The ugly worm of race-baiting

This week, Barack Obama responded to anonymous rumors that could only be described as libelous because they appeal to an anti-Muslim bias, that has run rampant in this country.

I don't know which is sadder, that false allegations about a candidate's religion could turn voters away from him, or that a national newspaper would give validity to those rumors in a front-page story.

These rumors have reportedly circulated by e-mail since at least October.

Because these false allegations rely on religious bias in order to have a negative effect on the Illinois senator, they reflect badly on the country as a whole.

In somewhat related news, the MSNBC panel said they were taken aback by the way race was injected into the South Carolina race by former President Bill Clinton.

MSNBC played a clip where Clinton took a question about his questionable tactics and turned it around to talk about how another black presidential candidate had won South Carolina more than 20 years ago.