As Krauthammer writes, Obama was attempting to morally equate the two. This, of course, is a false analogy. Obama's grandmother didn't spread her racism from a pulpit.
Later, in an attempt to explain his remarks, Obama went further, adding:
"... The point I was making was not that my grandmother harbors any racial animosity. She doesn't. But she is a typical white person who, uh, if she sees somebody on the street that she doesn't know there's a reaction that's been been bred into our experiences that don't go away and that sometimes come out in the wrong way and that's just the nature of race in our society. We have to break through it..." - Senator Barack ObamaIt's always dangerous to talk in generalities, and that's what he did when he referred to the "typical white person." As Taylor Marsh asks over at the Huffington Post: "Can you imagine if Hillary Clinton said someone was a "typical black person?"
But aside from the fact that Obama continues to a deeper hole for himself, I also find it interesting that he needed to drag his grandmother into this whole mess. It's actually kind of shameless.
To quote from the great movie, Ferris Bueller:
Ed Rooney: Grace, Ferris Bueller is behind this. There is no doubt in my mind, and now, he's got Sloane Peterson involved in this thing.... Well, now Obama's got his grandmother involved in this mess, too.
Grace: Her grandmother, too.