An e-mail on the topic Mark raises — what they really think:

[Harry Reid’s] remark’s context is (apologies) remarkable. From media reports, it appears that the Majority Leader made these statements to a group of Dems to get them to line up behind Obama. If so, for Reid to pull out the color bar and assess the lightness or darkness of Mr. Obama’s skin then to comment essentially that he sounds white enough to get elected, in an effort to sell Democrats on him, really points to the depths of the bigotry and racism and hypocrisy within the party of slavery, its leadership, or both.