Playing the Race Card

New York Times columnist Bob Herbert, on the McCain campaign's charges of Obama playing the race card, writes, "it’s frustrating to watch John McCain calling out Barack Obama on race. Senator Obama has spoken more honestly and thoughtfully about race than any other politician in many years. Senator McCain is the head of a party that has viciously exploited race for political gain for decades." Indeed, the Republican Party has come to power by its cynical use of race since the days of Richard Milhous Nixon's Southern Strategy. Apparently old habits are difficult to abandon.