Tony Morrison’s appellation notwithstanding, the wife and person of America’s “first black president” have cut their noses to spite their faces.

I do not believe that the Clintons, two of the most brilliant politicians of this generation, are careless (or stupid) enough to have whimsically stoked the flames of racial tension with their recent campaign activity.

By alienating an essential bloc of the Democratic electorate, they could ensure a Republican victory. Dick Morris recently suggested that by losing South Carolina, Hillary Clinton would win the Democratic primary because of the Clinton camp’s play of the race card and white backlash (as the national media, which Obama has rightly accused of being “maniacally” obsessed with race, focused on the black vote as the salient factor in Obama’s victory there and caused white backlash).

According to Morris, the Clintons would count on the black electorate to forget the Clintons’ divisive strategy that alienated them, and, as reliable Democrats, support Clinton in the general election.

It sounds good on paper, but Morris grossly miscalculates the sophistication and long memory of voters, and does not fully appreciate that this election has no precedent.

According to the exit polls, while the black vote secured Obama’s S.C. victory, the 52 percent support among non-blacks under the age of 45, the 66 percent general support among those between the ages of 18 and 29, and the 29 percent support he enjoyed among white males (statistically identical to Clinton’s level of support) contributed to a stunning 2-to-1 evisceration of the Clinton machine there.

As in the pre-S.C. primaries, Obama maintained solid support among upper-income, highly educated whites, the young (especially those with college educations), and now blacks, all essential sectors of the Democratic voting base.

His appeal to independents and disaffected Republicans (which spurn Billary) will secure his victory in the general election.

Kydalla Etheyo Young,

graduate student