David Gergen, a respected right-of-center establishment and political consultant, has said in so many words that in emphasizing the “other”-ness of Obama, the McCain campaign is making a “very intentional effort to paint him” in racially-coded terms. “The McCain campaign has been scrupulous about not directly saying it,” be began, “but it’s a subtext of the campaign…everybody knows it. There are certain kinds of signals. As a native of the south, I can tell you when you see the big Charlton Heston ad, ‘the one’…that is code for ‘he’s uppity, he oughta stay in the place.’

“You know…everybody gets that who’s from a southern background. We all understand that. When McCain comes out and starts talking about affirmative action, ‘I’m against quotas’…we get what that’s about. We understand where that’s coming from. That gets across.”
Cue the Hollywood Elsewhere naysaying righties to find some way to spin this in another direction. C’mon, guys — ball’s in your court. We know you can do it. Guys?