Obama's Rescue Attempt

So Barack Obama is defending Hillary Clinton's plantation remark.

Barack's a smart guy, who -- despite his personal very-left politics -- understands the importance of maintaining his viability "within the system." No better way to stay "viable" as a potential VP than to defend the woman who might well be at the top of the ticket, especially given that Barack, as the sole black senator, is in a unique position to do so.

Being as intelligent as he is -- and determined to appeal to the middle -- he understood that the most effective way to defuse the much-deserved outcry over the needlessly inflammatory (even race-baiting remarks) was to try to eliminate any racial overtones. Hence his assertion that the simile merely referred to a "consolidation of power."

Nice try, but sorry. Hillary is many things, but "at a loss for words" isn't one of them. If she had meant "consolidation of power," she would have said (you guessed it!) "consolidation of power." And even if -- even if -- Barack Obama's excuse for Hillary's behavior was actually the truth, it would mean that she has the most terrible political judgment of all time: After all, who uses racialist language to make a simple point?

The fact is that it was MLK Day and Hillary was trying to ensure that she won't lose one of her primary power bases, i.e. among African-Americans. It was a shameless bit of pandering, and that's about all.