Pennsylvania, Shmennsylvania

AP's intrepid Charles Babington looks for racists in the Keystone State and can't find many. But that doesn't mean they're not there:

All three women are middle-aged, work for an accountant and admire Clinton.

But only Iezzi took a hard stand against Obama."I think he's a snake oil salesman," she said. "He's a little too slick and smooth." "He just doesn't appeal to me, and not because of race, definitely," she said in an interview in which race had not been mentioned.

Such comments are all too familiar to Richard Akers, who phoned dozens of prospective Pennsylvania voters as an Obama campaign volunteer in April. Democrats often explained their opposition to Obama with "excuses that were not rational or valid, as I saw it," said the retired bank director from Johnstown, another hotbed of Clinton support. "To me, it was almost a code," Akers said. "'He doesn't wear a flag pin.' It seemed like code for 'He's not one of us.'"

So let me get this straight: Barack Obama runs a campaign based on vague promises of change. Some voters in Pennsylvania reject the empty rhetoric, one even going so far as to call it "snake oil". Conclusion: They must be racists. Heck, that's what Richard Akers of the Obama campaign thinks.

The Excuse Machine at work.