Jake Tapper started the day by lacing into Barack Obama for his unfounded and egregious claim that John McCain is fanning the flames of racism. Yesterday Obama claimed that McCain is saying, ” ‘Well, we know we’re not very good but you can’t risk electing Obama. You know, he’s new, he’s… doesn’t look like the other presidents on the currency, you know, he’s got a, he’s got a funny name.’ ” Of course, McCain has done no such thing. Tapper writes:

There’s a lot of racist xenophobic crap out there. But not only has McCain not peddled any of it, he’s condemned it. Back in February, McCain apologized for some questionable comments made by a local radio host. In April, he condemned the North Carolina Republican Party’s ad featuring images of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. With one possible exception, I’ve never seen McCain or those under his control playing the race card or making fun of Obama’s name — or even mentioning Obama’s full name, for that matter!

Tapper concludes:

I’ve seen racism in campaigns before — I’ve seen it against Obama in this campaign (more from Democrats than Republicans, at this point, I might add) and I’ve seen it against McCain in South Carolina in 2000, when his adopted Bangladeshi daughter Bridget was alleged, by the charming friends and allies of then-Gov. George W. Bush, to have been a McCain love-child with an African-American woman.What I have not seen is it come from McCain or his campaign in such a way to merit the language Obama used today. Pretty inflammatory.

But that’s really not the half of it. Obama’s entire campaign has been premised on unity, on ending racial division and political antagonism. He’s the post-racial leader to take us to the promised land of reconciliation and harmony. But he’s not. He’s inciting racial animosity where none exists. It is reprehensible on a moral level and it’s plain dumb politics.

Really, can you imagine anything more off-putting to the people whom Obama needs to bring into the fold –those Bittergate voters he dissed once before — than this line of attack? It may go over well in the Left blogosphere, but it won’t play anywhere that matters in this election. So one thing we know — the post-racial meme — which was already on its last legs (Obama has defended racial preferences and strayed into reparations territory) – is now deader than the New Politics meme. But the real question is whether fanning racial hatred and suspicion carries with it any cost.

The McCain camp has pounced, putting out a statement: “Barack Obama has played the race card, and he played it from the bottom of the deck. It’s divisive, negative, shameful and wrong.” The Obama camp seems to deny Obama was talking about race (What, he meant the distinguishing feature from other presidents on the currency was his lack of a beard?), but he’s been a repeat offender (this one was in June) and has now been caught. And the Obama team does what they always do when their candidate has gotten himself into a fix (e.g. the surge will never work) — they lie and say the mean Republicans have it all wrong. We’ll see what the voters think, but the routine is wearing thin and not very effective in the YouTube era.

del.icio.us

Google

Facebook

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 31st, 2008 at 3:37 PM and is filed under Contentions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.