How do blacks win? The McCain campaign's answer: they cheat

Today it became clear that the McCain campaign is launching a "How could it be?" strategy. The goal is to speak to racists who find it unfathomable that a black man could be running away with this election.

Typical of those opposed to affirmative action is the idea that African Americans could never succeed without unfair advantages - quotas in schools, preferential hiring, our liberal embrace of multiculturalism and diversity. Blacks' success over, in their eyes, obviously more qualified white applicants can only be explained by cheating. On a level playing field, blacks could never, ever, ever get the better of a white candidate.

So how do you explain the enormous lead that Obama has built in national tracking polls and, more importantly, the projections that show a near landslide win in the electoral college? It's the liberal media, helping Obama cheat by not asking the right questions, or investigating his past associations. The suggestion is: if the media was doing its job instead of following its liberal inclination to give a break to the black man, Obama would be losing to McCain by double-digits. And what about the explosion of newly registered Democrats, even in traditionally red states like Colorado and North Carolina? More cheating. It's ACORN and other liberal organizations inundating local authorities with fraudulent registrations. And what about all of Obama's money? Where is he getting all that money to run his campaign? Hollywood liberals of course. But also, maybe, radicals who want to bring down America.

OK. OK. I know some of you are saying: I'm not convinced this is racist. This is just the crap that Republicans always blather on about. Alright, I'll let you believe that. I don't have any internal McCain memos or anything that prove my point. But I will offer this line of evidence: 1. Throughout the suburbs and rural towns that make up much of the swing state territory McCain and Palin have been campaigning through, the hatred of affirmative action is powerful and unshakable. It's the same sentiment that Hillary Clinton was trying to employ in her primary fight with Obama. Like Hillary, what the McCain campaign and their supportive commentators are employing are the phrasings and issue framings that communicate to racists the way a dog whistle calls a hound. We might not hear it, but they sure do. Geraldine Ferraro used the same code words and messages, but did so so awkwardly and obviously that she blew it, and had to be sent home by the Clinton campaign. 2. This strategy has emerged at precisely the same moment McCain has been rolling out an effort to turn his rallies into ugly mob scenes with coded language emphasizing Obama's "difference." Suggesting that Obama has a lead in the race he doesn't deserve and is explained only by cheating and unfair advantages is the other side of this strategy. McCain is saying to racists in his party: Do you really want a black man to be President? Well he will be if we let him (and his liberal pals) steal this election.