FUNNY, WHEN THIS STORY FIRST BROKE IT WAS ALL ABOUT “STAND YOUR GROUND:” George Zimmerman, accused of murdering Trayvon Martin, won’t seek pre-trial ‘Stand Your Ground’ hearing. Then it became all about firing up Obama’s racialist base. But you know, Zimmerman looks pretty Hispanic in this picture. . . .

THE ZIMMERMAN TELEGRAM: “NBC sued over Trayvon tape,” according to the New York Post:

We hear Zimmerman’s attorneys are about to file a complaint against NBC and its top executives, naming news president Steve Capus and correspondent Ron Allen, who was the reporter on the scene for the broadcast on “Today” on March 27. He also remained the reporter for the story on “NBC Nightly News.”

A source tells us, “The suit will be filed imminently against NBC and its news executives. The network’s legal department has put everybody in the news department involved with this incident on notice, telling them not to comment.”

Here’s PJTV’s take on how the edit was likely made, from back in April:

“And don’t accuse our staff of doctoring tape….they’re not doctoring tapes.”

– Mika Brzezinski, on MSNBC, at the start of the month.

ZIMMERMAN’S ATTORNEY: Trayvon Martin killed ‘because of his own doing.’

TALKLEFT: “My opinion: This is self-defense. Zimmerman was not the aggressor, he did nothing to provoke Trayvon Martin’s beating him, breaking his nose and slamming his head into concrete. He had every right to respond with deadly force to stop Trayvon’s physical attack on him and to prevent Trayvon from getting control of his weapon. . . . I see nothing that amounts to a contradiction or a difference. I see a valid claim of self-defense.”

JERALYN MERRITT AT TALKLEFT: George Zimmerman: The Most Likely Scenario.

Why Zimmerman reported Trayvon to the non-emergency number is a red herring. It doesn’t matter if he profiled him or unfairly suspected him of criminal activity. It doesn’t matter that he was a crime warrior. He didn’t break the law. His neighborhood watch program, set up with the assistance of the police, instructed residents to report suspicious activity. That’s what he did. He wasn’t on watch that night, he had a concealed weapons permit, and it wasn’t a crime to get out of his car to see where Trayvon had run off to, so he could tell the police when they got there.

All that matters legally is whether Trayvon Martin’s physical attack on him caused him to reasonably fear serious bodily injury. Zimmerman’s testimony, which is supported by proof of his injuries and witnesses observing the struggle, is that Martin broke his nose and banged his head against cement. He tried to get up and couldn’t. Using an objective standard, a reasonable person in that situation would fear imminent serious bodily injury if he didn’t react with force.

The state is unlikely to prevail in arguing Zimmerman was the aggressor because to be the aggressor, Zimmerman had to contemporaneously provoke the force Martin used against him. Zimmerman’s profiling of Martin and call to the non-emergency number were not contemporaneous with Martin’s attack. Even if the state could convince a judge or jury that Zimmerman was following Martin, rather than walking back to his car, rendering his pursuit a contemporaneous act, it is not an act that provokes Martin’s use of force against him. Demanding someone account for their presence does not provoke the use of force. Even if it could be construed to be provocation for using force, all it means is Zimmerman had to attempt reasonable means to extricate himself before using deadly force in response. W-6′s steadfast insistence that Zimmerman was struggling to get up and out from under Trayvon, right before the shot went off, fulfills that requirement. Zimmerman will say the same. And no witnesses saw anything different.

Zimmerman should prevail on classic self-defense at trial regardless of stand your ground. Raising stand your ground before trial gives him the possibility of a quicker win, and the opportunity to preview the state’s strategy before it gets to a jury.

The problem for Zimmerman is the notoriety of this case — any judge is going to want to avoid making that call and find a reason to let the case go to the jury.

So in essence, the media — by creating all this “notoriety” via false storylines not supported by the evidence — have hurt Zimmerman’s chances for fair treatment in court. Nice work, folks.

RON RADOSH: The Evidence in the Trayvon Martin Case is Released, and George Zimmerman is Vindicated. Well, there was clearly a fight, and Trayvon Martin had drugs in his system. “The main point is that for all those who jumped to the conclusion that Zimmerman had attacked Martin because he was black, and that it was a racially motivated crime, have some apologizing to do.”

