Ann Althouse quotes Michael Kinsley:
"One subject that gets barely a mention in 'Double Down
' — because it played virtually no role in the 2012 campaign — is race."
"In a book that aspires to be, and largely succeeds in being, the dispositive (or do I mean definitive?) account of the election, that may be the most remarkable fact of all," writes Michael Kinsley in a review of Mark Halperin and John Heilemann's new book (which follows on their "Game Change," about the 2008 election).
Ann Althouse doesn't believe it—she blogged all through the campaign, and has a blog category for "racial politics" which got a pretty good workout in the campaign.
She was able to give over thirty examples—I'll give half a dozen from her list:
Here's what Kinsley means by race playing "no role" in the campaign—Romney's appeal to his white base was almost non-existent, certainly not enough to get him seriously convicted of "dog-whistling."
In the meantime, Obama's campaign kept up the blaring klaxon of race issues that it featured during the 2008 campaign. (The most flagrant appeal to race made by Obama during the campaign being "If I had a son, he would look like Trayvon.") Steve Sailer covered this in Census Bureau Refutes “Comprehensive Immigration Reform” Mantra—Obama Won Because Of Old Black Ladies (And Turned-Off Whites).
So in Michael Kinsley's world, race plays no role in the campaign if the white candidate has nothing to say about it.
' — because it played virtually no role in the 2012 campaign — is race."
