Friday, August 01, 2008

Our Post-Racial Candidate

The Left's meme that the latest McCain ad is "racist," and Barack Obama's embrace of that meme, says far more about them than it does about John McCain. As Hugh Hewitt points out,

No American with a brain seriously thinks John McCain would ever approve a "racially tinged" ad, and the attempt to smear McCain as a racist will backfire on the Times and Obama. There's lots to object to in McCain's record whether you are left, right or center --my writing throughout last year detailed the objections of conservatives-- but the idea that Senator McCain would ever countenance an appeal to base instincts will be instantly rejected by voters left, right and center. McCain's been around a long, long time, and voters know him. He's an honorable man, as honorable a man as has ever run for the office.

What playing the race card shows is that Obama is not, in fact, "post-racial." He's every bit as willing as Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson to play on white guilt over past discrimination if it suits his purposes. Worse, he's willing to use lingering bitterness over generations of discrimination to split the country in a way we haven't seen in 40 years.

Dan McLaughlin explains that Obama's behavior is unbecoming of a presidential candidate, and it shows how ill-equipped Obama is for handling criticism. And I have to say that I am becoming convinced that, besides Obama's catastrophic policies, I have to worry about 4 years of "if you oppose me, you must be racist" rhetoric. It can't be healthy for our country.