WASHINGTON — Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton insisted this week that the Democratic primary should turn on substantive issues, such as healthcare and energy. But despite their stated hopes, an especially sensitive subject keeps pushing itself into the campaign: the role of race.
In the latest sign of a racial rift in the contest, two prominent black pastors warned Wednesday that African American voters could become so discouraged by the campaign that they might stay home in November if Clinton is the nominee.
"This is a virtual race war, politically," said the Rev. Eugene Rivers of the Azusa Christian Community church in Boston, one of the country's leading Pentecostal ministers.
In the close contest between two popular candidates, strong emotions are often spurred by nuance and competing interpretations of comments and events. Rivers said black voters were especially offended by Clinton's suggestion this week that Obama could join her on the ticket as her running mate.
"Blacks aren't going to sit back while the winning candidate is told to sit at the back of the bus," he said, adding that the Democratic Party and Clinton risk handing the election to the presumptive Republican nominee, John McCain.
Bishop Charles E. Blake of Los Angeles, as leader of the Church of God in Christ, which claims 6 million members nationwide and abroad, presides over one of the largest Christian denominations in the country. He said in an interview that black voters could come to feel so disheartened that "their whole motivation for participating in the political process in this election would be greatly reduced."
The pastors' comments came during a week in which racial issues have retaken a central role in the campaign. Obama's 24-point victory Tuesday in the Mississippi primary highlighted the party's racial rift, with the Illinois senator winning 90% of black voters and Clinton winning 70% of white voters.
On Wednesday, a high-profile Clinton supporter, former Democratic vice presidential nominee Geraldine Ferraro, stepped down from the campaign after making comments that some considered racially divisive.
Ferraro had said that Obama's standing in the presidential race was due in part to his race. "If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position," she told the Daily Breeze newspaper in Torrance.
Both Clinton and Obama tried this week to turn the discussion away from race.
