The Race Card

Jonathan Martin calls it like it is:

Which brings us to Obama yesterday in Missouri, testing out a new line that seems unambiguously aimed at accusing the GOP of using race (something which McCain and his campaign have not done):

"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," Obama said yesterday. "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."

Asked Thursday if Obama was referring to race, Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said, "No."

"What Barack Obama was talking about was that he didn't get here after spending decades in Washington," Gibbs said.

Right, neither did Lincoln, but his face, along with those of many other white men, adorns a dollar bill.

Obama is covering himself here just a bit by making his accusation predictive -- "going to" -- but this seems to be a pretty clear effort at having it both ways.

Sometimes it is just simply too transparent. Even us unsophisticated hicks from outside the urban areas understand it when we see it.