WASHINGTON - For almost a year, many Democrats have felt themselves on the verge of a historic moment - preparing to elect either the first black or the first woman president. Their excitement was based on the belief that, with such a gesture, America could ease tensions at home and abroad.
Of course, no single event could atone for America's tragic racial history, nor could it remove all the obstacles to women's advancement. But perhaps some of the everyday tensions that infect American culture along race and gender lines could be eased.
However, the genuine excitement surrounding the campaigns of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton would be diminished if voters came to believe that their election would create more pain and awkwardness along racial and gender lines - that there would be more occasions, rather than fewer, for the country to be torn apart over insensitive remarks or questionable behavior.
For most of the campaign, Clinton and Obama presented themselves as being above the usual name-calling over race and gender. Obama expressed his faith in the goodness of the American people, and their ability to look beyond race in choosing a president. Clinton described the excitement she sees in the faces of little girls - and women in their 90s who were born before women had the right to vote.
But over the past week, many backers of both Clinton and Obama have been trading accusations over remarks by the candidates that didn't initially strike many people as offensive. And there's no doubt that many Americans who had been reassured by the broad-minded tone of the campaign are holding their heads and groaning.
For Democrats, the stakes are higher than just a few sour weeks on the campaign trail: Independent voters could easily recoil if they thought candidates were trying to win sympathy by complaining of racism or sexism.
The first of the much-parsed comments was made by Obama in the New Hampshire debate on Jan. 5. After Clinton was asked about her likability - to which she good-naturedly responded, "That hurts my feelings" and praised Obama's likability - he quipped, "You're likable enough, Hillary."
To many people, it seemed like dry humor. Most of the analysts covering the debate - both men and women - failed to give it a mention. After all, the white male Republican candidates had just finished a debate that far exceeded the Democrats' in sarcasm and outright insults.
But some New Hampshire women said Obama's comment struck them as ungenerous. Then, after Clinton's surprising victory in the New Hampshire primary, her campaign officials and supporters began portraying Obama's remark as a sexist gaffe. One of them, Paul Begala, said Obama looked like "an ex-husband turning over the alimony check."
Meanwhile, the candidates had been sparring over another exchange in the debate, in which Clinton had chided Obama for offering voters "false hopes." On the stump, Obama contended that if John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. had been thinking like Clinton, Kennedy would never have challenged NASA to go to the moon, and King would have given up "his dream."
In response, Clinton suggested that Obama was comparing himself to Kennedy and King, and pointed out that Kennedy had far more experience before running for president. And then, after praising King's courage and leadership, she noted that his dream wasn't realized until a president, Lyndon Johnson, pushed through the Civil Rights Act of 1964. To those following her campaign, her intent seemed clear: She had been presenting herself as an experienced politician like Johnson, and wanted to point out that courage alone doesn't get bills passed.
But some people thought she was diminishing King's accomplishments. And as the candidates began campaigning in South Carolina, where half the Democratic electorate is black, many officials supporting Obama's campaign depicted Clinton's comments as racially insensitive. Some also deemed racially offensive a remark by her husband, the former president, criticizing the media for treating Obama's candidacy as a "fairy tale."
When Hillary Clinton accused Obama's camp of ginning up a racial issue, Obama denied it, but threw more gas on the flames by saying that her comments about King had upset many people.
Perhaps his campaign thinks it can win over black voters by playing on their racial concerns, just as Clinton's side might feel it can energize women by portraying Obama's comments as sexist. But there are probably many other voters - men and women of all races - who find these exchanges cynical and unnecessary.
Peter S. Canellos is the Globe's Washington bureau chief. National Perspective is his weekly analysis of events in the capital and beyond.