More here.

The report neglects to mention that in the 911 tape, George Zimmerman reported to the police dispatcher that Martin seemed suspicious to him because it seemed Martin was “on drugs or something.”

Like the injuries to Zimmerman, the prosecutor’s affidavit does not mention that Zimmerman’s suspicion about Martin was confirmed by the autopsy. As I noted a few weeks back, it just asserts that Zimmerman “profiled” Martin. A disgrace.

It’s just like the old days — a bunch of Democratic politicians and their media lackeys lynching a black man.

UPDATE: Further thoughts from Prof. Jacobson.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Tom Maguire on drugs. Er, well, on whether Trayvon was actually high at the time.

THE WAGES OF OUR RACE-BAITING MEDIA: “Justice For Trayvon” Has Led To 15 Gang Attacks . . . So Far.

MORE RESULTS FROM OUR POLITICO-MEDIA LEADERS’ CAMPAIGN OF RACIAL INCITEMENT: 2 charged in Oak Park beating motivated by Trayvon Martin killing, official says. How many people might have been spared if the press had reported accurately, and non-sensationally, and had avoided deliberate falshehood in covering this case?

Given the irresponsibility — and downright evil — displayed by our political and media “elites” in this matter, why should we trust their judgment on, well, anything?

REASON TV: Trayvon Martin, George Zimmerman & The Decline of Racism & Violence in America.

HERE WE SEE THE RESULTS OF OUR MEDIA HATEMONGERING: Man Beaten, In Critical Condition, Told “Now, that’s justice for Trayvon.”

UPDATE: Prof. Stephen Clark writes: “The Martin case and its fallout are part of a narrative of racial tension, class division, social exclusion, and all the other catch phrases associated with social activism, that many representatives in the media hold dear as a portrait of an America seething with discontent just below the surface. Don’t be surprised if, as Obama’s fortunes wane, incidents like those of Mobile are insinuated to be a future consequence of his electoral defeat: any weapon to hand, even fear. It will be a long, annoying, summer and fall. November can’t come soon enough.” Indeed. I think, however, that all of this stuff hurts him more than it helps — first by contrast with the postracial narrative of 2008, and second by making him look more like a corrupt, demagogic big-city mayor than a President.

JOHN HINDERAKER: Have Our News Organizations Gone Crazy?

I wrote here about MSNBC’s campaign to tie the Koch brothers to George Zimmerman’s shooting of Trayvon Martin. That effort was, it is fair to say, insane, but it apparently inspired one or more liberals to take MSNBC’s theories a step farther. Someone wrote–I think it was on Facebook–that Koch Industries had paid for Zimmerman’s legal defense and/or put up his bail money. Other liberals happily repeated the claim, to the point where Snopes deemed it a rumor worth addressing.

The claim is not only false, but entirely baseless and, in fact, stupid. There is no connection whatsoever between Koch Industries or the Koch brothers and George Zimmerman. None. Further, while the Koch brothers have championed a number of libertarian causes, gun rights have not been among them. In the one instance where Koch Industries is known to have lobbied on a firearms issue, it was against a proposed liberalization of firearms laws in Florida. And the brothers have no history of participating in the defense of criminal defendants. Further, while this is not my area of expertise, I doubt whether it would even be legal for Koch Industries to pay for an unrelated person’s criminal defense. So the assertion that Koch Industries is paying for Zimmerman’s defense or contributing to his bail lacks the remotest shred of plausibility.

That doesn’t matter. The important thing is to give the base someone to hate, and the base isn’t picky about facts. And the base is pretty much their only audience anymore, anyway.

INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY: Investigate Nugent But Not Farrakhan?

We need to remind the administration and the Secret Service that “Braveheart” is only a movie and that Nugent is no more likely to ride a horse down Pennsylvania Avenue wielding a medieval battle-ax than Obama was to bring a handgun to the first presidential debate. . . .

Meanwhile, an administration that let the New Black Panthers avoid criminal charges for wielding a billy club outside a Philadelphia polling place in 2008 and that ignored the bounty placed by the Panthers on the head of George Zimmerman in the Trayvon Martin shooting is concerned about Nugent.

