Kansas governor Kathleen Sebelius said on Tuesday that she believes race could be a factor in this election. “I think that the notion that, ‘By the way, have any of you noticed that Barack Obama is part African American?’ I think that is for a number of people difficult… I think we need to talk about the fact that that is a real issue.” According the AP’s original report, she also attacked Republicans for injecting ”code language” to convince Midwesterners that Democrat Barack Obama is different from them. The terms “working class” and “blue collar” are “code” for “white.” One could reasonably ask who is injecting what into this campaign in Spanish, English, in reference to dollar bills and Bradley Effects. But, I will leave that, and all that “talk” the governor believes we need to have, to another post. What I find more interesting — well, no, actually, incredibly crude — is the “code” language theory that ”blue collar” and “working class” really means “white.” Let’s see. Obama has attracted millions of white voters. White Iowans put his campaign on track in the primaries. White Iowans convinced black South Carolinians to dump Hillary and move over to Obama. White college students and white professionals, along side of black voters, held Obama’s candidacy aloft to the nomination. Blue collar and working class voters, however, stubbornly remain immune to the Obama magic. Those voters are overwhlemingly white. So, the logic goes, it must be race. Huh? Does that make any sense? Let’s try this again. If blue collar democrats are white, and upper income, college educated democrats are white, then race alone, obviously, does not account for the discrepancy in their voting preferences. As has been noted by many, many people here in “The Corner” and elsewhere, it’s a culture thing. What the “code language” camp really seems to be saying is that white, upper income, college educated democrats who have flocked to Obama’s candidacy are not really white, or kinda white, but not that white, or not that kind of white. ”White” is really “code” for “racist.” And that, I believe, is the not-so-coded language that is being injected into this campaign.