George Will's Shameless Racial Theory of Obama Presidency

I have long regarded conservative columnist George Will as a rational and thoughtful intellectual, but both of those attributes were betrayed by his shameless recent Wall Street Journal column, in which he suggests President Barack Obama may be re-elected simply because of his race.  What Will fails to acknowledge in his insulting essay is that there are numerous objective assessments one may use in deciding whom to support for president.  Will’s list of select so-called Obama “failures” is skewed to support his own narrow thesis.  One can just as easily produce a listing of substantive Obama accomplishments that include: health care reform, student loan reform, financial regulatory reform, credit card reform, successful auto industry bailout, rescuing the economy from the precipice of collapse, ending the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell law, etc.  These may be considered irrelevant achievements from Will’s perspective, but they could be among the many factors influencing how others choose to view the president. 

It’s also important to note that presidents sometime face the electorate with mixed records, leaving voters to weigh the pros and cons of their accomplishments while in office.  On balance, the judgment rendered so far seems to tilt in favor of the president over his challenger this election cycle. Personal characteristics such as likeability and charisma no doubt factor into voter assessments as well.

Glaringly absent from Will’s narrative was any substantive critique of Mitt Romney's shortcomings as a candidate, someone Will himself once called a “recidivist reviser of principles.” The reality is that the GOP ran a weak general election candidate routinely regarded as an unprincipled flip-flopper who speaks in platitudes and whose ideas (tax plan and entitlement reforms) have so far been rejected by many voters.  Romney has also run an incompetent campaign filled with numerous gaffes and political miscalculations, not the least of which was making a poor choice for his vice presidential running mate.

So if Will wants a more plausible reason for why Obama might win despite the country’s economic woes, blame the sadly deficient candidate GOP voters chose to challenge him.