Since then, Bob Jones University has removed its ban on interracial dating, and the Democrats have begun stumping in South Carolina for their own important presidential primary there. Then last weekend Kerry became the first Democrat to say he would visit the controversial school. At a candidate meet-and-greet in Columbia, South Carolina, on May 3, a 53 year-old mother of five asked Kerry if he would come speak at Bob Jones. "I would love to," the senator told her, without missing a beat. When asked by a reporter why she wants Kerry to visit, the woman, who declined to give her name, replied, "I just think it's time for Democrats to come across as Christian."

When one senior Kerry advisor who had not heard about the Senator's remark was asked about the exchange, he e-mailed, "Do you really think he would seriously speak at Bob Jones, c'mon." But it turns out Kerry is serious. Press secretary Robert Gibbs says the remark was "completely spontaneous on Kerry's part but very serious." Gibbs explains in an e-mail: "Senator Kerry would love to speak at Bob Jones, challenge the university and tell them everything that George Bush did not have the courage to say in 2000 about views that clearly have no place in our society."