McCain Campaign Is Racist !

It looks like the McCain campaign has decided they're not going to get any black votes, so they don't have to pretend not to be racists anymore. I don't know how else to interpret an action as reprehensible as this one.

Stephen Price is a credentialed reporter for the Tallahassee Democrat. Last Friday, he was standing with several other state reporters in a media designated area near McCain's bus. Governor Crist had already boarded and the reporters were waiting for McCain.

While they were waiting, one of McCain's security men approached Price (who was the only African-American reporter in the group). Price showed his credentials, but was still asked to leave. Another reporter spoke up in defense of Price, and was also escorted from the group.

This was not a security issue. Price had shown his ID and credentials before entering the media area, and again when being singled out. Besides, no one made an issue of the black reporter being present as Gov. Crist boarded the bus.

One of McCain's aides later said it was an area reserved for "national" media accompanying McCain. But that's just not true. Several other state reporters were allowed to stay in the area. The only one asked to leave was the African-American (and the reporter who spoke up to defend him).

If McCain has a logical reason why this took place, then he should explain it. Until then, this looks like racism to me.

(Thanks to Badtux the Snarky Penguin for the heads-up about this story.)