An unwitting video companion piece to TNR’s examination of how Team Obama (or in this case, his supporters) plays the race card even when it’s unwarranted, which isn’t to suggest that it always is. My bloggy goal for today was to google around and dig up statements by Obamites heralding the Messiah’s race as a point in his favor, as a counterweight to the criticism of Geraldine Ferraro; luckily Tom Maguire had the same idea and executed it better than I could have. Is there a gushy, embarrassing, near-lyrical Andrew Sullivan contribution to the sample? Of course there is. Is there a shamelessly hypocritical Josh Marshall racial double standard among the oeuvre? Of course there is. As Maguire says, no one’s claiming that Obama’s race is an unmitigated benefit to his electoral chances; one look at the exit polls in Mississippi or Ohio proves that. But the idea of a black politician moving the culture towards a post-racial society or “restoring America’s image in the world” by winning the White House is sufficiently attractive that even John McCain’s own advisors seem sweet on it. Why acknowledge that, though, when you can demonize Hillary Clinton as a closet racist? So here you go. Another dress rehearsal for the general and the GOP.

Update: Sean Wilentz, the author of the TNR race-card piece, nails Orlando Patterson’s dopey “Birth of a Nation” op-ed. Here’s Patterson’s response.