More "Race Card" Talk

Matt Lewis | August 01, 2008 8:30 AM

Some have defended Obama's injection of race into the debate as an effort to inoculate himself against a predictable future attack. To them, Obama was merely acknowledging the fact that race would be an issue in the campaign.

Yet these same folks believe McCain's team has "overreacted" by responding to Obama's accusation so vigorously.

Here's my take ...

1. Once you are labeled a "racist" in today's society, you are essentially toast. The McCain team is wise to be hyper-sensitive to any implications of this sort. In a sense, McCain was also inoculating himself against a future attack -- and signaling to Obama that even casual insinuations of this sort will be swiftly refuted. And in fairness, McCain has gone out of his way to avoid making any attacks that could be construed as racist.

2. It is also interesting that the attacks which could legitimately be considered racist -- or, at least, "racial" -- came in the Democratic primary. The McCain folks point out that Obama's team demonized Bill Clinton, but Clinton's comments, in my estimation, came much closer to crossing the line than anything the McCain team has done or said.

3. The only person in this race who has truly been a victim of racists attacks is John McCain, who endured them in the 2000 primary. McCain's team ought to do a better job of reminding folks of this.