It took them to give him the ammo that he would not have otherwise had.

The Obama campaign's "fairy tale" gambit was particularly transparent. Commenting on Obama's explanation of why he is more against the war in Iraq than Hillary Clinton, and disturbed by the news media's failure to report Obama's actual voting record on Iraq in the Senate, the former president referred to what had become the conventional wisdom as a "fairy tale" concocted by Obama and his supporters. Time to play the race-baiter card! One of Obama's most prominent backers, the mayor of Atlanta, Shirley Franklin, stretched Clinton's remarks and implied that he had called Obama's entire candidacy a fairy tale. (The mayor later coyly told a reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that she had not intended to criticize Clinton: "Surely you don't mean he's the only one who can use the phrase 'fairy tale,'" Franklin said, in a tone that the reporter described as "mock indignation.") Appearing on CNN, one of its pundits, Donna Brazile, hurled the wild charge that Clinton had likened Obama to a child. "And I will tell you," she concluded, "as an African American I find his words and his tone to be very depressing." With those kinds of remarks--"as an African American"--the race card and the race-baiter card both came back into play. Although Brazile is formally not part of Obama's campaign, her comments made their way to the South Carolina memo, offered as evidence that Clinton's comment was racially insensitive.

Not exactly the best way to get all aboard the Unity Express.  Funny, though, how it looks like the underside of a bus.

The wonder is none of these folks realized that when they said and did anything about Bill and Hillary Clinton to favor Obama that all of it would come back to haunt Obama in the general election.

I'm afraid that the logic and depth of political interest that leads you to your conclusion -- that if Bob Herbert et al make claims about racism those claims ought to be considered suspect and political on their face -- is not shared among the wider electorate.

I agree with you that those claims launched against the Clintons were largely spurious and that they call into question the honesty and judgment of the people who promulgated them.  I just don't think the broader population will follow that argument.

The only thing that makes me feel any better about Herbert's column is that probably the only people who are still reading him are people who are so in-the-tank that they accept what Herbert writes - then and now - as actual fact.  I made an exception today to see more than just the snip BTD provided, and even then, I could not get all the way through it it was so vile.

I'm no McCain fan, trust me.  I listened to part  of the Q & A's from an appearance he made yesterday, and it was awful, just awful; I am no more interested in a President McCain than I am in a President Obama.

But McCain's ad wasn't racist.  And just because the audiences Obama is delivering his they're-going-to-demonize-me speeches appreciated his "warning," doesn't mean Obama's motives and meaning were the purest-of-the-pure; his remarks were clearly designed to (1) float an accusation of something that had not happened as if it already had, (2) eliminate the discussion of race by appointing himself judge and jury on the whole issue and (3) effectively tell people the only way to make up for the consider-them-real-injustices-because-they-are-inevitable, visited upon Obama is to (4) vote for him.

Now, from the hapless but increasingly venomous McCain campaign, comes the slimy Britney Spears and Paris Hilton ad. The two highly sexualized women (both notorious for displaying themselves to the paparazzi while not wearing underwear) are shown briefly and incongruously at the beginning of a commercial critical of Mr. Obama.

The Republican National Committee targeted Harold Ford with a similarly disgusting ad in 2006 when Mr. Ford, then a congressman, was running a strong race for a U.S. Senate seat in Tennessee. The ad, which the committee described as a parody, showed a scantily clad woman whispering, "Harold, call me."

Both ads were foul, poisonous and emanated from the upper reaches of the Republican Party. (What a surprise.) Both were designed to exploit the hostility, anxiety and resentment of the many white Americans who are still freakishly hung up on the idea of black men rising above their station and becoming sexually involved with white women.

For a candidate with his (largely undeserved) reputation, who loudly promised to run a "respectful campaign," this crap is way below the standards he has set for himself, and it's way below what the American people should expect from a candidate for the highest office.

"My interest is in making sure we've got the kind of comprehensive energy policy that can bring down gas prices," Obama said in an interview with The Palm Beach Post.

