(CNN)
By David A. Love
Hillary Clinton held a closed door meeting with President Barack Obama at the White House on Monday. Although the former secretary of state, senator and first lady has not declared, it is treated as a foregone conclusion that Clinton is running for president.
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Likely to launch her campaign in April, Clinton is regarded as the front-runner — if not the only Democratic candidate — and the inevitable Democratic nominee.
There is an assumption that since Clinton supported Obama, the black community will now embrace her. But there are more than a few who didn't get that memo. At this stage of the game, many African-Americans may not be excited about a candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016. And after two terms of the nation's first black president, she should proceed with caution.
TRENDING: Impeach!
Clinton need look no further than the 2008 contest, when black voters doused water on her presidential prospects. Early on, Clinton was the favorite of black folks, lest you forgot, and it did not hurt that President Clinton had been regarded as the "first black president" with high approval among African-Americans.
Then, support for a senator named Barack Obama blew up after the Iowa caucuses. And Clinton found herself apologizing for her husband's comments about Obama's win in the South Carolina primary.
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President Clinton was relieved of his black card privileges for the remainder of the 2008 election season when he compared Obama's win in the Palmetto state to that of Jesse Jackson in 2004 and 2008, suggesting that Obama, like Jackson, would not win. The misstep was an affront to many African-Americans, as were Hillary Clinton's suggestions on the campaign trail that Obama was only good for making speeches, but not for taking action.
And let's not forget her assertions that she was the candidate for "hard-working Americans, white Americans."
