The bill for the sins of our fathers

As it happens, I'm knee-deep in research about American attitudes in the years just prior to WWII. On racial matters, the picture is unsurprisingly ugly. It is sadly a legacy we're still paying for. A case in point: Steve Benen noted that during the 2008 campaign, the media routinely described Mitt Romney as "presidential looking." It rarely said the same of Obama or Hillary. Today, the media have again assigned these central casting descriptors to Romney, and now Perry. Benen: "And why does Perry 'look like a president'? Presumably for the same reasons Romney does -- he's a handsome, middle-aged white man." Asked and answered. The media are not being malicious nor racist. It's a social conditioning thing stemming from the past. Obama of course has ripped up the playbook (esp. in the all-important eyes of our young). "It's time for some in the media to catch up," Benen says. Yes, it would be nice. But to paraphrase Robert Frost, there are still miles to go before we sleep.