Bob Novak, the Republican propagandist, exposed the latent, virulent racism that lies just below his party’s psyche over the weekend when he said this about Barack Obama:

Q: What is Obama’s potential Achilles heel?

NOVAK: I think the only potential Achilles heel is in a general election, if there is some racist prejudice. I’m not sure there is. He’s, as poor Joe Biden said, he’s clean. He isn’t a stereotype African-American. And I think he’s a very strong candidate.

Novak tried to lay blame on the use of “clean” on Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.), who used the same adjective to describe Obama last year. But Biden was roundly criticized and apologized for it in late January.

Only in the all-spin world of the GOP noise machine can you get away with excusing a racist comment by “wink-wink, nudge-nudge” quoting a racist remark by someone else, even though the quotee apologized for said remark.

No one has asked Novak to explain what he meant by a “stereotype African-American,” however. Presumably he’s referring to the other black presidential candidates who didn’t win a primary season vote: Frederick Douglass, Shirley Chisolm, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and Alan Keyes.