Racism and the Obama Campaign

Mickey Kaus points it out, Glenn Reynolds points it out and I have pointed it out: the almost kneejerk cries of racism by the Obama campaign are racist.

The demands by the hippy-dippy Liberals to have a “dialog on race” is one of those stupid requests like the demand to end negative campaigning. Let’s face it, negative campaigning happens when you tell the truth about your opponent.

But the Obama campaign is a crystal clear example of what happens when a dialog on race starts; when the pious little lies are no longer being told. When people or all colors, not just black people tell it like it is.

Take Geraldine Ferraro, please:

Geraldine Ferraro (Clinton supporter): " "If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position."

True statement (a.k.a. a Kinsley gaffe). And if Geraldine Ferraro was Gerald Ferraro, she'd be an unknown hack ex-Congressman, not a pathbreaking former vice-presidential candidate. Now Hillaryite Democrats suddenly feel the unfairness in the logic of race-based affirmative action? Where were they when Bill Clinton was 'mending it, not ending it'? And where's that Jesse Helms ad when she needs it?

Susan Rice (Obama aide): "That's a really outrageous and offensive comment."

David Axelrod (Obama strategist): ""The bottom line is this, when you wink and nod at offensive statements, you're really sending a signal to your supporters that anything goes."

Absurd and telling overreaction! Yes, Ferraro's statement is hypocritical. It drips with unseemly envy and entitlement. It's unrealistic--by the time any politician gets to the stratopsheric level of presidential contender, he or she has almost certainly had some morally arbitrary lucky breaks (like being a black, or an Italian, or a Bush, or just being in the right place at the right time). But why is it "offensive"? It is, after all, true. Maybe that's the problem. Is it 'offensive' to hit too close to the sensitive weak spot of Democratic race-preference ideology in a Democratic primary? I guess.

Ferraro is not backing down:

"Any time anybody does anything that in any way pulls this campaign down and says let's address reality and the problems we're facing in this world, you're accused of being racist, so you have to shut up," Ferraro said. "Racism works in two different directions. I really think they're attacking me because I'm white. How's that?"

I think we're finally having a dialog. Just as Nixon's opening to China could only have been accomplished by a Republican, a real dialog on race can only be initiated by Liberals who have used the charge of racism for the last 50 years. How does it feel?