Chris Cillizza posits -- unastonishingly -- as one possibility that Haley Barbour's vastly revisionist remark about those civics-minded white citizens of Yazoo, Mississippi "hasn't done any long term damage in the eyes of the voters who will decide the identity of the 2012 [Republican] nominee."
I agree.
Then, however, and astonishing to the point of dropping this reader's jaw, Cillizza offers this singular explanation as to why: "Because chances are those voters are paying only the scantest attention to politics at the moment as the holidays rapidly approach."
Not a word about dog-whistle politics, about Barbour's possibly eye-winking intent -- not a word about those older, good ol' whitest-of-white ultraconservatives malevolently nostalgic for Margaret Mitchell's yesteryear, and who turn out for GOP primaries like Republicans flocking to a filibuster.
Milquestoast analysis, likely because Cillizza was afraid of offending Barbour's diseased base. But for political journalism it was nothing less than astonishing. Just dreadfully astonishing.