Mitt Romney “slyly” proved he’s a racist last night while describing his tax plan. Did you notice? No? Anyone? Harper’s Magazine’s Kevin Baker embarrassed himself in accusing Romney of trying to lock down his allegedly-racist base during last night’s debate.

“[Obama]didn’t show a spark of anger, even when Romney slyly found a way to call him a boy, comparing Obama’s statements to the sorts of childish lies his ‘five boys’ used to tell,” Baker laments today. “How the right’s hard-core racists must have howled at that! Mitt, at long last, has secured his base.”

Actually, the entire debate audience laughed at Romney’s clever, innocuous way of rebutting Obama’s attack. Here’s what Romney said to Obama, per the White House transcript:

I will not reduce the share paid by high-income individuals. I know that you and your running mate keep saying that, and I know it’s a popular thing to say with a lot of people, but it’s just not the case. Look, I’ve got five boys. I’m used to people saying something that’s not always true, but just keep on repeating it and ultimately hoping I’ll believe it. (Laughter.) But that is not the case, all right? I will not reduce the taxes paid by high-income Americans.

Baker is tilting at windmills, at best. Why? “Maybe it helps their self-esteem to pretend that, instead of defending a failed presidency and a lousy economic recovery, they are living 50 years ago, standing alongside freedom riders and marchers in the segregated South,” The Washington Examiner speculated recently in response to liberal pundits endless ability to connect modern politics to slavery.