Happy MLK Day! In His Honor, Remember, I Love You. I'm Just Not in Love with You

“Contemplating the Clinton-Obama racial war, some Republicans were so excited you’d have thought Ronald Reagan had risen from the dead to slap around a welfare deadbeat.

Never mind that the G.O.P. is running on empty, with no ideas beyond the incessant repetition of Reagan’s name. A battle over race-and-gender identity politics among the Democrats, with its acrid scent from the 1960s, might be just the spark for a Republican comeback. (As long as the G.O.P.’s own identity politics, over religion, don’t flare up.) …

The playing of the race card by Hillary Clinton’s surrogates to diminish Barack Obama was sinister.” – Frank Rich

“Here's what Dr. King got out of the Sermon on the Mount. On Nov. 17, 1957, in Montgomery's Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, he concluded the learned discourse that came to be known as the ‘loving your enemies’ sermon this way: ‘So this morning, as I look into your eyes and into the eyes of all of my brothers in Alabama and all over America and over the world, I say to you: “I love you. I would rather die than hate you.”’” – Sara Vowell

As he stood at the pulpit of Ebenezer Baptist Church here, addressing worshipers at the former congregation of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Senator Barack Obama was doing something Sunday that he has rarely done in his months of campaigning for the presidency.

He was appearing before a black audience, and he was speaking about race. …

He presented his candidacy as an opportunity to build on the ideals that began four decades ago here in Atlanta's Sweet Auburn neighborhood.

“The division, the stereotypes, the scapegoating, the ease with which we blame the plight of ourselves on others—all of that distracts us from the common challenges we face: war and poverty, injustice and inequality,” said Mr. Obama, of Illinois. “We can no longer afford to build ourselves up by tearing each other down.” …

“None of our hands are clean,” Mr. Obama said, speaking over approving “Amens” that resounded throughout the sanctuary. “So let us say that on this day of all days, each of us carries with us the task of changing our hearts and minds. Each of us carries with us the task of changing our hearts and minds.”

For Mr. Obama, the appearance at Ebenezer Baptist marked a rare time that a service at a predominantly black church has been included on his campaign schedule. It was the beginning of a transition in his strategy, as the primary moves to more diverse states, aides say, and he brings to the fore his effort to appeal to black voters while working to reassure some skeptics of his electability.

In doing so, Mr. Obama told his audience a story of a young campaign aide in South Carolina named Ashley Baia. He prefaced the story by pointing out that she is white, and because of her belief in Mr. Obama, black voters are signing on. He highlighted one man who was drawn toward his campaign.

“By itself, that single moment of recognition between that young white girl and that old black man, that's not enough to change a country,” Mr. Obama said. “But it is where we begin.”

It is weird observing MLK Day this year. Instead of the usual comments on racial unity and progress, 2008 marks the first time the holiday is serving as a lens for viewing race as a chip in the political primaries poker game. It's almost as bizarre as seeing a MLK White Sale.

When the primaries started, I was an Edwards supporter. I still am. Although I'm glad to see Obama talking about them now, a few months, the only candidate addressing the “common challenges we face: war and poverty, injustice and inequality” was Edwards. He continues to do so. And since I believe he's the only candidate likely to build a politics around solving those issues, I continue to send his campaign money and support his run for the White House.

But now that the race card has been played, I find myself focusing more and more on the front runners, and how they're treating the issue. It hasn't left me with the big, warm fuzzie you would expect from the Democratic party.

As we move towards the South and the South Carolina primary, I'm reminded of 2000, when John McCain's race for the Republican Party's nomination was torpedoed by push polling from the Bush camp. If you're not familiar with it, push polling is a technique campaigns use to sway voters using information disguised as a poll. They ask polling questions designed to “push” voters to the pollster's side of the ballot. In 2000, the Bushies asked likely voters “Would you be more likely or less likely to vote for John McCain for president if you knew he had fathered an illegitimate black child?” They played the race card and well, and that was it. I was pissed at the Bushies.

I was pissed off more, though, when McCain forgave them for it—which is the point, here.

I'm an Edwards supporter, but I find myself writing about Hillary more because on a day-to-day basis, she's pissing me off with her Bush-like campaign tactics. She's vetted his background for damaging information (“in kindergarten, he said he wanted to be president”), she's used surrogates to sling mud, and she's played the race card. Frighteningly enough, her attacks beginning to resemble this:

Next thing you know, she'll be push polling South Carolinians: “Would you be more or less likely to vote for Obama if you knew he fathered a black child?” If she does, though, she'll lose me. I won't vote for her—ever.

I won't be like McCain.