The Condensed Liberal Handbook of Racial Code Words

In her weekly column, Michelle Malkin runs down the list*, and concludes with these items:

–Professor. Several progressive black intellectuals excoriated 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin for this statement: “They know we’re at war, and to win that war we need a commander in chief, not a professor of law standing at the lectern.”

“Professor,” professor Charles Ogletree said, was code for “uppity.” This translation service is available only to credentialed Ivy League eggheads. A saner criticism would be that Obama was never a professor of law, but an untenured lecturer. Racist? Tell that to Hillary Clinton, whose 2008 campaign made that very point.

–You people. Asked last month whether her husband would release more tax returns, Ann Romney told a pack of reporters: “We’ve given all you people need to know and understand about our financial situation and about how, you know, how we live our life.”

A chorus of faux-ragers from the Huffington Post to NBC’s Andrea Mitchell hammered Mrs. Romney for her double-whammy sandwich of elitism and racism. Apparently, “you people” is the verbal equivalent of putting black people back in chains. One little, teeny-tiny problem: ABC News admitted: “Our ruling after reviewing the original audio is that she did not include the ‘you.’”

In other words, it was manufactured out of whole cloth. Give the dog-trombone media another black mark for ridiculous bias denial. “Black mark”? I know: Raaaaaaaaaaacist!

* Given the space limitations of a weekly column, the key word in Michelle’s headline is Condensed. The complete list may be found by clicking here.

Update: “Silly season is over. Racist season is here,” Rich Lowry writes:

It’s only late August and the campaign is tied. Wait until October. Particularly if it’s equally close or if Obama is trailing. In the imaginations of the president’s devotees, an America where he is behind by 2 or 3 points will be indistinguishable from an America where blacks are set on by dogs during Civil Rights marches.

Ideally, the feedback loop the media is building up will cause them to implode, Scanners-style.