Minority report

It's noteworthy that the Democratic primary field has been winnowed to a battle between a woman and a black man. There will be no white man running for president on the Democratic ticket for the first time in the history of the United States.

The Republican field, meanwhile, is all white and all male.

Race in America

Something cynical this way comes.

The Clintons appear to be employing a strategy designed to remind voters of Barack Obama's "otherness" as the Democratic primary goes national.

The strategy could cost Hillary votes black enclaves in a state like South Carolina, but she never expected to win there and it is likely to go red in the general election.

A series of comments trickling out of the calculating mouths of Bill and Hillary have caught the media's attention and angered activists within the black community. The immediate response is to ask why these two skilled and liberal politicians would let themselves look so foolish to a prime constituency.

But then ask yourself what affect it has on the Obama image to have the likes of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton speaking out in his defense.

I believe the Clintons have launched a subtle campaign meant to isolate Obama as part of a fringe for the sake of his color - a nice little nugget of prejudice for voters to carry into the voting booth.

Hillary Clinton, of course, is an "other," too, but half the country shares her trait while only 12.5 percent share Obama's.

Am I wrong about this?

The New Yorker's Ryan Lizza sheds a little more light on things here. Make sure to read to the end, where he talks about Hillary's Latino fire wall.

(Photo from Politico.com)