This campaign will go down as one of the most despicable in history, not for its racism, but for the accusations of racism where there was none.
Yet again,we're being told the McCain campaign is using racism.
By claiming that Democrat Barack Obama is "palling around with terrorists" and doesn't see the U.S. like other Americans, vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin targeted key goals for a faltering campaign.
And though she may have scored a political hit each time, her attack was unsubstantiated and carried a racially tinged subtext that John McCain himself may come to regret.
My guess is that the racism claim is ringing hollow these days, since that's the complaint levelled against any accurate criticism of Barack Obama. We've been told that calling Obama tall or thin is racist. Picturing him with white women is racist. Questioning what a "community organizer" does is racist. Calling Obama "young and inexperienced" is racist. And now, pointing out inconvenient facts--like the fact that Obama has been friends with unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers for two decades--is racist.
I don't want four years of being told that any criticism of Obama is racism, and I suspect that the constant accusation will cause more white people to vote against Obama.
I've pointed out to my son--who asked me why "brown people" can't be president--that several brown people have run for the presidency, and each candidate has done better than the last. IMO, this proves that America has grown increasingly comfortable with the idea of a non-white male president. But I am not so interested in a candidate of the right sex or color; I want a candidate who is best qualified, who shows the best judgment, and who offers the best ideas to be president. That candidate is not Barack Obama, although saying he isn't "best qualified" will probably be considered racism soon.
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