Hillary’s campaign has been on loose ground with black voters for some time now. Things started going wrong when Obama won Iowa and the American public began to see a black politician as a viable candidate who could transcend racial lines. African- American voters took notice of Obama and saw a black man who white people were voting for. This is when the game changed.

The stakes were raised in South Carolina when Obama won 78% of the black vote and went on to another resounding victory. Here is where the wheels came off of the Clinton car and they began a series of missteps that have led to black voters walking away from Hillary, almost entirely.

First Bill, amusingly enough our first black President, in an entirely un-Bill like fashion, clumsily stumbled in his downplaying of Hillary’s South Carolina loss by pointing out that “Jesse Jackson won South Carolina twice.” This appeared to almost everyone, white and black, as if Bill was saying that Obama was merely another black candidate who would only win in states with a strong black electorate and, much like Jackson and Sharpton, could not win the nomination. Black and white voters were disturbed, incensed and bewildered. How could Bill Clinton, in the midst of a such a calculated campaign as Hillary was running, make such a blunder?

If only that were the end of it. Andrew Cuomo, a Hillary supporter, made the ‘shuck and jive‘ comment about Obama. Then there were the ‘Obama is a Muslim‘ photos that appeared in newspapers and were allegedly distributed by the Clinton campaign. (something I personally doubt they did) There was also the question of whether Hillary’s campaign doctored photos of Obama to make him look ‘blacker.’ (again, something I doubt - BUT, more importantly, their previous blunders have made the Clintons the prime suspects anytime something like this happens.)

The Clintons ran out a series of apologies and Bill was quickly muzzled, but the hemorrhaging loss of black voters turned into a mad rush away from Hillary. The damage had been done. Obama went on to win roughly 80% of the black votes in Louisiana, 80% in Alabama and 91% in Mississippi.

Ninety-One Percent - wow! That is crushing for a Hillary campaign that thought she could leverage her husband’s popularity in the black community.

For the primary purposes it is fairly safe to assume she has lost the black vote.

Then, just to make sure Hillary might never receive another vote from African-Americans, they trotted out Geraldine Ferraro. The former Vice-Presidential candidate uncorked a whopper in a press conference in Torrance, CA when she said,

“If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. And if he was a woman of any color, he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept.”

Let’s ignore the fact that she should have used the subjunctive mood and said ‘if Obama were‘ and not ‘if Obama was‘ and focus on her real gaffe, abject stupidity. I have listened to her subsequent comments and I do not feel she is able to explain away what she has said. Let me summarize her initial statement: Obama is winning because he is a black man and the country needs to wake up and realize that. I am a fairly open-minded guy but I do not think there is any other way of interpreting what she said. She is ignoring his intelligence, his insight, his experience, his eloquence and his track record of success and focusing on the color of his skin. We truly have no place in our political dialog for this kind of comment.

You know the old thought about ‘if you find yourself in a hole, put down the shovel and stop digging?‘ Apparently no one ever told Ferraro about that. She has stepped down from Hillary’s finance committee but she is adamant about being unapologetic:

Ferraro made no apologies. “Am I sorry? No, no, no,” she said. “I am sorry there are people who think I am racist.”

She accused the Obama campaign of misrepresenting her remarks to hurt Clinton, saying: “They have played the race card time after time after time. The campaign has a goal, which is to attack Hillary. They have to find a way and they can’t do it on experience, on issues, so they look for places. They came up with this — and, well, here we go.”

I will go so far as to say that I do not believe she is a racist. I will give her the benefit of the doubt; however, when you reduce someone’s actions, whether they be achievements or failures, down to the sole aspect of the color of their skin, that is almost certainly a racist comment. She has come forward to say that the only thing Obama has going for him is that he is black. I am sorry Ferraro, but you are not the victim here and neither is Hillary. The victim, once again, is a productive political conversation about two qualified opponents. You have oversimplified and reduced it to a pedestrian line about race and that is unfortunate.

Despite Ferraro’s adamant non-apology, Hillary has come forward, begging for forgiveness:

Of Ferraro’s comment, Hillary Clinton told her audience: “I certainly do repudiate it and I regret deeply that it was said. Obviously she doesn’t speak for the campaign, she doesn’t speak for any of my positions, and she has resigned from being a member of my very large finance committee.”

Hillary realizes that, if she were to win the nomination, she would need these same black voters, who she has repeatedly offended and written off throughout this primary, to support her.

Here’s my question for you: If Hillary Clinton is the Democratic Nominee, will black voters come forward and support her?

If she does not get that support, she is doomed and so are the Democrats. Is it already too late?