Democratic presidential contenders Hillary Clinton and Barrack Obama vowed to knock off their racial jawing and sniping at each other before their Las Vegas debate. And they should. Now they should start talking about racial profiling, affirmative action, housing and job discrimination, the racial disparities in prison sentencing, the HIV/AIDS epidemic, health care for the poor, failing inner city schools, and ending the racially-marred drug sentencing laws, and what they intend to do about them. They only pecked around the edges at these issues in Las Vegas.

 In her NBC interview Octuplet mom Nadya Suleman was irked at getting pounded for being a single mother with fourteen kids. Or in her words, “it’s not as controversial because they’re couples so its more acceptable.” She had good reason to be irked, but she should be irked at herself too for doing much to reinforce that stigma. For the past half century single mothers have been ritually dumped on by everyone from liberal sociologists to Christian fundamentalists and even self-promoting gabber Ann Coulter.

The odds are that Democratic presidential arch rivals Barrack Obama and Hillary Clinton will know no more about which of the two will be the party’s standard bearer the day after Super Tuesday than they did when the day started. The early talk about the “inevitability” of Hillary’s march to the Democratic nomination has long since ceased. And any talk about Obama’s inevitability, despite his rock star size crowds, poll surge and high profile endorsements, is just as nonsensical and wishful thinking.

 Two weeks ago this writer wrote that an African American was the last and best hope for the GOP. That meant picking an African American to head the Republican National Committee (RNC). And I said that that African American had to be former Maryland Lieutenant Governor Michael Steele. For its sake, someone in the GOP didn’t listen with a metallic ear and picked Steele as the new RNC chair.