So far in the general election campaign racism has only come up tangentially. In the primary campaign it was hauled out to successfully silence America’s First Black President when the going got tough.In case you haven’t noticed, the going is getting tough for Senator Obama.

• He’s taking a beating on his fitness for office.

• He’s changing his policy positions more often than Lindsay Lohan changes her underwear.

• He may run out of advisors at the rate he’s throwing them under the ObamaBus™

• His attack ads are so outrageous even his campaign PR people at the WaPo have rebuked him for lying.

• And now, last week, cracks started to appear in the relationship with one of the groups of the Democratic base who aren’t addicted to Democratic KoolAid. First there was the polling result that indicated union voters were reluctant to vote for the Marxist candidate. Obviously racism was, of course, the conclusion. And today we have more evidence…

With a hat tip to Instapundit from, of all places, the Pittsburgh Tribune…

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — You just knew that when Joe O’Connell, former head of the local AFL-CIO, got on stage here with John McCain and Sarah Palin things were not going smoothly for the Obama campaign among union voters.”I am a lifelong Democrat, an intelligent Democrat, who is supporting John McCain,” O’Connell said last week as a crowd of 7,000 waved “Another Democrat for John McCain” signs and roared its approval.O’Connell assured the energized crowd that “organized labor will have a seat at the table when John McCain becomes president.”

Oh my! And what, dear reader, do you think the response of the supporters of the most leftist candidate ever nominated for President (including Gus Hall) was?

“It’s a problem,” [Pennsylvania AFL-CIO President Bill]George admits, “but we are in an all-out effort to educate our members that the Democratic Party is the only one for working families.”~~snip~~George narrows the problem down to race. “There is no question, earlier in the primary campaign the racial issue was there, just like the gender issue was with Hillary for some unions,” he says.“We in America like to think we don’t have any hang-ups or stereotypes. But because of our history and because of a lot of industrial psychology controlling the masses, people have innate prejudices.”George says that the mind-set of some people in the labor movement regarding race is no different than it is in church groups, or in the Republican Party.Joe Rugola is George’s counterpart in Ohio and he, too, is seeing a problem with race and his members.~~snip~~Frank Stricker, a history professor at California State University and a union expert, says race is a key to what alienates segments of the labor movement, especially in Ohio and west of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania.~~snip~~University of Virginia professor Larry Sabato is blunter: “There’s no question that race is at the heart of Obama’s problem with blue-collar white union members. You’d have to be pretty naive to think otherwise.”

Highlights are mine.So, can we boil this down? Yes we can. The guys who currently run the AFL-CIO in Pennsylvania and Ohio and, of course, the academics are admitting that their members are racists. Just like those nasty church people. And those Republicans. And probably all those gun owners.I mean, everybody knows that there isn’t any other reason union members might support a Republican over the Marxist candidate but race. Is there? Hey, thanks for asking.

Yet [Joe Rugola] also sees another dynamic going on — a respect among union members for McCain.”There is no question that John McCain historically has had a cultural connection with our members,” ~~snip~~Sabato explains that, normally, today’s severe economic dislocation would send union members flocking to the Democrats’ nominee. “Well, they are not flocking. McCain is their kind of guy. His biography and maverick nature are appealing.”

And then there’s always fact that typically union members are better equipped to actually think and reason than their leadership…

Yet for some labor members race does not factor at all in their voting decisions.Joe Swistok, 62, of Southington, Ohio, is a lifelong union member who began working at Republic Steel in 1964; his father had worked there since 1936. He switched his party registration to Republican during the Reagan years.”Reagan impressed me. That guy did a lot for this guy,” Swistok says, referring to himself. “This area is devastated for one reason: You can’t tax businesses and expect them to stay.”

So, we’re left with a conundrum. Are union members really, at heart, leftovers from the KKK? Could they be, shudder, church people? Or perchance, could they just have a better understanding of what’s at stake in this election and maybe, just maybe, they’re better equipped to analyze the positions of the two candidates and make a rational decision about what’s best for America?

Personally, I’m beginning to think that the $100 million or so that the unions are going to be spending on this election is going to get pissed down the same rat hole where George Soros’ 2004 cash is rotting.

I’m also guessing that this may come back to bite the so-called leadership of organized labor big time. In the small towns where I grew up, folks really, really, really didn’t like being called names – like racists. They took that sort of stuff real personal like. I’m guessing – now that I’ve been a city boy for a long time – that things haven’t changed much on that account and if the union leadership, the academics and the Democratic Party push that meme very far, union membership will hear the message and be a solid Republican voting block for the next fifty years.

Oh, and batten down the hatches folks. There’s a tidal wave of finger pointing and name calling headed our way.