Did anyone in the liberal universe or administration take note when Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan said at Lemoyne-Owen College in Memphis, Tenn., Saturday that “people tomorrow, maybe in a few days, are gonna kill their leaders who’ve been selling them out”?

Farrakhan added: “That’s why we’re in this shape that we’re in right now, because we had corrupt people, or people that started off good and got corrupt.”

We’re not sure if calling people criminals is worse than calling them corrupt, but Ted Nugent didn’t say any leaders would die as a result. Farrakhan did in a statement that no one in the so-called mainstream media obsessed over or that anyone in the administration wanted to talk to him about.

Speaking of opposition by the Tea Party and others to Obama administration policies, union leader Jimmy Hoffa Jr. said “let’s take those SOBs out,” except he didn’t abbreviate “SOB.” But no one in the liberal universe called that a threat, despite volumes of documented union violence.

It’s all politics, and the Secret Service, by getting sucked into this, is doing at least as much harm to its reputation as did the hookers in Cartagena.

SO MUCH FOR HOPE AND CHANGE: The Trayvon Martin Case and the Growing Racial Divide.

Polls show that the Trayvon Martin case has split the country apart over perceptions of race and justice, in ways that may dwarf the polarities of the O.J. Simpson trial days of 1994. Or does the new friction simply reflect an ongoing erosion in relations since 2009? Or is it all hype, and things are still about as they were?

This tension was not supposed to have increased with the election of Barack Obama, who ran on “healing” and “unity,” and who was proclaimed by supporters as ushering in a new post-racial age.

Here I list a few random examples of the new racial furies and conclude with the two irreconcilable narratives.

Like pretty much all of Obama’s promises, that one didn’t come true.

TOM MAGUIRE: Stand Your Ground – Is It Part Of The Trayvon Martin Case, And How? “The duty to retreat is not at issue if Zimmerman really was flat on his back getting pummelled. However, Stand Your Ground did create the basis for his pre-trial hearing.”

BILL MCGURN: What Would Atticus Do? ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ meets the Trayvon Martin shooting.

UPDATE: “Since when can a group of people in the United States put a bounty on someone’s head, circulate Wanted posters publicly, and still be walking the streets?”

More: “Good lord, what an ugly place we are in right now. Who would have thought that in the last year of Obama’s presidential term, the public mind would obsess over race at this level? I’m recalling the media coverage of election night, 2008, and the inauguration, when there was a rhapsody of closure and a feeling — some called it ‘hope’ — that we had entered a new era of harmony. How did we get sucked into some nightmare parody of the past? If it’s not Obama’s fault, can he at least do something to yank us up out of this awful place? In 2009 or even 2011, he would have given a speech. He would have believed he could rescue us with a speech, perhaps because we kind of thought he could. Maybe no one believes anymore. There’s a hope vacuum, and look what’s moving in.”

YOU DON’T NEED A WEATHERMAN TO SEE WHICH WAY THE WIND IS BLOWING: In case you missed it, Al Sharpton stood up Trayvon Martin supporters yesterday.

PROFESSOR JACOBSON: DOING THE JOB THE ALLEGEDLY PROFESSIONAL MEDIA WON’T:

The latest wildfire spreading through the media and blogosphere is that armed neo-Nazis are patrolling Sanford, FL, in anticipation of trouble if George Zimmerman is not charged in the killing of Trayvon Martin. In what has become a prime example of media malpractice, none of the major publications spreading the rumors bothered to check with local law enforcement. I did, and the Sanford Police deny any indication of neo-Nazi patrols. . . .

For The Daily Beast, Huffington Post, Mediaite, and The Daily News to spread such thinly-sourced claims without verification at a time when racial tensions already are high is irresponsible in the extreme.

Remember when people were saying that if we left news reporting to the blogosphere we’d just get a bunch of unsubstantiated rumors and spin?

INDEED: “It is likely that, if not for conservative new media, the misleading edit, which inflamed racial tensions in the Martin case, and which was repeated by Stetler’s own New York Times, would have gone unnoticed and uncorrected. As it is, the producer responsible for the edit at Today has been fired, but the individual who made the same edit to the earlier MSNBC story (since corrected) has not been identified or disciplined. Nor has anyone at any other outlet or network — many of which made similar selective editing choices — been punished.”

