AP Charges Gov. Palin With Racism (Updated)

AP plays their part as the MSM wing of the Democratic Party today. They recast substantive criticism of Obama as an ad hominem attack upon his race. The AP calls Gov. Palin's attacks on Obama as unready to lead and stating that his vision of America is fundamentally negative and out of the mainstream are "racially tinged" and "unsubstantiated."
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The AP goes over the top today, playing the race card in an attempt to delegitimize Gov. Palin's attacks on the one:

By claiming that Democrat Barack Obama is "palling around with terrorists" and doesn't see the U.S. like other Americans, vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin targeted key goals for a faltering campaign.

And though she may have scored a political hit each time, her attack was unsubstantiated and carried a racially tinged subtext that John McCain himself may come to regret.

What, if anything in the above attacks, is a racially tinged subtext?

"Our opponent ... is someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect, imperfect enough, that he's palling around with terrorists who would target their own country," Palin told a group of donors in Englewood, Colo. A deliberate attempt to smear Obama, McCain's ticket-mate echoed the line at three separate events Saturday.

"This is not a man who sees America like you and I see America," she said. "We see America as a force of good in this world. We see an America of exceptionalism."

A smear is a false or grossly overhyped accusation. The only smear here is AP's labeling of Palin's attack. Obama's whole life has been spent amongst people who see in America a nation that is inherently bad and in need of fundamental change. And that Obama and his spouse share that view regularly slips out into public view in unguarded moments. The most recent example that comes to mind is Obama's answer a few weeks ago to a nine year old child who asked Obama why he wanted to be President. Back to AP:

Her reference to Obama's relationship with William Ayers, a member of the Vietnam-era Weather Underground, was exaggerated at best if not outright false. No evidence shows they were "pals" or even close when they worked on community boards years ago and Ayers hosted a political event for Obama early in his career.

You can go to Stanley Kurtz to fact check the AP on this one. The Chicago Annenberg Challenge was the brain-child of Ayers that he created to inject his radical views into the classroom. The person who was allowed to head up the board for this project, almost assuredly with the assent of Ayers, was Obama. And when Obama went on from that into politics, the first fundraiser was thrown by Ayers. The importance to all of this is that Obama shares Ayers views that America is not an exceptional nation, it is a bad one bordering on evil that needs to be changed fundamentally and radically to the left.

But all of this is meaningless in the AP's world, where to challenge this or any of Obama's associations on substantive grounds is simply racist:

"The four weeks that are left are an eternity. There's plenty of time in the campaign," said Republican strategist Joe Gaylord. "I think it is a legitimate strategy to talk about Obama and to talk about his background and who he pals around with."

Palin's words avoid repulsing voters with overt racism. But is there another subtext for creating the false image of a black presidential nominee "palling around" with terrorists while assuring a predominantly white audience that he doesn't see their America?

In a post-Sept. 11 America, terrorists are envisioned as dark-skinned radical Muslims, not the homegrown anarchists of Ayers' day 40 years ago. With Obama a relative unknown when he began his campaign, the Internet hummed with false e-mails about ties to radical Islam of a foreign-born candidate.

Whether intended or not by the McCain campaign, portraying Obama as "not like us" is another potential appeal to racism. It suggests that the Hawaiian-born Christian is, at heart, un-American.

This last four weeks is going to get ugly. As Republican criticisms of Obama become more pointed and cutting, expect this insipid broadside from the AP to become the norm as the MSM tries to protect their candidate. Obama won't play the race card again - he does not need to. The MSM is holding decks of race cards and is starting to deal on Obama's behalf.

Update: Via Hot Air, the McCain camp responds:

“The last four weeks of this election will be about whether the American people are willing to turn our economy and national security over to Barack Obama, a man with little record, questionable judgment, and ties to radical figures like unrepentant domestic terrorist William Ayers. Americans need to ask themselves if they’ve ever befriended an unrepentant terrorist, or had a convicted felon help them buy their house — because those aren’t smears, those are true facts about Barack Obama.” —Tucker Bounds, spokesman McCain-Palin 2008

Obama and the MSM are clearly going to play 52 race card pick-up with the McCain camp between now and 4 Nov. With that in mind, there should be absoluteky nothing stopping the McCain camp from coming out swinging over the subprime crisis. Yes, race cards are going to come fast and furious - but, as the above clearly indicates, they are going to get played anyway.