Bonnie and Clyde have nothing on Bill and Hillary Clinton. Facing insurmountable odds catching Barack Obama in either the pledged-delegate count or the popular vote, if they succeed in cracking this near-uncrackable safe in full view of 303 million eyewitnesses, Pennsylvania certainly will get credit for holding the keys to the getaway car.

With Obama’s less-than-stellar showing among the Keystone State’s white working-class voters, it is not too much of a leap to suggest that the Clintons’ clever, marginalizing, “no-fingerprints” race strategy, although irreversibly tainting the legacy of the former president, has begun to yield its nefarious desired fruit.

Without “winner-take-all” rules, the Clintons cannot catch Obama in pledged delegates, but with Mrs. Clinton’s impressive victories in New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Texas, California and now Pennsylvania, she clearly is in a good position to spook the remaining undeclared superdelegates with the notion that going with Obama is a sure electoral loser in those key states when facing Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in November.

Capitol Hill attention this week (apart, of course, from focusing on bills honoring Chief Standing Bear, National Watermelon Month, and National Funeral Director and Mortician Recognition Day) will center on those remaining 80 to 90 undeclared superdelegates who could ultimately decide who gets the coveted nomination.

One of those undeclared superdelegates really worth paying attention to over the next few weeks is House Democratic Whip James Clyburn of South Carolina. The highest-ranking African-American in Congress, Clyburn seems to have had just about enough of Team Clinton’s racial antics.

Clyburn is the most-coveted of superdelegates, and was outraged when Clinton diminished Obama’s South Carolina victory back in January by reminding all who would hear that Jesse Jackson had done the very same thing back in 1988. This minimalized Obama’s achievement.

That episode took another twisty turn last week when the former president told a Philadelphia radio station that Obama “played the race card on me” by drawing attention to the South Carolina comments.

Last Thursday, in response to the Philly remarks, Clyburn suggested to The New York Times that Clinton’s behavior might well have done irreversible damage among blacks. “When he was going through his impeachment problems, it was the black community that bellied up to the bar … I think black folks feel strongly that this is a strange way for President Clinton to show his appreciation,” Clyburn said.

As I write this, Obama’s former pastor Jeremiah Wright is in the middle of his “public crucifixion” tour, which if I really wanted to be snarky, I’d suggest is being underwritten by a creative joint venture between the Clinton campaign, the Republican National Committee and Ticketmaster.

Wright has done a sit-down interview with Bill Moyers and highly covered speeches before the NAACP and National Press Club. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him pop up on Animal Planet or the Food Network in his humble attempt to help us all understand the full measure of his thinking.

I’d also be shocked if Hillary Clinton weren’t negotiating with Wright to be her permanent opening act at all future campaign appearances in North Carolina and Indiana.  

To his credit, Obama, speaking with Chris Wallace over the weekend on “Fox News Sunday,” knowing full well the damage Wright is doing to his campaign, refused to throw the preacher under the proverbial bus.

“Look,” he said, “he is a former pastor of mine. He is somebody who has obviously been the subject of, you know, some pretty sharp attacks over the last — over the last month. And it’s understandable that somebody after an entire career of service would want to defend themselves.”

A pretty classy thing to say, given the circumstances and the stakes involved. But, for better or worse, the political landscape is loaded with classy people who ran for president and did not make it. This seems to be, partially at least, the Obama dilemma. Play it the way he’s been playing it and hope the math works out in Denver, or let Bonnie and Clyde continue to pick all the locks between Indiana and North Carolina.

You can reach Jim Mills at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it