Ralph's Race Card

This can't be helpful to McCain:

"Three out of four Americans, including large numbers of Republicans, blame President Bush's economic policies for making the country worse off during the last eight years, according to a Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll released today, reflecting a sharp increase in public pessimism during the last year."

Don't know if you've seen some of the pundits gassing about Bill Clinton's incredible tepid statement of support for Obama, put out in a spokesman's name, but that may reflect his current temperament. At least according to Atlantic's Marc Ambinder:

"A Democrat who has spoken directly to Clinton about his feelings said that the former president remains 'miffed' for two reasons. One is that he feels that Obama's candidacy was essentially an anti-Clinton candidacy; that Obama ran against Clinton's presidential record at times, implying that it was timeworn, divisive, and damaging to the party while adopting policy positions that seemed to flow directly from the Clinton oeuvre. Why should Clinton embrace a guy who spent the past twelve months bashing him and his accomplishments?

"Two: Clinton is convinced that the Obama campaign went out of its way to portray the former president as a racist. Clinton wants a private meeting with Obama to sort these things out; he has reconciled himself to the reality of Obama's nomination and does not want to sit on the sidelines."

I'd love a transcript of that private meeting.

Andrew Sullivan is a bit short on sympathy:

"Clinton is still smarting from the San Francisco Chronicle interview. But the Obama campaign really wasn't all about Clinton. And a campaign that lumps all black candidates as unserious and directly appeals to 'white voters' did indeed flirt with racism. Let the old rooster sulk a little."

At Real Clear Politics, Tom Bevan is on the arugula watch:

"A bit of detail from the pool report of Obama's star-studded Hollywood fundraiser:

" Donors sipped wine and bottled water. Waiters wearing black vests, white shirts and black ties served hors d'oeuvres: endive spears of brie, toasted almonds and truffle oil; tuna tartare with passion fruit ponzu and macadamia nut on wonton crisp; beef short rib skewers with Asian flavors.

"Clearly, one of Obama's potential vulnerabilities as a candidate is the image that he's an elitist who is 'out of touch' with working class America. This is an angle Republicans are keen to exploit, as we saw with Karl Rove test-driving the 'coolly arrogant' country club line just this week. And though Maureen Dowd is confident Republicans won't be able to get away with it, even the tiniest details like the ones from the pool report help feed the narrative, as you can only imagine how a beer-drinking, blue-collar Democrat in Ohio might react to news that Obama was hanging out 'sipping wine and eating endive spears of brie' with Hollywood liberals.