Joe Wilson Racist?

So now even Jimmy Carter is spouting off that Joe Wilson's "You Lie!" outburst was racially motivated. C'mon, people, this is ridiculous speculation. There's no way to prove that it wasn't racially motivated, and there's only one way to prove that it was (namely Mr. Wilson coming out and saying it was racially motivated, which I'm not expecting him to do), so it's pure hypothetical speculation of the form "it could be true and it can't be proven false, so it must be true." Never mind that there is plenty of evidence to suggest that the true motivation for the outburst was (gasp!) political.

This is frankly a waste of everyone's time to debate such issues.

Racism is a real problem and it exists in many places, sometimes openly, sometimes subtly. But it is counterproductive to the goal of eliminating racism when we make it up where it doesn't exist. Let's get angry about real instances of racism. And it is especially counterproductive to useful debate when people who disagree (even rudely, as Wilson did) politically with a black president are labeled a racist or "uncomfortable with a black president."