Wonkette

A new Pew poll measures the effects of the Wright scandal on the Democratic race-to-hell. Everyone loved Obama’s speech, it seems! Especially these hippies: “In particular, white Democrats who hold unfavorable views of Obama are much more likely than those who have favorable opinions of him to say that equal rights for minorities have been pushed too far; they also are more likely to disapprove of interracial dating, and are more concerned about the threat that immigrants may pose to American values. In addition, nearly a quarter of white Democrats (23%) who hold a negative view of Obama believe he is a Muslim.” It is Typical of White People to think these things after Obama’s Christian church scandal, however. [Pew]

HOORAY FOR OBAMA’S NEW ANTI-RACISM POLITICS: In the past, if you tried to broach a racially sensitive topic, one of your constipated friends would shout “That’s Racist!” and things would get really heated, because of slavery. Goodbye to all that. Now your constipated friends will shout “That’s Not Racial Transcendence!” and you will agree, because Transcendence requires a National Conversation. Thank you to commenter mahousu for creating this updated logo of the little black child and his new favorite phrase (it’s a mouthful!).

Lest we forget, you should read New York Times “lightning rod conservative” columnist Bill Kristol’s latest fare, in which he vehemently denies masturbating to Obama’s race speech, although the first sentence, “I shuddered only once while watching Barack Obama’s speech last Tuesday,” tells a different story. When will he post a correction about this? [NYT]

Was Barack Obama’s ambitious race speech effective, or did it just make the Average American question his Muslim religion all over again? According to the latest Rasmussen daily tracking poll, John McCain leads Obama 49% to 42% and Hillary Clinton 51% to 41% in hypothetical matchups. This dumb SURGE! in popularity McCain has seen recently means nothing — eventually (cross yr fingers!) all vaguely liberal and moderate voters will realize that he is the worst imaginable candidate for anyone on Earth, or in space. On the other hand, maybe Barack should play up his, uh, “Kansas side” a little more. Play nine holes of golf or some such. [Rasmussen]

“I can’t say I would do anything like his because I don’t know what his is but I can tell you that I will take a look at it and you know I have a lot to say about a lot of issues whether I give a speech or not I can not predict.” — Hillary Clinton, responding to a question about Barack Obama’s race speech, March 18, 2008 A.D. [ABC News]

MSNBC must be raking in the big advertising bucks today, what with all these snack foods brands taking over its website’s video player. But maybe in their video of Obama’s huge, historic speech about race, they should have put in the ad for Cheez-its, or Triscuits, or some other snack food that isn’t a racial epithet. Stupid arbitrary-selection robots. [via Fark]

The people on the teevee are saying this speech will define Barack Obama’s candidacy, because it is about race. Yes, his entire campaign is 100% about race. Or something? We’ll leave that to the Professional Experts like Joe Scarborough. Still, good job once again, Barry — this little number had some bite. And since he’ll lose Pennsylvania anyway, not a bad time to get this off his chest.