In the Tank: The AP Plays the Race Card on Palin

The Associated Press (AP) has long lost any credibility in their political reporting -- so I generally don't pay attention to anything that the AP puts out. And for good reason -- here's further proof that they promote a blatant liberal bias.

AP writer Douglass K. Daniel puts out a piece today entitled "Palin's words carry racial tinge". Daniel apparently thinks that Palin, who came out yesterday strongly condemning Obama's ties to William Ayers, is coyly playing the race card because she dares to bring up a fact of Obama's past associations. Here's the pertinent text:

By claiming that Democrat Barack Obama is "palling around with terrorists" and doesn't see the U.S. like other Americans, vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin targeted key goals for a faltering campaign.

And though she may have scored a political hit each time, her attack was unsubstantiated and carried a racially tinged subtext that John McCain himself may come to regret...

"Our opponent ... is someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect, imperfect enough, that he's palling around with terrorists who would target their own country," Palin told a group of donors in Englewood, Colo. A deliberate attempt to smear Obama, McCain's ticket-mate echoed the line at three separate events Saturday.

"This is not a man who sees America like you and I see America," she said. "We see America as a force of good in this world. We see an America of exceptionalism."

Her reference to Obama's relationship with William Ayers, a member of the Vietnam-era Weather Underground, was exaggerated at best if not outright false. No evidence shows they were "pals" or even close when they worked on community boards years ago and Ayers hosted a political event for Obama early in his career.

Obama, who was a child when the Weathermen were planting bombs, has denounced Ayers' radical views and actions.

This is the left's common tactic in reference to Obama and Ayers -- dismiss it as "guilt by association" and refer to the fact that Obama was "just a kid" when Ayers was bombing the Pentagon and other government buildings in the early 197os. This is nothing more than an red herring: Obama and Ayers have known each other (in Obama's adulthood) for more than a decade and worked closely together on the board of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge. To say that their relationship is "unsubstantiated" or "exaggerated" is simply bogus. And, of course Obama has "denounced" Ayers' radical views and actions, just as he (finally) denounced Wright -- but not before sitting in the pulpit and hearing his race-charged sermons denouncing America for 20 years. Obama wants to be President of the United States; his denunciations during a campaign are meaningless. The fact is that he knew of (or should have know) that Ayers is a terrorist when he sat on the board of the CAC with him. If he was really that outraged by Ayers' actions, why didn't he refuse to work with him at all? See my earlier post Obama-Ayers: Guilt by Participation .

Daniel then goes on to say that Palin's attempts to set the record straight about Obama's associations with Ayers is tinged with racism -- as if any question about Obama's associations is somehow made only because the candidate is black, and not because they are material to the kind of man Obama is and the type of president he will be:

Palin's words avoid repulsing voters with overt racism. But is there another subtext for creating the false image of a black presidential nominee "palling around" with terrorists while assuring a predominantly white audience that he doesn't see their America?

In a post-Sept. 11 America, terrorists are envisioned as dark-skinned radical Muslims, not the homegrown anarchists of Ayers' day 40 years ago. With Obama a relative unknown when he began his campaign, the Internet hummed with false e-mails about ties to radical Islam of a foreign-born candidate.

Whether intended or not by the McCain campaign, portraying Obama as "not like us" is another potential appeal to racism. It suggests that the Hawaiian-born Christian is, at heart, un-American.

Most troubling, however, is how allowing racism to creep into the discussion serves McCain's purpose so well. As the fallout from Wright's sermons showed earlier this year, forcing Obama to abandon issues to talk about race leads to unresolved arguments about America's promise to treat all people equally.

John McCain occasionally looks back on decisions with regret. He has apologized for opposing a holiday to honor Martin Luther King Jr. He has apologized for refusing to call for the removal of a Confederate flag from South Carolina's Capitol.

This is really outrageous. Daniel's is blatantly mis-characterizing Palin's words. Palin said that Obama doesn't "see America like you and I see America" -- which for a vast number of patriotic Americans who believe that America stands for good in this world is true. Daniel's flipped her words to mean that America doesn't see Obama "like us". That is NOT what Palin said! Palin was referring to Obama's associations with Ayers and Jeremiah Wright -- both cleraly see America as evil and racist. That is NOT how most Americans see this country. This is just another thinly veiled attempt to twist the record and the words to cast America as racist. And this from a reporter in a news story!

This is more liberal media bias at work. Sarah Palin is finally putting words to the fact that Barack Obama has had a history of association with unsavory figures who have expressed -- in words and deeds -- an anti-America agenda. The liberal media is attempting to turn it around so it looks as if it is us who have the problem for questioning these associations. This is the kind of "liberal fascism" that is preventing us from addressing some of the most important issues in this campaign. Namely, just who is Barack Obama and what does he believe?

This story by the AP is just another proof that there is a serious bias at work here : can you imagine if John McCain had an association of any kind in his past with an admitted domestic terrorist? Is there any doubt that he would have been long-ago drummed out of this election? The truth of the matter is that Obama is getting a pass on this from the MSM.

It is about time that McCain-Palin take the gloves off and let the American people know of the questions surrounding the character of Barack Obama.