Jay’s post provided a welcome reminder of Obama’s statement earlier this summer that Republicans wanted Americans to be afraid because he doesn’t “look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills.”
Just as happened today, the first reaction of the Obama campaign was indignation: How could you possibly, conceivably imply, in your wildest dreams, that The One was referring to race. As ABC News reported at the time: ”’He was referring to the fact that he didn’t come into the race with the history of others,’ Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said Thursday. ‘It is not about race.’”
That was too preposterous to fly, so by the next day, Obama’s chief campaign strategist, David Axelrod, was conceding that Obama, of course, was referring to race. (He meant, “He’s new to Washington. Yes, he’s African-American.”)
This time, I imagine they’ll stick with the preposterous rather than conceding the obvious. Maybe they figure that’s Change you can believe in, but it’s really just more of the same.