5-24-07, 9:09 am

Hillary summons Bill on the campaign trail to battle their old fundraisers; Obama's fundraisers. But is it too late for her? It's becoming clear to me now that Senator Barack Obama wasn't really chosen by White America, otherwise – as previously I stated – he wouldn't need Secret Service protection. He wasn't chosen by Black America either, the last two presidential elections show Black America unable to make sure all their votes are counted before they can be ready to select any candidate. Obama, you see, chose himself. The last time whites in IL chose a Black candidate was Alan Keyes. Obama was known to IL Blacks, but they got amnesia the moment the rest of the country asked them who he was. Now it's Senator Clinton's time to do some choosing and she's pulled out the big gun. Bill. This race is just warming up but her dispatch of Bill is her best decision in weeks.

Don't think that Bill Clinton is busy partying in Harlem while his wife is trying to secure another four-year-lease agreement on Pennsylvania Avenue. According to the New York Times' Patrick Healy he is the 'consigliere… a fundraising machine who is steadily pulling in $100,000 or more at receptions.' That's just the beginning, Obama has made Bill snuff out his cigar, get out of the whirlpool and make some phone calls. The Times anticipates this will eventually accelerate into the former president obtaining the use of his own campaign plane, PR team and begin barnstorming the caviar-circuit.

This is good for Hillary for two reasons: 1-Obama, he's doing the caviar and chit'lin' circuits. He's in the churches, he's on the corners and though not selected by Black America he's on the black American conscience. 2-Obama's fundraisers; Michael Fromm, Brian Mathis, Reed E. Hunt, Greg Craig, Bill Daly, Bill Singer, Neil Bluhm, Penny Pritzker and James Rubin, some of them were either Clinton fundraisers and/or members of his administration. Chief among Obama's advisors are David Axelrod (not to be confused with the jazz composer of the same name whose father was a union radical), Robert Gibbs, and his wife Michelle. Other than Bill, Hil's team is led by another principle consultant Mark Penn, Media Advisor Many Grunwald and longtime friend Harold Ickes is an Advisor working for free.

Axelrod is a Chicago-based democratic political consultant who worked with Deval Patrick on his campaign for Governor of MA, as well a Mayor Richard M. Daley. His approach to getting his people elected is more rhythmic than radical, he told 'the Nation:' 'I don't bring these messages to candidates, I look for candidates who exemplify and reflect those messages. Obama and Patrick they take and improve on what you bring them. They deliver it well because they believe in it. It's like riffin with great musicians.' Obama is past the stage of dumb white-guy questions and doubts about his blackness from us. He's not hip-hop, not a thug, not a square, just basically a regular brother-the most ignored segment of Black America-who happens to be educated. Do we penalize him for that? I say we give him a shot.

--Chris Stevenson is a columnist for the Buffalo Criterion , Contact him at