Charles Kaiser on McCain and "the race card"

"Obama continues to face a series of arbitrary and shifting public tests merely because he is black."
-Adam Serwer

Adam Serwer has the most important piece of the week in the American Prospect, explaining why race is certain to remain at the center of this campaign, regardless of how often either candidate mentions it. Here is the heart of the matter:

The McCain campaign's apparently race-neutral approach, and its subsequent accusation that the Obama campaign is playing the race card, is a well-thought-out strategy—it is pure Nixon...In a dispute about race, the McCain campaign knows it will end up with the larger half. For the most part, most white people's experience with race isn't one of racial discrimination. They can only relate to racial discrimination in the abstract. What white people can relate to is the fear of being unjustly accused of racism. This is the larger half. This is why allegations of racism often provoke more outrage than actual racism, because most of the country can relate to one (the accusation of racism) easier than the other (actual racism). For this reason, in a political conflict over race, the McCain campaign has the advantage, because saying the race card has been played is actually the ultimate race card.

Now that Karl Rove's acolyte Steve Schmidt has been given day-to-day control of the McCain campaign, this is certain to become one of the nastiest presidential campaigns we have ever seen. Since the economy is in free fall, and the best news out of Iraq is that fewer Americans are now being killed there than in Afghanistan, the Republicans really have nothing to work with except for the color of Obama's skin. So they will repeat what they have done in every campaign since Richard Nixon was elected in 1968: they will do everything they possibly can to exploit subliminal American fears of "the other."

Nevertheless, there remain several reasons to be optimistic. Roger Wilkins, who is one of the wisest men in Washington, recited them to me today: "Obama really does care about ordinary people. It's genuine in him, and I think when it's displayed it'll make a huge difference. Despite the fact that his success in Berlin is being used against him I think it was good for him to do. The country needs change and lots and lots of people understand that. And finally, McCain—whatever he was back when the press fell in love with him—he's not that person anymore. He's a crotchety, clumsy, small-spirited man, and I think that will become apparent. The ads that he's putting up now demonstrate that. I think Obama will win."

I agree that odds remain in Obama's favor. But he will need a nearly flawless campaign to overcome the permanent disadvantage of the racism of a large minority of the American public.

Postscript: Uncomfortable confirmation in Saturday's New York Times from its newest op-ed columnist, Charles M. Blow.