As John noted below, Mark Halperin from TIME Magazine thinks McCain's surrogates should "Allow some supporters to risk being accused of using the race card when criticizing Obama." What better group of supporters to risk racism than McCain's friends at Fox News. If you've ever read Halperin or seen any of his ubiquitous t.v. appearances, it's pretty clear the guy thinks he single-handedly determines the political conventional wisdom in American politics. So his "analysis" (as he calls it) seeming to condone the idea that a racist strategy can be part of McCain's strategy is especially insidious. But maybe he should be concerned that Geraldo was a step ahead of him -- or maybe Halperin is taking direction Geraldo. Eugene Robinson has the story:
On "Fox and Friends" last week, the mustachioed infotainer gave his take on Barack Obama's borrowing of his campaign chairman's words: "When I saw that they were the same words that Deval Patrick, the black guy who won as Massachusetts mayor -- as Massachusetts governor -- had used, I said to myself, it seems so premeditated. It's almost as if they went to a camp where these black geniuses got together and figured out how to beat the political system. . . . What's the other formula that they're going to use?"Ridiculous, of course. But, it's the play book proffered by Time Magazine's political guru, Mark Halperin.
Ridiculous? Of course -- this is Geraldo, remember.
And, of course, we all know that anyone who knows Mark Halperin will tell us he's not a racist. Okay, fine. But he has a very powerful voice and he basically said that one of the "things McCain can do" is have supporters play the "race card."
