Discriminations

[NOTE: This post has been Updated, twice three times]

Every time I see another charge that one or another of McCain’s ads is racist for making fun of Obama as an empty-suit celebrity or calling attention to his woeful lack of experience or accomplishment (this amounts to calling him “uppity,” it is said), I think these ridiculous, overly sensitive politically correct objections can’t get any dumber.

But they can, and do, as evidenced by this new bottom-scraper from Time’s Karen Tumulty.

According to the clear implications of her complaint, Obama should be immune from criticism for taking advice from former Fannie Mae chairman Franklin Raines because Raines is black. Apparently criticizing one black man, Obama, is bad enough, but criticizing two of them in one ad is, well, beyond the pale.

Byron York quotes the Obama campaign’s criticism of this ad as

another flat-out lie from a dishonorable campaign that is increasingly incapable of telling the truth. Frank Raines has never advised Senator Obama about anything — ever....

York then quotes several Washington Post articles that mention Raines’ close association with the Obama campaign and the absence, to date, of any retraction or correction of those articles.

UPDATE

York now notes that the Washington Post is taking McCain to task for relying on ... the Washington Post.

UPDATE II

Instapundit asks: “if Obama is President, will Time regard every criticism of his administration as racist?”

Probably not — only the ones that it regards as effective.

UPDATE III [20 Sept.]

From the official McCain web site:

The only problem with Ms. Tumulty’s story is that we also released an today targeting Senator Obama’s extensive ties to Jim Johnson. The ad is called…Jim Johnson. And Ms. Tumulty might have been aware of its existence if she’d bothered to call this campaign to find out the facts (reporting) before indicting us for racism in a half-baked, late night rant. Tumulty also takes Obama’s response, signed by Mr. Raines, at face value. The Obama campaign says Raines didn’t advise the campaign, and Tumulty apparently wasn’t interested in getting to the bottom of that either. So we contacted Ms. Tumulty and told her of the multiple sources that tie Raines to Obama, including three separate instances in the Washington Post, none of which was ever challenged by Raines or the Obama campaign until yesterday.

Tumulty did not correct her post, she simply responded “I grew up in Texas. I know what this stuff looks like.” Well, now we all know what hysterical liberal bias looks like as well.

If I were a Texan, I would deeply resent this slur on my state. Not only can she not get her facts straight or bother to check before baseless accusations, but she’s also the sort of character-less wuss who doesn’t have enough character to admit a mistake. That quality actually reminds me of her hero, since to the best of my knowledge Obama has also never admitted being wrong about anything, even as he’s reverse positions about them (Wright, public campaign financing, immediate withdrawal, the surge, etc., etc.)