Obama, Hillary--and Martin

In this most exciting--and dirtiest--primary season in years, both races remain neck and neck, which is making the Feb. 5 Super-Mega-Primary Apocalypse Tuesday.
In Nevada, Hillary pulled out a win in the previously-obscure Nevada caucus--but Obama gets the most delegates--and Mitt Romney's victory there makes it two in a row for him. In South Carolina, McCain expunges the ghosts of 2000 and triumphs over Mike Huckabee, but Huckabee still looks very strong in the South.
But charges of dirty tricks are flying fast and furious. Bill Clinton claimed that Hispanic voters (who ultimately voted for Hillary) who were members of the Culinary Union (whose leadership supported Obama) had been told they could not get time off to vote unless they voted for Obama. Of course, this was denied by both the union leadership and the Obama campaign. In return, Obama aides accused the Clinton campaign of making polling phone calls which markedly used Obama's full name--Barack Hussein Osama--whenever referring to the candidate.
Most dirty tricks in America's past presidential elections focus on sexual scandal, religion or race, and race appears to be at the center of this close Democratic struggle going forward. Interesting, of course, on the eve of Martin Luther King day.....