They were not sending code to racist whites. They were framing the Obama candidacy as being one akin to MLK or Jackson's efforts - namely a crusade for black empowerment, rather than a serious effort to achieve the presidency.

And it most certainly worked for them. They were able to defuse the inevitable Obama victory by painting it as just blacks voting for blacks.

I think you are being grossly unfair and show complete lack of respect for the sincere feelings of anger that a lot of people had. You try to fob it off as cynical swiftboating or something. Well no. The anger was deep and sincere.

Let me try to help you understand this.

There has never been a candidacy like Obama's, where a candidate, who happens to be part of a traditionally excluded group, has run his campaign without the slightest hint of trying to use that identity to his advantage. Everything about his candidacy has been about transcending traditional divides. It is a an attempt to garner a foothold in that promised land, where race or gender or other categorizations will truly not be an issue, that a candidate can really be judged on his/her merits. And the way that Obama wants to gain that foothold is to just do it - just be that kind of a candidate.

This is transformational. For a long time identity politics has been the norm. I am not criticizing it - it served a purpose for a time. But that is not how Obama sees himself - and I am sure that being biracial as he is has a lot to do with that - and that is not how he has campaigned.

The Clintons are of the era of identity politics. For example, Obama has NEVER stood up and claimed that he wanted to be the first black president. He just wants to be president. But Hillary is constantly making such an appeal - lets be proud of electing the first woman, lets break through that glass ceiling. I think the Clintons instinctivly realized that an identity politics approach could serve them well in this campaign. If Obama could be viewed as the black candidate, rather than the candidate who, oh by the way, happens to be black - then they would have an advantage.

That is why they complimented him as being like MLK, but also putting him in that box at the same time. That is why Bill explicitly framed SC as an election where blacks would vote for blacks.

So no, the Clintons were not being racist, in any reasonable sense of the word. But they were trying to use race to marginalize their opponent. And it came instinctivly to them not because they harbor racial animosity, but because they are creatures of that era.

That is why there is such an age gap in the support between the two. Obama is appealing to young people who have grown up in a world where these type of categories seem like something rather unpleasant that older generations are imposing on a reality that really doesnt need or want them. Whereas older folks grew up in a world where these categories were very real, and by ignoring them you lose the ability to fight them.

THere is another aspect of this which needs to be mentioned to fully understand the rage. Obama is the first national black figure who truly has the ability to be evaluated for the presidency in a manner totally irrespective of his race (although one could argue that Colin Powell could have been the first). Not seen by the general populace as the black guy. Not seen as someone who could represent giving the black people a chance. But evaluated just like any other candidate, on the merits. And then here comes the Clintons and they try to put him back in the black box.

If someone like Obama cannot compete as just another candidate, then maybe no black ever can. Maybe no black will ever be allowed to escape from the box. In that sense, the Clintons can be seen as paving a really nice and heavy ceiling on top of all black politicians. And to see that happening, in the Democratic party - the one vehible for black political empowerment - and done by the Clintons, friends, is just totally infuriating. A total betrayal.