simmering undercurrent of tension and growing resentment between civil rights-era black leaders and those of us born in the 1960s and 1970s. ...

Labels: 2008, Barack Obama, Democrats, Hillary Clinton, presidential candidates