Bill Clnton In Los Angeles

Did you know..

That Bill Clinton is appearing this morning before the congregations of four African American churches in the Los Angeles area?

The City of Refuge in Gardena is presided over by Noel Jones, an influential figure in evangelical circles and a charismatic practitioner of the "prosperity gospel."

Clinton is then visiting pastor L.D. Williams' New Covenant church in Norwalk, followed by the AME church in South Central Los Angeles and the 2nd Baptist church in Inglewood.

Apology? Disquisition?

He can't electioneer... that wouldn't be legal.

Comments

"He can't electioneer."

I take that as sarcasm. He wouldn't be doing anything so close to Tuesday that he didn't think impacted the result. It's either to get black votes or to convince white voters who are offended by the appearance of racism.

Posted by John SFL | February 3, 2008 9:59 AM

I was in South Carolina and on the day of the primary; one of the people at the poll I was at was a Voter Protection Atty - and Bill Clinton showed up - The atty told him "Mr President you can't go in to the polling site"

So Bill Clinton took off his HILLARY pin and handed it to the attorney and walked in anyway --

Unless he takes off his "face" these appearances at the Nevada Caucus Sites, at the Polling Places in South Carolina and as above at the Black Chrurches two days before the Ca primary are electioneering and a subtle form of intimidation

There are those Clinton supporters who applaud this as clever.

And then there are many of us former Clinton supporters who are disgusted

Posted by Barbara Levin | February 3, 2008 10:22 AM

Internal polling at Camp Clinton must be discouraging. This is damage control mode. I'm sure Bill intended to do the "black church mea culpa tour" to heal the rift he created with the black community once HRC secured the nomination. This smacks of desperation to be doing it at this point.

Posted by ChrisNBama | February 3, 2008 10:52 AM

Well that depends on what the definition of "electioneering" is.....

Posted by TrueBlue | February 3, 2008 12:39 PM

Internal polling at Camp Clinton must be discouraging. This is damage control mode.

I doubt it. La Raza is firmly behind the Clintons. I bet HRC takes 70% of the Hispanic vote in California, and I bet her voters (elderly, Jewish, union members, Latinos, single women, white middle class) get to the polls in greater numbers than Obama's. Surely a lot of the kids showing up to his rallies don't even know where their polling places are (a lot probably aren't even registered). If I were Axlerod, I'd want across the board opinion poll leads for my candidate given the inevitable drop off associated with the weakness he has with non-African American voters in primaries. Watch that two point lead for Clinton turn into seven or eight points on Tuesday. I wonder what cues Latino voters will pick up from Bill's Superbowl partying with Bill Richardson.

Posted by Where's the beef? | February 3, 2008 2:59 PM

If a Richardson endorsement is going to carry a lot of weight, well, maybe he should make it at half-time. The Clintons probably never saw this coming - the largest Spanish-language paper in the country endorsing Obama: http://www.laopinion.com/editorial/?rkey=00000000000003185160

As for Obama needing leads across the board, nobody expected Obama to win IA and SC by such wide margins. How many predicted he'd win the most delegates in NV (thanks to rural voters) despite Clinton winning the popular vote (thanks to Vegas)?

The Clintons may also be working extra-hard to guard their assumption that they'll easily win the early/absentee votes. If the majority of those are monied professionals, it could swing towards Obama - they're a large part of his base.

Posted by JR | February 3, 2008 5:54 PM

I do think the early voting will swing heavily in the Clintons favor...it started long before the wave got so big.

A month ago the Clintons were up by 20 nationally.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2008/president/us/democratic_presidential_nomination-191.html

That same site has them a month ago up by 15+ in California, 20+ in New York, 25+ New Jersey, etc.

I don't know how many of those states have early mail in voting, but it's very possible those ballots will give the Clintons the landslide they need.

Too bad, too. Wonder how much buyers remorse there is going on out there.

Posted by G Davis | February 4, 2008 2:02 AM

Buyer's remorse?

If people voted for who they thought was the best candidate they should be pretty content. Most people do not base their vote on who is most likely to win or who has the "wave."

Now as a Deaniac, I am certainly open to the idea that the Dem. primary doesn't always result in the best candidate, best GE candidate, and/or best person winning.

Posted by perfect storm | February 4, 2008 3:12 AM

He won't be going to First AMEC anytime soon after what he did in SC. The pastor disinvited him the Sunday after the SC primary and then talked about him like a dog during his sermon. HA!

Posted by R Davis | February 4, 2008 9:17 AM