A poster on TPM noted that Obama's response to this was, essentially, "Clinton's not really racist, he's just old." The implicit truth is that a lot of old people are racist, but as we white folk often do in making apologies for our elders, we explain that it's "generational." "Sure, my grandfather was an ignorant bigot, but, come on, so was everyone!" Of course, that's another lie. But anyway, the point about Obama's reaction to this is the point about Obama as a human being and as a leader: he sees the bigger picture, and responds from a point of compassion rather than vitriol. As opposed to Mr. and Mrs. Clinton in this regard. They are a literal manifestation of the ideas that Obama is running against, and in this way, they are, unbeknownst to them and their titanic egos, hurting themselves and helping the Obama campaign. The polling in SC bore this out as true. And to those who would suggest Obama isn't "electable" - as Bob points out, he got more votes than McCain and Huckabee COMBINED. He got the most votes of anyone running IN SOUTH "CONFEDERATE FLAG IN EVERY OTHER HOME" CAROLINA!

Old against young, eh? Doesn't sound a bit like Obama's own philosophy. HE talks about uniting people of all sorts, not creating phony divisions based on something as idiotic as age differences. When he does say something about "old" versus
"new", he's talking about the old ways of government as opposed to a change in policies. Get a clue.

And, yes, Bill and Hillary are in my generation, but that doesn't make either me or them racist. They are just trying to get Hillary elected, and I'm just trying to make a reasoned decision about who I'd like to see in the White House come next January.

bajasteve, I think you misunderstand my point. The poster on TPM was talking about the way Obama talked about Clinton living in the past (in the mindset of 1984 and 1988) and that this was understandable because that's when he, Clinton, was paying attention to the SC caucuses. The poster distilled this to Clinton being "old." Neither the poster nor I were saying there is any implicit "old against young" battle being waged in this campaign. Obama, the poster on TPM and I are, I think, in accord that an outmoded worldview is being employed by the Clintons. And I was taking it a step further in saying that said outmoded worldview isn't particularly forgivable. For what it's worth, both my grandfathers were racists, and one of them had the great opportunity to finally realize the error of his ways and recant shortly before his death at 96.

But I would argue that a lot of people over the age of 30 are racist in subtle ways they don't even think much about. They talk about living in "good neighborhoods" and they think affirmative action may have lived out its usefulness. I mean, the bottom line is, we live in a racist world in that "race" is used to codify individuals into groups. But the point of Obama is he doesn't stop there - he uses groups to reach out and join other groups, to form coalitions, to speak to a shared experience wherein we can all learn and grow from each other's unique diversity.

I don't know if Bill or Hillary is racist - but I do know that they have been bluntly trying to frame Obama as a black candidate. They are employing racist comments and relying on a racist worldview. And their attempts are failing.

JumpyPants, I have no way of knowing how old you are, but I find it amusing that you choose to quantify your argument by selecting 30 as the age over which one is "old-fashioned" and more likely to be a racist. Back in the 60's, we ranted and raved about not trusting anyone over the age of 30. Guess what? all of us in that Summer of Love and Chicago '68 generation are well over 30, and many of us still have the same political views (albeit much less violent in nature) we had then. We're still opposed to stupid, unnecessary wars, we still would like to end poverty, etc.

Be careful how you delineate people; your 96-year-old grandfather wasn't in the generation of those who are now "over 30", not by a factor of two or three, and his opinions and prejudices have no bearing on people 60 years his junior.