In Rich Benjamin's universe, Obama hasn't played the race card against his critics ("Whitopia")

Rich Benjamin of the Demos think tank is the author of a book called "Searching for Whitopia: An Improbable Journey to the Heart of White America" and he offers "The Marshmallow Center of American Politics in the 21st Century" (hnn.us/articles/118555.html). Discussing what's wrong with the rest of it is left as an exercise; I'll just concentrate on this hilariously wrong bit:

President Obama refuses to attribute any racial bias to his virulent immigration- and heathcare-reform critics. Meanwhile, GOP Chair Michael Steele scolds the President for "playing the race card."

Obama has himself played the race card several times; see for instance this and this. Even worse, virtually every Obama surrogate before the election and many since has played the race card. There are too many examples to list but try this, this, and this.

And, Obama has specifically played that card when discussing immigration; for one example see this. He even went as far as implying that Rush Limbaugh and Lou Dobbs incited hate crimes. Apparently in Benjamin's universe none of that happened, or something.

Sun, 11/08/2009 - 14:39 · · Importance: 4