Voters will forget Wright soon. The economy will see to that.

The other big hope for the Clinton campaign is making the argument that Mr. Obama would suffer against Senator John McCain, the likely Republican presidential nominee. The exit polls gave Mrs. Clinton some ammunition to that effect; about half the Democrats who voted in Indiana and North Carolina said Mr. Obama’s association with his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., was very or somewhat important to their vote.

After a month of pounding on Obama with the Rev Wright stick, he wins big in North Carolina and, with about 15% left to count in Indiana, is within 2%. Yet we're supposed to believe that the Wright "controversy" is going to weaken Obama over the next six months? Sorry, this one is about used up.

Voters are going to get tired of this story pretty damn soon. With the economy going south and the war dragging on, racist attacks on the Democratic nominee will become more blatant, and more readily rejected. Soon Obama will be able to campaign, not as "only slightly different" than the other Democrat. He will be dramatically different than his GOP opponent, and the difference will shine. Under those circumstances, dragging Rev Wright out for months on end will be so blatantly racist that most voters will turn against those trying to use him as a dividing tool.

Race will be a big issue in the general, in many ways. Attacks on Obama on blatantly, or even thinly veiled, terms will be magnified. And they will backfire. This year, voters are looking for something new, something better. As Obama begins to be able to speak that message day after day without having to answer internecine attacks, those who attach him on behalf of McCain will sound exactly like what they are: racists lost in a dead past.

Voters will forget Rev Wright pretty quickly. And those who try to remind them of him are going to find themselves looking very ugly.