WSJ Beats SWNID to Analytical Punch Again

On Bill Clinton's shameless playing of the race card in SC, we defer to the sublime opinionists at WSJ, who say quicker and smarter what we would say if we weren't so slow and stupid.

Some brief teaser quotes:

Anyone who thinks this was accidental has spent too much time with Sid Blumenthal. . . .

This primary contest has been a rolling revelation for many Democrats and the media, as they've been shocked to see the Clinton brand of divisive politics played against one of their own. Liberal columnists who long idolized the Clintons are even writing more-in-sorrow-than-anger pieces asking how Bill and Hillary could descend to such deceptive tactics. Allow us to answer that lament this way: Our readers aren't surprised.

The old Clinton complaint about "the politics of personal destruction" now comes full circle, and what was thoroughly apparent to all but Clinton's most devoted sycophants in 1998 is even more apparent to everyone in 2008.

Update: Also not to be missed is Christopher Hitchens's reminder that playing the race card is nothing new for William Jefferson Clinton. The conclusion is vintage Hitchens:

Say what you will about Sen. Obama (and I say that he's got much more charisma than guts), he is miles above this sort of squalor and has decent manners. Say what you will about the Clintons, you cannot acquit them of having played the race card several times in both directions and of having done so in the most vulgar and unscrupulous fashion. Anyone who thinks that this equals "change" is a fool, and an easily fooled fool at that.