Last week, one of the Chicago area's minor newspapers insinuated that those of us voting against Barack Obama are doing so based upon race. Now Catholic priest and Chicago Sun-Times columnist Andrew Greeley has said the same. Indeed, Greeley goes so far as to imply that even the expression of otherwise reasonable objections to Barack Obama -- objections that would be legitimate if raised regarding a white candidate -- are really just a cover for a latent desire to pull on a white sheet, set a cross alight and proclaim "Ain't no BLACK man gonna live in the WHITE House."

Others have gone to great length to delegitimize opposition to Barack Obama as rooted in racism as well, as noted by fellow bloggers.

So I would like to associate myself with the forthright confession of my dear friend and fellow Watcher's Council member Bookworm.

When I vote against Obama on November 4, 2008:

• It won’t be because Obama wants to withdraw from Iraq, which I think will weaken America’s interests beyond repair, it will be because I’m a racist.
• It won’t be because Obama thinks that a nuclear Iran is no threat to the Western World, it will be because I’m a racist.
• It won’t be because I think it’s an incredibly stupid idea for the most powerful nation in the world to approach evil totalitarian dictators as a supplicant, it will be because I’m a racist.
• It won’t be because I hate the idea of a President who will subordinate America’s interests to the UN (as he inevitably will), it will be because I’m a racist.
• It won’t be because Obama has the thinnest resume ever in the history of Presidential candidates, it will be because I’m a racist.
• It won’t be because I think Obama’s Leftist connections (Ayres, Dohrn, Soros, Pfleger, Wright, etc.) show him to be either stupid about or complicit with an agenda antithetical to basic American values, it will be because I’m a racist.
• It won’t be because Obama consistently chooses as advisers people who have opted for the wrong side in the completely binary debate about Israel’s right to exist, it will be because I’m a racist.
• It won’t be because Obama wants to socialize American medicine, which I believe will destroy the high quality of medical care available to most Americans, it will be because I’m a racist.
• It won’t be because Obama wants to gut the military and reduce us to a nation with a big target painted on our collective backside, it will be because I’m a racist.
• It won’t be because Obama wants to gut the Second Amendment and destroy Americans’ Constitutional right to protect themselves from foreign and domestic enemies, it will be because I’m a racist.
• It won’t be because Obama has already announced loud and clear that he will support activist judges who place their “feelings” above the law, it will be because I’m a racist.
• It won’t be because Obama supports judicial decisions creating a right to gay marriage, when I think that decision is one for the voters, it will be because I’m a racist.
• It won’t be because Obama’s announced that he will dramatically increase taxes, putting the slow, inflexible, ill-informed government in charge of what should be a quick-reacting, knowledgeable marketplace, it will be because I’m a racist.
• It won’t be because Obama’s record in the Senate (albeit short and undistinguished) has been so liberal he makes Teddy Kennedy look like a reactionary, it will be because I’m a racist.
• It won’t be because Obama’s an open-borders kind of guy, it will be because I’m a racist.
• It won’t be because Obama has shown himself to be a scarily slow thinker and speaker when released from the teleprompter (which really doesn’t bode well for those cozy private chats with Ahmadinejad, Jong-Il, and Assad), it will be because I’m a racist.
• It won’t be because Obama’s wife clearly loathes America and everything it stands for, despite the fact that she’s done pretty well out of it, it will be because I’m a racist.
• It won’t be because Obama was affiliated for more than 20 years with a church that preached white hatred and began to care only when it looked as if it would affect his campaign, it will be because I’m a racist.
• It won’t be because Obama was good buddies with Tony Rezko, and other sleazy characters (showing again that Obama was complicit or a singularly bad judgment of character), it will be because I’m a racist.
• It won’t be because Obama’s a compulsive liar who clearly thinks we in the public are too stupid to catch up with his lies, it will be because I’m a racist.
• It won’t be because Obama’s campaign has proven to be fly-paper for every two bit troofer and anti-Semite in America, it will be because I’m a racist.
• It won’t be because Obama’s promised already to start down the totalitarian path of purging his predecessors through criminal prosecutions, it will be because I’m a racist.

And might I add that even though I am a life-long Republican and have never knowingly voted for a Democrat for any position higher than county clerk (and then only when the GOP incumbent was under indictment for official misconduct), when I proudly cast my vote for a real American hero with a lifetime of distinguished service to this country rather than Barack Obama it will be because I’m a racist.

After all, that is what the liberal intelligentsia in the media have proclaimed. And it isn't like they would sling around false accusations of racism against innocent victims because it fits with their political agenda, would it?