Not so fast

MANIFESTO

The Internets are ablaze with the right's latest racist escapade: the Shirley Sherrod episode.

The African-American Sherrod, of course, was fired from her job at the USDA for purported racist remarks she made in a recent speech about an episode from more than two decades ago. The offending remarks were "discovered" in a video by Washington Times columnist Andrew Breitbart.

Now it turns out that the video was doctored and that Sherrod's speech actually contains a plea that whites and blacks "have to work together ... we have to overcome the divisions that we have."

Digby elucidates on the whole mess, but what strikes me about the episode is how quickly the Obamans were—once again—willing to surrender to the right. Now, it turns out that they might have been a little quick in pulling the trigger.

(Say what you want about the Bushies, they at least had the courage of their convictions—as wrong as they were—and would never have been so quick to jettison one of their own.)

Once again, we have an episode where the spineless Obamans have appeased their opponents in order to avoid a controversy. They might as well start boiling the water for the macaroni and cheese.