When Joe Friday talks, Obama listens.

Watch it: Joe_Friday_We_Miss_You-1

The redoubtable Abigail Thernstrom, whom an irritated President Clinton cheekily called “Abigail” in a long-ago discussion of race, does some math about Tea Party racism:

What will it take to persuade the political class to abandon its racism-is-still-everywhere picture? It remains a politically promising strategy; . . . . But playing the race card may not be such a swift idea when it comes to tea partiers.

A just-released Gallup poll found tea-party members to be quite representative demographically of the American public at large — the exception being blacks, who comprise only 6 percent of participants. But 6 percent is about half of the black population! A real surprise. [Congr. John] Lewis, Pelosi, et al., take note.

So?

Of course, if our fearless leaders were to admit that tea partiers are just ordinary Americans, quite representative of the population as a whole, they would be acknowledging an unpleasant truth: Congress was not carrying out the people’s business in passing that wretched health-care bill.

You mean they pushed it through, Chicago way?