The Sunday news shows were full of Obama/Clinton. No doubt, there is a concerted effort to bring Obama down. This week Geraldine Ferraro made some of the most incredible comments about Obama that one could imagine. She actually had the nerve to say that Obama is where is today BECAUSE he is African-American. What country has she been living in?

Has she never heard of "driving while black?" Has she never heard of the racial imbalance in our prison system, the disproportionate unemployment rates for African-American males? Come on Geraldine! Even though I admire you, and Kristi and I actually drove up to West Frankfort, Illinois, to hear you speak during your Vice-presidential run, because we recognized the historic importance of what you were doing, you are acting like a hack politician. This is unbecoming of you. You know better.

Then, somehow, although this is really not new, these videos of Obama's preacher surfaced. The mainstream media is jumping all over this. Theses videos show a very, what might be described as a "fire and brimstone" (although that phrase is generally more aimed at white preachers who take a similar excited delivery) style of preaching. If someone has ever taken the effort to hear an African-American preacher, and attend an African-American church, you know that this isn't that uncommon. And it isn't all that uncommon in white churches, although a much higher percent of white preachers are boring and drab, no doubt.

So criticizing Obama's preacher for his style is dumb. But ok, let's look at the words. One of the clips that is getting played shows the preacher, in his fire and brimstone mode, proclaiming with great vigor, that god is damning America, because we have killed lot of innocent people with our aggressive foreign policy based on military interventions. Another one of the favorite clips of the mainstream media talks about how our foreign policy brought on the hatred that is coming at us from around the world. The media has interpreted that as meaning that he is saying that we deserved to be attacked during 911, but he didn't say that. No man of God is going to try to justify the 911 attacks. But, for us as a society to be absolutely unwilling to consider our own behavior around the world and how that might have created to the climate which resulted in the attack is foolish and unrealistic. We need to figure out how to avoid this happening again, and we have to have the courage as a society to look at everything. Our unrealistic and extreme self-righteousness as a nation over the centuries has not served us well.

Nevertheless, Obama disavowed his statements. You know that can't be easy. It's like telling your mom to keep her mouth shut at your wedding reception so she won't offend you. Obama says that he didn't hear any of the most controversial rhetoric while sitting in the pew at the church. Some of the pundits suggested that there will be a full court press to find video of him sitting there while that preacher said things that will be characterized as "extremeist." If they find such a video, it was suggested, Obama is in big trouble. The wildcard here is whether or not there will be a backlash from people that like Obama that come to think that the system is doing everything they can to stop him because they want to maintain their advantages. If enough people believe that, it could actually benefit Obama. I just can't predict it. But it is going to be facinating. There is a lot of time before the next round of primaries, and, as it is often said, 24 hours can be forever in politics. When it's 5 weeks in such a heated race, it's totally unpredictable.

But these kind of things have resonance with certain parts of our society. The polls show that Clinton is favored by the "lower income" brackets, like $50K and under. That's Kristi and I, actually. We would be in the lower half of that bracket, individually. That's non-college educated folks, like us. I probably will get in trouble for writing this, but it's what I have observed here in the mid-south - it isn't the college educated folks in general that you see driving around with confederate flags in and on their trucks. I know that is a generalization, but I think I make a point that should be made, and I make it from experience.

The irony here of course, and perhaps the reason, is because the African-American male for the most part is in that lower income bracket from which Hillary is attracting a core of her support. I think there is a good bit of competition for the crumbs of society that is causing animosity, and there is some, whether conscious or not, exploitation of that competition. What is needed is to try and sweep all of that kind of economic "divide and conquer" mentality out the door. I just don't see the Clinton's trying to do that. She's trying, and somewhat successfully, to make this primary election one about race, and not try to unite the entire economic class. I think Obama is doing a better job at trying to do that.

But no doubt, Obama has been distracted this week. I guess he figured when it rains it pours, because he also decided to release all of his earmarks, and he visited the Chicago Tribune's editorial board and leveled with them about the full extent of the donations given to him by indicted Chicago businessman, Tony Resko. I would assume the thinking is to get it out now, while there is still time for people to forget before Pennsylvania, and to gather a little ammo to be able to turn this argument against Clinton. We got some hint of this today, as Obama supporters are now saying, "OK, Clinton, Obama has released his tax returns, has released his earmarks, and has come clean on Resko. What about you?"

A lot of this just comes down to just how much residual racism remains in the mainstream of the U.S. Is it enough to block a majority? I guess we will see. But I didn't see Clinton facing this kind of sustained, multi-faceted attack. The only thing she had to do was to distance herself from Ferraro - which she did in the most gentle of ways. She fudged, just like she did when asked about what she thought about allegations that Obama was a Muslim. She's a machine politician. No doubt about it. She knows how to play dirty politics. It is a challenge for Obama to try and change the tone of politics when faced with these kind of attacks. But, if he can't meet the challenge, he won't be president.