"...and the country is caught up in that."

It's the concept of Obama that people are caught up in, and that includes his race. He's black. That matters. How it matters, or how much it matters, can be disputed, but it still matters. The Obama campaign doesn't get to tout how historic his election would be as the first black man and be the only ones to point out that, gosh, I never noticed before, but he just happens to be black.

Hillary and anyone ever associated with her has done nothing on the scale that will be done to Obama in the general election.What Ferraro was talking about, and what the author totally misses, was the concept of Obama as a candidate, and that people are caught up in the excitement of it. The media has been fawning over Obama. If Hillary was really as bad as Republicans she'd be bringing up his whack job of a preacher. She might as well sleep with him compared to what's coming in the general.

Race still matters, people, get over it.

The Obama campaign doesn't get to tout how historic his election would be as the first black man

Kindly supply a reference to JUST ONE instance of the Obama campaign doing any such thing. Or are you merely blowing smoke out of your ass?

...so true....and so little. That is why the American working class is being so powerfully crippled by these idiot divisions and diversions and one big reason why American unions are powerless. It is also why Democratic's could lose this political campaign. I wonder if Toyota, I wonder if the Chinese military, it wonder if Putin gives a flyin' pickle the color of the next Prez...I wonder if the trajectory of an Iranian missile cares....but stupid American voter's are blinded by it and so it goes...how pitiful indeed.

Are you honestly claiming that no one, ever, involved with the Obama campaign has ever, not even once, mentioned something, even in passing, about the historical context of Obama as the first black president?

Oh, right, they never had to, because the freaking media has been pounding it home for them.

So better question; if elected, would it be historically significant that he was the first black president?

Damn straight it would be. Read it the other day, can't remember who said it, some Obama supporter, not affiliated directly with his campaign that I know of, but he went on and on about how Obama's face to the rest of the world would signal how far we've come. That terrorists in the Middle East and Africa and other supposedly hard hearted peoples would look to this new brown skinned American president and rethink what they think about America.

That Obama's campaign hasn't had to make his being black a central part of their campaign is because they haven't had to, the media has done it for them. I dare you to deny the media playing up his race. So how do the rest of us ignore that onslaught?

For the record, I'm a registered Democrat and I plan on voting for McCain. If it were someone else beside McCain, I would be supporting Hillary. If Edwards was still in the race I'd be supporting him. Obama is far down on my list, and that's only because I think getting us out of Iraq in something less than a rush to see how fast we can leave is the most important issue we face today. McCain has the military experience needed. Hillary has the policy experience needed. Obama lacks both those qualities and that's my basis of support and nothing else.

Of course race still matters.

And why Obama's race matters is that he is offering himself up as the first presidential candidate who happens to be black, who by virtue of not using race as a wedge, is trying to unite us and take us past the exhausting and divisive issue of race in some significant measure.

But the Clinton Slime Machine, via its agent Ferraro, was saying that ALL he has to offer is being black, that and nothing else. He has no ideas, no leadership qualities, no experience, no vision. He's some just some unserious, pat-him-on-the-head Negro with a good stage act who needs to get back in line with the rest of the black victims where he belongs, while the great Liberal White Crusaders lead the way on his behalf.

I don't believe Ferraro is a bad women. But I do believe her comments expose this unconscious racism which is common among powerful liberal "progressives."

I also believe that the Clintons have been waging a fully conscious, and horrifying, racial campaign against Obama. We saw it first when they tried to dismiss his crushing of Hillary in South Carolina as "well, Jesse Jackson won that state too." They've had to become more subtle, but as they get more desperate it's again becoming more ham fisted and obvious.

The Clintons are not waiting to ruin the Democratic Party by suing their way into the nomination at the convention in July. These power-mad, unscrupulous sociopaths are already engaged in the poisoning of their own well.

Surprised you didn't add a little trademark icon after that.

Again, nothing Hillary has done to Obama will compare to what will be done to him in the general election. You're an idiot if you think Clinton's campaign has been waging, on purpose, and overt and conscious racial campaign against Obama. You have no clue was to what true racism is. You're no better than the people you rail against, ignorant of the true meaning of the word, and willing to belittle it to suit your own personal or political needs.

Oh I see. So because the Republicans will engage in racist political attacks on Obama, it's just fine that the Clintons do it. They're actually doing us all a favor by toughening the kid up for Fall, huh?

You fool. They are setting the stage right now not just for Hillary's losing of the nomination, but of Obama's losing the election. That's their plan: if she can't have it, no Democrat will have it.

Oh dear! The Clintons, those angels, would never engage in any intentionally nasty politics. I keep forgetting. They are just sweethearts whose only interest is...what..."the children?" "working people?" I keep forgetting. Oh no: "PERSONAL POWER."

Wake up.

EarlyBird:

Oh I see. So because the Republicans will engage in racist political attacks on Obama, it's just fine that the Clintons do it. They're actually doing us all a favor by toughening the kid up for Fall, huh?

You fool. They are setting the stage right now not just for Hillary's losing of the nomination, but of Obama's losing the election. That's their plan: if she can't have it, no Democrat will have it.

Oh dear! The Clintons, those angels, would never engage in any intentionally nasty politics. I keep forgetting. They are just sweethearts whose only interest is...what..."the children?" "working people?" I keep forgetting. Oh no: "PERSONAL POWER."

Wake up.

What's unfortunate is that Obama's pastor may have done all the Clinton's dirty work for them. Have you heard some of the crap this guy said? AIDS is a government plot to kill black people?

Obama's going to be in trouble with this since he was his pastor for, what, 20 years? How could he not have known what this guy, his proclaimed mentor said?

It's almost like a betrayal; the guy who promised post-racial politics is now linked to the worst of identity politics.

One vicious, hateful man who apparently never heard of MLK may very well bring down a presidential campaign.

I'm honestly just catching up with the whole new pastor story. Sounds depressing.

Sheesh.

You're an idiot if you think that Hillary is actively working to make Obama lose the general campaign if she doesn't get the nomination. By making that statement you lose any shred of credibility you might otherwise have claimed.

More than a few commentators have pointed out how the "It's 3 a.m." ad is a gift to McCain. Look at the recent zogsby (sic) poll on this matter, McCain wins that matchup. As for weather or not the Clintons would stoop so low and be so selfish as to undermine their own party for their own personal gain and political power, I enter into evidence THEIR ENTIRE POLITICAL CAREER and the scandals, abuses of power, and dirty politics that have gone along with it. Do we really have to regurgitate each and every single travelgate, cattle future, suspicious Mark Rich/FLAN pardon, and bimbo eruption from Flowers to Lewinski to suggest that mayby, just mayby, these people are in it for themselves when their integrity is called into question? Just google "clinton scandal" and you'll see why a rational, reasonable person would not like the Clintons.