Race, identity politics ripping apart Democratic Party

The Democratic Party is flailing. What once looked to be a sure thing -- a Dem win in November -- now could be in doubt as the Party wrangles with the issue of race. A Pew Research media study shows that the race issue has dominated the headlines recently. Bizarrely, Spitzer's "Client 9" prostitution scandal has been the Democrats' only saving grace as it competed for national media attention with the race issue.

Even coverage of election results was racially tinged last week. A Chicago Tribune analysis of Obama's Mississippi victory, posted on Google News, noted that exit polls in that state revealed a "race-based resistance" to Obama, with "white Democrats there rejecting his candidacy 70 percent to 26 percent, while 9 of 10 blacks voted for him. It's a dramatic reflection of a recurrent pattern most pronounced in the South," The Tribune reported. Noting concerns that black voters were offended by Clinton's suggestion that Obama be her vice president, the March 13 Los Angeles Times reported on warnings that African-Americans could stay at home in November if Clinton won the nomination.

Against that backdrop came the Ferraro and Wright flare ups, which simmered for days. By mid-week, Clinton had repudiated Ferraro's remarks in front of a group of black newspaper publishers and had her surrogates spreading the message as well. During an Oct. 13 appearance on MSNBC, Congressman Gregory Meeks, an African-American Clinton supporter, told Tucker Carlson that "clearly the statements that Geraldine Ferraro made [are] a distraction and should not have been made. They're inaccurate."

Before the dust had settled came the Wright brouhaha. On March 14, Fox News' Hannity & Colmes aired video of Wright sermons that included remarks harshly critical of the U.S. and its treatment of blacks. (At one point, he described the country as "the U.S. of K.K.K.A..") Fox then aired an interview in which Obama said he had not been aware of many of those statements, and added that "I reject them completely. They are not ones that reflect my values or my ideals."

The study goes on to cite a NY Times story last week that highlights the growing anxiety of the Party's power brokers. "Lacking a clear route to the selection of a Democratic presidential nominee, the party's uncommitted superdelegates say they are growing increasingly concerned about the risks of a prolonged fight between Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, and perplexed about how to resolve the conflict," writes the Times.

The Democrat chickens are coming home to roost. After decades of playing the race card, the gender card and identity politics Democrats are getting a taste of their own medicine. And it is bitter indeed.