The kind of shrewdness I am talking about is a meta-strategy. It's not going to be reflected in a three-day rolling poll. My idea may be way off base. I'm not saying it is what I believe, necessarily. What I'm doing is wondering if it may be the case.
The funny thing about the "race card" issue is that you can't necessarily say that it is below board. After all, he is black, and race issues do exist. Hillary had a similar "card" to play--and play it she did--except hers was gender as opposed to race. How could she call Obama on trying to be the first black president when she was trying to be the first female president?
My sense is that we are at a time in our nation's history when a lot of people would like to put some of our ugly past behind us. We know that women couldn't cast votes all the way up till 1920, and we'd like to make some symbolic gesture to correct that wrong. We know that blacks couldn't drink from the same fountains as whites as little as forty years ago, and we'd like to make some symbolic gesture to correct that wrong.
At its essence, is it wrong for a candidate to capitalize on that sentiment? People vote for all kinds of reasons. Why should some of those reasons be out of bounds, as it were?
Except, I don't think that's what Obama is aiming for, when he plays the race card from the bottom of the deck. I think what Obama is talking about is skin color, as opposed to the notions we associate with "race." They aren't necessarily the same thing.
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