Plus this: “The questions are only just beginning on Editgate. The release of the news of the firing just before the holiday weekend smacks of a cover-up; more than that, we know that the edit itself was not restricted to the Today show. Brian Williams and the brass at NBC News must provide answers. They are responsible for editorial output, not an unnamed producer. And they must be held responsible for an irresponsible and dangerous edit apparently deliberately designed to twist the Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman story along racial lines.”

I remember when people who exploited racial tensions for political gain, and inspired crowds to lynch-mob levels of fury, were considered beyond the pale of civilized society. Personally, I think they still are.

THE WALKBACK CONTINUES: CNN Enhances Zimmerman 911 Call Again — And Reporter Now Doubts Racial Slur Used.

Related: ESPN ‘Grantland’ Writer Twists George Zimmerman’s Actions. “The story, by Wesley Morris, is about a photograph of the Miami Heat NBA team, all dressed in hoodies to identify with Trayvon Martin.”

Also: Zimmerman Racial Slur Narrative Falling Apart. “Since the beginning of this case I have urged caution not to jump to conclusions. The questionable narratives suggest I was correct.”

SHELBY STEELE: The Exploitation of Trayvon Martin. “The absurdity of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton is that they want to make a movement out of an anomaly. Black teenagers today are afraid of other black teenagers, not whites. . . . Trayvon’s sad fate clearly sent a quiver of perverse happiness all across America’s civil rights establishment, and throughout the mainstream media as well. His death was vindication of the ‘poetic truth’ that these establishments live by.”

TOM MAGUIRE: Trayvon Martin – Are There Any Media People In New York City? “There is a conference on voice biometrics in New York city April 3-4. Will any media be there?”

More on this at TalkLeft.

IS THE TRAYVON MARTIN WALKBACK becoming a stampede? “Heckuva job by the media. We may have race riots in Florida so I hope they enjoyed their time on the fashionable side of this story.” Stay tuned.

UPDATE: Reader James McNash writes:

I was wondering if there are possible legal ramifications against news agencies if they are found to have selectively edited the evidence that they have broadcasted. If Zimmerman is found innocent, can he file a lawsuit (for libel and/or slander) against these agencies especially if the intent was to do harm to Zimmerman? Or is the news media immune to these cases?

It seems to me that Zimmerman’s reputation is destroyed, all because of the media, and it would be a shame if the media can walk away with no accountability.

Much of what they have done — for example, using the middle-school picture of Trayvon Martin almost exclusively in their coverage — isn’t actionable. The deceptive editing of the 911 call, however, might rise to the level of “actual malice,” thus supporting a libel action even though Zimmerman is a public figure.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: From the Trayvon Martin Tragedy to a National Travesty. “Whites are far more likely to be murdered by blacks than vice-versa, despite the latter comprising only 11-12% of the population—again to no national outcry. The distinction in this case was that Martin was black. Zimmerman was not. The rule in America is apparently that only rare white on black crime—not far more common black on black, or black on white, or white on white—is symbolic of larger pathologies, both past and present. In earlier decades of American history, the reverse was more likely true: black on white crime aroused public furor in a way white on white or black on black or white on black crime did not. That fact in time was accepted as clearly symptomatic of racial bias, but the inverse of that today is said not to be.”

JOURNALISM NARRATIVE MANAGEMENT: Tom Maguire critiques CNN: “CNN pretends to reprise the witnesses to the Trayvon Martin shooting and aftermath. They paint a picture of a ‘fair and balanced’ effort but omit ‘John’, the most important eyewitness to the scuffle that preceded the shooting. John says Zimmerman was on the ground getting beaten and calling for help; odd that CNN missed that.”

It’s still unclear exactly what happened on that night, but it’s pretty obvious what’s happening in the press now.

UPDATE: ‘He Looks Black’: NBC Launches Internal Investigation into Selective Editing of Zimmerman Police Tape.

THE TRAYVON MARTIN CASE: “A very unattractive descent into tribalism.” Hope and change!

NARRATIVE-TENDING: ABC News doctors Zimmerman video to peddle false story in Trayvon Martin case. As I keep saying, stay tuned. Here’s the Daily Caller story.

JACOB SULLUM: More on the Irrelevance of ‘Stand Your Ground’ to the Trayvon Martin Case.

