Race in the Sunlight
By Eugene Robinson
Tuesday, June 24, 2008; Page A17
....The Republican Party has a problematic history on race, beginning with Nixon's "Southern strategy." The era when the likes of the late Lee Atwater could overtly use race as a wedge issue is long gone. Today, any appeal to latent racial prejudice would have to be made more subtly -- the suggestion that there's something of the "other" about Obama, that he might not share traditional American values, that there's some question about his love of country. Given the steadfast patriotism that African Americans have displayed since the nation's founding, none of this makes historical sense. But it's more about the vibe than the reality, and the fact is that voters are attuned not just to what a presidential candidate says but also to how the candidate makes them feel.
Since Obama has given his opponents little ammunition, they have focused on those who are close to him, beginning with his former pastor. Now some critics have turned to Obama's "feisty" wife, whose image as a tall, strong, confident black woman can perhaps be made to seem threatening to some people.
If there are voters who absolutely won't support Obama because of his race, there's not much he can do about it. But at least he can blow away all the smoke. He has served notice that he doesn't intend to be Swift-boated on race the way John Kerry was on his war record -- and that he will hit back even when attacks are more atmospheric than concrete.
The Obama campaign made another move on this front last week when it began running a new television ad in a number of battleground states, including some, such as Georgia and North Carolina, that Republicans have long considered safe. In the ad, which is more about the candidate's character than his policies, Obama speaks of his personal history and delivers a paean to traditional American values -- while the viewer sees old family photos of his mother, who was white, and her parents, who helped raise him.
It's hard to see the ad's iconography as anything but a reminder that while Obama is firmly self-identified as African American, he is also biracial. He is a black man who speaks with great affection and admiration for his white grandparents, who look like Middle America personified. The message: Race may be thorny and complicated, but it's no match for love.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/23/AR2008062301831.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
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