On Obama, 'Take Back Our Country' and accusations of racism

One feature of political debate in the Obama years is that it is common for the president’s defenders to ascribe racial motives to his critics. It’s so common, in fact, that it’s usually not newsworthy. But sometimes the case for such accusations is so flimsy that it’s worth noting.

Take, for example, a new piece by the Washington Post’s Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Eugene Robinson. The article is a defense of Democratic Sen. Jay Rockefeller‘s remark that some Republicans oppose Obamacare because they don’t like President Obama, and they don’t like Obama because “maybe he’s of the wrong color.”