Well, the phrase "the nation's first African American President" could have been left out of that paragraph and it would have still been effective... but when they put it in, it makes it sound like the so called, "hate" is from racism.
Let's play with this paragraph and see what happens...
Here it is with nothing changed....
There's something loose in the land, an ugliness and hatred directed toward Barack Obama, the nation's first African American president, that takes the breath away. The thread of resentment is woven through conservative commentary, right-wing radio and cable TV shows, all the way to Capitol Hill.
Notice what's missing?
There's something loose in the land, an ugliness and hatred directed toward Barack Obama that takes the breath away. The thread of resentment is woven through conservative commentary, right-wing radio and cable TV shows, all the way to Capitol Hill.
Notice that without that phrase, the air of racism isn't there... so it is clear that the author is trying to point to Obama's race as being the reason people disagree with him...
Let's try this.. I will add a word, and see what happens...
original
There's something loose in the land, an ugliness and hatred directed toward Barack Obama, the nation's first African American president, that takes the breath away. The thread of resentment is woven through conservative commentary, right-wing radio and cable TV shows, all the way to Capitol Hill.
Change
There's something loose in the land, an ugliness and hatred directed toward Barack Hussein Obama that takes the breath away. The thread of resentment is woven through conservative commentary, right-wing radio and cable TV shows, all the way to Capitol Hill.
See, now it is about his supposed Muslim background.
This is a case of another liberal blogger (who, surprise, surprise happens to be black, and can't see past Obama's skin color to address the real issues... read the rest of the article, and it becomes clear) who is trying setting up a lense through which he wants his readers to view the tea party in DC today....
That's all we have.. another elite, racist that wants to look down on hard working men and women who stand against Obama.
Yes Sanderson is an idiot.... we all knew that before he made his statements... painting all of Obama's critics as racist makes the author just as big of an idiot. The author wants to smear Obama's critics, without addressing the issues that make them critical of Obama...