Talk about irony. As I was sitting in a studio with award-winning Latina journalist Maria Hinojosa preparing to appear on CNN for a discussion regarding black and Latino voters, it was announced on-air that Clinton campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle, who had made history as the first Latina to helm a major presidential campaign, was stepping down. Taking her place would be Maggie Williams, Clinton's former White House Chief of Staff. Maggie Williams happens to be black, only you may not know that because most major news outlets didn't mention it.
At first I thought I simply missed it. Surely with all of the talk of racial tension on the campaign trail (a story that the media has covered at length) along with the story of the Clinton campaign's increasing disconnect with black voters and the Obama campaign's alleged disconnect with Latino voters, someone would have mentioned it. But a quick review of some of the major news outlets' online coverage of the story here and here shows that not many did. A few television outlets compensated by showing a picture of both Doyle and Williams thereby allowing viewers to fill in the blank, which actually made the absence of any mention of their race all the more obvious-and amusing.
So what gives? Is it that Williams's race is really irrelevant and therefore media outlets were simply doing the right and journalistically responsible thing by shying away from mentioning it? Or was this an example of political correctness actually torpedoing a good-and newsworthy-story?
To be clear, Maggie Williams is much more than a black political operative. She is one of the most well respected operatives to operate, not just in so-called "Hillaryland," but in Clintonland period, which in a world that includes both Paul Begala and James Carville is saying an awful lot. While many outlets noted that she previously served as Sen. Clinton's Chief of Staff in the White House, they neglected to mention she also once led the former president's Harlem Office. In a nutshell, she's got the goods. But it is also no secret that in recent months, the Clinton campaign has lost some of its famed luster among black voters. At this point with Obama capturing approximately 90% of the black vote in the most recent primary contests, the campaign has probably given up all hope of seriously competing for black votes as long as candidate Obama is around, although they'd never admit that publicly. But instead, after some racially tinged stumbles, including former President Clinton's dismissive assessment of Obama's South Carolina win, the campaign has to look ahead to the general election when some major fence-mending and wound-healing will need to take place should Clinton become the nominee.
With John McCain the likely GOP candidate, someone known for his appeal to Independent voters, Clinton will need to rely on her traditional Democratic base of support more than ever. That includes black voters.
Which brings me back to Williams. As qualified as she is, Williams represents a powerful symbol for the campaign. While much has been made of Clinton's strong support among female voters, particularly older women, much of that support has come largely from white women. It is worth noting that this support has elicited its own share of racially charged melodrama, such as when feminist icon Gloria Steinem, attempting to defend Clinton's candidacy, seemed to argue in a New York Times Op-ed that women have it tougher than black men-a sentiment she later clarified as not representative of what she intended to convey. Williams's high profile presence could do a lot to bridge some of this divide. The other reason the issue of race is worth noting here, is because Latino voters are another group that likely GOP nominee McCain has traditionally done better with than most Republicans, and increasingly, their Democratic partisanship is not a given. This is one key reason why so much media speculation in recent weeks has focused on whether or not Obama will be able to successfully compete for Latino voters in a general election. Yet now that Doyle is no longer in the Clinton campaign's driver seat -- a historic appointment that was heralded by Latina magazine -- an argument could be made that the Clinton campaign's recent round of staff musical chairs could tarnish the campaign's image with the Latino community just a bit and perhaps already has.
The point is the issue of race is not relevant to every story. But it was relevant to this one, which is why it's too bad that no one covered it.