Guess the gloves really are off now. The race card has popped up and Barack Obama is the one dealing the cards.

Obama is now saying that Hillary Clinton has offended some people…people who think she was understating the role played by Martin Luther King,Jr. in the advancement of civil rights by saying it took  President Lyndon Johnson to actually get legislation passed through Congress to bring about change—which, of course, is Obama’s favorite word.

For Sen. Obama to suggest that Clinton was somehow dissing African-Americans is ludicrous. 

Hillary and her husband (remember him?) were active in the area of civil rights while Obama was still in college and, by his own admission, buying and using cocaine on a regular basis.

What Hillary said was not offensive and factually correct. A reading of her quote and its context would clearly show that she was not marginalizing Dr. King’s role in the civil rights movement, just pointing out that all the marches in the world might amount to nothing unless changes (there’s that word again) become actual law. And, she is right. For that, you  need more than words of inspiration; you need political muscle.

But, Obama is hoping to leave the impression with potential black voters that if they vote for her instead of for him, they may be voting for yet another white politician not sensative to their wants and needs.

Nearly half the registered voters in South Carolina, where there will be a primary on January 26th,are black.

Black voters have been torn between their loyalty to the Clintons and the prospects of electing the first black man President of the United States.

Playing the race card may end up working for Obama, but it’s a cheap shot nontheless.