Paul Waldman on the right’s animosity toward Obama:
Back when Barack Obama began his extraordinary quest for the presidency, lots of conservatives — particularly those prone to wake screaming in the night from visions of Madam President Hillary Clinton — just couldn’t say enough nice things about him. What attracted them most was not his intellect or political skill: It was the way he handled race. Right-wing stalwart William Bennett may have best summed up the feeling when he gushed that Obama “never brings race into it. He never plays the race card. Talk about the black community — he has taught the black community you don’t have to act like Jesse Jackson; you don’t have to act like Al Sharpton.”
