Rep. James Clyburn is regarded as the most powerful black Democrat in Congress and one of the most influential political figures in South Carolina. An endorsement by him would be a harbinger of good tidings for a Democratic candidate in South Carolina.

A few days back, I heard Hillary Clinton try to distinguish herself from Barack Obama by citing a hope versus experience example and she chose to say the following on Fox News:

“I would point to the fact that that Dr. King’s dream began to be realized when President Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, when he was able to get through Congress something that President Kennedy was hopeful to do, the president before had not even tried, but it took a president to get it done. That dream became a reality, the power of that dream became a real in peoples lives because we had a president who said we are going to do it, and actually got it accomplished.”

When I heard this, I was taken aback. It seemed to be implying, to me, that 1) all Dr. King did was “dream” and not take action and 2) what King did was not a big part of Johnson finally taking the appropriate steps to get civil rights legislation passed.

Somebody must have dropped a bug in her ear because, at the next campaign stop, Clinton quickly tried to clean it up by talking about “how Dr. King was beaten and jailed and how he worked with Johnson to pass the landmark law”. However, it appears that the damage might have already been done.

Apparently, I was not the only person taken aback. Rep. Clyburn had the following to say about it:

“We have to be very, very careful about how we speak about that era in American politics…It is one thing to run a campaign and be respectful of everyone’s motives and actions, and it is something else to denigrate those. That bothered me a great deal.”

Now, there are rumblings that Clyburn could do something that he originally believed he wouldn’t do — endorse a candidate in the South Carolina primary. At this point, everything is speculative but, this comment by Hillary Clinton and others by Bill Clinton, seemed to have rubbed Clyburn the wrong way.

This leaves some wondering what his endorsement could be. In a hotly contested race between Clinton and Obama, not to mention what an Edwards win in South Carolina could mean, a Clyburn endorsement could put a candidate over the top.

I, for one, am greatly interested in what Rep. Clyburn will do in the next few days.

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