Is Barack Obama's biggest weapon Bill Clinton? The blogosphere seems to think so, judging by the rash of pontificating on the subject following Obama's blow-her-away victory in South Carolina this past weekend.
     Or, is Mister Bill's strategy actually a diabolical plan to bring yellow dog Dems back to the good 'ol days of paternalistic racism?
     On the latter point, conservative Newsbusters opinionator Noel Sheppard ascribes a Machiavellian deviousness to the former president. He argues that Clinton is not an unthinking bull in the southern delegation, but intentionally race-baiting to load the deck for Hillary's sudden surge among white Dems on Super Tuesday.
     "You don't really believe Bill accidentally fell asleep while Martin Luther King III
spoke glowingly about his deceased father, do you?," Sheppard writes. "Don't kid yourself. Bill knew exactly what he was doing, and that this would act to further divide Democrats along racial lines, for if this nomination process indeed becomes a battle between blacks and whites, the Clintons must believe this will stoke supposedly buried racist feelings in enough voters to secure her eventual coronation."
     Well, that's an interesting idea with a kernel if not a whole crop of truth.  It's amazing that the rap on Obama has shifted from "is he black enough" to "is he too black." The Clintons have clearly played a role in that shift. Certainly Christopher Hitchens wholeheartedly agrees. "How can one equal Bill Clinton for thuggery and opportunism when it comes to the so-called 'race card'?" he asks. 
     A look at CNN's exit polls in South Carolina reveals a more complicated picture. The exit polls do indeed show that Obama's biggest category of strength in South Carolina was black voters. The second largest group was voters under 30, and people voting in a primary for the first time. Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, did best with white women and older folks. John Edwards, posting a distant third in his own home state, captured the most white men, especially those identifying as Republican.
     Another interesting stat was the support for each candidate based on qualities such as "can bring change", "cares about people", experience, and electability. Clinton scored 84% on experience, Edwards got 43% on "cares about people", while Obama got 75% in the change category. Most revealing, though, was the 40% he garnered to Clinton's 36% for electability.

     That is the only issue at the end of the race that will matter. Obama did well with white Iowans and great with black South Carolinians. Clinton took white New Hampshire and white/Latin Nevada, and is likely to win Florida. But the real test of electability will come Feb. 5.
     At that point, with 22 states voting, it really is a free-for-all. Obama's electability will ride on whether he can motivate the youth vote, the black vote, and enough of the white vote to edge in.