But -- while "race" was therefore indeed a relevant element in the Wright kerfuffle -- it wouldn't have been relevant at all unless Wright (unlike so many other black pastors) hadn't said so many outrageous things, and if Obama hadn't sat in his church for 20 straight years and listened to that stuff instead of walking out on it (as Oprah actually did). Even though McCain ended up publicly gushing over the absolutely loathsome and evil Falwell, at least he didn't sit in the guy's congregation for two decades.

Agreed, though the problem will be if McCain loses his brand. If his loses his "base" due to more of this kind of crap - whether it's racist or not, his "base" is not amused - then he'll have nothing left. No "maverick", no nothing. All he'll have left is a relentlessly negative campaign who's only hope is to drag down Obama low enough into the mud.

As Josh Marshall notes, McCain's reputation will be completely destroyed. If he loses, he ain't gonna have anything left...

Sen. McCain has a similar fine line to tread. Since the press has made the campaign about Sen. Obama himself, Sen. McCain must attack Sen. Obama or concede the election. If he attacks too virulently, he destroys his own brand as they say.

The experience of Carol Mosely Braun is instructive; when she tried to run for reelection as the "black candidate" being persecuted by the FEC she lost, in a year (1998) that was favorable for Democrats.

Sen. Obama must racialize the campaign. Sen. McCain must run against Sen. Obama. Let's not claim outrage that each campaign is succumbing to the inevitable.

May I suggest that the trouble with Pastor Wright -- definitely the biggest political cross Obama has to bear right now -- has nothing to do with his being "black", and everything to do with his being a loud-mouthed, demagogic pain in the ass whom Obama should never had had anything to do with?

Perhaps, but I think race plays into the Wright situation two different ways: Obama was fairly clearly a member of that church in part to establish his bona fides as an outsider in black culture (descendants of black slaves don't generally consider descendants of more recent African immigrants as culturally "black"), and much of Wright's demagoguery centered on race, even though a lot of it reflected in animated, exaggerated form some justified grievances from the black community. I think boisterous preaching alone (say if Obama had been a Southern Baptist with a preacher yammering on about AIDS and gays) wouldn't have been as problematic for Obama as the Wright situation.

It's pretty clear Gergen knows who injected race into the campaign, Chris. It's pretty funny to see the expressions on George and the other dude's face as Gergen lays it out for them.

"We must surrender to Al Qaeda as soon as possible; I call on you all to become dhimmis -- as soon as my civilian national security force of illegal Mexican immigrants is ready to impose this on you, along with mandatory homosexuality and 300% taxes. Now join me and my Vice-Presidential running mate, Osama bin Laden Marx, in denouncing my honkie grandmother, you Nazis."

Come to think of it, I think Bithead has already beaten him to it.

I don't believe Obama's comment was racist in itself, but rather was playing the race card. Claiming negative ads as being the fruits of racism.