While Fox News can’t stop tsk-tsking over Oprah Winfrey saying that SOME of the attacks on President Obama stem from his race, Fox also more or less proved her right as Brian Kilmeade suggested that President Obama’s decision not to attend the commemoration of the Gettysburg Address is because of his racial resentment. Not mentioned? Almost none of the previous U.S. presidents have attended.

From Media Matters:

Fox News is manufacturing outrage over Obama’s decision not to attend the commemoration ceremony for the 150^th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address and baselessly speculating that Obama’s resentment over the nation’s unfinished business “in bringing the country and its races together” may be the cause. In fact, William Howard Taft is the only sitting president to have ever visited Gettysburg on the anniversary of the address.

Fox News’s Brian Kilmeade discussed with Wall Street Journal columnist Daniel Henninger whether it is “inappropriate for our president to bypass” the commemoration ceremony of the 150^th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address during the November 19 edition of Fox & Friends. At one point Kilmeade asked whether Henninger thought Obama was refusing to attend because “after that address and after the Civil War we still weren’t a perfect union? We still had to wait for the Civil Rights Act and so many—the integration of schools, Brown vs. the Board of Education?” Henninger replied, “I think probably that President Obama does think the unfinished business remains unfinished in bringing the country and its races together.”

Not surprisingly, the Kelly File also scolded President Obama for not attending. The guest was conservative columnist Salena Zito, identified only as working for the Pittsburg Tribune-Review. Kelly refrained from blowing any racial dog whistles, herself, but she made a point of handing Zito a few openings:

KELLY: We don’t know why (Obama is not attending)… The Gettysburg battle is viewed as the turning point of the war, a war about slavery and, uh, you know the president claims to have this sort of close, identifying – identification with President Lincoln. I mean, you couldn’t think of a bigger moment to go mark that then this. But they haven’t really told us, Salena, what the problem is.

…Do they now question his, his, you know, relationship with President Lincoln?

To her credit, Zito refrained from playing the race card, though she did repeatedly suggest that President Obama lacked sufficient love and/or respect for his country. Zito said people are “stunned” by his decision not to attend “one of the most pivotal speeches in our nation’s history.” When Kelly noted that President Obama had taken part in a PSA for Ken Burns commemorating the Gettysburg Address, Zito sneered, “Anybody can upload a speech on YouTube and watch it. That’s not the same as the president being there.”

But not a word from Kelly that Obama would have broken with precedent if he did attend.

Yet, if President Obama did attend, can there be any doubt that Fox would be questioning whether this departure from tradition signaled a lack of respect for the south? And blowing racial dog whistles about that?

There's not a doubt in my mind.