I don't think Nifong is looking beyond his own re-election. I doubt he cares about the national implications.
Democrats have been using this "we stand for blacks, the GOP is racist" ploy for 40 years now. It's not something new.
But let's not forget, Nifong is white in a town that the media claims is 45% black, meaning that he had to have some black votes (that might have gone to his black opponents) in order to win the primary. Whoever wins the primary is going to be a Democrat and likely win the general election so the national party doesn't really care who wins. Only Nifong does. It was self-serving of him to turn this into a big media show rather than letting the facts didctate the direction of the case.
What this case also does is play into all the leftist media stereotypes about wealthy privileged bigoted southerners (never mind the accused are from NY and NJ) abusing a poor black woman (never mind that she's probably lying and was only at the party because she was hired to strip for money). Early on, the media would have you believe that it was the KKK raping and beating Rosa Parks.
The case is unraveling. When the first set of DNA came back negative, you could say "Game Over". All that's left now is the baseless accusations smoldering from a baseless case.
I think the silver lining, if there is ever a silver lining to this kind of thing, would be a new crop of young conservatives from Duke and other universities. Duke was the type of place conservatives were openly mocked without recourse. Rational young men and women, silently outraged by the pot-banging feminists and race baiters, will acquire their own, independent perspectives.
Justice Alito became a conservative because of the shameful activism of Princeton during the VietNam era. The Ivy Leagues (Summers incident in Harvard; Taliban in Yale) and wannabes are unwittingly cultivating a new generation of conservative thinkers.
I didn't say Nifong was behind the "big picture" use of this to portray the Dems as once again the champion of poor blacks (at the precise moment that black Republicans are seeking black votes in OH, PA and MD). Nifong has his local, personal reasons.
But then, so does Ronnie Earl against DeLay and the Special Prosecutor against Scooter Libby. I think the national Dems are working hand in glove with these people, though, and vice-versa. That is my view. You have yours. We both freely express it.
That's what's great about America and especially FRee Republic.
That won't stop Nifong.