Richard Cohen: Loser

Lest you think that the media is just reporting on the "racial identity" issue instead of actively goosing it, read Richard Cohen's horrible column today, which insinuates that Barack Obama is somehow Louis Farrakhan's best friend and they have tea parties together, or something. Nowadays, according to the press, now only surrogates' statements come from the mouth of the candidate, but the writings of the magazine of the candidate's ministry. Now, Obama denied the insinuation in the column, but what was notable is that Cohen tried to play it both ways, clearly stating that he didn't believe Obama shared the beliefs of his minister, but throwing the smear out there anyway just in case.

This is really something. Cohen says that Obama is voting "present" on the question of whether he agrees with Wright's assessment of Farrakhan -- thus insinuating, without quite saying, that Obama has not taken a position on this.

But earlier in the very same column, Cohen actually quotes a top Obama adviser, David Axelrod, explicitly saying that Obama disagrees with Wright about Farrakhan. Presumably you are meant to forget this fact by the time you get to the end of the column. This suggests that Cohen doesn't think very much of his readers, wouldn't you say?

Maybe Cohen thinks that Axelrod's description of Obama's views doesn't count. Maybe what Cohen means is that until Obama climbs to the roof of the Apollo Theater and denounces Farrakhan with a bullhorn, he's voting "present" and refusing to share his real opinions of him. Whatever. If so, did Cohen even try to interview Obama for this column, so that he could, you know, ask Obama what he thinks? There's no indication that he did. I emailed Cohen to ask him whether he did this. We'll see if he answers.

Cohen says: "I don't for a moment think that Obama shares Wright's views on Farrakhan." Okay, so what's the problem, then? Why did Cohen write the column at all?

This is often an element of the way the media treats race. Unless black people fully repudiate the most extreme and militant views, even if they have little or no relationship to those views, then they are practically equivalent. Richard Cohen has no idea what Barack Obama believes about Louis Farrakhan. But he has no problem associating the two. This is despicable.