Two, Two, Two Pundits In One!

Richard Cohen, on MSNBC:

Well, I agree that race is a factor on both sides. But, but, but to feel a sense of solidarity with, with someone of your own race or ethnic group, or whatever it is, that’s one thing I understand, especially when it’s going to be an historic moment. But to vote against somebody…

Cohen in the Washington Post:

I loathe above all the resurgence of racism — or maybe it is merely my appreciation of the fact that it is wider and deeper than I thought. I am stunned by the numbers of people who have come out to vote against Barack Obama because he is black. I am even more stunned that many of these people have no compunction about telling a pollster they voted on account of race — one in five whites in Kentucky, for instance. Those voters didn’t even know enough to lie, which is what, if you look at the numbers, others probably did in other states. Such honesty ought to be commendable. It is, instead, frightening.

Evidently, one form of racism actually is acceptable to Cohen, on some level, based on his MSNBC remarks: if you’re voting for someone based in some degree–possibly quite a large degree–upon his race, on some level, aren’t you voting against the other candidate because of hers? That sounds quite a bit like Michael Pfleger’s anti-Hillary rant, merely slowed down from 78 RPMs and 130 decibels, and tarted up in more acceptable terms.