YAZOO CITY, MISS — . -- Catherine Cowans is a black supporter of Barack Obama who is disappointed by the Clinton campaign's recent attacks on her candidate.
With all the dirt that's been flung at Hillary Rodham Clinton over the years, Cowans said, "she shouldn't really attack him." But she doesn't think that the New York senator's jabs add up to an irredeemable sin. If Clinton becomes the Democratic presidential nominee, the 48-year-old hairdresser said, she will vote for her.
"I'm not angry at her," Cowans said recently during a lull at her beauty salon in this sleepy Delta city. "I still like Hillary."
Clinton's newfound pugnacity may have helped her win primary contests last week in Texas, Ohio and Rhode Island, but as a long-term strategy it carries an inherent risk: By aggressively attacking Obama, who is so widely embraced by the black electorate, Clinton could deplete her own deep reservoir of popularity among African American voters -- a key source of her strength as a national political figure.
As Mississippi prepares for its first consequential Democratic primary in years on Tuesday, a number of black supporters of Obama said that Clinton had not yet crossed a line with her attacks.
Apparently she has goodwill to spare.
John Bender, a pro-Obama voter from Indianola, has been watching in recent days as the Clinton camp questioned Obama's experience, highlighted his connections to indicted fundraiser Antoin "Tony" Rezko and allegedly circulated a photo of the Illinois senator in Somalian tribal dress.
But Bender, 48, chalked that up to the Clintons -- the candidate and her husband, the former president -- being the Clintons: aggressive, competitive, tough. In fact, he said, he was thankful that Hillary Clinton was toughening Obama up. He figures the Republicans will be even less cordial if Obama makes it to the general election.
"A weak man can't make it," he said.
Obama's return fire has included a call for Clinton to release her tax returns, but he also had a counterattack customized for Mississippi. Last week, his campaign dug up comments Clinton made in October in which she disparaged the state as being backward for failing to elect female lawmakers.
In the eyes of Mississippi's African Americans, who make up more than half of the state's Democratic voters, it all amounts to an uncomfortable family feud between two well-liked candidates.
