Clinton and her supporters feel there's a lesson to be learned from West Virginia.  I'm not convinced.

Let's start by ignoring the "hardworking" = "white" aspect of Clinton's remarks.  Unfortunate, but I'm not sure she meant it the way it sounds.  And it sounds terrible when you say it like that.

But the argument is that lower income, working class white voters will go for Clinton, not Obama.  And everyone seems to admit that race plays a big role (in addition to the Muslim thing and the "weird name" thing, which is also part of his race).

For example, "Racist Incidents Give Some Obama Campaigners Pause" in WaPo this week is dispiriting. If accurate, there is a certain section of the country and part of West Virginia that rejects Obama based largely (or solely) on his race.  The source seems to be a mix of ignorance and/or racism.

So, if Clinton's right and she will win the vote of these people while Obama will not, what are we supposed to do with that? Is a big percentage of the electorate so ignorant or racist that Obama can't win? Should we feed that condition out of pure pragmatism?

I know I'm being naive when I believe that America is better than that.  I know I'm being a little foolish when I believe that America has improved over the last 50 years, that voters are capable of being lifted above their current state, that their minds can be changed.  Hope and idealism can be an audacious state.

This was the heart of my issue with Clinton's remarks about LBJ and LMK.  Yes, the federal government runs the show.  Hoping and wishing doesn't make change happen.  But Malcolm and Martin and a lot of other people pressed on anyway.  To a certain extent, they didn't achieve their goals.  But we wouldn't be where we are today without their efforts.  I don't want Obama to be another Carter, but I don't want 4-8 years of cautious pragmatism either.

It's too bad about West Virginia.  I'm frustrated not that Clinton won, but that Obama lost by so much.  It appears that the state and so many of those "hard-working Americans, white Americans" were hostile or indifferent to Obama's message. But means that Obama just has to work harder to sell his message. I'm hoping he can find a way to better connect with the working class, with Latinos, with different sort of white voters who fear him.

Let's not give in to the tides of West Virginia.  Let's aim higher.