John King is not known for being the sharpest tool in the CNN shed, but this is extra special. According to King, President Obama will—wait for it—“fight for his pick” to replace Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. And then, if Republicans obstruct and keep the Supreme Court deadlocked on most important issues, King predicts that Obama “will go around the country trying to turn out votes, trying to turn out the Obama coalition in November to help the Democrats win the White House to make sure at least a Democrat gets that pick next.”
So far, so CNN. Bland, obvious observations presented as incisive analysis. But what comes next …
“And if he does that, he will make the case — and you can bet on it — that Republicans blocked him because he’s the first African-American president and they didn’t give it to him because of his race,” King concluded.
I … wouldn’t bet on that, actually. I would bet on people like me making the case that Republicans feel particularly enraged by Obama’s use of the most basic presidential prerogatives because he’s black, and that they know their base will be that much more behind their obstruction for that reason. I would bet on some congressional Democrats making that case. It is, after all, true. Republicans in this day and age would obstruct any Democratic president, but after seven years they have talked themselves around to believing that Obama’s authority is flatly illegitimate, and yes, race is a big factor there.
But Obama himself is usually extremely cautious about saying this. You can bet that he knows what’s going on, but he also knows that for him to say it except under the most egregious, blatant circumstances would be counterproductive. After all, we live in a country in which many people believe that being called racist is somehow worse than being a victim of racism. So predicting that Obama will make race—rather than, say, the Constitution or all the cases the Supreme Court can’t decide because it’s deadlocked or all the cases the Supreme Court will hear over the next four or eight years—a centerpiece of his effort to rally Democrats to win the presidency (and the Senate, which apparently doesn’t figure in King’s vision of how this stuff works)? Johnny, seriously?
Well, maybe King thinks the president operates at a John King-type level.