While I don't think it's always racist (context matters), I agree that it should be assumed that any use of that term by a conservative will be assumed to be racist. But, if the MSM was doing it's job, they'd point that that Shanklin was making fun of Obama being called that by a left-wing LA Times columnist, as the song lyrics quite clearly state and nearly all of Rush Limbaugh's listeners are well aware of. The song also calls him "articulate", "bright", "clean", and "nice-looking" which can also be considered racist in context and would be, if it weren't for the fact that it was Joe Biden who called Barack Obama those things, which is what the song is making fun of. The song is a spot-on and hilarious spoof of things that the left wing was saying about Obama during the primaries if you understand the context but without the context or actually looking at the lyrics of the song (which nobody seems to be talking aout in the MSM for obvious reasons), it just looks like another example of Republicans being racist.
The general public will not get the joke and it will hurt the GOP-this is my point exactly.