People have discussed at length Ted Kennedy endorsing Obama, but I haven't read anything about Charlie Rangel and other black leaders endoring Hilary.

Polls in Mass:
Clinton: 59%
Obama: 22%
Edwards: 11%

Erasing the race

Try this political pop quiz: Can you identify the presidential candidate promising "a fresh start after a season of cynicism ... a president who can unite this nation, a president who puts aside the endless partisan bickering that seems to gridlock our nation's capital, a president who puts the people first, a president who lifts this nation's spirits?"

Another clue: "I want you to understand that I can't win without you. When you go out there and tell the folks where we stand ... when it comes to bringing people together to get things done, and you tell them that the core of this campaign is the inherent trust in the American people, I believe it doesn't matter what political party they're in. They're going to come our way."

OK, it's a trick question. The candidate's not Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, but Texas governor George W. Bush, as quoted by The New York Times in November 2000. Actually, "folks" should be a dead giveaway. It's what poker players call Bush's "tell," a sure sign he's blowing smoke.

But, yes, Obama 2008 sounds awfully like Bush 2000, especially when he wafts into high rhetorical mode, all moonbeams and lofty emotions. Exactly what compromises he'll make with the guns, God and gays, bigger-wars/smaller-taxes GOP hardliners come 2009 -- the same ones circulating e-mails falsely claiming he's a covert Islamic extremist -- Obama's not saying.

But no, I didn't find Obama haughtily condescending toward Hillary Rodham Clinton during the New Hampshire debate. People make too much of these transitory moments. She'd pronounced him "likeable," pretty much forcing him to call her likeable back. I'd call his reaction one professional's wry acknowledgement of another's smooth handling of a tricky question.

Nor do I credit the rumor reported by the New York Post's chronically unreliable Page Six that Obama entered a Des Moines victory party to Jay-Z's misogynist rap "99 Problems": "I got 99 problems but a b** ain't one." He'd have to be an idiot, and Obama's not.

What, then, to make of the controversy over Clinton's alleged "racially tinged comments" as one Washington Post op-ed writer called them, words "that could be taken as either insensitive or patronizing"? Citing Obama's relative lack of experience, Clinton made the unexceptional point that it took LBJ's political skills to turn Martin Luther King Jr.'s idealism into law.

Because Clinton's words have been selectively edited, it's worth quoting them in full: "Dr. King's dream began to be realized when President Lyndon Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, when he was able to get through Congress something that President Kennedy was hopeful to do, the president before had not even tried, but it took a president to get it done. That dream became a reality. The power of that dream became real in people's lives because we had a president who said, 'We are going to do it,' and actually got it accomplished."

"In other words," wrote Marjorie Valbrun in the Post, "'I have a dream' is a nice sentiment, but King couldn't make it reality. It took a more practical and, of course, white president, Lyndon Johnson, to get blacks to the mountaintop. ... Clinton managed to insult a beloved black leader in her eager attempt to insult a rising black leader."

Except that King himself once told LBJ, "It is ironic, Mr. President, that after a century, a southern white President would help lead the way toward the salvation of the Negro."

Grow up, Ms. Valbrun.

Likewise, New York Times columnist Bob Herbert accused Hillary of "taking cheap shots at, of all people, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr." Herbert further accused Bill Clinton of insultingly characterizing Obama's campaign as "the biggest fairy tale I've ever seen."

Virtually every "mainstream" publication and TV network jumped in. Here's Newsweek's formulation of the racial insult Bill Clinton "appeared" to deliver, "a remark that infuriated many African-Americans. 'When has "black" and "fairy tale" ever been mentioned in the same sentence?' asked Todd Boyd, professor of African-American and Critical Studies at the University of Southern California."

When, indeed? You can scrutinize Bill Clinton's entire 500-word statement about Obama's shifting positions on Iraq without finding any allusion whatsoever to race. Not one. It's online at mediamatters.org.

On "Meet the Press," Sen. Clinton found herself confronted with video clips artfully cropped to conceal the context of both her own remarks and her husband's. She defended herself well, but that's not the point. Whatever his faults, Bill Clinton stood up for civil rights in Arkansas back when it was physically dangerous. Hillary was inspired by Dr. King as a high school girl. Their reward was the insanely scurrilous videotape, "The Clinton Chronicles," partly narrated by Arkansas' last die-hard segregationist, Justice Jim Johnson.

Women have just experienced the ultimate betrayal. Senator Kennedy's endorsement of Hillary Clinton's opponent in the Democratic presidential primary campaign has really hit women hard. Women have forgiven Kennedy, stuck up for him, stood by him, hushed the fact that he was late in his support of Title IX, the ERA, the Family Leave and Medical Act to name a few. Women have buried their anger that his support for the compromises in No Child Left Behind and the Medicare bogus drug benefit brought us the passage of these flawed bills. We have thanked him for his ardent support of many civil rights bills, BUT women are always waiting in the wings.

"And now the greatest betrayal! We are repaid with his abandonment! He's picked the new guy over us. He's joined the list of progressive white men who can't or won't handle the prospect of a woman president who is Hillary Clinton (they will of course say they support a woman president, just not "this" one). `They' are Howard Dean and Jim Dean (Yup! That's Howard's brother) who run DFA (that's the group and list from the Dean campaign that we women helped start and grow). They are Alternet, Progressive Democrats of America, democrats.com, Kucinich lovers and all the other groups that take women's money, say they'll do feminist and women's rights issues one of these days, and conveniently forget to mention women and children when they talk about poverty or human needs or America's future or whatever.

I was as angry as I ever had been in my life a few days ago, and I don't get angry often.  I am renewed by Ted Kennedy's courage and strength in doing what he knew was right.  I know he is reviled by many, and certainly after he endorsed Obama many talked of him being a fat drunk who killed someone.  He, as all of us, is flawed, but what he has never been is mean spirited.  In the twilight of his career he has taken up a cause of beauty, a candidate who speaks to our higher levels, not our most base.  He did it not for the promise of a cabinet post but because he genuinely believes it is right, which is so clearly apparent from how happy he looked from the moment he made the endorsement.    

I feel hope for something better.  Do I think Obama is perfect? No.  Do I think he has never made a mistake?  No.  Do I think he genuinely wants to work from a higher more hopeful level - yes.  

I was struck by the comment I heard on the news that part of the reason Kennedy made his choice because he heard that after John Kerry endorsed Obama he was called by Clinton supporters saying he should never call them again or ever expect any help again - lose their numbers.  Sounds very Bushesque - "either with us or against us."  May be fun for some, but not good for the all.  I also was struck that New Hampshire is roiling over people feeling they were duped in the last days of the election to vote for Hillary by a complete distortion of Obama's position on the issue of choice.  See http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008801270351

I may be naive, but I think we are better than winning at all costs.  I think we are better than people who try to shut down anyone who disagrees with them.  I know the Rove theory wins, or has in the past won, elections, but it is not good for the country and it is not good for people of the country.