Race an undercurrent in Democrats' campaign

ATLANTA — As he stood at the pulpit of Ebenezer Baptist Church here, addressing worshippers at the former congregation of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Sen. Barack Obama was doing something Sunday he has rarely done before a black audience: He talked about race.

For nearly a year, Obama has strived to run a race-neutral presidential campaign. Yet this week, as the candidates converge on South Carolina, a new test is at hand: Can Obama draw support from African Americans while maintaining the appeal of a candidate who seeks to transcend race?

On the eve of the national holiday celebrating King, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton delivered her own appeal to black voters at Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, where she collected an endorsement from Calvin Butts, the influential black New York leader; Obama moved his campaign to South Carolina, where he is looking to buttress his support among African-Americans, even as Bill Clinton vowed to go door to door there to woo black voters for his wife.

Holding the black vote while winning the white vote puts Obama on a "tightrope," said Clemson University political scientist Bruce Ransom.

Obama signaled Sunday that he plans to take on Bill Clinton more directly.

"The former president, who I think all of us have a lot of regard for, has taken his advocacy on behalf of his wife to a level that I think is pretty troubling," Obama said in a taped interview with ABC to be aired today. "He continues to make statements that are not supported by the facts."

Obama strategist David Axelrod said that "everyone understands him wanting to help his wife" but that Bill Clinton's planned campaigning in South Carolina is really "a strategy for him to carry the negative message for her."

The Clinton campaign dismissed the criticism, saying: "President Clinton is a huge asset to our campaign and will continue talking to the American people to press the case for Senator Clinton."

State party officials estimate that black voters could make up 60 percent of the electorate. Those projections increased an already fierce competition among Obama, Clinton and John Edwards, all of whom will share a stage today at a debate that will be focused, in part, on racial issues.

The battle for the Democratic nomination has occasionally been imbued with racial arguments and overtones, leading all candidates last week to call for a truce. But even as Obama and Clinton attended separate church services Sunday, race remained a strong undercurrent.

As she collected an endorsement from Butts, Clinton dismissed suggestions that a rift could be created in the party. She paraphrased Frederick Douglass, the 19th-century black abolitionist, saying: "Right has no sex and truth has no color."

In brief remarks outside the church, Butts said Clinton has the "experience, ability, respect and character" needed to run the country. He addressed suggestions that he was betraying his race by not supporting Obama. This "is not a race-based decision for me, and I hope it's not a race-based decision for you, either," he said, his words enveloped by cheers of support for Clinton.

The overt discussion of race could complicate an already vexing political terrain in South Carolina, particularly in a three-way contest. Democratic strategists think Edwards draws significant support from white voters and could erode some of Clinton's backing, while polls show that Obama has increased his standing from a wide majority of black voters.

Obama proved that he has crossover appeal by narrowly winning the white vote in Iowa. Since then, however, he has lost the white vote in New Hampshire and Nevada to Clinton.

A continued loss of white votes could spell trouble in other states.