Black Dogs (And Five More Signs President Obama Hates White People)

Republican obsession with the president's supposed racism drives away voters who might support the GOP.

Gov. Paul LePage told a group of Republican lawmakers and political supporters during a fundraiser on Aug. 12 that President Barack Obama “hates white people,” according to an attendee of the event.

Bangor Daily News, Sunday

“A Portuguese Water Dog can range in cost wildly. On average, one will pay between $1,400 and $2,000. President Barack Obama has this breed of animal,” according to an answer on Ask.com.

With the addition of Sunny, the Obamas now have two black Portuguese water dogs.

The Obamas do not have any white dogs.

The Daily Caller, Tuesday

Of course President Obama hates white people. It’s so obvious. The signs have been there the entire time.

• When visiting Philadelphia area, he has never eaten at the White Dog Cafe. (Hat tip: Will Bunch.)

• Obamacare has made business difficult for White Castle.

This.

• It’s not just his dogs that are black. So are his children.

• He had the White House bust of Winston Churchill replaced with a shrine to Huey P. Newton.

Some of the above items, incidentally, are not true.

Anyway, I bow to no human being in my frustration with the presidency of Barack Obama. Despite my growing alienation, though, there’s never been a temptation to start casting votes for the Republican Party. Partly it’s because I doubt the GOP in power will be any better on the civil liberties issues I care about than Dems have been—and I have eight years of the George W. Bush presidency to back me up on this.

But it’s also because I believe that the GOP, collectively, is stupid at best when it comes to matters of race.

Notice, I’m not calling them a bunch of racists. Some are, many aren’t, and in any case they all hate being called racist so much that it actually obscures an intelligent conversation about the underlying issues.

On the other hand, Paul LePage isn’t the first major conservative to suggest President Obama hates white people. And the Daily Caller has its own history of trying to turn innocuous statements into racial war cries on the president’s part.

To my Republican friends, I’d say this: If you’ve got real evidence of the president’s racism—the kind you demand when liberals claim to hear coded racism in conservative statements—put it out there. Or shut up. Because you’re stoking the very racial fires you claim to hate so much. Let your officials and your “journalists” know the same, so they can get on-message instead of preying on the fears of white voters.

Otherwise: There’s a reason the GOP keeps losing the increasingly important minority vote. Blacks, Latinos, even Asian Americans have a pretty good sense of who is on their side. It’s not the side that worries about the color of the president’s dog.