Obama doesn't believe criticism based on racism

Newsday
by Krissah Thompson
September 16, 2009

A day after former President Jimmy Carter said race is at the heart of much of the opposition to President Barack Obama, the president said through his spokesman that he disagrees.

"The president does not believe that the criticism comes based on the color of his skin," Gibbs said yesterday.

The official White House reaction joined a host of responses to Carter that were passionate and, predictably, all over the political map as it builds on a summer of discontent.

Carter said Tuesday "an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man."

Republican National Committee president Michael Steele called Carter's comments a "a pathetic distraction by Democrats to shift attention away from the president's wildly unpopular government-run health care plan."

Conservative commentator Bobby Eberle accused Carter of "race baiting" on the Web site GOPUSA, writing: "Obama was supposed to be the first 'post-racial' president, but the left is fixated by race. . . ."

Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford) also said race wasn't the issue. "What we're seeing now is a standard American political fight over philosophical differences," he said. "President Obama is being treated no differently than Bill Clinton or George W. Bush. Race is a very serious issue, and to needlessly inject it into politics as Jimmy Carter did, is absolutely shameful."

But NAACP president Benjamin Jealous said Carter gave voice to a sentiment many feel. "He is correct that the so-called tea party folks are unfortunately part of a lineage of groups that have throughout the history of our country sought to divide us," Jealous said.

At a town hall meeting Tuesday, Carter was asked about the outburst of Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.), who hollered, "You lie," as Obama addressed Congress. He was also asked about the angry protesters who took to Capitol Hill last week, some of whom carried signs depicting Obama as a Nazi. On both accounts, Carter cited race as an overwhelming factor.

Wilson's son disputed Carter's characterization. "There is not a racist bone in my dad's body," Alan Wilson, who is running for attorney general in South Carolina, told The Associated Press.