Clinton says Obama campaign "distorting" comments on race

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton suggested that Barack Obama's campaign had distorted some of her comments to make racial tension a theme of the presidential contest. "This is an unfortunate story line the Obama campaign has pushed very successfully," the former first lady said in a spirited Sunday appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press." "I don't think this campaign is about gender, and I sure hope it's not about race." Obama, who hopes to be America's first black president, called Clinton's allegations "ludicrous." Both New York Sen. Clinton, who is campaigning to be the first woman president, and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, have engaged in damage control this week after black leaders criticized them for comments made shortly before the New Hampshire primary last Tuesday. Hillary Clinton was quoted as saying US civil rights icon Martin Luther King's dream of racial equality was realized only when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, while Bill Clinton said Illinois Sen. Obama was telling a "fairy tale" about his opposition to the Iraq war.