Pretty much everything under discussion is irrelevant here, right down to the political framing: A Hispanic Democrat shoots a black guy and somehow it’s the fault of white Republicans. Because, I guess, everything is.

POLL OF ATTAINDER? Is a disturbing notion of due process taking over in America? Forget trials and juries and all that stuff? Let’s do a poll!

The good news is, most people say they don’t know enough to have an opinion on whether Trayvon Martin was murdered or not. That speaks well of them, given the nonstop media onslaught. “Thank you, people of all colors, who refrain from judging where you have not studied all the evidence. This is heartening news of rationality and respect for due process.”

#MEDIAMATTERSFAIL: Media Matters writer ‘sorry’ after blasting Drudge for Martin photo. “A senior analyst with the liberal activist group Media Matters tweeted an apology on Tuesday after calling journalist Matt Drudge a racist and accusing him of using a phony photo of Trayvon Martin.”

On the upside for Media Matters, this is the most attention they’ve gotten since the Daily Caller series on them ended.

DO THE DUMBASS THING: Elderly Couple In Fear Over Spike Lee Tweet: Star erroneously linked Floridians to man who killed Trayvon Martin. “Bewildered by their sudden–and erroneous–connection to Martin’s killer, the elderly couple’s distress can only be heightened by posts made by Twitter and Facebook users who threaten to visit their residence in search of Zimmerman. Or other posts that goad followers to vigilante action.”

This is what happens when people succumb to rank prejudice and mass hysteria.

WELL, TO BE FAIR, DEMOCRATS IN THE SOUTH HAVE A LONG HISTORY OF VIOLENCE AGAINST PEOPLE OF COLOR: Narrative Interrupted: George Zimmerman a Registered Democrat. Will someone ask Obama about this?

More here: “According to the document, Zimmerman’s race is officially listed as Hispanic.” But there’s this: “It is unclear whether he voted for President Barack Obama in 2008.”

UPDATE: Reader Bert Rollen writes: “Heh, I bet he doesn’t vote for him this year.”

Related: Inconvenient narratives in the Martin case.

Plus: Trademarking Trayvon?

SPEAKING TRUTH TO POWER: Former NAACP leader accuses Sharpton and Jackson of ‘exploiting’ Trayvon Martin.

CLASS PROBLEMS: “The incident at Florida Atlantic ended when campus police used a Taser on the student and took her to a mental health center, but not before she had uttered a stream of racially charged profanities, screamed death threats and smacked at least one classmate (see image above). Students in the classroom, though, seemed more interested in filming the spectacle than helping the instructor regain order.”

This, however, strikes me as dumb: “Classrooms can be effectively managed if faculty members set ground rules about the kind of behavior they expect.” Watch the video, and then ask if the problem was a lack of ground rules. If you don’t know that kind of behavior is unacceptable, you shouldn’t be in college.

But note this: “In the case of the Florida student, she gave a poised and confident interview to a local TV station about Trayvon Martin, the Central Florida teenager who was shot dead by a neighborhood watch volunteer, the night before her outburst in the classroom.”

#NARRATIVEFAIL: Police: Trayvon Martin Slammed Zimmerman’s Head Into Sidewalk Several Times.

With a single punch, Trayvon Martin decked the Neighborhood Watch volunteer who eventually shot and killed the unarmed 17-year-old, then Trayvon climbed on top of George Zimmerman and slammed his head into the sidewalk several times, leaving him bloody and battered, authorities have revealed to the Orlando Sentinel.

That is the account Zimmerman gave police, and much of it has been corroborated by witnesses, authorities say.

It seems as if people might have waited for more information before commencing the lynching. (Via JWF.)

UPDATE: Reader David Horwich writes:

IMHO, what’s going in in the WH these days is really, really bad poll numbers. How else can one explain an investment in clearly polarizing issues like picking a fight with both the church and Rush Limbaugh, race-baiting with Trayvon, a flirtation with an advocacy of gay marriage, Stalin-esque striking down of voter ID laws, et. Al. The softness in numbers with the black population must really be stark, otherwise, why bring this stuff up? There’s no upside with independent voters with any of these issues.

