During President Obama’s last speech before Congress, a Republican Representative from South Carolina, Joe Wilson, launched a firestorm when he lost control of his better sense and shouted “You lie!” after hearing President Obama stretch the truth one too many times while accusing his opponents of lying. The White House accepted Wilson’s almost immediate apology for the outburst but House Democrats weren’t satisfied. After demands for another round of apologies from Wilson were denied, the House voted along party lines to officially censure the South Carolina Republican. The same Democrat Party that repeatedly booed and heckled President Bush’s State of the Union addresses has suddenly developed an unwavering reverence for the office of the President of the United States. While a lapse in common sense largely explains the reason for Wilson’s break in decorum, many liberals have sought to use the incident as proof of more malicious intentions not just from Wilson but from the hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of Americans who gathered at the nation’s capital on September 12 to protest the Democrat-led out-of-control spending and expansion of government powers. Since Wilson’s outburst, a wide variety of liberals have determined that the incident is the final piece of evidence needed to complete the racist puzzle explaining opposition to President Obama’s agenda. While they are chasing their tails trying to connect the racist dots, many liberals are missing the main motivation behind Wilson’s “You lie!” accusation hurled at Obama.

Writing in the New York Times, liberal icon Maureen Dowd explained, “Surrounded by middle-aged white guys – a sepia snapshot of the days when such pols ran Washington like their own men’s club – Joe Wilson yelled ‘You lie!’ at a president who didn’t. But fair or not, what I heard was an unspoken word in the air; You lie, boy!” Apparently, as evidenced by the paper’s incredibly shrinking readership and corporate earnings, Maureen Dowd and her Times colleagues can’t seem to connect with average Americans. However, amazingly, Dowd is still able to perform a “Vulcan Mind Meld” on Wilson and all of his fellow white congressmen to catch a glimpse into their inner souls and the racism they harbor. In her effort to accuse Wilson of racism, Dowd has no problem making sweeping assumptions about Wilson based purely on the color of his skin and gender. (It seems there’s a definition for that type of reasoning…)

Not to be beaten to complete irrelevance, President Jimmy Carter had to throw his deep understanding of the American electorate into the debate. This is the same level of understanding that helped Ronald Reagan secure one of the largest landslide Electoral College victories in American history. Just like Dowd and the New York Times, Carter is only hastening the decline of his own legacy. Speaking about Wilson, Carter declared, “There is an inherent feeling among many in this country that an African-American should not be president.” What was Carter’s evidence? Naturally, it was his southern pedigree. However, Carter doesn’t exactly have a picture perfect record as a champion of race relations.

The Hartford-Courant recalled an incident during the 1976 presidential election that almost denied Carter his one and only term in the White House. Carter infuriated Jesse Jackson when he said, “there’s nothing wrong with ethnic purity being maintained” concerning neighborhoods. Time Magazine interviewed Carter after his remarks. The Time article found, “Carter’s face reddened with anger, and he began to sweat. Instead of softening his language, he spoke of housing policies in terms of “black intrusion,” of “alien groups,” and “diametrically opposite kind of family.”

After his offending remarks regarding housing policies, Carter’s 1976 campaign was rocked again on November 2, 1976 when the Associated Press ran an article titled, “Carter’s church cancels services.” The article reprinted last week by American Thinker brought to light the fact that the Baptist Church which Carter attended actually cancelled Sunday worship services instead of admitting four African-Americans to the congregation. The action was merely enforcing one of the church’s rules of which the AP obtained a typewritten copy. In 1965, Carter’s church adopted the rule, “The ushers refuse to admit any Negroes or other civil rights agitators to all worship services in this church.” Is it any wonder Carter sees racists everywhere? It would seem he was definitely among them during his days as a Georgia peanut farmer and state governor.

Further adding to the racism charges against any Obama opponents, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus has echoed Carter and Dowd’s accusations. Hank Johnson, the Democrat representative from Carter’s home state of Georgia warned that unless Wilson was punished for his remarks, the nation will have “folks putting on white hoods and white robes again, riding through the countryside intimidating people. That’s the logical conclusion if this kind of conduct is not rebuked.” Who didn’t see the logical direct link between Wilson’s shouted remark and a full resurgence of the KKK? Fortunately for Johnson, at last inspection, Democrat Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia had not taken his hood and robes out of his hope chest in preparations to go marauding across the countryside. Obviously, the vote to censure Wilson occurred just in the nick of time.

The accusations of racism keep rolling in and each one gets increasingly asinine. On Monday, CNN released an interview with musician Dave Matthews who insisted that racism is widespread in the U.S. Matthews’ concerts are consistently a symbol of the diversity of America’s white college students. No one ever heard Darius Rucker leveling the same charges when Hootie and the Blowfish were filling venues with many of the same fans. The Obama faithful are doing the president a severe disservice with their latest attempt to stifle debate.

All of the race charges simply miss Wilson’s true motivation – President Obama was lying. Common sense along with the Congressional Budget Office repeatedly debunked his claims that the current health care plans “won’t add a dime to the deficit, period.” The Democrat’s defeat of all amendments prior to Obama’s speech that would have banned federal funding for abortion and subsidized health care for illegal immigrants disproves Obama’s statements. Even groups such as FactCheck.org have verified that funding for abortion will be included in the Democrats’ current health care bills.

Shortly after his confirmation, Attorney General Eric Holder criticized America for being “a nation of cowards” regarding issues of race. Dowd, Carter, and company are proving Holder correct through their cowardly attempt to stifle any opposition to the Democrat agenda. To his credit, B. Hussein Obama has kept the allegations of racism at arm’s length. His supporters need to follow his lead. They are only hurting his cause.