2 parts to the thought process. In part 1, you can think that America is not ready to elect a black man, woman, atheist, gay person, non-human, what have you. That's a fairly neutral statement which might or might not be true. In part 2, you say you won't support this supposedly "unelectable" person because they won't be elected. THIS is the problematic part. There are some years when the writing was on the wall that some candidate for president or another wouldn't get elected (Mondale, Duakakis etc.) Would you vote for their opponent because that person would get elected? There are lots of times when people vote for someone who they know won't win because they support their platform or just like them.

Also, I hate to sound so cynical, but because 1 vote or a small group of votes doesn't usually change the outcome of a large election, voting for Obama (or Hillary or Kucinich) even if you think them "unelectable" isn't likely to cause them to win all by itself. So you really have to assess the motivations of someone who is calculating that way.

Now it is true that in "unelectability" in and of itself can make a candidate unattractive (Chuck Pennochio), and that's a legitimate feeling, but that's different. I think what you're talking about is a situation where you genuinely like a candidate, but feel you can't vote for them because of some sort of electability calculus.

Most--or at least some--of those issues of Mfume compared to Cardin seem like genuine political or character issues with race involved as only a secondary component, if at all. Either way, a valid political argument could have been made for Mfume or Cardin and, in the end, one of them had to win.

As of now, the people who are allegedly using this argument against Obama seem to be using it in place of a political argument for not voting for him.

They're appalling whether leveled against Mfume or against Obama.

to another black candidate, like Mfume or Ford.  Obama is not like those other candidates.  He has proven to have wide appeal that transcends race.  He charms everyone.  And don't repeat Fox Noise's allegation against Barack's church.  It is a liberal Christian church with a mostly black congregation in a mostly black neighborhood south of Chicago, which preaches self-reliance---not real scary.

And each time I've seen it, I've responded to it.  It's EXACTLY the argument that many businesses used as an excuse to not hire blacks (we're not racists, but many of our customers are, and we can't afford to alienate our customers), and that landlords made for refusing to rent to blacks (we're not racists, but many of our tenants are, and they'd move out if we rented to blacks).

In fact, this is exactly the argument that the (ironically, black) South Carolina state senator who is a paid consultant to Hillary Clinton made for not supporting Obama, except that his was even one step worse in its imputation of racism to voters -- not only would they not vote for Obama, but they wouldn't vote for ANY Democrat, and he'd take the entire ticket down in flames with him.