Hortonizing Obama?

Sully links to this Marc Ambinder post on the South Carolina Democratic "YouTube" debate. It seems that somebody put up fliers outside the site of the debate. These fliers referenced the Michael Dukakis prisoner-furlough program and its most famous beneficiary, Willie Horton. The linked Obama to that by referencing a 1999 vote he cast in the Illinois Senate.

There were some reports that Obama's staff was blaming Hillary Clinton, but Ambinder says that these reports untrue: his staff doesn't know who did it, and therefore doesn't have anybody to blame. His commenters immediately zero in on Evil Sith Lord Boy Genius Karl Rove as the force behind these leaflets. Others seem to think that the Hillary theory bears looking into.

Well, I don't have the faintest idea who did it, so I am going to propose (with no evidence) the obvious suspect: Barack Obama, or his sympathizers. Why, you ask, would they do a thing like this? Obviously: to make their preferred candidate a victim of racist attacks. Once he has achieved Victim Status, valid criticisms can be ignored.

Andrew Sullivan, whose attraction to Obama rivals that of the Obama Girl, had this to say: "The longer Obama's campaign lasts, the more the racist and code-racist attacks will come." Precisely. No serious or important figure is going to launch an actually-racist attack on Obama. So, he and his supporters will want to characterize any criticism of him or his far-left positions as "coded racism."

I think that Obama and his supporters plan to play the race card -- early and often, with as much force as they can. What better way to lay the groundwork for that than to plant arguably-racist leaflets at the site of the debate?