excerpt
Clinton's failure Tuesday was a product of demographics rather
than Obama's campaign skill. Consistently winning over 90 percent of
the African-American vote, Obama is unbeatable in a primary where the
black electorate is as large as North Carolina's (half the registered
Democratic vote there). Indiana differed from seemingly similar Ohio
and Pennsylvania, where Clinton scored big wins, because it borders
Obama's state of Illinois, with many voters in the Chicago media
market.
Democrats abhor bringing up what Obama calls Ayers'
"detestable acts 40 years ago," but it will be brought into the public
arena even if it is not McCain's style of politics. A photo of Ayers
stomping on the American flag in 2001 has been all over the Internet
this week. That was the year Obama accepted a $200 political
contribution from Ayers and the year in which the former Weatherman
said: "I don't regret setting bombs. I feel we didn't do enough."
...
Clinton’s aides, too, drew no contrasts on matters of issue or
character with Obama in a morning conference call with re****ters.
Instead, they gave an unusually explicit nod to the racial calculus of
electability.
“We lost the white electorate in Virginia, started even in North
Carolina among the white electorate just two weeks ago, and ended
[with] a very significant win of 24 points among those voters,” said
Geoff Garin, Clinton’s chief strategist, acknowledging that among
black voters, Clinton “did not do as well as we would want or need.”
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