Barack Obama’s speech on race in America this week sparked a spirited discussion in a variety of corners, but as we’ve all experienced, sometimes a discussion can go off in dumb directions. The New York Daily News’ Errol Louis tackled the flap over Obama’s comparison yesterday of his grandmother to a “typical white person.”

There’s a new anti-Obama storyline whipping through cyberspace at the speed of stupid. Put simply, some Internet nitwits say Obama’s comment that his white grandmother - who made racist remarks and was fearful of blacks - was a “typical white person” just proves he can’t stop alienating white voters.

Never mind that Obama’s point, made casually Thursday on a Philadelphia radio show, was to emphasize the important truth that whites, including his elderly grandmother, are slowly winning the fight to purge their hearts of poisonous prejudices.

Nevertheless, the right quickly pounced, insisting that Obama must not like white people.

How foolish is this? When even Fox News' Chris Wallace is defending Obama, you know the criticism is over the top.