Bill: Barack has to win on the merits

President Jimmy Carter sounded off on the escalating race rhetoric from the right wing. Leaning on his experience as a born and raised southerner, he expressed concern that much of the current vitriol against President Obama's policies is because of racial prejudice.

Not all agree with him (at least not publicly). President Clinton weighed in acknowledging, maybe race plays a small factor, but that it wasn't the central issue:

And I believe if he were white, every single person who opposes him now would be opposing him then. We have to win this health care fight on the merits.

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