"Typical White Person" - a Bill Clinton Moment?

"It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is."

Sen. Obama's supporters will likely immediately disagree, but there is a certain similarity in Mr. Clinton's statement and what Sen. Obama told 610 WIP radio host, Angelo Cataldi on his show in Philadelphia:

"The point I was making was not that my grandmother harbors any racial animosity. She doesn't. But that she is a, uh, typical white person who, uh, you know, If she sees somebody on the street that she doesn't know, you know, there's a reaction that's been bred into our experiences that, that don't go away and that sometimes comes out in the wrong way."

I can hear it now, media clamoring at each campaign stop from here on out:

• Reporter: "Ah, Senator Obama? May I ask, what a "typical white person is?"
• Sen. Obama: "Well, that depends upon what typical is, uh-h-h, typically."
• Reporter: "And can you describe what is typically typical about a typical white person, I mean, since you didn't address that in your speech?"

Parsing didn't look good on Bill, nor does it look good on the senator. Either she is, or she isn't. Isn't she? Isn't it time to let people choose (or not) based on who he really is and not on Dunbar's "mask?"