Team Obama's Message

The willingness of the Obama administration to stoke racial divisions for political gain is astounding. On Sunday Attorney General Eric Holder doubled down on his past assertions that criticism of the White House is racially motivated and that Republicans are pushing voter ID laws to disenfranchise blacks.

"There's a certain level of vehemence, it seems to me, that's directed at me [and] directed at the president," Mr. Holder told ABC News. "There's a certain racial component to this for some people. I don't think this is the thing that is a main driver, but for some there's a racial animus."

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Attorney General Eric Holder Associated Press

In 2008, Barack Obama outperformed both Al Gore (in 2000) and John Kerry (in 2004) among white voters in states like Texas, Georgia and the Carolinas. Has it occurred to Mr. Holder that criticism of the president might be due to his performance and not his skin color? Wasn't Mr. Obama already black when he was elected in 2008 and re-elected in 2012?

And speaking of elections, the attorney general also used his ABC interview to reiterate charges that voter ID laws have nothing to do with ballot integrity and everything to do with sticking it to minorities and other groups who tend to vote Democratic. "Who is disproportionately impacted by them? Young people, African Americans, Hispanics, older people, people who, for whatever reason, aren't necessarily supportive of the Republican Party," Mr. Holder said.

But the people Mr. Holder claims to speak for don't share his view of these voting requirements. Polls show that an absolute majority of both Republicans and Democrats back these laws. In fact, a Fox News poll released earlier this year found that support for voter ID laws transcends not only party but also gender and even race. According to the survey, 70 percent of respondents—including 55 percent of Democrats, 91 percent of Republicans, 66 percent of independents, 70 percent of men, 71 percent of women, 75 percent of whites and 51 percent of blacks—expressed support for laws that "require voters to show a valid form of state- or federally-issued photo identification to prove U.S. citizenship before being allowed to vote."

In 2012, black voters turned out at a higher rate than white voters, including in states like Tennessee, Georgia and Indiana, which have some of the tougher voter ID requirements in the nation. If the GOP is trying to disenfranchise blacks, they're not very good at it. If these laws prevent blacks from voting, where is the evidence?

Of course, the White House isn't interested in these facts. Instead, it's interested in playing to the fears and anxieties of minorities in hopes of scaring them to the polls in November. It's worried that red state Democrats are vulnerable because the president's popularity is falling, his policies are being rejected and economic growth is nowhere near where it should be more than five years into a "recovery." And sadly, the administration is willing to say and do anything to keep Republicans from getting control of the Senate.