It does seem that way — a pre-election period in which Al Sharpton and Louis Farrakhan have high profiles doesn’t seem optimal for an allegedly post-racial Presidency. But perhaps they feel that it’s better to have people talking about absolutely anything other than gas prices, the debt, and ObamaCare.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Trayvon Martin Case Heading Toward Political Abyss.

Meanwhile, as evidence of how far we’ve come from Obama’s 2008 promises, a reader emails: “Maybe. Just maybe….all this continually more violent rhetoric of the Left’s ‘new civility’ is just build-up for something in the way of a REAL October Surprise. And a rather violent one at that. Just keep looking for the indicators…..”

See, this isn’t the Hope And Change we were looking for.

THINGS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED THIS WEEKEND:

Witness: Trayvon Martin Was Beating George Zimmerman When He Was Shot.

Spike Lee shouldn’t have tweeted Zimmerman’s home address.

Twitter explodes with hate following Cheney heart transplant.

Hate: CNN’s Roland Martin Prescribes ‘Shock Therapy’ for PJ Media’s David Steinberg, on Twitter.

Walter Russell Mead: How Green Gullibility, Hyperpartisanship Are Wrecking The Climate Movement.

Europe will never forgive the jews for Auschwitz.

Waiting for the barbarians.

Did Dick Cheney save Obama’s Presidency?

A new book from Niven, Pournelle, and Barnes. On Kindle, for $2.99.

The NHTSA Nannies Attack In-Car Navigation. Tar. Feathers.

Environmental Politics: Silence and Demonize.

Silence and Demonize: Tulane Prof Blasts Music To Drown Out Gingrich Speech.

Ranking law schools by debt load per graduating student.

TV Ads Promoting Negative Images of Men.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Our Modern Lynch Mob. “We went from the beer summit to Trayvon Martin’s resemblance to the boy the president never had. In each case, facts did not matter. . . . The role of a president is to rein in the mob, not to unleash it. The latter is what community organizers do; the former is what makes statesmen. Yet on issue after issue — anti-terrorism, global warming, government ethics, and racial relations — a frenzied mob, egged on by the media and demagogues like Barack Obama, have almost stormed the jail, only to dissipate when met by either evidence, or the knowledge that the incarcerated was one of their own — as if they had never screamed and threatened in the first place.”

I wonder if Tom Friedman will write another column praising this brutally clear-eyed analysis. . . .

NEW WITNESS IN THE TRAYVON MARTIN CASE: 17-year-old was ‘beating up’ gunman, according to anonymous witness.

Related item here. Well, as I said, stay tuned.

UPDATE: More comments from Tom Maguire. “Yesterday I noted Obama’s remarks and offered that our President was not speaking stupidly. Upon booth review, I beg to differ. . . . No apparent evidence? Zimmerman had a cut on the back of his head, a bloody nose, and grass stains on his back. Some (presumaby disputed) witness accounts say that Trayvon Martin was on top and beating him. There may not be conclusive evidence, since we don’t know what precipitated the scuffle, and there may not be evidence that Trayvon Martin was doing something wrong when Zimmerman first called 911 to report suspicious behavior but to say there is ‘no apparent evidence’ that Zimmerman fired in self-defense is the quality of reporting we have come to expect from the Duke Lacrosse cheerleaders. All The News That Advances The Narrative.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: Not so new: Reader Jeff Brown notes this report from Feb. 27:

Investigators with the Sanford Police Department are still trying to figure out exactly what happened during an altercation which resulted in a fatal shooting in the Twin Lakes area. The shooting happened just after 7 p.m. Sunday evening on Twin Trees Lane. A man who witnessed part of the altercation contacted authorities.

“The guy on the bottom, who had a red sweater on, was yelling to me, ‘Help! Help!’ and I told him to stop, and I was calling 911,” said the witness, who asked to be identified only by his first name, John.

John said he locked his patio door, ran upstairs and heard at least one gun shot.

“And then, when I got upstairs and looked down, the guy who was on the top beating up the other guy, was the one laying in the grass, and I believe he was dead at that point.”

So Trayvon Martin was on top of a guy he was beating, and then he got shot. I suppose this doesn’t entirely prove self-defense, but it should certainly count as “apparent evidence” — evidence that was apparent long before the media and Al Sharpton (but I repeat myself) began packaging the narrative here.

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.