Lost in the attempt to make sense of Obama's "rhetoric" seems to be the possibility that this is what he genuinely believes, and his genuine belief connects with the genuine belief of many voters. Much like the rest of us, he seems to have experienced life and come to certain conclusions. No doubt, he has cultivated this into a campaign message, which, by it's nature, has to be repeated over and over until it loses it's original freshness, but I see this more as proof that he's not naive enough to be an impractical president, rather than a knock against his authenticity. (Having said that, I admit that the night after I cast my vote for him on Super Tuesday, I listened to him speak, and noticed just how fluffy and vapid his stump speech has become. I'm assuming he's simply doing this to win the campaign, however, because his body language, particularly his brow, suggested a resolve that I trusted).
As for the comments of Mark Lawrence McPhail on the danger of "Skipping the much-needed national conversation about race," it simply seems out of touch. I recently re-read one of my favorite books, "Black Like Me," and I was struck with a passage in which a black leader tells Griffin (the author) that what the black race needed was unity. It occurred to me that while perhaps what black people needed at the time was unity, maybe what they need now is diversity, to allow themselves to become what they actually are, instead of forcing them to conform to a stereotype. I thought Tiger Woods reaction to the "lynching" comment and consequent controversy was perfectly valid, and underscored the point that if black people are to be looked at as human beings, they have to be free to become individuals.
Final note, even if you found the last paragraph completely unconvincing, I doubt that we would be any closer to the necessary "national conversation" with either of the other presidents.
