SIDDIQUE MALIK: Clinton's Race Card.

For a long time, political opponents of Bill and Hillary Clinton unsuccessfully tried to tarnish the couple's standing in public. But, in the end, the Clintons turned out to be their own worst enemies.

Their recent behavior proves that their past fancy talk in favor of race relations, social justice, etc., was a facade to hide their lust for power.

Early this year, when the Clintons were still under the illusion that the presidency was Hillary's birthright and that anyone challenging her was out of his mind, Bill slickly tried to invoke the race card against Barack Obama, an act he then defended with his uncanny ability to manipulate a situation into looking contrary to the reality.

Now that it is all but certain that Hillary Clinton has no chance of winning enough delegates to become her party's presidential nominee, she has resorted to, well, the race card. She said that some white voters might pick John McCain over Obama, simply because of the latter's race. This divisive behavior shows that her pledge to help the Democratic nominee win the White House is just an empty vow.

Obviously, for power, Hillary Clinton would do anything. She has suggested seating Michigan and Florida delegates on the convention floor, because she knows it would help her. If Obama were in her situation and had suggested this utterly unjustified seating of delegates, both she and her husband would have eloquently pointed out the sanctity of rules and regulations.

Come November, Obama would prove Clinton wrong. With his charm and charisma, he would cut right through race-related barriers. After all, this is 2008, and he is running for president of the United States, not head of a banana republic.

What the "right-wing conspiracy" could not do, the Clintons have done themselves. They have demolished the facade that made them look what they were not. America's "first black president" and his wife have turned white.

SIDDIQUE MALIK

Louisville 40245

HT to C-J.