I was excited Tuesday night when Hillary resurrected her campaign with an astonishing come frombehind victory. Wednesday was her best day of the week because she kept out of the media spotlight and rested in New York. Meanwhile, Jesse Jackson Jr. came out on MSNBC and made a ridiculous statement about how Hillary's tears must be analyzed in the correct context. He summarized that although these tears had melted the Granite State, with the campaign moving to South Carolina where 45% of the electorate is black, he urged everyone to question where those tears were during Katrina.

Furthermore, Obama suggested that it was time to engage in rough and tumble politics, and since he hailed from Chicago, he knew how to play this game.

In any case, Hillary's campaign should have realized that race had been injected into the campaign, and that it was her job to put out the fire rather then fan the flames. It was clear that "somebody" would take advantage of her inarticulate remarks about MLK, JFK, and LBJ from the day before the New Hampshire Primary and push them into the media right in time for the South Carolina primary.

Even if she had evidence that this "somebody" was the Obama campaign, she could have taken the higher road and said, "look, there are thousands of reasons to vote for Senator Obama, there are thousands of reasons to vote for Senator John Edwards, and likewise there are many reasons to vote for me, but this is not one of them. I made those remarks Monday when I was extremely tired and I admit I was inarticulate in making my point. I sincerely apologize to anyone who was offended by my statements, but I'd like to clarify what I was trying to say." She could have then explained what she meant, and then had an eloquent surrogate defend her. The eloquent surrogate, somebody like Congressman Lewis, who has endorsed her, could have said "We know what Hillary was trying to say. Look at her record. She has been working hard for civil rights her whole career, and we should not let her distorted remarks divide us and destroy the Democratic Party. In a competition, sometimes we get tired and frustrated, and we say things that don't accurately reflect what we mean. Lets move on and take pride in this historic campaign."

It's safe to say that had Hillary done that, we wouldn't be talking about race today and the media would be focusing on other things like the Economy, and comparing Senator Obama's, Senator Clinton's, and Senator Edwards' stimulus plans.

Unfortunately, Hillary's stupid campaign managers and surrogates decided to muddy up the field instead of taking the high road. Instead of trying to move on past her remarks, she blamed the Obama campaign for distorting her remarks in an effort to push this theme. Again, even if she had evidence of this, it was not in her benefit to have the media talking about this. Second, instead of using an articulate surrogate to defend her, she had an overzealous idiot like Bob Johnson slam Senator Obama for distorting her remarks while simultaneously referring to his past drug use. Instead of having the media focus on whether or not Senator Obama did in fact play a role in pushing the MLK comments, the media will be focusing on Billy Shaheen and whether or not this was another effort to bring up Senator Obama's past drug use.

Again, this reflects poorly on Senator Clinton because it either demonstrates her campaign's deliberate attempt to keep race an issue in this campaign, or it reflects on her judgment in selecting surrogates. Either way, her poor judgment is depressing for me, because even though I truly admire her work ethic in the senate, the events of this past week give me serious doubts about her administration. She has been blessed with many opportunities to take the high road, but it seems she is incapable of doing so.

Not that I'm defending Bob Johnsons.  It would've killed him to simply leave it at "Hillary Clinton was working to help African Americans when Obama was in Jr. High."  And I agree the Poitier stuff was worse than the drug stuff.

You know, I tried to stay away from this whole thing when it first started happening, thinking that it would die down, and that it was not particularly constructive.  Specifically because I have strong feelings and opinions on issues of race and gender.

But it seems that this is a discussion we need to have, and not pretend like it's not still a preeminent issue, and that people are often extremely insensitive, as I believe Clinton was in her comments regarding Martin Luther King.  I don't believe it was calculated, at least I hope not, and that is why it needs to be addressed directly, otherwise it will continue to divide us as a people and a party.