There has clearly been a lot of talk about race during this campaign - and, unfortunately a lot of talk about race-baiting. The common meme is that the Clinton campaign has started going negative and is using race to do so. But is that the case? Have the Clintons been playing the race card?

There have been many charges against Sen. Clinton, her husband, and members of her campaign. Several members of Clinton's campaign staff have resigned due to (purportedly) race-based controversies and the issue has become so central to the Democratic primary campaign that, when a charge of "racism" was leveled at the Obama campaign (through his association with Rev. Jeremiah Wright), Sen. Obama canceled his TV news appearances to prep for a hasty address on "race and unity".

I'll tackle these two questions together, following a "scorecard" method we can assess at the end. I've come up with a baker's dozen of "race-baiting" stories and will try to determine what was actually said, how the story was spun, and who did the spinning. I'm allotting each story two or four points (which can be divvied up), depending on the impact of the story. As I type this, I'm not sure what the scorecard may look like at the end - and I may disprove my own assumptions. :unsure: Then again, I've been monitoring the coverage of the "race-baiting" fairly closely all along, so I'm doubting that I'll surprise myself much...

Barack Obama's speech is already being lauded as a major address on race in America. It was not. It was a campaign speech - a very good one, but with a select agenda, which is not the curing of America's racial tensions, but getting Barack Obama elected President.

Although his presentation of the differing groups within the American mix was accurate and well presented, the conclusions or lessons to be drawn from such an outline were non-existent. Obama gave no specifics nor suggestions as to how we, as Americans, could do anything about these festering problems, but to vote for him.

While everyone praises this speech they fail to appreciate that he has now defined the election not as a choice between "post-racial" candidates or a color-blind race based on policies and qualifications, but as a litmus test on racism.