The latest ‘analysis’ published by the Associated Press tells us everything we need to know about the state of the mainstream media. The author charges that Sarah Palin’s accusation that Obama is ‘paling around terrorists’ is, wait for it, racist.

By claiming that Democrat Barack Obama is “palling around with terrorists” and doesn’t see the U.S. like other Americans, vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin targeted key goals for a faltering campaign. And though she may have scored a political hit each time, her attack was unsubstantiated and carried a racially tinged subtext that John McCain himself may come to regret. 

The cover-up of the Ayers-Obama connection:

 Her reference to Obama’s relationship with William Ayers, a member of the Vietnam-era Weather Underground, was exaggerated at best if not outright false. No evidence shows they were “pals” or even close when they worked on community boards years ago and Ayers hosted a political event for Obama early in his career.

See, that’s it. Nothing to see here; he served on a board of an education organization founded by Ayers - and of which Ayers was the head - and Ayers organized a major fundraiser at his home when Obama first decided to run for office (on a state level). This fundraiser was, of course, attended by Obama.

That’s nothing. Get that? Nothing to see here; Obama and Ayers had both a business and political relationship but that is of no importance because, well, because the MSM believe so.

O, and if you want to make it an issue, you’re just a nasty racist:

Whether intended or not by the McCain campaign, portraying Obama as “not like us” is another potential appeal to racism. It suggests that the Hawaiian-born Christian is, at heart, un-American.

Most troubling, however, is how allowing racism to creep into the discussion serves McCain’s purpose so well. As the fallout from Wright’s sermons showed earlier this year, forcing Obama to abandon issues to talk about race leads to unresolved arguments about America’s promise to treat all people equally.

 This isn’t merely pathetic, it’s sickening. This is what passes for serious analysis at the Associated Press. And you can be darn sure that the ‘elite media’ will quickly follow the AP’s lead and slam McCain and Palin for using the race card against Obama.

The question is whether voters will fall for it. I think not. I think that if the McCain campaign hangs in there and continues playing it tough, it will force Americans to see through the propaganda and lies of mainstream media organizations such as the AP.

It is yet another sign that the MSM are in the tank for Obama and that the McCain campaign will have to use as much dirt as it can against Obama. It will have to repeat the terrorist connection time and again, and it will have to bring Reverend Wright back into the debate. Sure, when they do they will be accused of racism - but they are accused of racism no matter what they do. They’ve got to go all out now - mission destruction.

Note to McCain: you’re an idiot. You’ll lose this election, and you deserve to lose it too. You don’t have the guts to fight back, and are more than willing to surrender as long as you are not as ‘mean’ as the other side.

That last point, by the way, should encourage American conservatives and others supportive of McCain to let him lose this election, and to fight for their ideals and against the bias of the MSM themselves.

Instapundit (Glenn Reynolds) quotes a reader:

I think that McCain’s campaign should not let these racism charges hold them back in the least. I would even suggest that they welcome them. Implicit and explicit charges of racism in response to any fair criticism of Obama’s positions and of his past, in particular as it might relate to policy, positions and worldview have been leveled too often now without cause. The power of any future charge is now so attenuated, brittle, and trivialized, that it can be mocked with impunity; just as you and others are doing. Has it even occurred to some of these folks with such quick trigger fingers that in response, some voters, far from being cowed, might respond in quiet defiance?

Do they not remember Pennsylvania and West Virginia? Oh, how silly of me to forget: course they remember them as the purest evidence of racism. . . . It’s a target rich environment.

I think this is assessment is correct. The McCain should make fun of the charges and throw all the dirt they’ve got on Obama out there. While doing so, they should smile. When the MSM accuse them of racism, they should smile again, laugh out loud even, and then repeat the attack against Obama. Time and again.

The American Spectator’s blog comments:

This might be the single most irresponsible piece the Associated Press has EVER run. Not only does it badly misstate (i.e. excuses, plays down, hides) the level of Obama’s relationship with Bill Ayers, but it goes to phenomenally bizarre lengths to claim that Sarah Palin’s repeated references to Ayers — who is white — somehow “carry a racially tinged subtext.” HUH????!!????  This is sick. Literally sick…

Read the linked AP “analysis” for yourself. It’s just flat-out irresponsible. It is more than that; it is outrageously slanderous. How that piece ever made it past any editor with any decency or common sense is beyond me.