Michelle Obama Tests Racial Boundaries

Barack Obama has been careful to present himself as a post-racial candidate, but not so Michelle Obama, at least in South Carolina, where she has been testing the boundaries of racial campaigning. In a speech last week she said black voters—who make up as many has half the state's Democrats—are falling prey to the conventional wisdom that America’s not ready for a black president.

She challenged them to stand up to “the bitter legacy of racism” by voting for her husband. She particularly targeted women, saying she knows there's an impulse to protect him from disappointment. "I'm asking you to stop settling for the world as it is and to help us make the world as it should be."  (More Hillary Clinton stories.)