Remember when Bill Clinton was America's first black president, Barack Obama wasn't black enough and Hillary Rodham Clinton's speeches included the phrase "when I'm president"?

Hillary Clinton must long for those days. If she fails to ward off the challenge of the upstart Obama -- and her prospects look bleak -- a significant factor will be the breach in trust between her and black voters.

In October, a CNN poll among black registered Democrats had them favoring Clinton over Obama by 57 percent to 33 percent. Now, black voters overwhelmingly back Obama -- 9 out of 10 most recently in North Carolina.

Why is the bloom off the Hillary rose?

Sheri L. Parks, associate professor of American Studies at the University of Maryland, said black Americans embraced Bill Clinton, who appeared to have a genuine affinity for black culture.

Black voters stuck by Clinton through the darkest days of his impeachment.

"There was a lot of emotional investment in Bill Clinton, and by association, Hillary," Parks said. "We let our guard down. . . . We trusted them and brought them into the family."

But during this campaign season, the Clintons have been accused of race-baiting, most recently Hillary Clinton's comment about Obama's relative weakness among "hardworking Americans, white Americans."

Clinton alienated black voters, her party's most loyal constituency, while boasting of her support among so-called Reagan Democrats. It was another example of Democrats taking black voters for granted.

Still, this felt like a betrayal.

"I'm surprised that the Clintons have spoken about race in the way that they have," Parks said. As for the "hardworking Americans, white Americans" quote, "I'm surprised that she didn't expect people to be offended by that. I thought they were smarter than that."

Her words reflected a U.S. history of elites encouraging class warfare among blacks and whites on the lowest economic rungs.

"One of the things that has happened since the Civil War was to convince poor whites that they had more in common with [elites] because of whiteness than they had with freed slaves because of poverty," Parks said. "And that has happened over and over again.

"If you can get them to identify more with their whiteness than their poverty, you could have profound influence over them."

Obama -- who committed a major gaffe with his rumination about rural voters being "bitter" and clinging to guns and religion -- has been clumsy in his attempts to relate to working people.

Parks said he needs to convince white working-class voters that they have more in common with black workers than affluent whites. This could resonate as Clinton campaigns in West Virginia and Kentucky.

"In many cities, you could make the case that the face of poverty is black," Parks said. "But in many cases where [Clinton] is moving, the face of poverty is white."

Democrats face trouble unless Obama, the candidate who sought to transcend race, can convince voters that their economic struggles are colorblind.
Contact Michael Paul Williams at (804) 649-6815 or mwilliams@timesdispatch.com.