Gerard Baker voices something that has been nagging at me for some time:
The problem is that there’s a danger that the presidential contest between Mr Obama and Mr McCain will become not a debate but a silly battle of conflicting icons. You can be sure that, in the eyes of the rest of the world, and much of America, if Mr McCain wins it will be not because of his superior experience or the quality of his ideas, but because America is irredeemably racist.
Instead of being the welcome break with America’s recent past that he truly is, he will be painted as a continuation of it. Worse, that that, he will have won by vanquishing Hope and Peace. He will be for ever The Man Who Shot Bambi.
That will be truly tragic. If Obama loses to McCain, it won’t be because of race. These two men have a lot of debating to do before November, and who knows how it will all turn out. Both men appeal to the center. And at least for McCain, his vice-presidential pick will be enormously consequential for him. Frankly, this will be the first election in a long time where substance will be what really decides the election. It will be tragic should America pick McCain based on substance, and the world calls her racist as a result.
Read Gerard Baker.