I suppose the question would be exactly how closely Clinton supporters identify with their candidate's personal animus toward Richardson for his perceived betrayal, and how much that feeling moderates with the passage of time.

OT, something interesting about the last line from that paragraph: I think a lot of Clinton's troubles in this primary race stemmed exactly from her campaign's tendency to believe far more things were "in the bag" than actually were. It often seemed to me that she campaigned as though the nomination were a foregone conclusion - as evidenced by the lack of any plan for how to cope with a nomination not locked up after Super Tuesday - and I can't help but wonder how things might have been different if she had worked as hard as she did once she became the underdog.

TheBell:

Hi, Inkberrow. I'm more inclined to take the staffers at their word than chalk it up to some conspiratorial effort to play the race card. The individuals quoted were usually all identified by name. The incidents -- how and when they occured -- would not be ones where I would expect documented evidence to be gathered (i.e. I wouldn't expect the volunteers being insulted by drivers to write down license plates). These people weren't demanding justice; they were just conveying what happened to them. Indeed, many seemed to have formerly held the view that "racism no longer exists in America," given their surprise at what happened. Agree generally, but I'd say that such events would likely have been reported and reported on nationally, individually, immediately and noisily---like the Constantine noose imbroglio---instead of appearing en masse from behind the campaign looking-glass after a WaPo reporter has a particular story in mind.

I agree the quote by the Mayor was NOT racist, although I found it distressingly stupid for a public figure and leader. The fact one's father was a radical Muslim and from Africa does NOT imply that this must have "rubbed off" sufficiently to make a person Muslim and anti-American. It would be stupid to assume that degree of "rubbing off", though it's not clear the Mayor does; but equally stupid to piously assume for public consumption that the connection is immaterial for fear of giving offense. Often the truth lies in the middle somewhere, but most of us adopt different working assumptions or rebuttable presumptions depending on circumstances and priorities as we define them. The more information the better, but if you find out an acquaintance's father was a serial child molester, will you let that acquaintance look after your kid for you?

I would agree that anybody voting for Obama only because he is black is no better than those voting against him on the same single criteria. Of course, if African-Americans vote for Obama in the general election in the same proportions, then that will mean about 80% to 90% of them backed the Democratic candidate and how is that different from virtually every other Presidential election since the New Deal? If Clinton was somehow to prevail, some blacks might feel sufficiently disgruntled to sit out the process but I doubt 25% or more would cross lines and vote for McCain. No argument here---the national dialogue just needs to move beyond the point where citing the same statistics and trends are alternately racist or non-racist depending on the identity-politics standing of the commentator.

Thanks for replying with some interesting counterpoints.

Southern white woman with Hillary hair. The people who would be swayed by having Hillary on the ticket will still be swayed. (both ot them). The people who wouldn't won't care, and she gives him some Southern comfort.

Because I think nothing would be worse as President than having the Clintons scheming all day in the West Wing how to get you impeached. And that's a subject they know something about.

I believe every word of it. Because I heard it from my relatives in upstate Pennsylvania, nearly word for word. They thought I would be sympathetic.

...is Kansas considered "Southern." Sibelius grew up in Ohio, also not the South.

Seriously.

But what's up with that "chili"

No southerner could invent something like that.

Although, it might have been the work of Marcy.

I'm going to go out on a limb with this post, but I truly believe that above all else, Senator Clinton wants the democratic party to take over the White House and be in power for the next eight years, to try and alleviate and correct the ills and evils that has been done by the current administration over the last eight years.

I believe that for Senator Clinton, the "political party" is above the "individual and the personal" and if it so happens and is decided by her and the superdelegates that Obama is to be the Nominee, I believe that she will use her success in these entire primaries, her success with the various voting blocks that will be needed to be successful in the general election and against the McCain machine, to wield the party power to be on the ticket with Obama as VP.

