SO, ANN, criticizing Obama’s racial hypocrisy looks ugly? I see your point, actually, but I think that’s largely in response to a media environment in which any pointed criticism of Obama has been defined as ugly. And that’s a common lefty-media trick, setting things up so that any effective argument is somehow pre-defined as somehow impolite. There’s an instrumental argument that folks on the right need to take this into account, but beyond that, I confess I don’t much care. Obama’s politics are, and have been, ugly in the extreme: Dishonest, personal, vicious. Compared to that, noting that the whole post-racial feelgood vibe of 2008 was, to put it in ugly-but-true fashion, a complete and total lie, seems minor. Perhaps it will nonetheless alienate swing voters, but if swing voters are that easily alienated, and that immune to facts, then maybe it doesn’t matter anyway.

UPDATE: From the comments over at Ann’s blog:

Obama speaks racism in 2007 and I look ugly.

A black woman admits she sold her vote for a free cell phone, and I look ugly.

Obama takes over the UW Madison campus for a campaign event and I look ugly.

Christ almighty.

If you find this stuff ugly — in a way that reflects on Romney and his supporters — then I suggest that your reaction, however sincere, is actually evidence that you’re being played.