SO LONG, JOHN HOPE FRANKLIN: The revered historian died yesterday at 94. He had a good run, at least! Here, spend the 53 minutes you would otherwise spend today looking at horse porn watching this lovely 2005 interview with Charlie Rose. He was just great in every way. [Washington Post]

THAT’S RACIST: American voters also hate tall black dogs. [News Channel 5]

People who have no lives recently discovered that Michelle Obama’s senior thesis had been “withdrawn” from the Princeton library until after the general election. How peculiar, these same terrible people wondered. The wait, however, ended recently when the Obama campaign sent Politico a copy of the 1985 thesis, titled “Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black Community.” From the excerpts Politico features, it seems like a brilliant, personal analysis of the struggle to preserve, or disregard, “black identity” in a largely conservative, white environment (Princeton). So what are the terrible ways that the Republicans will use this college paper during the general election? MORE »

Is Bill Clinton, the man who blacks love most, a racist? Perhaps, long ago, when he was sending his grandmamma edgy postcards from Georgetown. Page Six explains: MORE »

Yesterday, we took up Dan Froomkin’s analysis of the NBC poll that showed Bush with only two percent approval rating among black people. The sample seemed especially small (807 people, 89 blacks), and the number — even for Bush — staggeringly low. What’s more, a poll with a larger sample (Pew) gave Bush an approval rating of 12 percent among black. But, hey, whaddya know: Maybe black people really do hate Bush that much. Though, as our kind Statistics Operative suggests, “[I]f NBC/WSJ wanted to find out how blacks felt about Bush, they would poll a larger sample. But with approval this low, the result is not going to be exactly suspenseful.” Full explanation after the jump.

RELATED: Two Percent Is Not a Mandate [Wonkette]

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The Huffington Post yelped, almost Drudge-style, “NBC/WSJ Poll: 2% Of African-Americans Give President Bush A Positive Rating,” with the helpful modifier, “UNBELIEVABLE…” And, indeed, it is. For a good reason: It’s not exactly true. While two percent grabs headlines and make Tim Russert all wriggly (”Only 2 percent — 2 percent!” as he spurted last night), the more significant number is buried in report. Dug up by Dan Froomkin, it’s this: Out of 807 surveyed for the poll, only 89 were black. As Froomkin puts it, “there is a considerable margin or error.” Our statistics are rusty, but it seems like it could be high as +/- 10 percent. Sure, there’s a possibility that Bush has a -8% approval ratings from blacks. Or maybe Kanye West should investigate whether NBC/WSJ care about what black people really think. MORE »

Yes, yes, yes: The Bill Bennett thing. We’ve refrained from commenting on his assertions that “you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down” largely because, well, in a very literal sense he’s not wrong. Aborting every white baby would also reduce crime, as well as free up space in Ivy League colleges and country and western bars. Aborting every baby of any color would virtually eliminate crime, and we have no idea why someone hasn’t run on that platform before. Bennett himself hedges that “these far-out, these far-reaching, extensive extrapolations are, I think, tricky.” Perhaps he’d like to bet on it? MORE »

Oh, those “ironic hipsters.” They’ll appropriate anything! First, it was lunchboxes and ringer tees, now it’s black people. Okay, it’s been black people for awhile, but the WP just got its subscription to Vice. Today, the WP reports that these “hipsters” dress up like they believe black people did in the ’80’s and then “get their freak on” at a dance party known as “Kill Whitey.” It sounds racist, but they make finger quotes around themselves while they do it so it’s okay. MORE »

Somehow we think that when Bush’s advisors told him to try and “fit in” with African-Americans, this isn’t what they had in mind.