Not as innocent as it may sound, as the lefty TNR explained when The One tried to use the same exact rhetoric against Bill Clinton before the South Carolina primary.

His use of the phrase is resonant. It comes from a scene in Malcolm X, where Denzel Washington warns black people about the hidden evils of “the White Man” masquerading as a smiling politician: “Every election year, these politicians are sent up here to pacify us,” he says. “You’ve been hoodwinked. Bamboozled.”

By uttering this famous phrase, Obama told his black audience everything it needed to know. He was helping to convince blacks that the first two-term Democratic president in 50 years, a man referred to as the first black president, is in fact a secret racist. As soon as I heard that Obama had quoted from Malcolm X like this, I knew that Obama would win South Carolina by a massive margin.

As Allah says, it’s essentially code to accuse his opponent of racism without having the backlash for pulling out the race card. As much as he’s convinced his followers that he’s a new kind of politician, keep in mind that he’s still a slimy Chicago machine Democrat.

Obama supporter Rep. John Lewis (D-GA), meanwhile, is busy comparing John McCain to, er, George Wallace. Rightfully, Team McCain is demanding an apology.