Clinton, Obama and the "race card"...

Maybe I should have paid more attention to this; I haven't paid attention enough to notice the extent to which the each of the Dems are using race. I realize this after reading this in TNR.

Interpreting the Clinton 3 A.M. phone ad on preparedness and national security as a hidden appeal to white racism takes a remarkable bit of bad faith on the part of Professor Patterson. But the bad faith is not restricted to him alone. Earlier in the campaign, in speeches to black audiences, Obama mouthed lines generally believed to come from Malcolm X about how African Americans were being "bamboozled" and "hoodwinked" by white oppressors and Uncle Toms--except that the lines were not actually Malcolm's but were scripted for Denzel Washington playing Malcolm X in Spike Lee's movie. Now, in Mississippi, Obama is talking about blacks being bamboozled and hoodwinked again. Then, after Obama conceded that Clinton had nothing to do with the ridiculous posting on the disreputable Drudge Report of a picture of Obama in ceremonial Somali dress--supposedly an appeal to racial and religious fears--he now is telling the voters of Mississippi that in fact she was responsible for the photo's appearance, and that she did it in order to scare people--a charge he well knows to be untrue. In the televised debate in Ohio on February 26, Obama said that "I take Senator Clinton at her word that she knew nothing about the photo. So I think that's something that we can set aside."

2008 continues : the election where Democrats decide if they are racist or sexist....