But the Clinton's aren't playing the race card......

The Clinton spin out of South Carolina,

"They are getting votes, to be sure, because of their race or gender. That's why people tell me Hillary doesn't have a chance of winning here," the former president said at one stop as he campaigned for his wife, strongly suggesting that blacks would not support a white alternative to Obama.

Clinton campaign strategists denied any intentional effort to stir the racial debate. But they said they believe the fallout has had the effect of branding Obama as "the black candidate," a tag that could hurt him outside the South.

Did you get that? The Clinton's aren't playing the race card, but the former President repeated claims that his white wife had no chance of winning in SC, and the Clinton campaign is trumpeting to anyone who will listen that Obama is "the black candidate."

And, of course, the from nowhere reference to Jesse Jackson. (video)

I'm sorry, I know this is going to generate argument, but after all the focus on race in the past ten days, you have to figure that the spin shop pushing "black candidate" is part of the plan and that Bill Clinton is politically savvy enough that his comments can't really be called unintentional.

(Later: When talking about Obama's lower polling among whites, why is no one pointing out that we're talking about South Carolina, a state not without a racial history? Obama polled just fine among whites in Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada.

Of course, if the Clinton plan is just to take away the value and momentum of Obama's victory, you could argue that it's working. Look what I'm writing about.)

Later Still: The panel on Meet the Press savaged the Clinton's for all this.