How can you tell when Hillary Clinton’s supporters believe their candidate’s in trouble? When the race-baiting starts, of course.

The latest of these supporters is Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell. Rendell offered the following insight on the politics of race in Pennsylvania: “You’ve got conservative whites here, and I think there are some whites who are probably not ready to vote for an African-American candidate.”

Then, he goes on:

“I believe, looking at the returns in my election, that had Lynn Swann been the identical candidate that he was — well-spoken, charismatic, good-looking — but white instead of black, instead of winning by 22 points, I would have won by 17 or so…And that (attitude) exists. But on the other hand, that is counterbalanced by Obama’s ability to bring new voters into the electoral pool.”

Okay, he compared the Obama campaign to the campaign of Lynn Swann? As far as I know, this was Swann’s first attempt at elected office anywhere. Obama was, at least, a stage legislator and is now a U.S. Senator. Furthermore, Obama is currently beating out Hillary Clinton with the white male vote so, it’s not like he can’t attract white voters.

But, this is not my beef with Rendell. Rendell seems to be saying that because there are some white people who won’t vote for a black candidate, his candidate, because she is a white person, is more electable.

At this point, I believe that Obama has shown that he has a broad enough appeal to garner votes from all constituencies — some more than others — but, still, he has broad appeal. I think the Clinton surrogates, and by extension, Hillary Clinton, need to quit playing these games before they either end up costing her the nomination or winning her the nomination but turning off so much of the base that it ends up costing her the presidency.

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