All year I’ve been amused by the journalistically fostered idea that white Americans, the (voting) majority of this country, are ready to actually go into small booths in November 2008 and, privately and deliberately, elect a Black male as POTUS. Before he gets assassinated.

Late last night, I was in bed with the great passion of my life—Rolling Stone.  🙂 It documented the overdose of optimism that is part of Obamaland. I read this article days after watching an interview Bill Moyers did with esteemed political scientist Ron Walters. Our brother seemed, well, cautiously optimistic about Barack Obama, too.

I just have a hard time believing it. I know I’m not the only one. Yes, this is the America of Condi and Oprah and Will Smith, but it’s also the America of Jena 6 and Megan Williams and institutional, if not blatant, racism in every aspect of American life—especially politics. Remember the McCain “slur” in South Carolina? Or “Harold at the Playboy party?”

Yes, the Oprah thing LOOKED impressive. But in America, it’s those angry “Washington Journal” (white) callers who actually vote. Ask Karl Rove about this.  🙂

If Walters hadn’t said what he did on Tee Vee about Obama’s chances, I’d just dismiss all of this as media hype generated by the yearning for the End of White Guilt. Let’s see what Iowa, New Hampshire and especially South Carolina will yield.