Michele Bachmann was on Meet The Press recently and was questioned about a statement she made some time ago. She reiterated, after some prodding by the host, that she feels the Obama Administration is a gangster government. On a lot of the commentary shows on MSNBC there was debate about what she meant about the statement. Another fun topic this week was discussion about statements made by Mike Huckabee and the social orientation of the President as it pertains to American values.

Most of the shows were decidedly tepid in truly answering about the motivation of those comments. It’s the 800 pound gorilla in the room folks we are afraid to talk about, because talking about it opens up some serious issues about us. In a sense, not talking about the obvious issue reinforces the subversiveness of the comments and the meaning behind them.

When Obama was running for office, there were many who felt America wasn’t ready for a black president. Blacks were initially unwilling to support him, feeling his youth, his lack of coming up in the old religion/civil rights political machine and, frankly, wanting to win an election made them cautious. My own parents, initially, told me how they thought if a black man was in serious contention of running for President he would get shot before taking the oath.

When Obama won the Iowa caucus, people began to believe he had a chance and his background proved to be a welcome change to some non-blacks who may have had concerns. Obama was Sidney Poitier in Guess Whose Coming to Dinner. Obama and his family was so perfect, so rooted in both the immigrant experience, even though Obama isn’t an immigrant but he spent some time abroad and his father was black, and in the American dream of coming from modest beginnings and working his way through some of the most prestigious colleges in the country, becoming a Senator and was one election away from becoming President, was catnip to people who wanted to support him.

Those who were against him faced a daunting challenge because there was very little to attack him on, because of the near perfection of his background. There was no sex scandal and the two elements they attacked him on, the Rev. Wright incident and the Lew Ayers connection, were settled very directly. However, there is something to be said about the Rev. Wright issue. It brought up the specter of ‘the other’ in our circle.

Let's just lay it out on the table; a significant number of the voting population isn't comfortable with a black man as President. It could be just racism, it could be ignorance, it could be projecting black people they've seen at work or on the street corner onto the President, but whatever it is these folks will go to any excuse not to like or trust Obama. Like the joke says, if Obama walked on water there would be many who would say he's afraid of water.

That's what all this talk about his Kenyan heritage, gangster Administration (and don't be fooled, she means gangsta) and other disparaging remarks. You will be hard pressed to find someone to admit this, because they will come up with what they think is a passable excuse without using the R word. They will say he has radical ideas, they will say he's a hardcore liberal, they will throw up so many descriptions but as soon as you point out to them they are being racist, the hairs on the back of their necks will perk up and they will claim this isn't the case.

The Reverend Wright issue opened the door to attack Obama as a black man. Before that, those opposed to him were scared to bring up the issue because they didn't want to be labeled as racist. Like Dr. Laura, who because she saw some black guys on a comedy show say the N word she felt it was OK for her to use it, when the Wright issue gave a glimpse into the black church many outside the church hadn't seen, and because it wasn't the suffering, peace teaching rhetoric they were used to, they jumped at the chance to call Obama a black national.

So we're getting close to a new election and the extremists are going to continue to question the President's loyalty, with few on the Republican side willing to call the comments what they are, which is racist.