SO I DON’T HAVE MUCH TO SAY ON THE TRAYVON MARTIN STORY beyond the stuff I’ve linked on stand-your-ground laws, but I am puzzled by one thing: Dem groups are flogging this because they think it’s good for them, but how can it help Obama — who ran as a post-racial figure who would help America put its racial divisions to bed, a sort of anti-Al Sharpton — to have Al Sharpton leading protests and Louis Farrakhan threatening violence?

Sure, it stirs up the base, or part of it anyway — how Florida Latino voters respond may be different — but doesn’t it just add to the unfavorable contrast between Obama 2008 and Obama in 2012? Or are Sharpton, et al., basically tossing Obama’s interests aside to pursue their own? And is that some sort of indicator itself?

UPDATE: Hmm: Report: Zimmerman was on the ground being punched when he shot Trayvon Martin.

Is this true? I don’t know, but you could say that about most of what’s been reported on this case, which is why it’s a bad idea for people to get too far ahead of the story. Stay tuned.