Predictable headline arrives late

Race emerges as substantial issue in Democrats' campaign

What? That's crazy! Who'd have thought. . .

I hoped, of course, that we might avoid the issue. There's barely anyway to talk about Geraldine Ferraro's comments because they are hopelessly grounded in a deadly third rail. Clearly the danger we could barely talk about has been realized: we can't be open about the issue. We end up either patting ourselves on the back for promoting a black man and a woman (oooh, aren't we an advanced country now!) or we fail to acknowledge identity at all and just look stupid. Or safe within a voting booth, we let our inner racist and/or sexist romp through across the ballot.

And then there's this comment from the above-linked article:

In the latest sign of a racial rift, two prominent black pastors warned Wednesday that if Clinton is the nominee, black voters could become so discouraged by the campaign that they might stay home in November. . . .

Rivers, one of the country's leading Pentecostal ministers, said black voters were especially offended by Clinton's suggestion this week that Obama could join her on the ticket as her running mate. "Blacks aren't going to sit back while the winning candidate is told to sit at the back of the bus," he said, adding that the Democratic Party and Clinton risk handing the election to the presumptive Republican nominee, John McCain.

What the hell? See, that almost sounds like a threat. In a weird, multi-layered sort of way. That sort of comment from Clinton is absolutely no different than what any candidate fighting to get back to the top would say and in fact I believe Obama has made "I'm the presumptive nominee" comments as well. We can't allow either candidate or either candidate's coalitions to expect different treatment. Argh, it's hard to even make these sorts of comments without feeling like you're dancing on the edge of a cliff!

But the candidates acknowledged that a campaign pitting the would-be first female president against the would-be first black president was destined to touch delicate nerves in a party built in part on coalitions of blacks and women.

See, now that comment makes sense. This is the real problem here, isn't it. Which vital constituency is truly prized? Whose turn is it?

I truly believe that regardless of the final Dem nominee, all Dems will come back together to support that nominee. We might lose some, but basically just the ones who'd have voted for McCain anyway.

If we, as Democrats, blame the race or gender card for later McCain bleed, we will be engaging in intellectual dishonesty. Period. Voters in states I can guess will get blamed with racism later have been losing Dems for years now. And this year it WILL be the economy, stupid.

Don't let the sexy blame be the enemy of the rightful blame - because it's from identifying where the rightful blame lies that we can really change in the future.