The White Stuff?

This election could, at least in theory, produce the first female president, the first black president, the first Hispanic president or the first Mormon president.

Or just another white guy.

And what do you do if you're one of those white guys? Can you use soaring rhetoric to attempt to rally White America?

The question answers itself.

I raise it here because some astute political observers are wondering whether John Edwards is carefully . . . quietly . . . subtly reminding voters that he is a Caucasian American.

Not that there's anything wrong with being a Caucasian American. But apparently there are unwritten rules against advertising that fact.

Roger Simon frames it this way:

"Generally speaking, most of us think it is OK to make appeals for votes based on race or sex -- just as long as you are in a minority group or are a woman.

"But you can't raise fears based on race or sex. You are not supposed to say, 'Hey, a black man cannot win the presidency in 2008. A woman cannot win the presidency in 2008.'

"And you can't, of course, say: 'Vote for me because I am white' or 'Vote for me because I am a man.'

"This creates a dilemma for John Edwards, who, as his wife reminds us, is a white male. (Not a group accustomed to being disadvantaged.)

"John Edwards happens to believe he can do better with rural, white, downscale voters than either Obama or Hillary can.