Seriously Not Racist, This Time

Wonkette is usually a reliable source of snark, which is why it pains me to see this headline today.

PALIN RILES UP RACIST CROWD TO KILL OBAMA

Don't get me wrong - the post alludes to a Washington Post piece in which they describe a rally in Florida where Sarah Palin does say terrible, unsubstantiated things about Obama and his relationship to the former Weather Underground member Bill Ayers. And a guy in the audience does yell "Kill him!" But the DNC talking point that says linking Obama and Ayers, implying that Obama is a terrorist, is "racist" is simply unfair.

This is another instance of calling Republicans a racist because they despise a man who happens to be black. He may be, but he's also a Democrat and that's all the reason that Republicans need to despise him. They hated Kerry similarly. They think Nancy Pelosi is a demon. They dragged a grieving widow, Cindy Sheehan, through the mud for years and she's not black.

Ayers is an old-school WHITE former terrorist.

And don't get me wrong, the real racism is coming. There's going to be a point at which the poll numbers are low enough and the options are limited enough that racism will trump their fear of backlash. But at a national level they tend to hold off on that kind of thing until much closer to election day. Racist campaigning is just bad strategy if you time it wrong. Look for the Rev Wright to return to the political pundit reference list in late October. Linking Obama to an angry BLACK man, that's racist.

I still stand my judgement of that video from last week though, because it was produced by newcomers. College kids always think they're the first to try something, when in fact they just don't know the difference between a new idea and a stupid one. While I'm at it, I gotta say I have no idea how big that particular video was. I predicted it would spread like wildfire, and the meme that they're registering people in a shady way is circulating, but I don't know it that particular piece is taking off. So maybe I was wrong? Anyone got some metrics for me?