HILL DROPS A RACIAL BOMB, SAYS SHE'S PICK OF 'WHITE AMERICANS' IN SHOCK TO DEMS
  • Hillary Rodham Clinton played the race card yesterday as she dismissed Barack Obama as a candidate who will have a hard time winning support from "white Americans."

    It was the most starkly racial comment Clinton has made in the campaign, and drew quick condemnation from some Democrats.

    "I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on," she told USA Today in an interview published yesterday.

    She referred to an Associated Press story on Indiana and North Carolina exit polls "that found how Sen. Obama's support among working, hardworking Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me."

    She added, "There's a pattern emerging here."

    Clinton's "white Americans" remark drew a swift rebuke from some superdelegates, and private dismay from several Democrats concerned about reuniting the factionalized party.

    Muriel Offerman, a North Carolina superdelegate who has not disclosed her choice, said, "That should not have been said. I think it drives a wedge, a racial wedge, and that's not what the Democratic Party's about."

    Asked about Clinton's comments, Massachusetts superdelegate Debra Kozikowsi said, "That's distressing. I'm not even sure how to respond to that."