Posted by Frank James at 9:37 am CST

I happen to be in Carlisle, Pa. today visiting my alma mater, Dickinson College, whose alums include President James Buchanan, the 15th president, and Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, two men not treated well by history because of being on the wrong side of the slavery question.

Anyway, no sooner do I arrive than I see a banner headline in the local paper, the Sentinel: "Scranton says sorry, Swann." The story goes on to tell how Bill Scranton, who's contesting pro football legend Lynn Swann for Pennsylvania's Republican gubernatorial nomination, fired his campaign manager for saying during a TV interview that Swann was the "rich white guy" in the race.

Evidently, Jim Seif, the former campaign manager, got a little carried away as he tried to position his candidate, the state's former lieutenant governor, as the underdog and outsider.

So if the obviously African-American Swann was the rich, white candidate in Seif's reframing of the campaign, who was the real white guy Scranton supposed to be? The black candidate?

In any event, it's just more proof that all the "great" political minds don't work in Washington.