A Dogwhistle Everyone Can Hear

When she wrote in late September in the National Review that Sarah Palin should excuse herself from the ticket voluntarily Kathleen Parker didn't renounce the entire ticket. She could still support McCain and pray every day for his good health and safety, right?

So on the the October 13 episode of The Colbert Report Stephen Colbert asked Parker how she planned to vote. She prudently refused to answer. He turned it around and asked her Who would you not vote for? Her answer was gracefully dexterous.

I would not vote for someone who appeals to our lesser selves.

Well of course I'm biased and I think she must then be voting for Obama.^† Because everyone knows that McCain is going after the evil vote. So there's certain to be a core of the conservative mob that's going to be pissed that she said she's not voting for MyCane. (She got 12,000 emails for the column and lost some speaking gigs.) But any right-wing ranters who try to criticize her answer will find themselves stuck. Any attack they throw at her words—even that she's being coy—falls right back to what becomes increasingly clear: her answer could only be aimed at the dishonorable intentions of McCain and Palin.

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† maybe for Ralph Nader