Nothing less than a democratic party victory is wanted or expected by Senator Clinton...and her continous notification to the superdelegates that alone Obama cannot win the entire general election demographics by himself (and any other he would choose as a VP), but together, as democratic powerhouse candidates who have galvanized the nation of voters and have created a passionate set of followers each to themselves, together can overtake any of the slight weaknesses that alone, might cause the loss of the general election to the republican machine.

Senator Clinton is a great political leader and to leave some things to chance that cannot be truly measured, such as leaving such major swing states and their constituents (not just those who have voted in the primaries, but all those others who identify with those who voted but they themselves did not vote) is too much to leave to chance and the vagaries of the general election.

Together, Obama and Clinton are like a blackhole, that has so much power that they suck everything into it, and this would mean a great victory for the democrats.

To even think of the thought of losing this election to the republican machine is what has kept Senator Clinton going and going and going...and with each victory or setback, she has proven herself to be the foremost democratic candidate in these elections; the first woman in the history of this nation to have gone the complete route and all that she has achieved in the primaries is a legacy and testament to be left for the next several generations of women as a benchmark and as a standard.

This is no mean feat. many have tried and have disappeared off the radar.

When it comes to the success of this democratic party which the Clintons have reshaped over the last 16 years as "their political party", that is not something that Senator Clinton will leave in limbo if she is not the Nominee, for this general election to be simply and possibly swept into the dustbin of history and the memory of another democratic party political loss. Such a happening is outside of the ken of Senator Clinton's political vision for this nation.

To that end, I sincerely believe that Senator Clinton will take to theDNC Convention, her achievements, her success and her political power to the Convention, and will at that point in time, if Obama has by then been determined to be the Nominee, to effect some influence in the shaping of the political ticket that could take the democrats INTO THE WHITE HOUSE.

That dream, regaining the White House into the democratic party fold and all the down-level voting across this nation to effect a majority in the House and Senate seats, is NOT SOMETHING that Senator Clinton even wants to consider as not happening.

Her political power and wish as I see it, is to make the democratic party victorious in the general election, whether she is the nominee or not. Together, the ticket of Obama/Clinton will be a powerhouse of a ticket that this nation cannot afford to lose if they truly and sincerely and "devoutly" want to win the general election.

I also suspect that should SHE become the Nominee, that she would enjoin Barak Obama to be on the ticket, for the very same reasons cited.

Political failure with the CLINTONs is NOT AN OPTION.

The democrats should be doubly grateful that in this most auspicious year of 2008, there are two powerful and magnetic candidates who together can make success for the democratic party not only a reality but a sure thing...and I am betting my hypothetical money on them, winning together.

In life sometimes you only have ONE CHANCE to change the course of history, and I don't think that Senator Clinton will let that opportunity disappear as long as she has any breath in her.

These are my humble thoughts...and may GOD Bless America and God Bless Senators Clinton and Obama!

like the collision of the South and Midwest to me.

I've been to Cincinatti. I've known folks from Cincinatti. I've eaten in Cincinatti. It ain't the South.

Also not the South: Missouri, Maryland, and D.C., Mason and Dixon notwithstanding.

fly into Cincinnati?

Demo/Bell:

who with others on the Fed, coupled with Sandy Weil's lobbying, engineered the collapse of Glass-Steagall and the overall underwriting of mortgage based securities on Wall Street in a greater and greater percentage by banks and financial institutions. Think Travelers and JP Morgan.

I would think of others for VP. Funny how economics is a #1 issue in 2008 while in 2004 those of us giving the warning of an imminent collapse of a standard of living for the middle class and poor were largely ignored in favor of a war we can not extract ourselves from for at least another 4 years without threatening the global economy with a disruption of oil supply. A nice bed we have there.

