The Democratic race for president is starting to get ugly.

Hillary Clinton's win in the Nevada Caucuses came with such bitterness that it begins to look as if the race is about to degenerate into a racial and gender quagmire with each candidate playing identity politics to their utmost.

Amidst charges of dirty politics by the Obama campaign, Clinton eked out a controversial win in the number of votes but lost the delegate total 13-12 to Obama:

Her margin over Obama — Clinton led by just under 6 percentage points with about 98 percent of precincts reporting — was a convincing victory in a state whose most important player, the Culinary Workers union, endorsed Obama and pressed hard for victory. Obama won the delegate count, however, earning 13 delegates, compared with 12 for Clinton, according to Associated Press projections.

No national delegates were actually awarded Saturday; caucus-goers were technically choosing delegates to the county convention. The vote was also a devastating crash for former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, who had won substantial portions of the vote in Iowa and New Hampshire, but was headed toward winning under 4 percent of the delegates in Nevada.

The results reflected the key demographic realities that are coming to define the primary contest, according to early exit polls and observations. Exit polls showed 65 percent of Hispanic voters supported Clinton, while 83 percent of the state’s smaller number of African-American voters largely backed Obama.

“We currently have reports of over 200 separate incidents of trouble at caucus sites, including doors being closed up to thirty minutes early, registration forms running out so people were turned away, and ID being requested and checked in a non-uniform fashion. This is in addition to the Clinton campaign’s efforts to confuse voters and call into question the at-large caucus sites which clearly had an affect on turnout at these locations. These kinds of Clinton campaign tactics were part of an entire week’s worth of false, divisive, attacks designed to mislead caucus-goers and discredit the caucus itself."