Peter Finch would be proud. MSNBC Countdown host Keith Olbermann put an impassioned, cinematic/oratorical spin on his “special comment” direct address to Senator Hillary Clinton last night, stemming from Geraldine Ferraro’s comments about Senator Barack Obama only being in the position he was because he was a black man, and it was a pretty powerful thing (“Voluntarily or inadvertently, you are still awash in this filth”). Whatever you think of the man, the Democratic candidates or this controversy, Olbermann can write. And to me, his points are pretty much on point: the serpentine, surreptitious courting of casually prejudiced voters — the sort of folks who might not forward along the email touting Obama as a closet agent of Muslim, but silently nod to themselves in clucking acceptance when hearing about its reportage — has gotten a lot more advanced and, dare I say, intelligent over the years. And the Clintons don’t have their doctorates in hardball by accident. They play to win, and a vote is a vote, no matter if it’s in the positive or negative. Ergo, the Clinton campaign has been remarkably adept at maintaining plausible deniability. You can’t reasonably assign intent to any single one of these statements or controversies Olbermann addresses. But once the “pattern” cat is out of the bag… well, you’ve really irritated if not forever lost those who care most deeply and sincerely about equality, and abhor political ploys of cheap division.