With Friends Like These . . .

This morning, Politico's Glenn Thrust points out seven warning signs for Barack Obama. (One of them, the disproportionate "crisis" mentality that pervades a lot of coverage, is exactly what I argued

here.)

Also emerging is even heavier coverage -- from the left -- of the "race issue." And that's no coincidence. John Heilemann's piece in NY Magazine prophesies that Republicans plan viciously to stir up racism in order to beat Barack. Anna Quindlen writes in Newsweek about the "Caucasion Card."

I'm not in the business of advising lefties, but if I were, I'd tell 'em to exercise some caution. The assumption that any opposition to the Obamessiah must necessarily be predicated on race hatred is offensive, and something most American's won't appreciate being told -- because it isn't true. And it's a bully-boy technique that's likely to backfire.

The real racists won't care if they're called bigots, because their views are so far outside the mainstream already that they couldn't care less what anyone thinks of them. The people who could be persuaded to vote for Barack -- but are basing their vote on their assessments of his character, policies, and experience -- are, for the most part, independent thinkers. And they aren't going to be bullied into voting for the left-wing major party candidate who's ever sought the presidency just because liberals will call them racists fif they don't pull the "correct" level.

It's ironic that Barack Obama's fellow liberals are causing him more trouble than conservatives are -- whether it's Hillary Clinton, Jesse Jackson, or the press and left-wing pundits. But it's the truth. At the end, normal Americans really don't care what the lefty elite media types think of them (if they had, there would have been no Ronald Reagan, or Bush II second term). And as with their "crisis coverage," the opinion class may actually risk turning off voters who aren't willing to trade the right to criticize their potential leaders for a pat on the back from the MSM.