The evening of Hillary's win in New Hampshire the claim came out that Hillary had somehow cheated.  Somehow she had gotten white folks to vote for her because she was white and Obama was black.  That claim was used to explain away Obama's defeat and set the stage for getting out the black vote in South Carolina.
The media jumped on it.  It explained how they could have been so wrong.  Chris Mathews and Keith Olbermann actually had to tone down their anti-Hillary rhetoric for a week or so.  So this lie got repeated over and over again.

..snip...

It worked.  Obama had a winning strategy.  If he could consistently get 80% to 90% of the black vote he'd be set.
Well ... if it worked once ... try it again.  So the Obama camp called the Clintons racists again and again and again - at every opportunity.  

The national media loved it.  It fit with the stereotype that many wanted to tag Hillary with anyway - that's she'd do anything to win - including playing the race card.  What black would vote for her if she'd stoop so low.  Just goes to show that white folks can't be trusted.

All Hillary could say was "no I didn't."  As the Obama campaign knew/knows full well, disproving the negative is virtually impossible.  

The problem with this approach and the strategic blunder for the Obama Campaign is that in the process of calling the Clintons racists they were also calling Hillary Clinton's supporters racists too.  They made it personal.

..snip...

Then the Rev. Wright revelation came out.  In their tone deafness, Obama supporters tried to brush the issue aside by saying Rev. Wright was ACTUALLY typical - he wasn't an extreme example of black preachers.  

"You mean it isn't just a few blacks who think that way?" asked whites to themselves and their friends.  In so doing, Obama supporters inadvertently confirmed what had been whispered about in the white community for a long time - blacks are racists too.

Then the Obama folks made one more mistake.  They went ahead and directly personalized the issue.  In so many words they said, "if you can't understand, appreciate the context of Rev. Wright i.e., black liberation theology, then YOU (not just Hillary) are a racist."

The response to that verbalized accusation by non-Obama supporters is/was perfectly predictable - "if you're going to call me one, I'm going to call you one."

...snip..

So much for being a uniter.

The Obama Campaign should have never played the race card.  The consequences will reverberate well past the election.

This dividing to conquer mentality and political campaigning needs to stop. So much damage done to American citizens. Will we ever come together again?