Speaking for me only.

Whether there was any intentional campaign work on the issue of race by the Obama and Clinton camps in the past few days, it is clear that any further skirmishing on this issue is counterproductive to both and to the Democratic Party. If there was strategy behind the efforts of anyone, it behooves them - and US - as Democrats, to leave this ugly interlude behind us.

The evidence for the claiming of race exploitation as a deliberate campaign strategy by either Clinton and/or Obama is sketchy at best. We can never know for sure if one or either did this. And sheer speculation by them and us is not helpful to either candidacy and to the Democratic Party.

So let's get this straight - campaigns, control your surrogates. Control your "unnamed advisors." Fire people or drop them as supporters if you have to. Stop this now. As for the blog communities (as opposed to the bloggers themselves), in my opinion, many of them are beyond redemption at this point and have been utterly neutered as positive forces for Democratic values and, more importantly for some of the members, for the candidates they claim to support. No one is listening to them anymore.