The more obvious move is to find a Sister Souljah--after Saturday--to stiff arm. The most promising candidate is not a person, but an idea: race-based affirmative action. Obama has already made noises about shifting to a class-based, race-blind system of preferences. What if he made that explicit? Wouldn't that shock hostile white voters into taking a second look at his candidacy? He'd renew his image as the trans-race leader (and healer). The howls of criticism from the conventional civil-rights establishment--they'd flood the cable shows--would provide him with an army of Souljahs to hold off. If anyone noticed Hillary in the ensuing fuss, it would be to put her on the spot--she'd be the one defending mend-it-don't-end-it civil rights orthodoxy.

If you are white--and frankly don't much give a damn about people--Sista Souljah was a brilliant tactic. If you're black, and paying attention, it was a succesful attempt to appeal to the worst prejudices of white people by telling Southern racists that Slick Willy was no nigger-lover.

The worst part of this era of Democratic politics is the elevation of people who seemingly stand for nothing. Say what you want about John McCain, he believes in the war. George Bush really believed that stem-cell research was a bad idea. In fact, the one triangulator among the GOP, Romney, is seemingly reviled by all the other candidates. This is not to say they don't have hucksters and panderers among them, but on our side the politics of calculation seems to rule the day.

It's very hard to see myself endorsing electoral cowardice. It's very hard, in other words, to see myself endorsing the Clinton's given their long record of tossing niggers off the boat when it was expedient.