Reply #39: I agree with you, but for different reasons. [View All]

Obama can claim to be black because of the Taxi Test. It's also true that most African-Americans have "white" blood in them, so I wouldn't say he's not black because his mother is caucasian.

However, his blackness comes from a father who was NOT what we call an "African-American." African-Americans were brought over to this country in slave ships in the 1600s and 1700s, at the beginning of this nation's history; Obama's father was a Kenyan who flew over here on an airplane of his own free will in the 20th century. Thus, Obama has no real connection to the history and legacy of African-Americans.

Also, Obama's father was an East African; African-Americans' forbears came from West Africa: East Africans (like Obama) tend to be taller, thinner and more long-faced than West Africans.

Obama knows this: remember Obama's Iowa victory speech, how it began? He said, to an ecstatic crowd of supporters: "You know, they said this day would never come. They said our sights were set too high. They said this country was too divided, too disillusioned ..." How would you expect that sentence to be completed? And when that caucasian Iowa crowd cheered, what were they really cheering for at that moment? The idea that "They said ... a black man could never win here." But Obama knows he can't say that. So instead, he completed the sentence thusly: "to ever come together around a common purpose." Essentially, this was a nonsensical, content-free conclusion. "To ever come together around a common purpose"??? Whoever had won Iowa, surely it was because a plurality of voters would "come together around a common purpose" to vote for Obama, or Clinton, or Edwards, or anyone else.