The politics of 'racism' in the US elections

Hillary Clinton had to spend rather a lot of her interview on Meet the Press yesterday defending herself against ludicrous accusations of racism from allies of Barack Obama. Her pretty obvious point that it was LBJ, as president, who implemented Martin Luther King's civil rights plans and husband's Bill's accusation that the media were buying a 'fairytale' when they failed to question Obama's claims of consistent opposition to the Iraq war, were morphed into racist jibes to discredit the national post-New Hampshire frontrunner in the eyes of African-American voters in South Carolina. Hillary gave a good account of herself yesterday. And Sean Wilenz has an excellent piece of contextual history on the New Republic website today. But it is pretty shameful that Obama - who presents himself as the great 'uniter' - has not disowned his allies' discreditable campaign of lies and distortion.