Lordy, Lordy

Okay, deep breath. 12 steps backward.

Now. Does anyone really believe that Obama is a reverse racist who hates white people and hates his country?

Well, yes. There are some who will believe that, but they were going to believe that anyway. But seriously, does any reasonable person believe all that nonsense? I don't think so. This is not a question of Obama's personal worldview. Don't think that will stop the Republicans from painting it with exactly that brush.

There's a huge swath of the American voting public who will be swayed by the Swift Boat campaign that is definitely coming. They are Hillary's base - the working class folks across this country who also happen to be the natural enemy of any and all "special interest groups" that they feel they must compete with for jobs, housing, and college educations. This is not new - that group of people has been arguing "reverse discrimination" for decades now, and Affirmative Action is almost dead as a result. The Supreme Court signalled very clearly on the last round that they will not continue to uphold Affirmative Action. They have heard the voice of the people, and that group of nine justices who cannot be voted out of office is responding to it.

Don't think for one minute that the Republicans will not do everything they can to exploit the feelings of these folks. And remember that these voters feel they have been very effectively silenced. They cannot so much as say the word "race" without being accused of being bigots. Jeremiah Wright, however, can spew invective at his whim and that's okay - it's understandable (and yes it is, actually). But this is exactly why Hillary saw Geraldine Ferarro as the best choice to tap into that simmering undercurrent of resentment. And it worked. Hillary is perfectly willing to take a lot of media heat for it - she knows that the tactic works no matter what people say about how much they hate it. It works. It proves that she is in touch with the feelings of her voters; in a word , they feel scared. They’re watching their actual incomes dwindle while the price of basic necessities skyrockets. They are losing their homes. They can’t send their children to college. It doesn’t matter how Keith Olberman feels about it. He’s nice and comfy and his future is secure. Negative ads generate votes every time, without fail, just like sex and violence generate huge box office and advertising revenues. And Hillary knows perfectly well that people who feel that they have no voice will take it to the polls where nobody can criticize their feelings or call them names for it. They can silently agree with Geraldine and cast their votes accordingly. It's no mistake that Pennsylvania is looming ahead. Timing is everything.

But the bigger picture here is that there's a general election that is at stake. I said from the outset that running an entire campaign on "integrity" and "judgment" is an incredibly risky proposition. It doesn't take proof to destroy it, it only takes a series of questions. At this point, Obama is starting to look like he's managed to surround himself with some extremely bizarre figures who just continue casting doubts on his integrity and judgment. He didn't know Tony Rezko was a shady character? C'mon. The guy has a reputation of many years standing as being "the fixer" in Illinois politics, trading in huge sums of money and last-word influence. He never heard Rev. Wright say such things? Over 20 years, he managed to remain completely oblivious to what many working class white voters will hear as "hate speech" aimed directly at them? The guy has been selling videotapes of his sermons for decades, just in case you missed them. Even Michelle Obama’s words are being used to suggest that she hates America, hates white people, and feels alienated although she's a Princeton and Harvard educated attorney who lives in a $1.65 million mansion that she got through her husband's connections to a crook. Oh, Lordy.

McCain is going to have a field day with this and it will go on nonstop throughout the fall, trying to win over Hillary's working class base - the Reagan Democrats who have no hope of attaining either a Harvard law degree or a ritzy mansion. He's wrapped himself in the protective mantle of Ronald Reagan from the very beginning of his campaign, hammering on his credentials as a Reagan-loving New Republican. There's nothing new about McCain or any of his policies - if you want to know what they are, you need look no further than the last 8 years. But if Obama looks like an Angry Black Man with an Angry Black Wife surrounded by Angry Black Voters and Angry Black Preachers, Reagan Democrats will vote for McCain. The job of the Republicans and all their 527's is to paint him as exactly that.

Obama is not any of the things that the Republicans will swear he is. But swear it they will, loudly and often. And it will resonate with people who feel that they've been cut out of all the benefits that they are taxed unto death to pay for. That's how they feel about it. And feelings, right or wrong, do matter. People don't vote for a candidate because of his/her policies. At the end of the day they vote for the guy they like. That used to be Obama. I'm not at all sure it will stay that way.