Obama Derangement Syndrome

It has begun.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still an Edwards girl, but after reading Glenn Greenwald today I'm reminded of the Mark Alan Stamaty cartoon that ran in the Village Voice during the 1988 campaign that depicted a hysterical George H.W. Bush jumping up and down and waving his arms frantically, screaming "Killer negroes (sic) are coming to get you! Liberals want to take all your money! Read my lips! Read my lips!"

The "killer negroes" meme worked in 1988 because of the infamous Willie Horton ad, and the concept hasn't gone away. Conservatives aren't relying exclusively into turning Barack Obama into a cocaine-addicted Muslim terrorist (though I expect that to play an important role in their general election strategy if Obama is the nominee). Instead, they're trotting out the "killer negroes" meme again, as Greenwald notes:

Over at National Review, Jonah Goldberg has a "theory" about what might help Obama win in the general election. After noting that Obama will be "the first serious mainstream black contender for the White House," Goldberg warns (emphasis added):

I think it's worth imagining a certain scenario. Imagine the Democrats do rally around Obama. Imagine the media invests as heavily in him as I think we all know they will if he's the nominee -- and then imagine he loses. I seriously think certain segments of American political life will become completely unhinged. I can imagine the fear of this social unraveling actually aiding Obama enormously in 2008.

I wonder: in Jonah Goldberg's "imagination," which (ahem) "certain segments" of the American population exactly will "become completely unhinged" if Obama loses and thereby spawn "social unraveling"? And who are the people who are going so deeply to fear this "social unraveling" that they vote for Obama just in order to keep those "certain segments" in line and well-behaved?

Goldberg, of course, doesn't have the courage to say explicitly who he means -- he just implies it with ugly innuendo -- but Glenn "Instapundit" Reynolds helpfully fills in the gap, approvingly quoting and praising Goldberg's warning ("He's right"), and then adding that if Hillary "outmaneuvers" Obama to win, "that'll probably alienate a lot of people and cause them to stay home in November." Just to make sure the meaning is clear, he then links to one of his own prior posts warning that a Hillary win might anger "black voters" and cause them to abandon the Democrats.

My reservations about Obama have nothing to do with his race. They have to do with the fact that while he does a great job talking the talk, I have yet to see him walk the progressive walk. In the few days since the Iowa caucuses, he's appropriated more of John Edwards' language (which makes Edwards' continued presence in the race important even if he is not the nominee); even topping Edwards' 9-month timeframe for troop withdrawal. At this point I'm wondering which Obama are we going to get – the one appropriating John Edwards' courageous progressive populism, or the safe, don't-rock-the-boat Joe Lieberman protegé we've seen in the Senate. But whichever we get, Obama's pan-racial, indeed, I would say post-racial candidacy is something new. It's exciting to Democrats, even those of us currently supporting other candidates. But it scares the living daylights out of Republicans, whose bread and butter has been fanning the flames of racial fears since the early 1960's. That the first thought out of the fetid, rotting cesspool that is the Conservative Brain is race riots if "THEY" don't get what "THEY" want, it tells you far more about conservatives than it does about black voters.