Nonsense! What does the public's fear and disgust at multi-trillion dollar debt have to do with Obama's OTHER-ness? Ditto for the healthcare fiasco, the czars, the kow-towing to our enemies, the crude treatment of our allies (Winston Churchill bust, anyone?)
Obama has used the race card widely and well. I know many people who voted for him, explaining: "It would be great to throw off any stigma of racism by proving to the world that Americans are open-minded enough to elect a Black President."
And, of course, once in office, the libs (like your "friend") immediately deflect any and all criticism of Obama by using a corollary of the commutative law of mathematics, i.e., If a=b and b=c, then a=c. Their version is: If you criticize Obama and Obama is Black, then you are criticizing him because he is Black.
After many frustrating conversations, emails, and open discussions with liberals, I have come to the (somewhat cowardly, but mentally soothing) conclusion that I no longer engage in any political discourse with them. The odds of changing a liberal's mind is approximately equal to the odds of a liberal changing mine, or yours: zero. So, save yourself the agita and keep discussions with them at the level of the weather or the sports scores.
i vehemently made the point that the opposition to Obams was policy-based, but she was hung up on the birth certificate/school records stuff and was just apoplectic that it demonstrated racism [much like whoopi goldberg apparently] We don’t discuss politics daily by any stretch and we accept that we will never change each other’s mind. i do think there is something to be said for putting a human face to the opposition. and if she doesn’t have any other conservatives to talk to, i’d like to think that i do a decent job of representing our side.