Rather than being forced to apologize or step down, someone needs to educate her and challenge the thinking behind those remarks. I’m sure there are other people who are thinking and saying that but not in public. I don’t know if she is “a racist” but her comment sounded like a racist remark even if that was not her intention. I actually think that it was a strategic remark and the intension was to plant that idea in people’s minds and define Obama as the “black candidate”, which makes some people “afraid”. With everyone running around apologizing and quitting, there creates a dearth of dialogue about race and gender issues. That remark also makes it sound like the people who support Obama, (SIEU members, Kennedys, et at) are ignorant and can’t think for themselves.

It actually is not in the interest of the Obama camp to call for her resignation. Strategically, it would be a good opportunity to make the point that “look at the people who Hillary has around her” and then define Hillary through Ferrraro, and vice versa for the Hillary camp with the monster comment.

On the other hand, with each camp calling each other racist its not only distracting people from the issues, but ends up trivializing racism and desensitizing racist actions and comments so that it’s not taken seriously.

Would Hillary be running if she hadn’t been married to Bill? She is also able to use that as a strength around experience.

The fact that Obama is of mixed race, and talks about unity and ending divisions. There is such an antipathy towards Bush and the war, which Obama is also against. Both of these factors lead people to think of him as speaking to their needs. He is viewed as someone who can build bridges across cultures.