Associated Press Playing Race Card For Obama

Douglass K. Daniel, an Associated Press writer wrote this on the attacks by Sarah Palin on Obama's associations with Bill Ayres:

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.

Bullplop! Obama and Ayres sat on boards together, attended retreats and had a close working relationship that stretched over years. Additionally, Obama launched his political career at Ayres's home! How much closer does Obama need to be with Ayres? (Unless Bernardine Dohrn has Obama over for sleepovers.)

Daniel also writes:

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.

Racism?! Daniel is obviously seeing more into the attack than what was actually there. Those of us who are politically astute have noticed the injection of opinion into AP's stories. This is yet another example. There's no racism here, real or imagined. Daniel is either mistaken or making up false stories.

Sounds to me that he's become another media shill for the Obama campaign, who has tried to play the race card more than once during this campaign.