Carol Mosley Braun, the designated spoiler for the Al Sharpton racialist vote in the Democratic primaries, is said by the Associated Press to be dropping out of the race, and will endorse Howard Dean on Thursday. In the almost unnoticed Washington, DC nonbinding primary on Tuesday, she pulled 11.61% of the vote, finishing in third place. Howard Dean came in first, with 42.7%, while Al Sharpton drew 34.3% of the ballots cast in the low—turnout, heavily black electoral contest. Curiously, if one adds the Braun and Sharpton vote, the total exceeds Dean's vote just barely. In other words, Dean is competitive among blacks, but needs Braun's support to decisively outdraw Sharpton. So why did Braun, who was widely regarded as having run at the behest of Terry McAuliffe, to avoid the necessity of giving Sharpton major play at the Democratic Convention in Boston, drop out now, right on the eve of the actual voting which counts? And why did she endorse Dean, rather than the Clinton...(Read Full Post)