Not entirely true. Jake Tapper clearly thinks he did, as does Jonathan Martin at Politico. Even the reliably leftish Mika Brzezinski won’t deny it, as you’ll see. But Mitchell’s surely right in the aggregate: Doubtless the vast majority of the press pool that follows the Lamb can’t quite make the connection between what he said two days ago and the similar but notably more specific bit of race-baiting he did last month. St. Barack would never stoop to that, right, Sean Wilentz?

I’m sending you to the ‘Busters to watch the vid but be sure to read the long update about CNN at the end of their post to appreciate how the narrative’s being remade here. It’s not Obama who played the race card by slandering McCain with false charges of racism, you see; it’s McCain who played it by defending himself from the slander. Which makes this the second time the Messiah has very stupidly introduced a subject that hurts him into the debate and then relied on the press to blame Republicans for engaging him on it. Click the image to watch.