Thank you for your contribution to this debate. I missed the Obama camp's lame but revealing explanation for his comments:

"Obama spokesman Robert Gibb states:

'What Barack Obama was talking about was that he didn't get here after spending decades in Washington. There is nothing more to this than the fact that he was describing that he was new to the political scene. He was referring to the fact that he didn't come into the race with the history of others. It is not about race.'"

This quote and laggal's deconstruction of the claim demonstrate the complex interplay between Barack Obama's mixed ethnicity and his claims of being a "different kind of politician." It also demonstrates the ways in which his campaign would like to spin it

As I said in an earlier post, spinning any criticism of his qualifications into a claim of racism may not work as well in the general election, although if enough people buy into his special status, he may continue to deflect criticism regarding his lack of readiness.

Unlike the Clinton campaign, the Republicans have no problem calling Obama on it. The general election playing field is different than the Democratic primary campaign. As a matter of fact, the Republicans may have no real choice, because letting Obama get away with it has the potential to stifle any legitimate criticism throughout the campaign. Obama has been quite adept at using race like a shield.

BTW, I am disappointed in KateTex for buying into the Obama-being-called-on-his-arrogance-equals-racism meme. I say, "If the shoe fits,..." Obama should not get a free pass on any issue because of his parental lineage.

I'm sure KateTex is deeply troubled about your disappointment.

I agree with the jimbovt comment absolutely - race is a big issue and is undoubtedly the reason Obama isn't way up there in the polls! The pundits don't want to talk about it, but it's there. I can't even imagine the disaster if this keeps Obama out and puts McCain in the White House with his neoconservative advisers.

I agree with the jimbovt comment absolutely - race is a big issue and is undoubtedly the reason Obama isn't way up there in the polls! The pundits don't want to talk about it, but it's there. I can't even imagine the disaster if this keeps Obama out and puts McCain in the White House with his neoconservative advisers.

"I didn't think "race" when I first heard those remarks..."

Of course YOU didn't. Call yourself a ref here doesn't exactly make you non-partisan. Does it?

But most independent minded voters saw it for what it was and in the end we may see this as the moment lost what was his to win.

Joan Walsh is totally letting the McCain campaign off the hook or easy just as she does as a panelist on MSNBC.

Look at what they (McCain campaign) have been doing all along, the Paris Hilton/Britney Spears ad, accusing him of being unpatriotic, accusing him of wanting to lose the war which is totally beyond the pale and she thinks they were not being racist in this little charade that Rick Davis pulled yesterday. Andrea Mitchell also did not pummel Davis either.

I believe that Barack knows what he is doing and he will not let them pull what they have done in the Kerry and Gore campaign but what is going on here now with the McCain campaign has Karl Rove written all over it.

JK Rowling (a woman, btw) is bringing out "The Tales of Beedle the Bard" just in time for the Christmas sales. Albus Dumbledore bequeathed a volume containing five wizard fairytales to Hermione Grainger, offering clues to help Harry to defeat his wicked enwmy, Lord Voltemort. Having pulled every trick in the book, including a bare-faced lie about what Barack meant by referring to how "different" he is from other US Presidents, Messrs. Axelrod and Gibb must be desperately searching for some other ploy and maybe Beedle the Bard could give them a brainwave. The timing is wrong, unfortunately, as the election will be over, with only the sound of distant thunder reverberating around the world.

With Joan Walsh showing clearly that she's not up to the standard of Madam Hooch's refereeing, it's all too tangled for words. Madam Hooch is also a flying instructor and Barack has recently said that he doesn't want to fly too close to the sun. It's certainly dangerous to do so, as Icarus found out when his wax wings melted and he tumbled into the ocean. In the modern world, people shouldn't forget the universal truths contained in those Greek myths. I think Icarus' Daddy had something to do with the lad's downfall but I could be wrong.

The McCain ad tried (stupidly, in my view) to portray Obama as a bimbo like Britney or Paris. If that is racially tinged, I fail to see it. Why could such an attack not have been made against a white opponent? Kerry, for example? Answer -- it could have.

Obama can deny that his comments had a racial component, but that explanation doesn't wash. Of course he is different from other faces on our currency, and we all know why -- and "we" includes Obama and his campaign. I understand that these comments were designed to push back against the criticism that he is a lightweight, a show horse, much as he did against Bill Clinton in the primaries. But to say that any attack against him is racially tinged, no matter how un-racial the comment may be, is playing with dynamite. If large numbers of white people come to believe that any adverse opinion of Obama constitutes a racial attack, they will not vote for him. Most whites, no matter how prejudiced they may be in reality, don't like to think of themselves as racists and will not put in office a man who they believe thinks this of them because they have other reservations -- experience, associations, etc. -- about him.

And they refuse to admit it when they do.