Election 2008: Obama And Overcoming The Shadows Of History

http://firedoglake.com/2008/06/08/election-2008-obama-and-overcoming-the-shadows-of-history/

Election 2008: Obama And Overcoming The Shadows Of History
By: Christy Hardin Smith Sunday June 8, 2008 10:04 am


During the course of our conversation on race, comfort levels and the path that Barack Obama will be taking toward November, I was struck by how unlikely that incredible conversation would have been just a few years back. Before I went to sleep Friday night, I re-watched the MLK "I Have A Dream" speech (YouTube at link), and sat there marveling on how far we have come.

But reading this piece from Gene Robinson, I also realize in the full light of day, how much further we have to go:

...A young, black, first-term senator -- a man whose father was from Kenya, whose mother was from Kansas and whose name sounds as if it might have come from the roster of Guantanamo detainees -- has won a marathon of primaries and caucuses to become the presumptive presidential nominee of the Democratic Party. To reach this point, he had to do more than outduel the party's most powerful and resourceful political machine. He also had to defy, and ultimately defeat, 389 years of history.

snip//

Yet the amazing thing isn't that there were instances of overt, old-style racism during this campaign, it's that there were so few. The amazing thing is that so many Americans have been willing to accept -- or, indeed, reject -- Obama based on his qualifications and his ideas, not on his race. I'll never forget visiting Iowa in December and witnessing all-white crowds file into high school gymnasiums to take the measure of a black man -- and, ultimately, decide that he was someone who expressed their hopes and dreams....

What Barack Obama and his campaign staff have achieved this primary season has been nothing short of amazing, especially their incredible work with voter registration and energizing the youth vote like no other campaign I have ever seen. But we still have an enormous amount of work to do for him to win in November.

At the moment, though, I wanted to simply pause and recall the shadows of history -- and what had to be overcome to get here. We had two candidates -- one woman and one African-American man -- standing toe to toe, running for their party's nomination to the presidency of the United States. As equals. Think about the fact that it is no longer a question (YouTube) that could happen -- someday -- because it already has.

We have lived history this year in the Democratic party. And I am incredibly proud of that...and of what this achievement will bring in terms of progress to come.

Watch the YouTube of Dr. King, and soak in the history for a moment. Think about the fact that Barack Obama, a man of mixed race heritage, has given voice to some profound hopes and dreams of a whole lot of Americans. Regardless of their gender or color or background. And think, for a moment, how unlikely that would have been just a few years back.

We shall overcome...but it is going to take all of us, working together, to do so.

but Robinson has been a 100% shill for Obama the whole way.

all supposed to be on the same side as Democrats.

As I often tell Republicans; sometimes there is only one side that is correct in an argument....although they may think that there are two equal sides to everything. That simply isn't so.

Robinson however had been quite meek and restrained (on television anyways) on his outlook about Obama and his chances throughout the primary season. Seating next to Patrick Buchanan(who shilled for Hillary throughout the primary season, it should be noted) on MSNBC almost daily, Robinson might have appeared "biased" when he was simply being quite sensible. In fact, I noted that myself and attributed it to the fact that as a Black Man, Robinson has had to worry about whether folks would call him biased or a shill simply based on the color of his skin. I do thank God that he didn't let that issue or question pressure him to be more objective if it went against what he believed. Sometimes correct assessements are just that.

When one takes count at the sheer numbers of what one would call progressives opinion makers who oftentime took the side of Obama, one might have to conclude that maybe....just maybe, Obama's side of things was simply more compelling as the objective truth.