"My neck hurts from watching the two campaigns volley these incendiary race accusations furiously all day Thursday, so I'll step in and play ref."

Oh yes, Joan, please do, because you don't have any issues with race at all and you are so objective when it comes to Obama.

"To this point I don't think either campaign has played "the race card," if you define it to mean unfairly using race for political gain."

Funny how Joan was willing to analyze and dig out the coded sexism in every attack on Clinton, even if it was subtle and indirect, but when it comes to attacks on Obama she can't see anything untoward.

I guess all that talk about Obama being a muslim spread without any work by Republican operatives. I guess since Clinton's campaign also indulged in coded and open racism she's decided it doesn't count unless McCain says the n-word.

You don't have to hate black people to be a racist, just buy into the bullshit status quo dynamic. And clearly, Joan is a nice white lady.

"..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.."

This is true, and thank you for pointing it out. I recall a conversation with a co-worker during the OJ thing (the OJ trial is when I found out how White people really feel about Blacks, and how naive I had been). He said that he hated Black people. I asked him why. "Because they think everybody is against them." He had no idea why I was chuckling.

Racism in this country is a constant and the only thing that ever evolves is the 'why'. But as you said, most Whites don't think of themselves in that context. Hating for no reason is Racist, so having a reason lightens the load. And the 'reasons' are organic and shape-shifting.

I didn't support Obama when he announced, and only over time did I recognize his talents. I will vote for him, but I don't think he is going to win; in fact, I think he will lose by 10 plus percentage points. And if he does win, if he thinks "they" are after him now, God help him then.

Do you like to think of yourself as more of a wizard or instead more of a sort of sorceror, and is there a real radical difference between the two? And also in a nutshell, what's your position on the Potterverse?

These are the burning questions of the day that only a first level fruitcake like you can probably proudly answer.

As for myself, I ain't braggin' I really AM a Komodo dragon!

The term "race card" as far as I can remember first came up during the O. J. Simpson trial, when the defense successfully portrayed the cop as a racist with a motive to frame OJ. Note the word "successful." I mean nobody in their right mind thinks the guy was not racist. So "playing the race card" was simply bringing out racism that was already there. That's not a bad thing (unless you think getting a guilty man off is bad, but that's not what I mean).

So sure Obama "played the race card" in saying that the McCain campaign was trying to scare us because Obama doesn't look like the bill-presidents. It was first a defensive tactic, simply making express an unsaid concern. But it also was intended to set the frame of reference so that pretty much anything the McCain campaign says about Obama personally (as opposed to his policy positions) will be taken as "scaring us" by pointing out that Obama does not have a dollar bill profile.

Is it bad that Obama did that. Well McCain's campaign had not (yet anyway) really said or implied that Obama is different looking (read -- "African-American), but McCain's campaign was getting personal. So six of this half-dozen of the other. I am not moved one way or the other. ZZZZZZZ!!!

You could have fooled me, if the letters on this blog and others are anything to go by. It's a flattering fantasy, undoubtedly, but when you analyse what they write it nearly always boils down to "race" or, that other gem, he was against the war in Iraq at a time when he was not even a US Senator. Now he's been in Europe encouraging their leaders to send more troops to Afganistan and to ignore the Afghan border with Pakistan, a clear breach of international law. The Canadians, the Danes and all those other nationalities fighting the Taleban may not be so keen on this gung-ho attitude, especially coming from a man who has had no military or foreign policy experience. Is Barack Obama aware that there are sixeable numbers of Pakistani people, and people of Pakistani origin, living in Britain and that his hare-brained scheme could cause further turmoil there, a far more serious repercussion than the bombing of the London rail system just a few short years ago? It doesn't seem so. It's not just all about African-Americans, you know.

The race card? More like the house of cards that cannot withstand the slightest reaction except one of total uncritical support.

Yo! GMF! I hear ya!

John McCain is play the "race card" card. That's when, apropos of absolutely nothing, you accuse your opponent of playing the race card. This serves the dual purpose of 1) ginning up outrage among whites who are "bitter" about Jackson, Farrakhan, etc. actually playing the race card, and 2) silencing Obama when your future criticisms of him are based at least in part on his race. Bill Clinton tried the exact same tact before the South Carolina primary and it blew up in his face.

I've got to laugh at the feigned outrage over Obama saying that his opponents are going to use his race to scare voters, as if this is some crazy idea. Does anyone think the "whitey" hox would have taken hold or Obama would be forced to "reject and renounce" the words of a man (Farrakhan) he barely knows if he was white? Does anyone really think he'd be accused of being "arrogant" if he was white? Of course not. Some of the attacks on Obama have obviously been based on race, and it's only going to get worse as we get closer to November.