"You don't vote for somebody because of what they look like; You vote for somebody because of what they stand for" (BHO, 2006)

In 2000, many Republicans urged a black man, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell, to run for president. If Powell had chosen to pursue it and had secured the Republican Party's nomination, he could well have become the country's first black president — with broad GOP support.

Larry Elder's piece gets better:

In 2006, a black man, then-Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, ran for U.S. Senate as a Republican. Then-Sen. Barack Obama campaigned against him and in favor of his white Democratic opponent.

Obama told an audience at the historically black Bowie State University:

"Listen, I think it's great that the Republican Party has discovered black people. But here's the thing . . . . You don't vote for somebody because of what they look like. You vote for somebody because of what they stand for."

Did this make Obama a "racist" against his own people by opposing a fellow black?