As far as race, I see the same in Michigan. The state is barely Democrat in majority and Detroit and Ann Arbor carry the state by the nature of their make-up. Obama has finally decided he needs to trip into Detroit and Ann Arbor today to say hello. While much of his issue was caused by the DNC, he has a lot of back-pedaling to do with the bulk of the state regardless of what crowds show up in each of these cities. His position, or lack of stated position, on the Michigan delegation has not caused much of the state to warm up to him. The state is heavily blue collar, unemployed, and declining in population. The Democrats have not paid much attention to the state and its economic issues. In fact, today's issues are being blamed on its Democrat Governor when in reality it is a national/global issue exasperated by 3 terms of a Republican Governor (Engler) whose policies pretty much bankrupted the state of reserves (think 2001/2003 tax break in comparison).

13 years ago we moved to Michigan from the socialist state of Wisconsin, a state that has a history of radicalism. My wife and I sat in a bar-restaurant (one of 3 nice ones in the area) one night. An African-American couple came in and sat at the bar and the place went silent. Approximately 30 minutes later they left with him grumbling. The high school was all white for another 5 years. We were not aware of the lack of diversity till after our move otherwise we would have moved closer to Ann Arbor or into Plymouth. The areas in close proximity west of Detroit and minutes outside of Ann Arbor stand in stark contrast to the politics of both cities. They still have not accepted the upheavals of the sixties and the reasons why. And people stay in these areas never experiencing life beyond what they grew up.

Approximately 30 minutes north and west of me sits the town of Howell, the one time home of the grand Whizz of our white supremacists. Don't forget the Michigan Militia. And didn't McVey and Nichols crawl out of their holes in Michigan to scurry down to Oklahoma? We went to court in that small town of Howell, which still lacks for diversity. It was not long ago, a store-front auctioneer decided to sell several costumes for night time activities for men, and a pink hood for ladies to participate, on Main Street. While the town was in an uproar about the issue of hooded costumes to protect the feeble and criminal-minded, that it even happened in the town gives cause to wonder about the audacity of the auctioneer to even do so. He must have felt safe in selling his wares? Being Italian Americans by 2 generations from my mom's side, we did not fit their image either. How dare us know many of the same friends the judge knew and frequented in the same social circles and who would write on our son's behalf to him (public comment by his majesty)?

I digress somewhat to cast an image of what, exactly what Obama faces in this race. We can sit back and move along the same lines we did with Kerry, thinking that it is, and Obama is, a "shoo-in" because of our liberal thinking, his tumultuous support, and how we have advanced since the late sixties or we can begin to recognize that many people still have misgivings of an African-American occupying the "White" House that was only reserved in many minds for a "White" man and god-forbid a white woman. This is going to be a tough election. NPR had remarks coming out of West Virginia from voters. One remark stuck-out in that the woman declared Obama would not win against McCain because he was a "black" man. That in itself gives rise to the limited thinking on the part of the electorate.

We need an Obama - Hillary ticket as I believe there is a point to the statement made in West Virginia and other places as well. Not an enlightened point but a truism being stated by many who will not accept the color of skin over the virtues of the man or woman.

Archaeopteryx:

There was enough Sothern sympathizers in places like Cincinnati, Ohio; Cario, Illinois; etc. to cause the Union fits during the civil war. The city may not be in the South; but, it has many attributes of it residing there.

sawbones:

It is called keeping your thumb on the masses. Create a strawman and use it as something to look down upon thereby elevating one's self above it and granting status with less of the shame of being poor or poverty stricken. In which case, one ignores the poverty or economic status one lives in if white.

250% of poverty is used to qualify people/children for CHP/SCHIP by President Bush's definition of who should receive it, a standard too low in many states. Take the 250% and apply it across the nation and one arrives at an ~120 million people as being poor or living in poverty, of which a large percentage of African-Americans are a part. Imagine if all of them recognized a common cause of being poor or living in poverty and forgot about color?

We have a town near Detroit called Taylor and its residents called "Taylor-Tuckians" because many of the residents hail from Kentucky and farther reaches of the South. Many bring their prejudices with them when they come to work automotive.

Two reasons as to why racism exists, the later not as prevalent as the former.