One of the big tests for our nation this election will be whether we (the press, the campaigns, the voters) can handle the complex powder keg that is race in a responsible way that improves us all. The last 24 hours have not been promising.
First Obama says something he has said before, in various forms: “Nobody thinks that Bush and McCain have a real answer to the challenges we face. So what they’re going to try to do is make you scared of me. … You know, he’s not patriotic enough, he’s got a funny name, you know, he doesn’t look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills.”
Second, the McCain campaign jumped on that statement: “Barack Obama has played the race card, and he played it from the bottom of the deck. It’s divisive, negative, shameful and wrong.”
Third, and just moments ago, the Obama campaign clarified its candidate’s initial remarks: “Barack Obama in no way believes that the McCain campaign is using race as an issue, but he does believe they’re using the same old low-road politics to distract voters from the real issues in this campaign, and those are the issues he’ll continue to talk about.”
Okay. So let’s move on. (If the campaigns start regularly talking about race in outrage sound bites, and Drudge starts blaring this stuff every day, and “race card” news breaks start showing up on cable news like the rest of the political fodder, then we are all in trouble. There is a lot of campaign left. This stuff has to be dealt with carefully.) Racism is very real, and it will sadly play some (as yet undetermined) role in this campaign. But we can deal with issues of race responsibly, calmly, respectfully, and with understanding. If we crudely make it a regular part of the daily political maelstrom, no one is well served.
UPDATE: Check out Marc Ambinder’s smart analysis of the politics at work here.