The Race Card

Is the Barack Obama campaign laying the foundation to claim racism in the event that he loses the election on November 4? Based on the recent comments by many of his prominent supporters and members of the media, it would seem so. Here are a few examples:


- Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius: “Have any of you noticed that Barack Obama is part African-American? That may be a factor. All the code language, all that doesn't show up in the polls. And that may be a factor for some people.”

- Tom Brokaw, "Meet the Press": "if Senator McCain wins...does he win because of race and playing the race card?

- Jack Cafferty, CNN: "The differences between Barack Obama and John McCain couldn’t be more well-defined. Obama wants to change Washington. McCain is a part of Washington and a part of the Bush legacy. Yet the polls remain close. Doesn’t make sense…unless it’s race."

-Chris Matthews, MSNBC: [discussing polling with Joe Scarborough the morning after Obama lost the New Hampshire primary] "Methinks Paleface speak with forked tongue."

- Jacob Weisberg, columnist for "Slate": [title of column] "If Obama Loses: Racism is the Only Reason McCain Might Beat Him"

- Howard Dean, DNC Chair: "folks of color, and even women, are more successful in the Democrat Party than they are in the white, excuse me, the Republican Party."

- Sen. Barack Obama: "They're going to try to say, 'well, you know, he's got a funny name' and 'he doesn't look like all the presidents on the dollar bills and the five-dollar bills.'" [he said this comment in several stump speeches until it became an issue]

While I believe that voting against Sen. Obama simply because of his race is deplorable, I am insulted by the insinuation that the only way Obama can lose the election is because of racist voters. Yes, racism still exists and is a problem. However, the United States has come a long way and those individuals who will cast their votes based on race are a very small minority of the population.

Elitists in the Democratic party and the mainstream media are essentially suggesting that I am a racist because I will not be voting for Sen. Obama. In their minds, there is absolutely no way that anyone could [or should] disagree with his big government, boarder-line socialist policies. Therefore, if I dare to disagree with the enlightened one, then I must be a racist - a sad relic from a bygone era who just can't seem to get with these modern times.

It's interesting that most of the comments listed above (in addition to countless others I found) came after Sen. McCain overtook Sen. Obama in the polls. To the Obama campaign and its surrogates in the mainstream media, this was unthinkable - Obama's victory was a foregone conclusion. Faced with the reality that this is going to be a tight race and that Sen. Obama very well could lose in Novemer, the DNC has resorted to scare tactics and name-calling in order to shame people into "falling in line" behind Sen. Obama.

Is this the "new" kind of politics that we were promised?