Confidential To B O'M, C.O., Others

You protest: how could I not see racial undertones in McCain's web ads? All those white women lavishing praise on Obama? The specter of black man preying on white women? 

Well, the view that McCain hasn't gone there is shared by Barack Obama, for one. And those who see racial imagery in these web ads (black woman, white man, older white woman, younger white woman, white woman, white woman, white man, Wayne and Garth)  are racializing the web ads and drawing attention to them.  Be very careful with arguments about latent appeals to this or that; by happenstance, an entire class of voters is deemed to be stupid and easily swayed, where as you are fancy and sophisticated. Not that these arguments are always invalid or suspect; of course not. When the McCain campaign accuses Obama of "hysteria" -- an explicitly gendered, negative term -- and "fussiness" -- an adjective associated with picky babies -- the objective is plain. If McCain's campaign ever does seek to exploit racial prejudice, all you'll be able to say is, "Well, it's part of a pattern." It won't stick out. It won't seem egregious. And if he does do it, it should stick out, and it should be egregious.