Where there's a Will, there's a way

I've been predicting that at some point during the campaign a Southern member of Congress was going to call Barack Obama "boy." I thought it would happen in the middle of the general election but it popped up quicker than I expected.

'That boy's finger does not need to be on the button' - Rep. Geoff Davis

The same blog claims Davis dropped off a letter of apology to Obama's office. I guess he wasn't man enough to make a phone call.

Of course the conservative talk radio hosts will pretend, with feigned ignorance of the past, that there's nothing necessarily racist about calling a full grown black man a boy. If this doesn't get much news coverage then it will probably happen again. Trent Lott is lucky he wasn't caught saying it first.

This won't be the last time the underlying racism that moved some conservatives into the Republican Party will pop up during this campaign. Its going to be a little harder to keep the ugly side of the GOP under wraps with a black Democratic nominee and its going to turn some white people away. Reagan got away with euphemisms like "welfare queens" but they won't be able to keep it so subtle this time. Sooner or later people show their true colors.