Invoking Race Helps Whom?

By Patrick Appel
Larison argued yesterday that Obama would benefit from charges of racism, as he did in the primary:

If [the media's] response to the accusations against the Clintons is any indication, many will accept this idea [of racism], and Obama will profit from this sort of scurrilous charge.

I'm not sure that the comparison works, a point made by one of Ben Smith's readers:

Comparing this to the Democratic Primary, without mentioning that this is a completely different electorate, is absurd.

Chuck Todd has similar feelings:

Let's get something straight: Anytime race is THE topic du jour in the campaign, it's a bad day for Obama... it's worth knowing the Obama campaign is going to do their best to downplay race, and the McCain campaign is going to walk a line on the issue. They certainly know if they look like they are injecting it into the campaign, it'll cost them with swing women voters -- but they also know McCain could benefit from a backlash. The thing that galls McCain and many Republicans is what they believe is a double standard. They don't understand how Obama and Dems in general get away with playing the race card to fire up black voters without getting called on it.