UPDATE: See here for Stumper on Clinton's appeal to black voters in New York and here for Stumper on the top Dems' tenuous truce.

While you were doing whatever it is sane, normal human beings do on Sundays--going to church, washing the car, waiting with bated breath for The Wire to begin--Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were butting heads over the role race is (and should be) playing in the 2008 Democratic primary contest.

This battle has been brewing for awhile. But it came to a head yesterday as Clinton, appearing on Meet the Press, pushed back against accusations that her campaign is playing the "race card" and Obama himself weighed in on the controversy for the first time.

It goes without saying that race is a sensitive issue in America. But as the rhetoric on both sides heats up, we here at Stumper headquarters thought it'd be helpful to step back, take a chill pill and re-examine who said what--and when. We'll let you decide whether the Clinton camp has behaved in what Obama has called an "unfortunate" and "ill-advised" manner--or if Obama has fanned the flames for political gain, as Clinton's supporters have alleged.

Just the facts, ma'am. A timeline:

Dec. 12-13, 2007: In an interview with the Washington Post, Clinton's New Hampshire campaign co-chair Bill Shaheen warns that Republicans would attack Obama for his past drug use in a general election. "The Republicans are not going to give up without a fight ... and one of the things they're certainly going to jump on is his drug use," says Shaheen, claiming that Obama's candor on the subject would "open the door" to further questions. "It'll be, 'When was the last time? Did you ever give drugs to anyone? Did you sell them to anyone?'"

Amid speculation that Shaheen's remarks--especially his reference to drug dealing--represents an attempt by the Clinton campaign to raise racist doubts about Obama, a Clinton spokesperson says they "were not authorized or condoned by the campaign in any way" and Clinton herself apologizes to the Illinois senator as the two arrive in Iowa for the final pre-caucus debate. But even after seeking to play down Shaheen's comments, Mark Penn, Clinton's chief strategist, uses the word "cocaine" in a television appearance late that night. Shaheen resigns the following day--and the Obama campaign continues to use the controversy to fuel a fundraising drive.

Jan. 7, 2007: Speaking in Hanover, N.H. on the eve of the primary, former president Bill Clinton dismisses the contrast between Obama's judgment on the war and his wife's as a "fairy tale." "It is wrong that Sen. Obama got to go through 15 debates trumpeting his superior judgment and how he had been against the war in every year, enumerating the years, and never got asked one time, not once, 'Well, how could you say that when you said in 2004 you didn't know how you would have voted on the resolution?," Clinton says. "There's no difference in your voting record and Hillary's ever since. Give me a break. This whole thing is the biggest fairy tale I've ever seen."

Interpreted as a blanket dismissal of Obama's standing as a candidate, the "fairy tale" remarks prompt widespread outrage on black radio, black blogs and cable television. A Harlem-based consultant to the Clinton campaign, Bill Lynch, tells the Politico that the former president’s comments are “a mistake” and claims "his own phone had been ringing with friends around the country voicing their concern." Obama says Clinton is "frustrated."

Jan. 7, 2007: Responding to a question from FOX News, Hillary Clinton seems to downplay Martin Luther King, Jr.'s significance to the civil rights movement. "Dr. King's dream began to be realized when President Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, when he was able to get through Congress something that President Kennedy was hopeful to do, the President before had not even tried, but it took a president to get it done," she says. "That dream became a reality, the power of that dream became a real in peoples lives because we had a president who said we are going to do it, and actually got it accomplished."

Read in full, Clinton's comments seem mostly to compare Kennedy to Johnson. But spread in truncated form, they spark anger in some members of black community, who see Clinton as distorting civil-rights history.

Jan. 10, 2007: State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, a prominent New York Clinton supporter, says of Iowa and New Hampshire that "you can't shuck and jive at a press conference. All those moves you can make with the press don't work when you're in someone's living room." After bloggers accuse Cuomo of racism, he explains that he was referring to the process, not Obama (about whom he had nice things to say) and that he intended for "shuck and jive" to serve as a synonym for "bob and weave." 

Jan. 10, 2007: The British newspaper The Guardian quotes a Clinton "adviser" (a notoriously slippery term) as saying, "If you have a social need, you're with Hillary. If you want Obama to be your imaginary hip black friend and you're young and you have no social needs, then he's cool."

Jan. 11, 2007:Obama spokesperson Candice Tolliver tells the Politico that the Clinton campaign's remarks on race are part of a larger pattern. "A cross-section of voters are alarmed at the tenor of some of these statements," says Tolliver. "There's a groundswell of reaction to these comments--and not just these latest comments but really a pattern, or a series of comments that we've heard for several months. Folks are beginning to wonder: Is this really an isolated situation, or is there something bigger behind all of this?"

Jan. 11, 2007: As South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn tells the New York Times that the Clintons' comments have forced him to reconsider his neutral stance in South Carolina's Jan. 26 primary, Bill explains on Al Shaprton's radio show that his "fairy tale" remark was not a swipe at Obama for reaching for the White House but rather a reaction to the media's coverage of Obama's war stance. "He has put together a great campaign," says Clinton. "It's clearly not a fairy tale; it's real." Meanwhile, Hillary seems to accuse Obama supporters of hyping the controversy for political gain. "Both of these accusations are baseless and divisive and any fair reading of what both of us said would be clear," she tells ABC. "I think it's regrettable that these are being in a way used to try to divide people in our country during this election and I'm not going to have any part of it. I personally find it offensive."

Jan. 13, 2007: Referring to her MLK, Jr., remark, Clinton says on Meet the Press the Obama campaign is "deliberately distorting this." Clinton supporter and former vice-presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro echoes Clinton's accusation, claiming that "the Obama campaign is appealing to their base and their base is the African-American community. What they are trying to do is move voters from Clinton by distorting things" Later in the day, Obama himself weighs in for the first time, saying during a conference call with reporters that "the notion that somehow this is our doing is ludicrous.”

"Senator Clinton made an unfortunate remark, an ill-advised remark, about King and Lyndon Johnson. I didn't make the statement," he says. "I haven't remarked on it. And she, I think, offended some folks who felt that somehow diminished King's role in bringing about the Civil Rights Act. She is free to explain that."

Jan. 13, 2007: Campaigning in South Carolina, BET founder and prominent Hillary Clinton supporter Bob Johnson appears to slam Obama for his admitted drug use. "Bill and Hillary Clinton... [were] deeply and emotionally involved in black issues when Barack Obama was doing something in the neighborhood that... I won't say what he was doing, but he said it in his book," says Johnson. Although Johnson later claims he was referring to Obama's experience as a community organizer, not drugs--an explanation the Clinton camp accepts--Obama's people don't buy it. "His tortured explanation doesn't hold up against his original statement," says Obama spokesman Bill Burton. "And it's troubling that neither the campaign nor Senator Clinton . . . is willing to condemn it." Adds top strategist David Axelrod: "I don't see why this is so much different from what Billy Shaheen did in New Hampshire."

And so we come full circle. Is this battle over race the Clintons' covert attempt to raise doubts about Obama? Or is it a series of misunderstandings blown out of proportion by opportunistic Obama supporters? The comments are all yours...