The Gist

Clinton and "White Americans"

The New York Times rightly takes Hillary Clinton to task regarding her comments about "hard-working Americans, white Americans" -- a statement that implied that all other Americans (read: black americans) are not hard-working. We talked a lot of about this on the show yesterday and a lot of people were angry about the comments and accused her of race-baiting. Whether or not she meant it the way it sounds -- and I think it's hard to see how it was some sort of misstatement -- it's not the note to end this campaign on. In some weird way she was trying to show that she's still valuable, but it only served to diminish her.

I do believe that this comment aside, however, Clinton is actually trying to move in a positive direction, not saying anything directly negative about Obama and perhaps seeing the hand-writing on the wall. She knows where this is going and is planning an exit strategy. She needs to go further in that positive direction and bring people together rather than divide.

We've got to get focused on John McCain and put all of this behind. And as I said on the show yesterday, that is not just about Clinton supporters getting around Obama. It's about Obama supporters being gracious enough not to gloat, and, yes, having some compassion for people who are literally grieving -- I hear them all day on the show -- as this has been one of the most emotional nomination battles in recent history.