Lately I’ve heard the conservative talk radio (Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity) lament that critics of Obama administration policies felt hamstrung, that they ran the risk of being called racist for their positions. That topic reached a  fever point today, after former President Jimmy Carter said many pointed anti-Obama comments, like those seen during town hall meetings in August, have a genesis in racism.

As Carter told Brian Williams of NBC, “There is an inherent feeling among many in this country that an African-American should not be president.” Cue firestorm.

Writing about race is something journalists must enter with wariness. As Joe Scarborough wrote in a tweet today, “discussions about race devolve as quickly as abortion debates.” (That certainly happens in stories on The Journal’s Web site.) But there appears to be some element of racism — I’m not saying most, just some — in Obama criticism. I still recall being out in Northwest Iowa as the November 2008 results rolled in and it became clear Obama would defeat Republican John McCain. A woman sniffed about the White House becoming instead “the Black House.”

A local Democrat this morning agreed President Obama doesn’t want the attention that Carter’s comment drew. True to form, Obama’s spokesman Robert Gibbs didn’t want to be drawn into the topic, saying Obama doesn’t agree with Carter’s assessment.

The topic drew a spirited debate this morning on “The Today Show,” where Republican pollster Frank Luntz said race has nothing to do with opposition to Obama’s policies on health care reform and other public policy pieces. A professor disagreed with Luntz, and the Sept. 12 Maureen Dowd column on the aftermath of the Congressman Joe Wilson”You lie!” outburst was referenced.

Dowd wrote that what she “heard was an unspoken word in the air: You lie, boy!” The professor agreed with Dowd, saying he heard the unspoken phrase “uppity N.”

Tags: barack obama, frank luntz, jimmy carter, politics, race, rush limbaugh

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 16th, 2009 at 4:06 pm and is filed under Media matters, Obama administration. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.