Even as the national media are conferring Noble Victim status on Senate candidate Harold Ford Jr. for alleged race-based innuendoes in an RNC-sponsored TV commercial which GOP opponent Bob Corker has repudiated, Memphis mayor Willie Herenton sees Ford as getting a full pass on the racial front because of his light skin. ย“He can go places and do things that I canย’t,ย” says the mayor. As for Herenton himself, who faces reelection next year, ย“Iย’m just too dark.ย” For other ruminations on race and the races, including a reminder of the testy relationship between Memphisย’ best-known African-American office-holders, go to ย“Political Beatย”.