The Occasional Observer

Sen. Allen seems like a reasonably conservative Senator. I have no reason to oppose the possibility of an '08 Allen presidential candidacy other than my subjective sense that he comes across a bit flat. But as the Real Clear Politics blog points out, the recent kerfuffle over Allen's allegedly racist comments is quite revealing.

Witholding judgment on whether his words were, in fact, racist, merely insensitive, or actually justified, Sen. Allen's lack of awareness of how his statements would be used raise the question of whether he has the political sense to run a successful presidential campaign. Here's how RCP saw it:

More on Allen

Over at TAPPED there's a further discussion of this Allen "macaca" comment. I've got to say, the more I hear, the more I think this looks really bad for Allen. For one, Allen speaks French, which makes it quite doubtful he didn't know what the word meant.

You can also read the rest of what Garance Franke-Ruta has to say at TAPPED about the uses of the word.

That he said this on camera -- on a camera being held by his opponent's staffer -- well, this guy is simply beyond stupid.

BTW, for an interesting perspective on the merits of the "racism" claim, the RCP blog had another interesting entry here.