It looks like Hillary Clinton knew what she was doing when she made a former La Raza President Raul Yzaguirre her campaign co-chair. (Yzaguirre, BTW, has likened the "US English" organization to the Ku Klux Klan.)

Analyzing the Nevada results, Bill Bradley sees a serious problem for Obama with the Latino vote -- a fact which bodes ill for his chances in California:

Clinton beat Obama by nearly 3 to 1 among Latinos. Which was quite interesting, in that Obama was backed by two potent unions with many Latino members, the culinary workers and the service employees. But the turnout at the at-large caucus sites, casinos along the Las Vegas Strip, which were set up to allow lower-income casino workers to participate while working a busy holiday weekend -- this is Martin Luther King Day weekend in Vegas, a big-time holiday there -- was less than expected. And Clinton confounded expectations, essentially matching Obama along the Vegas Strip and sweeping to a big win in the Las Vegas metropolitan area.

This more than matched Obama's wins in most of Nevada's other counties. Hillary's ability to win big among Latinos, even when many of their leaders, such as in the unions I mentioned, went with Obama, raises very interesting questions about the internal racial politics of the Democratic Party as the first very serious black candidate for president continues his closely fought contest with the former first lady. Reports from around the state indicate that the big labor forces backing Obama found it tough to deliver for him. At issue, Latino workers pushed to vote for an African American. And so the race issue reared its head in yet another way this year.

If Obama can't do much better with Latino voters, he won't be able to win the California primary, the biggest prize on February 5th. Hillary leads here and has a strong organization, but independents voters -- who generally favor Obama -- are shut out of the Republican primary and could give him a big boost.

As I keep saying, Barack Obama is a dire threat to identity politics.

The evidence is accumulating that the champions of identity politics are also a dire threat to him.

MORE: Commenting on Barack Obama's decision to target the more powerful Bill The Man instead of Hillary The Victim, Baldilocks has hit the nail right on the head:

it changes the nature of this war--a war called the 2008 Democrat nomination process, but is one that may be dubbed the Great Identity Politics War when we look back on it.

Obama has--wisely--changed to a more vulnerable target. No longer does the battle pit Man against Woman--one in which the woman is perceived to be the underdog even if the man is black and the woman is white. Now it's Black Man against White Man--and you know who the alleged underdog is in this battle.

Just remember the nature of Identity Politics Wars; the "weaker" opponent is always the victor.