The Note's Sneak Peek

June 28, 2007— -- "Radical," "wrong-headed," and "major blow," are just some of the words that Democratic '08ers have already used to describe Thursday's Supreme Court decision that schools cannot use race to decide where students attend class.

The decision's impact on Thursday's debate will likely be to underscore the ways in which the Democrats agree with one another.

Sure, Barack Obama can point to the brief he filed in the case. Joe Biden can invoke his antics against Roberts and Alito. John Edwards can frame his plan for a million housing vouchers as a strategy for integrating schools. And Hillary Clinton can always pull out her "I actually think Bill Clinton was a pretty good president" line.

But with no contrarian figure to offer a dissenting note, Thursday's ruling may lead most of the debate coverage to focus on areas of agreement: namely, the ways in which all of them would use their power of appointment to steer the Supreme Court in a different direction.

Thursday's 90-minute debate, which takes place at Howard University, gets underway at 9:00 pm ET. PBS' Tavis Smiley serves as moderator with questions also coming from NPR's Michel Martin, columnist Ruben Navarrette, Jr., and USA Today's DeWayne Wickham.

Smiley, who told the Washington Post's Anne Kornblut that he has probed whether candidate Clinton has "a soul," promises to focus on a range of domestic issues which were originally outlined in The Covenant with Black America. LINK

Read excerpts from the Covenant here: LINK

Once the debate is done with, it's back to the eleventh hour money chase as the June 30 end of the second quarter closes in on the '08ers.

Among the Democrats, Clinton heads to Florida for fundraise in Jacksonville and Miami.

Obama, who enjoys the support of R.T. Rybak, the mayor of Minneapolis and a proud Dean Democrat, has a 4:30 pm ET campaign rally and a 6:30 pm ET fundraiser in the Land of Ten Thousand Lakes. LINK

Flush with so-called "Coulter cash," Edwards raises money in Lexington Ky., before heading to the Sunshine State for additional fundraising.