Hey Joe, if I were elected POTUS, would I be equally "immune" from criticism because to do so would be homophobic? I haven't noticed folks being shy about criticizing Obama by the way (heck even his own party members dump on him from time to time). I guess they don't mind being called racists when they do so or something.
The idea usually is that criticism of Obama is only racist when it comes from the right-wing of the Republican party. Tea Partiers quite understandably get tired of the accusation, and so may express their frustration in unhelpful ways.
If it is pure crankiness or insanity it is excused as much as possible on those grounds. But when one sees signs reading "The zoo has an African lion -- the White House has a lyin' African" or "Don't re-Nig (
sic!) 2012" and nobody seems to contest them... one has either racist concurrence or spineless consent. (For the record the current President is secretive to the extent that he keeps his mouth shut when appropriate, but otherwise he is meticulously honest.
Racist accusations against the President are nothing new. There were allegations that troubled President Warren G. Harding had Negro ancestry -- never mind that such would have been the least of his faults as President even if such were true. FDR got frequent smears as "Franklin D.
Rosenfeld" as an allusion to his alleged Jewish origin, and his signature legislation as the "Jew Deal". Such is "modern", race-based antisemitism -- a racist attack that ignores the religious beliefs of a person -- as if there is anything depraved about Judaism as a religion.
We are talking about one of the weakest Presidents in American history and one of the the three greatest depending upon taste. I have seen no derogatory stories about the origin of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Grover Norquist, etc. even from those who excoriated their behavior. We liberals have no use for such stuff.