"If, in order to get that passed, we have to compromise in terms of a careful, well thought-out drilling strategy that was carefully circumscribed to avoid significant environmental damage -- I don't want to be so rigid that we can't get something done."

"The McCain campaign was compelled to respond to this outrageous attack because we will not allow John McCain to be smeared by Senator Obama as a racist for offering legitimate criticism, he said. "We have waited for months with a sick feeling knowing this moment would come because we watched it incur with President Clinton. Say whatever you want about President Clinton, his record on this issue is above reproach.""

Countless journalists, politicians, and regular folk consistently reference Barack's middle name.

Articles and news commentators discussed the flag pin and whether Barack places his hand over is heart for the national anthem.

All these things have continued since the primary.  I do not agree that Obama and his campaign are falsely accusing anyone of anything. There are many who will not vote for him because of patriotism, religion, and/or race. (Yes, I realize there many real and valid reasons why one would not vote for him.)  Let's stop pretending a post racial America is free of vestiges of the past.

Once again, BTD accuses McCain of race-baiting without citing any examples from the public record.  I agree that "journalists" like Alter, Klein, Herbert, Robinson, et al. destroyed their own credibility during the primaries.  However, that doesn't prove your charges of race-baiting by McCain.

However, the public record provides us with this whopper from Obama himself:

"They're going to try to make you afraid of me. `He's young and inexperienced and he's got a funny name. And did I mention he's black?'

McCain stood his ground and fought back against Obama's scurrilous charges, and rightfully so.   Of course, this got some "journalists" into such a tizzy, that Greg Sargent actually wrote a sentence as absurd as this:

"Look, let's be as clear as possible about what's really going on here: By charging that Obama is playing the race card, the McCain campaign is itself playing the race card.  

So, again, I think it's fair to ask; how, exactly:

1.  McCain race-baited

2.  Obama didn't play the race-card

Obama's primary was run as if they had no intention of winning the GE - after all Obama is young, a loss this year doesn't hurt his future.

Now it's resurfacing, a not so subtle reminder that what ye shall sow ye shall reap...

The irony is OB's campaign ethics have not been stellar..

But Obama's chief strategist, David Axelrod, acknowledged on "Good Morning America" Friday that the candidate was referring, at least in part, to his ethnic background.

When pressed to explain the comment, Axelrod told "GMA" it meant, "He's not from central casting when it comes to candidates for president of the United States. He's new to Washington. Yes, he's African-American."

That seemingly obvious reference sparked the first real fireworks between the two camps as backers of both candidates accused the other of trying to subtly inject race into the presidential contest.

Link

If Obama wants to bring up the subject of race that is his business. But once he did, then the subject was on the table.

Sousie and the Banshees
NIN
Janes Addiction
Living Color
Body Count (Ice T)
Butthole Surfers
Rollins Band

It was awesome.  After that it was never as good and I'll always remember it as the second best concert I've ever been too.

1. Adoring media coverage - for almost two years his groupies in the media put him on a pedestal, declared him a Messiah and trashed Hillary 24/7

2. Race card - he used the race card throughout the primaries, painting the Clintons as racists. This helped him with African Americans and white-guilt liberals

I have not heard him say anything remotely racist in this campaign.

Obama with the help of his groupies in the media portrayed Clinton supporters as racist. All those voters in Florida, Ohio, Michigan who voted for Hillary were voting for her because they were racists.

There was an unstated assertion that voters had to "prove" they were not racists by voting for Obama.

The strategy worked for Obama in the primaries because if gave him the African American and white-guilt liberal votes. It was especially effective in caucus states.

This is not a political platform. It is an Oprah/Dr Phil show.

Obama is not running on ideas or policy. He is running on Hallmark card slogans like lets hold hands and get along.

This is why he is constantly flip flopping. He doesn't really stand for anything other than getting along. Which means if drilling will make us get along let drill!

Someone who is inexperienced and has a rather questionable judgment and has Messianic delusions of grandeur.