I'm a black man.  While it was Senator Obama's Iraq policies that made me support him, I cannot deny that his being black has filled with a special sense of pride and purpose.

At the same time, I've also been afraid for him, and what others might try to do to him and his family as a result.

This is not how it should be.  Any man or woman of any color should be able to seek not only the highest office in the land, but any office anywhere without fear of harm, intimidation or injury.  But sadly, we don't live in that country.

Still, while the racist bottom-feeders of the world can be expected to hate like this, it their leaders, I am sad to report, who are no better.

Yes, I am talking about Senator John McCain and Governor Sarah Palin.

Yes, I do think they're both racists, both willing to exploit Senator Obama's race for political gain, and at the same time, put Senator Obama's life in danger.

But this piece isn't really about them.

Back in May, in the thick of the Democratic Party's self-flagellation, I wrote a post about Senator Hillary Clinton's unfortunate comments in regard to the late great Bobby Kennedy and Senator Obama.  In that piece, I talked about the very real, and almost unmovable fears about what happens to Politicians, particularly Politicians operating in and around the color line.

The first conversation every African-American had about Senator Obama was right to the point:  "Is he going to survive this?", or more to the point "are they going to let him."

"They" is such a wonderful word in this instance, wonderful and telling.

Consider the 1960s, the Civil Rights era, and the progress that was made in that decade (progress that the Clintons helped fight for as students).  That period changed everything.  Looking back, it was change for the better, but it came with a cost.

Four of the people most responsible for that change, our champions, John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., Robert F. Kennedy, four of Black America's staunchest allies...all murdered in the space of five years.

Not just died.  Murdered, lost to assassins bullets.

Granted, these were not the only deaths in the Civil Rights era, and these were not African-America's only champions.  But when it comes to the change that was sweeping the nation, there were no bigger names than these.  The death of any one would have been devastating, two doubly so.

But four?  After four, you start to see a hand in all this.

Since May 23rd, I wish I could say that the threats and racial intimidation cast upon Senator Obama and his supporters had fallen away, but:

On June 22nd, the Washington Post reported that there has been an uptick in visits to sites by White Supremacists.  Not surprising, but not reassuring either.

On August 8th, the Democratic Party Headquarters in Viroqua, Wisconsin was vandalized, and tagged with a racial slur.

Also, on August 8th, Raymond Geisel, 22, was arrested by the Secret Service after being found to be in possession of an array of weaponry, including a 9-mm handgun, ammunition that included armor-piercing and rifle bullets, police-style emergency lights, body armor, a machete and two canisters of tear gas.  According to a Secret Service affidavit, Geisel said that he wanted to "kill, kidnap and cause bodily harm upon a major candidate for president of the United States, that is, Senator Barack Obama".  Of course, Mr. Geisel may just be nuts, or worse still looking to off himself via "death by cop", because seems to have made similar threats against President George W. Bush.

On August 24th, Senator Obama's Offices in St. Paul Minnesota were vandalized.

On August 25th, the quote-unquote "Meth heads" were arrested on weapons charges in Denver.  One of them said that Obama "ought to be shot", and a long range scope was apparently found.

On September 23rd, a black man, the son of the Publisher of the Chicago Defender, was arrested near Senator Obama's Hyde Park Home.  This guy apparently got too close to the Security Perimeter.  At the same time, he had a piece on him.

The next day, September 24th, a life-sized cardboard effigy was found hung from a tree at George Fox University in Oregon.  The Administration eventually suspended four students for the act.

And on October 7th, where a black man was shot in London just because he was wearing an Obama T-Shirt.

These are just the incidents that involve physical danger.  There have been plenty of others: like the Obama Waffles, or the time he and Michelle were called "uppity", or when Grover Norquist referred to Senator Obama as "John Kerry with a tan" that are just plain racists without any direct threat.  Though, there was the time that a crosshair was drawn over Senator Obama in an Atlanta newspaper.

Now, these threats are of varying concern.  Not all concern the Senator and his family, and it's certainly not like these things are happening every day.

Yet at the same time, any one of these incidents would promote concern.  Two doubly so.

But eight?  Eight you start to see a hand in all this.  And it's a hand that needs to be slapped down.

Which brings us back to John McCain and Sarah Palin.

It doesn't look like they'll be slapping anything down.

Too many times, and in too many ways I have been shown the subtle hand of racism, and how it works in this country.  It is not, as too many Americans believe, men in white robes showing up at your doorstep, burning a cross on your lawn.  That's not how the game is played.  No, instead you have to work twice as hard to be considered half as good.  You watch as women tighten their purses when you get on a elevator, if you bother to get on it at all.  Your blood freezes as the red and blue flashing lights appear in your rear view at a simple traffic stop, and you wonder if you're going to get the wrong cop on the wrong day.  You find it harder to get a loan, or buy a house (before the collapse of the Credit Markets), and when you do you find the Republican Party blaming you for Financial meltdown.

This is the atmosphere that John McCain and Sarah Palin have injected their own special brew of the politics of personal destruction.  Do not be fooled, their last minute, desperation strategy is to inject race into this campaign.  It is this atmosphere they have chosen to link Obama with Terrorists.  It is they who have chosen to paint an American Citizen of brown skin, a Senator, the leader of his Party…as the "other".  "Be afraid of him"..."he's not like you".  It is into this atmosphere that they are encouraging their "fired up" base to yell "Terrorist!" and "Traitor" and "Kill him".

Are they encouraging it?  Well, they sure as hell ain't stopping it.  And they sure as hell ain't stopping their "base" from going after reporters, and sound techs, telling one (of course, an African American) to "Sit down, Boy."

But this piece is not about John McCain and Sarah Palin.

This piece is about you.

You, who support Senator McCain and Governor Palin, and therefore support these gutter racist tactics.

You are the ones who are lying down with dogs…

What am I to think, when your candidate is willing to resort to these kind of tactics to win and election?  When he is willing to stir the pot like this to overcome his opponent?  What am I to think when your candidate uses racial hatred as an political opportunity?

What am I to think of you?

I'm sure you don't really care.  After all, you don't think the Senator and the Governor have done anything wrong, much less done anything racially motivated.  This is just good, hard politics.

But you'd be wrong, and more to the point, you'd be no better than them.

Does anything on that list of dates sound like good hard politics?

Lying about Senator Obama's tax plan is good hard politics.

Putting his life in danger, isn't.

Actually, it's vile.

Actually, at lot of it can be considered terrorism.

If you are a McCain supporter, and you stand silent as this stuff goes on, God help you.  But at least now we know what you really are, how you really think.