Obama did try, very hard, to minimize race as a factor in the campaign. And for a while he succeeded. It was the Clintons who, just at the moment their campaign looked to be in crisis, put it back in. Are the Clintons cynically, if very cleverly, using race as a wedge issue to split the Democratic party in their favor? I don't know that for sure. Would the Clintons do so, if they thought they had to to win? About that, there can be no doubt.

First: the Clintons have succeeded in splitting the Black and White portions of the Democratic party. If Ms. Clinton can hang on to the latter, she will be the nominee. Second, however, is that the Clintons have managed to make themselves look dirtier even than they were before. Mr. Bill explained away the South Carolina results by explicitly linking the Obama victory to those of Jesse Jackson. Everyone now assumes that everything a Clinton says is part of a well considered strategy. White voters may well be hesitant to back a Jackson-like candidate of Black America, but won't they be equally offended to know that they are being played? The Clintons are counting on winning the White vote n a lot of states on Feb. 5th. But by being so transparent, they are running a terrible risk.