Reuters featured a piece by Matthew Bigg, titled "When it comes to race, U.S. politicians talk in code." But while we're talking code, a more intelligible rendering of Bigg's title would be, "When it comes to race, U.S. conservative politicians speak in code to scare the bejesus out of white voters concerning Obama's candidacy."

Biggs says that references to Obama's alleged inexperience (alleged?) and perceived arrogance (perceived?) "could also be seen as subtle racial digs," according to unnamed commentators -- probably meaning Biggs himself.

How do the unnamed clairvoyants infer racism from these legitimate criticisms against Obama? Simple. "Inexperience might be a substitute for an idea with roots in the era of U.S. slavery that African Americans couldn't be trusted, while arrogance can be a way of suggesting that black people are 'uppity' or above their station."

If you think that's a stretch, check out the next one. Biggs cites Ronald Walters, professor of politics at the University of Maryland, as opining that McCain's recent ad lampooning Obama as a celebrity like Britney Spears and Paris Hilton "played on deep cultural fears about inter-racial dating and marriage, which was illegal until the 1960s in some U.S. states." "The code," said Walters, "is used to remind people that the opponent is black."

Could have fooled me. I thought it was a pretty direct slam on Obama for his vacuousness and superficial appeal. Not once did it cross my dark conservative mind that race had anything to do with it.

The irony is that liberals are the ones trapped in their own mythical narrative about white and conservative and evangelical racism because it is their best chance of holding their monopoly on black voters. If they were as concerned about blacks as much as they've convinced themselves they are, they would extricate themselves from the bonds of self-interest clouding their judgment and leading them to perpetuate the storyline and promote policies guaranteed, in the words of the insightful black writer William Owens Jr., to keep blacks "in the bondage of a welfare mentality that will never afford us our true worth today or future potential for our children and grandchildren."