My McCain Mob post yesterday was more inflammatory than is usual for me. And the reaction here and elsewhere has been something along the lines of “your side does it too.”

In a comment, a casual observer points to the story of a pair arrested for torching a McCain sign in Oregon. And with that I suppose I lose.

Certainly I condemn the torching. But my mistake was in provoking that kind of debate in the first place.

There’s no winning there; I will try to avoid it going forward. Because when both sides are reduced to ugly, extremist, behavior we all lose.

What I wanted to get at is simply that race is a factor in this election:

Even as the economy seems to be in freefall, as Americans grapple with whether to vote for Obama, the first African American presidential nominee, or his Republican opponent, John McCain, it’s a decision unavoidably colored by race, whether we like it – whether we admit it – or not.

When asked if race will affect a voter’s decision, some say it is unavoidable, and that there are some voters who – issues aside – just aren’t ready to cross that racial divide at the polling booth.

I point at it not to name-call, or to win, or for any other reason than to hope that by looking at it, by seeing it and facing up to it, we can get past it. Because I believe we can get past it. And it’s high time that we do.