Hillary Clinton wouldn't be as strong a contender for the Democratic Party nomination for president if she were a man.
That's the corollary to Clinton campaigner Geraldine Ferraro's remark that Barack Obama wouldn't be the front-runner in that race if he were white.
Truth is, gender and race can't help but play an important role in this election. Either an African American or a woman is within months of becoming a historic first for this nation.
Those two candidates have pledged not to make either possibility the emphasis of their appeals to voters. But they don't have to. Some women are going to vote for Clinton because she is a woman; same with some blacks voting for Obama.
On the other hand, both can forget about getting the support of voters who don't believe a woman can handle being president or that any African American should be trusted with the job.
That's what makes Ferraro's comment so egregious. It serves only to exploit the racist inclinations of that part of America that to this day refuses to see black people as equals.
The comment also smacks of a political calculation that includes both Bill Clinton's earlier comparison of Obama's campaign to Jesse Jackson's in the '80s and Gov. Rendell's assessment that some whites in Pennsylvania will never vote for a black candidate.
Sure, what they said was true. But it was also what any adult with a working brain in America already knew.
Rather than providing insight, their statements had the distinct aroma of political stink bombs thrown to convince Obama supporters to jump ship.
You don't really think America will elect a black man president.
That's the message behind what Ferraro, Rendell and Bill Clinton said. It's not an official campaign message, but it didn't have to be to get the desired effect.
Politics is like war, so no one should be surprised that the losing side would resort to unsavory tactics to win. But expecting the worse from politicians doesn't mean you have to condone it.
Indeed, it's voters' weariness with politics as usual that has pushed Obama ahead - not that his father was an African. Hillary Clinton should know that by now and dump anyone else who wants to exploit race to win votes.
That has been an outrageous political tactic for decades. And it has worked because America remains racially divided. The Democratic Party has touted itself as best able to bring the nation together. But comments like Ferraro's say otherwise.