Jay, because that would seem too logical, and, well, honorable. It seems much more entertaining and presumably effective to incite supporters at rallies to yell out: "terrorist" and "kill him" towards your opponent then say anything at all about the economy, the wars, the healthcare mess or anything at all that affects our day-to-day lives.

Simon, I wonder how much of her thesis you actually read. If you have read it, you would be very unlikely to label her a racist, and claim that she hates white people. Considering the entire thesis was based on surveying black Princeton students who were there in the 70s, before Michelle's time, and was done from a Sociological perspective, the conclusions of the thesis as well as any assumptions and explanations should be taken into consideration within their respective context. Her statement that it is possible and understandable that blacks attending the predominantly white elite university in the 70s felt that they needed to have solidarity against a common oppressor are based on the responses surveys she created, and not her inherent beliefs. 

You are way too smart to use such tactics, Simon.

BTW: If anyone could point me to an undergrad thesis that Sarah Palin wrote, I would be oh so greatful. Would love to know what she was writing about, and exactly when her syntax went haywire.

My dear Simon, I will simply reiterate what I attempted to state earlier on the subject of Michelle's thesis. First of all, being an academic thesis in Sociology, it had to adhere to certain statistical analysis, hence, the questionnair was needed. Given the subject matter of the thesis, are you really going to question that she only sent out the surveys to blacks? That was her topic, remember?! As for 22% return rate on a survey you send out to people who do not know you and simply at one time or another attended the same school is not a low number, in my book anyway. They chose to answer a bunch of questions from a total stranger, so I am not sure what you point here is.

The quote you bring up above, as well as a variety of others taken largely out of context but routinely quoted in conservative papers and blogs does not make Michelle a racist. I am not even sure how one would come to that conclusion. The only 'conclusion' if you will of her entire thesis was that contrary to her initial assumption, black ex-Princetonians did not feel a specific allegiance to black community, especially the lower classes of the black communities, hence, from a sociological perspective, they would be less likely to work on imroving the conditions in those communities. How would hold a belief that one ought to affect change in the communities where we are raised is a negative thing is beyond me, but hey, by all means, Simon, so long as it suits your agenda.

You know Simon, you are right. For a 20 year-old black Sociology and black studies student at a mostly white Princeton, what she said in this one statement sounds damn near criminal, never mind racist.... WHAT is WRONG with what she said there, Simon? I am trying really hard to find fault with the sentiment voiced by this young woman, given the experience, and I really just can't...

Then again, you know, maybe I just have a different perspective on this. In my school's English department, I was viewed as a foreigner first and a student second... And I graduated over a decade after she did, never mind the fact that mine was a lowly state school... By your rationale, if you read any of my papers, you'd accuse me of hating English, though it was my major. Certainly WASP English.