You know, Bill Clinton is starting to make some of those terrible thing that many right-wingers said about him in the past ring true. His behavior over the last several weeks, in regards to the Democratic primary campaigning, has been nothing, if not abysmal. Until last Saturday, I would have almost let it slide that they have not been injecting race into “the race”. But, like I said, this was until last Saturday. When Barack Obama trounced Hillary Clinton in South Carolina, getting more than twice the amount of votes she did, Bill Clinton tried to dismiss the voting the South Carolina.

I would have expected this much but, as with a lot of things, it’s often how you do it that speaks most loudly. When asked to respond to whether or not it’s taking “two Clintons” to beat Obama, the former president offered the following:

“Jesse Jackson won South Carolina in ‘84 and ‘88. Jackson ran a good campaign. And Obama ran a good campaign here.”

Hold up, he didn’t pull that one out, did he? First of all, we all know how many on the right and left like to beat up on Jesse Jackson and dismiss him out of hand. But, there’s another subtext here too. Clinton is implying that Obama is just another black candidate who had a win in South Carolina but, it won’t matter when white people get their say. Never mind that Obama, while getting 81% of South Carolina’s black vote, also got 24% of the white vote. Hillary Clinton only took 36% of the white vote and among that, while performing well with white women, Obama still beat her in the white male vote. Obama also beat her among young voters, voters making under $50,000 and voters making over $200,000. I would have to say that this constitutes a pretty broad appeal.

But, let’s get back to the subject. You see, Bill Clinton is shooting himself in the foot and, by extension, is doing so to Hillary Clinton. Remember her, she’s the real candidate here. In fact, his mouth is costing them some key endorsements. Caroline Kennedy, daughter of the late John F. Kennedy, endorsed Obama on Sunday, saying “I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my father inspired them. But for the first time, I believe I have found the man who could be that president — not just for me, but for a new generation of Americans.”

Then, today, Ms. Kennedy’s uncle, Massachussets Senator Ted Kennedy, endorsed Barack Obama for president. This was a blow to the Clinton campaign, which had, for weeks, courted Sen. Kennedy. But, once again, this loss had to do with Bill Clinton’s antics. Kennedy had considered remaining neutral but, according to two New York Times reporters covering the story, Kennedy was put off by “misleading statements by Mr. Clinton about Mr. Obama, as well as his injection of race into the campaign.”

But, by far the most interesting endorsement came from the woman who, referring to him a symbolic sense, once called Bill Clinton the “first black president”, something the Clinton surrogates have been beating us over our heads with in the past several weeks. Author Toni Morrison has also endorsed Barack Obama for president. In a letter, she explains why she chose Obama over Hillary Clinton:

“In addition to keen intelligence, integrity and a rare authenticity, you exhibit something that has nothing to do with age, experience, race or gender and something I don’t see in other candidates. That something is a creative imagination which coupled with brilliance equals wisdom. It is too bad if we associate it only with gray hair and old age. Or if we call searing vision naivete. Or if we believe cunning is insight. Or if we settle for finessing cures tailored for each ravaged tree in the forest while ignoring the poisonous landscape that feeds and surrounds it.”

Despite their eloquence, these words are a hard-hitting repudiation of the criticisms that the Clintons and their spokespeople have levied against Obama and the spirit of cynicism in which they were done.

It seems to me that, at least for now, Bill Clinton’s tactics have hurt more than they’ve helped. As we inch closer to “Super Tuesday” and look to whom the “super delegates” will choose, let’s hope that these developments serve notice to the Clintons, and particularly the former president that, while people can deal with hardball, there is still a dept to which many will refuse to go.

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