Afterthoughts from yesterday's post: Geraldine Ferraro got in big trouble several months ago, and indeed had to leave the Clinton campaign, for voicing an insidious half-truth that "Obama is LUCKY to be black" in his run for the nomination. Otherwise he wouldn't have been getting the numbers he was getting. Black voters, by implication, were giving the boost to an otherwise so-so candidate. There's some truth to this, especially early on and strictly applied to the democratic primaries.
But here's the WHOLE TRUTH: he's lucky to be multi-racial. As far as the GENERAL ELECTION goes. It may be a sad fact (that 20% differential) , but fact nonetheless, that the majority of voters in this country are not ready, and may never be, for a semi-full-blooded black man in the White House. That is, for genetic and cultural reasons. This may not be such a bad thing. And Obama being called "not black enough," by fellow blacks may be a good thing, after all the votes are counted. Face it, there are aspects of hard-core African-American culture--I'll just mention Rev. Wright and "gangsta-rap" as symptomatic--that even turn off enlightened black people... not to mention whites. And Obama, by whatever circumstances, has been able to come off as rather multi-cultural--thanks to his unusual family background, education, habitation, and so on.
But beyond that, and I don't think this gets too much attention (for obvious reasons)--he's got white blood in him. I think that some such (maybe more euphemized) thought will be in the minds of white voters of good will in November. After all, his very genealogy makes him all the more a man of the people. He's the result of a somewhat bigger splash in the human gene pool than most of us. And furthermore, isn't one of the surest ways of breaking down racial, ethnic, religious, etc. barriers on this planet inter-marriage? Yes, as Utopian as that sounds. Globalization couldn't be achieved in a much more pleasant way. Take it from one who knows. (More to come.)
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