What if Hillary Clinton said, ‘I don’t want your racist votes?’

In CNN exit polls conducted last night in Kentucky, about 21 percent of voters said race played a factor in their decision. Nine out of 10 of those voted for Clinton, according to the exit polls. CNN political analyst David Gergen discusses the data (below) and begs an important question: “What if Hillary Clinton were to say, ‘If you want to vote against him because he’s black, I don’t want your vote?’” (Note: He says “more than a quarter said race was a factor.” He’s wrong there. It’s a little more than one-fifth.)

Clinton is, after all, likely to lose the nomination to Barack Obama. And if she is thinking about her long-term political goals, notes Gergen, now would be a time to address the fact that, if anything, the contentious campaigns have served to make obvious the country’s long-suffering ills caused by racism and sexism.