Posted by debrazza on Fri Aug 1, 2008 at 11:04 AM Pacific

The Great White PUMA Hunt of 2008

Guest post by debrazza

It seems that there was an additional motive in McCain playing the "'race card' card" against Obama.  They were hoping to generate a lot more discussion about Bill Clinton and hence lay bait for their White PUMA hunt.  But since their charge was so ridiculous and McCain's defense of it so ham handed (I guess Richard Cohen is right, he is a bad liar - shouldn't stop people for shaming him about it though).  So instead of tying to be subtle (these folks don't understand subtle), they have just come right out and said it.

Jake Tapper reports that this is what Steve Schmidt told Politico.com

"Say whatever you want about Bill Clinton," McCain campaign chieftain Steve Schmidt tells Politico's Jonathan Martin and Ben Smith,  "but it's deeply unfair to suggest his criticism of Obama was race-based. President Clinton was a force for unity in this country on this subject. Every American should be proud of his record as both a governor and president. But we knew it was coming in our direction because they did it against a President of the United State of their own party."

Oddly, that quote has since been removed from the story, perhaps the McCain folks sensing that if they are going to do this, playing obvious politics with it is bad form.  They are a rather transparent and ham handed bunch aren't they?  Jim Jordan (who should get a job in the campaign), in the same article, of course hits it out of the park.

"These are the politics of Nixon and Atwater — it's transparent, it's indecent, and it's most of all it's a sign of desperation," said Jim Jordan, a Democratic consultant, adding that McCain's charge that Obama was playing the race card was a straightforward attempt to highlight Obama's race. "I assume this is what passes for cleverness in the hapless McCain campaign — that they think somehow it seems less racist to call Obama a racist."