If McCain had said he was going to take a switch to his rump, I'd be a lot more worried.

What about "For the record, none of us here at TPM think McCain actually intended the potentially-nefarious alternative meaning of whipping Obama" did you not get?

You're making a lot of nothing here. I can tell you from listening to Black AM radio here in Philly that there are people out there that took it that way. While it's pretty apparent that it wasn't intended to be some reference to, well, whipping, it was stupid on two fronts - one, there's no possibility of cooling the expectations from his camp; he's going to have to kick his ass or risk looking foolish; and two, he may be overaggressive on Wednesday in order to cash the check his mouth wrote this weekend.

Oh, and there's a third - don't talk about "whipping" a Black guy in anything if you've been playing to racist fears all week in your rallies! When you have supporters doing things like this, perhaps you should watch the code words, know what I'm sayin'?

I can't wait for Keith Olbermann's take on this.

I can't wait for Keith Olbermann's take on this.

I guess TPM must be the biggest culprit in pointing out the obvious racism of McCain's campaign - the rabid white-only crowds, "Obama is not like you and me" message, charges of "domestic terrorism", and "hatred of America", you name it.

I guess the only racism McCain/Palin apologists will accept as "real" is McCain calling Obama a "nigger" on national television, with their favorite trusted reporter taking the video and sound. Anything short of that is dismissed as "figment of liberal imagination" and as unwarranted attacks agains the honorable John McCain.

I echo Scientific: "don't talk about "whipping" a Black guy in anything if you've been playing to racist fears all week in your rallies!"

I'm an older white woman but I was raised in the South and my *immediate* thought when I heard McCain's comment was "I wish he'd just gone ahead and offended sensibilities by saying 'ass'". By leaving it fill-in-the-blank too many people were going to hear "hide" and instinctively recall all the unsavory images that go with that word. The only *person* I've ever known who had literally been "whipped" was a black sharecropper - even old, faded scars are horrifying.

Do I think it was deliberate on the part of McCain? No. Possibly just another sad example of the 'bad karma' that's been following him around since he selected Palin. (Palin wouldn't deserve the benefit of the doubt, btw.) But McCain is of my generation - he should have known, should have thought.

In truth, I don't believe that McCain has 'played the race card' (to use a phrase I hope I never hear again after Nov. 4th) in this campaign. If he were willing to 'go there' Rev. Wright would have had a lot more play at this stage in the game. And I commend him for not crossing that line. ------- The trouble is that he and his campaign HAVE deliberately "played the other/frightening/unAmerican/suspicious card" that they would play against any relatively unknown liberal Democrat opponent .... but this opponent happens to be a black man.

I'm sure they see a difference, and there IS a difference - I see it also. BUT to a large segment of the population (in fact, the segment to whom that argument is going to appeal), there is simply little or no difference between their suspicion and fear of "foreigners,' terrorists, etc." and their suspicion and fear of blacks. Racism is, for most Americans, the only experience we have in hating and being afraid of a large, identifiable group of people - because of their membership in the group, nothing to do with their individual behavior. (Hating bullies, sadists, con men, etc. may be hating a group but membership in that group is based on an individual's actions.)

So while I'll accept that the message being *sent* by McCain isn't racist, I think it's true that the message is being received as such -- and the potential for violence is as real as if it the message had been intended.

Is that "unfair" to McCain, does it place an extra burden on him? Yep. If his opponent was a young white man who'd had some passing acquaintance with a 60s radical, he could be branded as unAmerican and the next thing to a terrorist without raising the spectre of racism. (And I'm sure he would be branded that way.) The same race-neutral message would be politics as normal not racism.

But, you know what? That "unfair burden" is really quite minimal compared to the unfair burden that has been placed on black politicians (and men and women who should have been black politicians and leaders) over the centuries. So -- too bad. Learn to live with it. Take it into account. And quit whining.

Obama has also had an 'unfair' burden - running for the highest office and being black. His campaign has been so seamless and UNcomplaining that we aren't aware of the contortions they have gone through to take into account the fact that he's black, the comments that they've had to think about first and re-word. The need for delicacy cuts both ways.

You know, it took me many years of living to realize that "but I didn't intend to do any harm" doesn't negate the harm that is done ... and it doesn't entirely absolve the person who unintentionally caused the harm. It simply raises another question: Was the harm they caused foreseeable and did the person who caused it take reasonable precautions against it? People are imprisoned for "negligent homocide" just as they are for "murder" - maybe for a shorter time, but it's still a crime.

I think that's a fair standard to apply to McCain in this situation. Whatever his original intentions, the situation right now is that his campaign has created an atmosphere of racial division, anger, and potential violence. Given that FACT, should he have thought a second before using the term "whip" with all it's images or substituted something like "beat"? I think so. It's not a big issue, certainly not as big as the economy or the war -- but he's not being 'victimized' because some people are upset at his negligent use of a loaded, painful expression.

Billy, how's that Intrade investment going for you?