Bob Moser, writing in The Nation, goes so far as to say the Republicans have spent the whole campaign trying "to insinuate that Ford is just the kind of charming, winsome, slick-talking black man who makes white women's knees weak. Now insinuation had given way to a race-baiting version of 'shock and awe'."
Another YouTube member superimposed commentary over the ad and suggested that the camouflage paint on the gun-rights advocate was actually "black-face" and intended as racist code.
Other bloggers went after a radio ad that featured a background track of drums. According to the racism police, these drums were actually "tom-toms" or "jungle drums" and once again intended as subliminal racist code.
Am I confused? Is this 2006 or 1956? Are we to believe that the typical Tennessee voter is still hung up on decades old prejudices and stereotypes? Are these apparently racist voters, that the RNC is supposedly targeting, the core of the Democrat voting base they can't afford to lose if they are going to regain the Senate majority?
Not everyone fell for the false indignation as blogger Kibitzer hits the nail on the head:
"The fact is, the 'racism' in the Playboy ad was altogether in the eye of the beholder. Instead of trashing those hard-working Tennessee country folk whose retrograde ways are largely manifested by a shortage of Starbucks franchises in their neighborhoods, heal thyselves, physicians!
Look in your own subconscious minds. That's where the connection between that sassy party gal and some lurid 'racial' scenario came from. Otherwise, you would have seen what you were meant to see — a suggestion that Harold Ford, bachelor and man-about-town par excellence, had too much of a yen for the fancy life. That's all."
RNC spokeswoman Camille Anderson said, "Whether it's the congressman's careless lifestyle or liberal record, Harold Ford seems like a better fit for his hometown of Washington, D.C., than for the state of Tennessee."
Harold Ford Jr. has made a name for himself by disguising his liberal stripes and framing himself as a moderate, independent-thinking Democrat.
He went so far as to challenge Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi for her leadership position.
Perhaps the reality is that despite Harold Ford Jr. being too moderate for Nancy Pelosi, he is simply too liberal for Tennessee.
And perhaps those who see racism all around themselves should take a look inside their own soul for a change.