“Race” is a Four-Letter WordPaul Hogarthbyline‚ Mar. 19‚ 2008Under fire for controversial statements by his long-time pastor that could frighten white America, Barack Obama gave a speech yesterday to bring his presidential campaign back on track. We’ve seen this game before: a liberal politician is subject to race-baiting attacks that endanger his electoral prospects, and so takes action to assure “swing voters” that he’s acceptable. Usually, that means throwing the problem under a bus – pandering to the white Joe Six-Pack while alienating his black liberal base. That would have been the “smart” thing to do, but Obama proved that he’s a lot better than that. While he repudiated Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s inflammatory comments, Obama refused to disown him – and over the course of 37 minutes publicly tackled our nation’s biggest taboo like no serious White House candidate has ever done. For that reason, yesterday’s speech was historic. |