Sept 17 (Reuters) - A flap over whether racial antagonism toward U.S. President Barack Obama is spurring opposition to his healthcare reform bid has added an unpredictable element to the debate over the proposed legislation.
Obama supporters first raised the racial angle in July in the wake of a series of sometimes rowdy townhall meetings and rallies. Some protesters among the largely white crowds carried banners depicting Obama as Adolf Hitler.
Democrats' anger was stoked last week after Republican congressman Joe Wilson of South Carolina shouted "You Lie" during Obama's healthcare-focused address to a joint session of Congress.
The furor intensified on Tuesday when former President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat, said that he knew that race was at the core of much of the opposition to Obama's healthcare overhaul effort. Carter is from Georgia, a conservative southern state.
Republicans and the White House rejected Carter's charge.
Following are the potential risks and opportunities for Democrats, Republicans and the White House in the debate over race's role in healthcare reform.
DEMOCRATS - The row threatens to undermine a coalition that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi helped to build ahead of the party's big gains in the 2006 and 2008 elections. She has distanced herself from Carter's comments.
Congressmen from the fiscally moderate wing of the party, the so-called Blue Dogs, are worried that it will be more difficult to hold onto their largely moderate, centrist districts in the 2010 congressional elections.
The Congressional Black Caucus, a group made up mostly of liberal Democrats and including veterans of the civil rights movement, are furious over what they see as Wilson's excessive disrespect for the nation's first African-American president.
REPUBLICANS
Conservative commentators and talks show hosts, including Rush Limbaugh, whose audience numbers in the tens of millions, heaped scorn on Carter and argued that the Democrats were attempting to demonize anyone who opposed Obama's reforms.
Their backlash could galvanize conservatives, but it also threatens to undermine the Republican Party's efforts to expand its voting base and attract centrist and independent voters ahead of 2010.
Moderate voters could be turned off if they perceive that the party is dominated by angry, white Southerners, said Republican strategist John Feehery.
OBAMA
The White House shares with other Democrats a concern that a focus on race will distract attention from healthcare reform, the most important part of Obama's domestic agenda and one that he is determined to push through.
It also could weaken support among moderate, white voters whom Obama struggled to win over when battling for the Democratic Party presidential nomination last year.
(Editing by Paul Simao)