I can see where saying that we would be better off if someone running on an avowed pro-segregation platform had become president can be taken as racially offensive.
On the other hand, I agree with you that Lott is not a racist and his statement is not racist since the context in which it was stated makes it obvious that it was not a call to any kind of action, and was in fact, what Lott has said it was -- an ill-conceived attempt at graciousness.
I was just pointing out in my earlier post that racist was not the writer's word. He had it in quotation marks which means it was someone else's word. And that he put it in quotes is a strong indication that the writer does not believe Lott's statement to be racist. Note that dimwitted is not in quotes.