John McPain and the Republican attack machine are spinning a subtle web of  political destruction against Barack Obama. McPain is the one who is playing the race card and he is doing so with the desperation of a cornered ally cat in a midnight skirmish.

The issue is not whether or not Obama mentions his race but how he mentions it. Obama's mentions of his race is a way of addressing the obvious in a light hearted way that puts white people at ease. Isn't it tragic that someone so gifted, articulate, intelligent and qualified still in 2008 has to find a way to make white audiences feel comfortable? What does that say about the wonderful state of race relations in America? 

McPain and company are  inferring that Obama is in the same category with people like Jesse Jackson who they believe use race as a crutch or an excuse for under achievement or certain pathologies within the black community.  This feeds the existing racial stereotypes that are already prevalent in many communities. It is some of these same stereotypes that Obama seeks to disarm when addressing some groups.
 
Listen  to what they are saying, they are saying that Barack Obama is calling them racist, and we all know that the last thing you can call a white person in America these days is a racist. At the same time, watch how the Republicans are trying to get Anti Affirmative action initiatives on the ballots in alot of these states to bring out people who feel victimized by Affirmative Action to vote no to Affirmative Action and by extension vote no to Barack Obama.

McPain and company believe that average white Americans who are the victims of eight years of George Bush,  victims of six years of a Republican controlled Congress, victims of countless years of Bushes buddies at the oil compainies making insane amounts of money off of their backs, the victims of a dumb war that has bankrupted the government and themselves, can be made to believe that what they are really the victims of is Affirmative Action. 

For the record Affirmative Action hardly exists anymore. For the record Affirmative Action is not the reason why millions of American jobs have been shipped overseas, for the record Affirmative Action is not the reason why a gallon of gas and a gallon of milk both cost around 5 bucks. Affirmative Action is not the reason why people are losing their homes. But McPain and company will try to make people who already inherently think that they have in some way been victimized by Affirmative Action believe that Affirmative Action is the ultimate victimizer of their life and the supreme example of that will be the election of Barack Obama.  Perhaps they have not said it in thsose words yet, but before this election is over that is exactly where they are heading.

It is unfair, it is untrue, and it is a glaring harbinger of the final demise of our society. It is a sinister and ugly plan. It plays to the worst and lowest  fears, and anxieties that exist in otherwise decent people. It is one more reason why as much as I hate to do it I have to continue to advocate that Obama needs to go get Hillary for Veep, because she is only politcian I know whose mind can sink to such lows to be able to combat what Mcpain and company are trying to do.   

As we move rapidly towards the general election for President it is becoming increasingly clear that Barack Obama should select Hillary Clinton for Veep. I know that Hillary said some horrible things about him during the primary. I know that Hillary really doesn't like him nor does he probably like her very much. I know that Hillary used every means fair and unfair to discredit and defeat him when they were competetitors. But all of these reasons are exactly why Obama needs Hillary now!

John McCain is playing from the old, familiar,  negative but effective Republican play book and it is only just beginning. If Hillary and her crew have proven nothing else they have proven that they are willing to get down in the gutter and fight hard, fight dirty,  and fight in a way that people like the Republican National Committee understands. No Democrat since Bill Clinton has so frustrated the RNC because the Clintons were willing to go there. The Clintons beat the Republcians at their own game.

 
 Hillary is a proven street fighter and between here and November we are in for a nasty street fight. Forget her 18 million voters, forget the love she is getting from the white working class, forget the money and contacts she brings, forget the women's vote she brings, forget the benefit and not so  benefits of having Bill. None of those is nearly as important as the simple fact that Hillary knows how to fight.
So somebody please tell Barack to stop dancing around with nice people like Tim Kaine, Joe Biden, Kathleen Sebelius, and Evan Bayh and go get the toughest Democrat in the game, the iron lady herself Hillary Rodahm Clinton.

We are watching an American Tragedy unfold in the Democratic Primary race between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.  The Clinton's have long held a cherished place in the hearts of minds of democratic voters and I along with many others began this primary season assuming that she would be the nominee and our first female President. 

The sad truth is that she has been out worked, out performed, and simply out classed by a younger, smarter, better politician who has captured the imagination of the Americn people and put us in our subjunctive mood, ie, made us aware of what is possible. 

The Scottish poet Robert Burns who wrote the poem to a mouse about a plowman who unwittingly destroys a mouses well prpeared home.  His poem initiated the phrase the best laid plans of mice and men and was the inspiration for John Steinbecks' classic work about two drifters who are constantly planning only to find their plans destoyed . 

The Clinton machine planned a smooth coronation for Queen Hillary that has been run off the track by a junior Senator from Illinois who has effectively done what the Republican Congress tried to do for eight years unsuccessfully ---- in the words of Quentin Tarantino, politically speaking ---Kill Bill.