Snowing in hell

A black man named Barack Hussein Obama winning the democratic nomination for president is as shocking as an ice storm in the underworld.  Yet here we are.  This is truly a historic moment. 

Obama ended up winning the primary race because he ran the best strategic campaign,  He revolutionized political action and fundraising, and his strategists knew how to exploit the primary election process to their candidate's advantage. 

Obama also won because of his own gifts as a personable orator who knew when to shoot from the hip and when to guard his words.  His charisma is one of the biggest reasons for his meteoric rise.  He managed to own the message of change and take up the outsider's mantle at a time where many democrats had grown tired of federal government "business as usual."

Some make the contention that this presidential race proves that misogyny trumps racism as America's bigger societal issue.  That because a black male political newcomer who lacks a long pedigree managed to come out of nowhere and trump an "experienced" white female candidate, we now have an answer to that question.  To those people, I say you're extremely deluded. 

A quick glance at the comments section of The Rob's most recent post should dispel the first notion above:

"As far as holding political office goes, it isn't even close. We've had 3 African-American senators in the modern, post-Reconstruction era. There are, at present, 16 female senators; there have been 35 historically.

We've had 4 African-American governors in the same time frame. There are eight female governors at present, there have been 29 total.

While both totals are far below what we would expect to see in the absence of bias, the election of women to high office seems to be occurring significantly more readily than that of African-Americans."

So much for the notion of the hatred of women trumping the hatred of negroes.  As for the latter assertion, it too doesn't exactly hold up:

"...I answered her that the experience issue doesn't resonate with me, especially as Cheney and Rummy had been around since the last ice age, and where did that get us? Hillary has been in the Senate only two years longer than Obama: big whoop. If you count his time in the Illinois Senate, he's actually had more experience as an elected official. (And while of course her experience as first lady counts for something, would we give Laura Bush full credit for those years—even though, as she belatedly tells us, she, too, had a big policy role all along?)"

Presidents with less federal and/or executive experience than Obama include busts such as Taft and Hoover -- but also includes "successful" presidents like Lincoln and Eisenhower.  So the stereotype of the newbie dude coming out of nowhere and snatching the nomination from a vastly more experienced and capable female aren't really accurate.  Hillary Clinton was a capable candidate, but her vagina isn't the biggest reason she lost to Obama any more than Obama's blackness was the biggest reason he defeated her. 

Thus we have arrived in a situation I honestly never thought I would see happen in my lifetime.  A black man has been nominated for the position of Most Powerful Man in the Country (if not the world).  I don't believe Obama is going to win the general election...and there are aspects of his record (and lack thereof) that make me nervous.  But at the very least, his candidacy provides Americans with some cause for hope that anything is possible.  Regardless of how you feel about him as a candidate, that alone is cause for reflection and celebration.

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