There is another pernicious aspect to this situation that has just occurred to me. Almost every press description of Obama endlessly reminds us of his credentials. They are those of a Harvard law graduate, editor of the law review there, constitutional scholar, Illinois State senator, ad nauseam, along with the fact that he is attractive, articulate, and charismatic. Even I am forced to admit that he is qualified, particularly if you're looking for a senator for the Politburo.
Deference to the ambitions of minorities is almost a de riguer nostrum to counter the past evils of discrimination and exclusion, particularly when the person in question is "qualified". I fear that a desire to compensate for the wrongs of the past will blind many voters in Illinois to Obama's advocacy of positions that they would find unacceptable if advanced by a white candidate. I think that we are being conditioned by the politically correct press to vote for this man as a panacea for past elective biases. We might want to point out to those so inclined that that is also a form of racism.
Another interesting fact is that Obama is the product of an interracial marriage between a black Kenyan and a white American woman. Obama Sr. left the family early on and he was raised by his white mother. I realize the perculiarly insidious nature of the racial construct and the racial politics of this country would cause most to identify Obama as black, but one would think that since at least half of the genetic material that makes him what he is comes from a Caucasian woman, that he would counter this to some extent by paying homage to the mother that apparently did such a successful job of raising him and stress the bi-racial nature of his personal history when others posit him as an "African-American". But then that might not make him as eligible for the exalted mantle of the first black elected male senator of the Democratic Party, increase the danger of alienating some segments of the black vote, and the enable him as the beneficiary of politically correct bonus points.
Obama is also clearly an operator, who regarding things like his parentage and even his religion, calculates out every angle, like a young Bill Clinton playing the draft. See also what I said in #25.