During a question and answer session with about 100 people in attendance (in a town of only 1,374 people), John Edwards handled quite well a very unusual question.

An elderly man told Edwards that “something has been sticking in my craw” and explained that “a certain fella committed two murders in California and the jury found him not guilty. And all they said was, ‘It’s payback time.’ How are you going to have that come out in this election to combat one of your competitors?”

Edwards seemed puzzled, as most people in the audience seemed to be.

“The black jury in Los Angeles, the reason they found O.J. not guilty was ‘payback,’” the older gent explained.

“Payback for what?” Edwards asked.

For mistreatment by white America, the man said.

“What do you want the president to do about that?” Edwards asked.

“How are you going to get that brought out in your campaign? Will the same thing happen? If he should become elected, you think Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Oprah Winfrey are going to let him forget about that and their obligation?” the man said, not identifying who he meant by “he” and “him.”

“I’m still not sure what it is that you’re asking,” Edwards said, a bit uneasily.

“Obama,” the man said, “has never said anything about payback for the problems the blacks have had getting their foothold in society.”

MSNBC's Tom Curry writes that it wasn't totally clear "but the man seemed to want Barack Obama to denounce the 'not guilty' verdict in Simpson’s 1995 trial." But the money quote, as they say, comes when Curry offers this:

This may have been just one old eccentric in a small town, but there is a racial subtext lingering in the minds of some voters in Iowa.

Now, from what evidence does Curry extrapolate that? Because one old man from a tiny town and with a [racially tinged] grudge asked an awkwardly worded silly question? This somehow means that there's some sinister "subtext" in the minds of "some" voters in Iowa? "Some." What a great way for MSMers to somehow "make a point." Curry continues to use that word later, too, when he writes

Some Obama fans say they plan to support him in the Jan. 3 precinct caucuses partly to prove that America has overcome racism and that the White House is open to someone who is, as Obama describes himself, “a black guy born in Hawaii with a father from Kenya and a mother from Kansas.”

And

Some Iowans insist that race plays no role in their consideration of Obama: “Black or white, it makes zero difference today,” said Kevin Miller, a dairy farmer who went to hear Obama speak in Monticello, Iowa, on Friday.

There can always be a "racial subtext" when a nebulous "some" is utilized. Moreso, too, when MSM reporters go digging for it!

I guess it would then be logical to assume that Curry feels that there's a "gay subtext" lingering in the minds of "some" Democrat Internet users since retired [gay] General Keith Kerr (at the time an unidentified Hillary Clinton supporter) asked a question about gays in the military?

—D. S. Hube is an educator and a member of the National Association of Scholars. He blogs regularly at The Colossus of Rhodey.