Oh right, the Republicans haven't tried to paint Obama as a Muslim

I get annoyed with these kind of stories, because they're the kind of faux-insouciance that reporters, even those we like, sometimes adopt in order to appear fair. Yes, let's all pretend that Obama is simply mad to suggest that Republicans have tried to paint him as an unpatriotic Muslim. Do we have to keep playing this game every time the McCain campaign opens their mouths?

What's the latest count? McCain, defender of race. McCain, defender of women. Now it's John McCain, defender of Mulsims. Oh please. John McCain was opposed to the Martin Luther King holiday. He's horrible on every gay issue, save one - and even on that one, he's got a big "but" attached to it. He's not good on women's issues. Oh, and he used to be okay on immigration, but quieted down about that one too in order to win the GOP nomination. Let's stop pretending that McCain has any right whatsoever to play the civil rights card, because he most certainly does not.

Since reporters are so bully on playing games with Obama's quotes, I hope they'll be dissecting McCain's repeated statements about not loving his country until the age of 31 - he did it again during his convention speech last night. Yes, John McCain said he didn't love America until the fourth decade of his life. (Kind of funny that McCain smears Obama's patriotism, repeatedly and on a regular basis, after McCain himself says he didn't really love his country for three decades.) But you don't hear any reporters talking about that quote. No, they only dissect Obama's quotes, pretending they don't know what he means when they really do.

If we're going to parse words, then let's parse words correctly. Obama didn't say "McCain," he said "Republicans." And in fact, Republicans have done every single thing Obama alleged. So please, stop the parsing games - because if we're going to parse, let's parse the actual words spoken, rather than accept as face the increasingly desperate hysteria emanating from John McCain, great defender of women, blacks, and Muslims - except when he's not.