Should Race Matter in in 2008 Presidential Election? I say...

So what's up with all the coverage on "Race" in the 2008 political campaign for the White House? Why is it that so much of the coverage is now talking about the issue of race? Take for instance my Home Town Newspaper, The Washington Post. take today for an example, here are the stories related to Obama, Hillary and Race. First there is the article, The Obama of 'Dreams' a great piece on, as the writer David Ignatius, "how the past week has illustrated that race is still a campaign issue. The flap about what the Clintons meant in their comments about Martin Luther King Jr. or an Obama "fairy tale" on Iraq is overdone, but the deeper question of Obama's racial identity is not. He is the first African American with a chance to win the presidency, and many blacks -- after initially holding him at a distance -- are now treating him as a symbol of racial pride and identity. Amid this heightened sensitivity, the jostling that's normal in a political campaign is taken as a sign of disrespect." Then in the same paper, there is are articles on how Obama Rebuts Clinton's Criticisms and Clinton's 'Vetting' Attack against Barack Obama. There is more, George Will's Misstep in a Liberal Minefield.

So it is what it is. But guess what times are changing, as Wapo reported Michelle Malkin rips Hillary's side, beginning with this other Bob Johnson quote:

" 'That kind of campaign behavior does not resonate with me, for a guy who says, 'I want to be a reasonable, likable, Sidney Poitier 'Guess Who's Coming to Dinner.' And I'm thinking, I'm thinking to myself, this ain't a movie, Sidney. This is real life.'

"Hillary's black supporters are old-school race-hustlers--not embarrassed to show bigoted contempt for non-militant, achieving blacks. Whatever you think of Obama's politics and qualifications to be president, he is a successful person and he has led an impressive campaign.

"Without having to bow and scrape at the foot of racial demagogues like Al Sharpton and his ilk. Which is apparently what earned him the Sidney Poitier remark from Robert L. Johnson. This is how they view Obama--as the unbearably, too perfect, too presumptuous, accomplished black doctor character in 'Guess Who's Coming to Dinner.' "

Andrew Sullivan finds yet another reason to bash Hillary and her hubby:

"I'm not objective on the Clintons. But it's an opinion gained from many years of observing their cynicism, shallowness, self-serving machinations and self-righteousness. And, no, I do not believe that Bill Clinton is doing what he's doing out of marital duty either. Please. We all know what Bill Clinton believes he owes his wife as a wife. But what he owes her as a political device to regain power for the two of them is another matter.

"And the truth is: former president Bush never trashed his son's rivals as Bill Clinton has Obama; and has kept an admirable arm's length distance from his son's administration. Bill Clinton is campaigning for himself as well right now, his own future power. He'll be in a Clinton White House, ready from Day One. And if they get there for a third term, the marital psychodrama they inflicted on us for eight long years will be with us once again."

AAPP says: So, thank you Washington Post, for reporting on Obama. I just wish the reports could be more related to his plans and policy ideas, and less on race.