UPDATE: You gotta’ love Bill Clinton.

Here’s a fascinating piece from Slate in which the issue of black wealth and prosperity during the 1990s is put under a lens. The conclusion from the article is that Clinton’s popularity is directly related to perceptions which were founded on lies and distortions about the true plight of black America during those times. By and large, more black people ended up in prison and the poor black communities did worse under Clinton according the following analysis. And yet, the first Black President rides the tide of sentiment that he helped cultivate.

http://www.slate.com/id/2182745

Not only is President Clinton saying that his wife never had a chance in SC because of the large black turnout, he’s now gone further to say that it’s Obama’s fault that race has been pushed to center stage in the campaign.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2008/01/24/2008-01-24_bill_clinton_says_obamas_campaign_brough.html

You have to appreciate Prez. Clinton’s political audacity (some would call mendacity). The Clinton camp are surely the greatest master manipulators of public perception we’ve seen in a long time. They pick a fight with Obama, get everyone in a tizzy over race and gender, and then blame him for starting their fight. It’s shameless. I do agree that Presidents have every right to campaign for anyone they want. But to demean their office by saying lies and half-truths is a sin.

The Clintons’ genius don’t stop there. Come summer, when Hillary is surely the nominee, their campaign is going to use every trick in the book to play the same game with the opposing Republican. They are going to smear and name-call their opponent and then play the same ingenuous game of victimhood. Surely, they will say, it’s the Republicans who play dirty as they’ve always played dirty. We Democrats are virtuous people, hellbent on restoring dignity and civility to government.

I remember a speech that Prez. Clinton gave in which he talked about how vicious the Republicans were. He described a party which not only craves power but believes, to its core, that it deserves power and is very good at keeping it. Any political party that believes it has some kind of hereditary right to governance is dangerous; they will do anything to anybody and claim it was for the public good. Bush has claimed that argument in the last eight years, and I believe Clinton is staking that territory now. I believe he is staking that territory because he has learned the lessons of his term, albeit a little late. He has learned that dirty tricks are fair game so long as you win, and he’s decided to demonstrate how powerful the Republican playbook is by using the same tactics to get his wife into office. He is showing how Democrats can win without allowing their high-minded ideals to cripple them against a mean-spirited juggernaut. The problem is that they are just as bad the other side. Bill’s aside about Lee Atwater and fighting “those kind of people” his whole life is telling. He has become everything he once hated.

This is going to be a fascinating and unhealthy campaign. Both parties are going to play dirty. Let’s hope that McCain lives up to his moniker and reputation as the straight talker. Otherwise, it’s just going to be a desperate and humiliating mud fight.