Liberals are So Predictable (Updated)

Last night, after Newt Gingrich embarrassed Juan Williams in a debate over minorities, the young, and jobs, I predicted:

Williams’ cheap shots on race earned him boos from the audience. He deserved them, but the Democrats are almost certain to play this as “Republicans boo black man on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.”

And here comes the silly Joan Walsh of MSNBC and Salon to prove me right. Her headline: “Juan Williams stands in for Obama at Fox debate.” Because he’s black and so is Obama, get it? Walsh also works in a try at making Gingrich seem anti-Hispanic too.

Williams didn’t back away. “The suggestion you made was about a lack of work ethic,” he told Gingrich. “It sounds as if you are seeking to belittle people.” The crowd booed Williams lustily, and Gingrich got a special twinkle in his eye. He looked at Williams like he was a soon-to-be ex-wife.

“First of all, Juan” – and there was a slight cheer when the former speaker called the Pulitzer Prize winner “Juan” – “the fact is that more people have been put on food stamps by Barack Obama than any president in American history. I know among the politically correct you’re not supposed to use facts that are uncomfortable…

The fact that Juan is in fact Juan Williams’ name seems lost on Walsh. After a lot of filler material she concludes, quite predictably:

Once again, South Carolina proves to be the corridor of shame in the GOP presidential primary, featuring some of the ugliest racial politics seen anywhere. Strom Thurmond is gone but not forgotten.

Joan Walsh smears an entire state for fun and profit. Meanwhile it’s progressives like Walsh and Obama who stand in the schoolhouse door shouting “No!” to poor kids of all races in failing schools whose futures might be saved through school choice vouchers. They tote the teachers unions’ water without regard to the harm done to a whole generation. And conservatives’ full throated defenses of Juan Williams, when NPR fired him for insufficient political correctness, seem not to have happened in Joan Walsh’s world.

And it’s all so mind numbingly predictable.

Update: Chris Matthews joins in on the Juan business.

That use of the name ‘Juan,’ the way he did it. You can’t argue these things. You either see them or you don’t. It’s just the way he did that. . . . So it’s stupid to say it but, honestly, if you notice it, you sort of ought to blow the whistle. Because there is a dog whistle going on here.

Stop listening to the voices in your head, Chris.