Ron Kirk on Obama -- Times of London

[crispini]

Good article!

(snip)
Campaigning in Texas is like running in seven different primaries at one time. But across the state, Democrats are energised. President George W. Bush, our former Governor, is not the uniter we knew, and we're ready for a change. And an Obama victory would be a clear sign that Texas - and the rest of the country - has moved beyond the racial politics that long divided us.
On board with Obama — as he scents victory

Our correspondent spent four days with Barack Obama’s team as the Democratic presidential front-runner took on Texas
Multimedia

In some ways it is only fitting that Texas be the state to break this important racial barrier. It was the Texan Lyndon Johnson, the master politician, who engineered the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 - and, as he put down the pen he used to sign it into law, told an aide that Democrats had “lost the South for a generation”.

Unfortunately, Johnson was right about my party's troubles in the South. But he was also right that those hard times would come to an end, that we would reach a point where we could put our racial and ethnic divisions past us, and move on, building a diverse coalition like Mr Obama has.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article3463292.ece