Barack Obama decided to invoke Malcolm X today in Philly, warning his followers not to be "hoodwinked" or "bamboozled" by John McCain. He used this same language against Hillary in South Carolina:

His use of the phrase is resonant. It comes from a scene in Malcolm X, where Denzel Washington warns black people about the hidden evils of “the White Man” masquerading as a smiling politician: “Every election year, these politicians are sent up here to pacify us,” he says. “You’ve been hoodwinked. Bamboozled.”

By uttering this famous phrase, Obama told his black audience everything it needed to know. He was helping to convince blacks that the first two-term Democratic president in 50 years, a man referred to as the first black president, is in fact a secret racist. As soon as I heard that Obama had quoted from Malcolm X like this, I knew that Obama would win South Carolina by a massive margin.

Speaking of racial progress: remember the Saddleback Church conference when McCain gushed over Democratic Rep. John Lewis for his courageous efforts in the civil rights movement? Today Lewis repaid McCain's kindness by comparing him to segregationist George Wallace.

This must be Obama's promised "national conversation on race." Can't you just feel the healing?